Coffee News from July 2023
#Specialty News & Events
Sprudge: Estimates say $450 Million in Annual Investments needed for coffee’s long-term survival.
This is per this report from World Coffee Research, who are estimating the total costs for successful projects to conserve coffee’s indigenous biodiversity and to support coffee farmers adapting to climate change. Current investment is about $115M, mainly sourced from Public Sector funding.
Roaster of the Year underway
Roast Magazine’s “Roaster of the Year” competition applications closed July 26.
Good luck to all applicants; this is generally the preeminent annual roasting competition for the worlds’ coffee roasters, and competition is stiff each and every year. The race to select 2024’s best roasters should be just as heated.
US Coffee Champs announces qualifier circuit locations for 2024.
Pretty much like the title says - regional qualifier dates & hosts have been announced on the Coffee Championships website. Some big names hosting - and a few hosts in there that I’ve never heard of.
NCA calls for submissions
The National Coffee Association is calling for presenter and program applications for the 2024 NCA Educational Program.
The NCA’s 2024 convention will be taking place March 7 - 9, 2024 in Nashville, TN. This is one of the larger coffee events not strictly within the SCA umbrella, and the 2024 event is themed around “fuelling the future” - a look forward in the industry.
California Energy Commission provides $1.8M grant towards Bellwether Purchases
Per Daily Coffee News, it’s reported that Red Bay and Heirloom coffee received a total of $1.8 million towards the purchase of 24 new Bellwether machines to replace traditional natural gas roasters, as part of incentive programs towards phasing out gas.
Personal commentary - that money would have been far more efficiently spent simply buying conventional electric roasters. Both by the roasters and by the grant organization. Spending money on multiple small-capacity roasters instead of a few large capacity roasters is always inefficient, and Bellwether even more so their whole gimmick is adding a lot of VC techbro bullshit on top of a relatively small-capacity electric roaster.
Blue Bottle Kicks
Bit of a stretch as far as “gear,” but New Balance has released Blue Bottle sneakers
Business News
Keurig Dr. Pepper buys minority stake in La Colombe
Like it says on the can, La Colombe is the latest NA Specialty OG to take the bargain with Big Corporate - to the tune of a $300 million cash injection, KDP will own 33% of the company pending regulatory approval. It’s unlikely to be disapproved.
