Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s stories.

Mon, 23 May

• Starbucks to leave Russia. After the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Starbucks halted its operations in Russia. The coffee chain will now suspend all store operations in agreement with its licensing partner in Russia.

• Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers serves coffee at 2022 World Economic Forum. The international political and business event will be held in Switzerland until 26 May. The FNC will be present at the five-day forum through an alliance between Café de Colombia and ProColombia. More than 3,000 global political and business leaders will be served Colombian coffee at the forum.

• New coffee leaf seltzer brand Headstand launches in UK. Founded by coffee roaster and UK Barista Champion Josh Tarlo, the functional beverage is available in Yuzu and Ginger flavour. Headstand is a member of the non-profit 1% for the Planet.

• Löfberg’s Rescued Coffee Project reuses around 26 tonnes of coffee. In partnership with convenience retailer Circle K, the project has resold coffee that would otherwise be disposed of as waste. The coffee is sold as a dark roast blend in Sweden’s Circle K locations.

• Winner announced of first-ever International Specialty Coffee Meeting of Venezuela. The top-scoring coffee – a natural Red Bourbon from Finca Las Planadas in El Ávila National Park – received 88.56 points.

• Brazil’s National Supply Company estimates 2022/23 production down by 2.3 million 60kg bags. Conab’s estimate of 53.43 million 60kg bags is up 12% on last year’s harvest, but down 15.3% on record production seen in 2020. Reasons for the decline include frost and drought in the country during 2021.

Tue, 24 May

• Cup of Excellence Mexico 2022 announces competition winners. The highest-scoring coffee was a natural Gesha from Finca Santa Cruz in Chiapas, receiving 93 points. A total of thirty coffees scored over 87 points. The 2022 CoE Mexico auction will be held on 14 July.

• Non-profit Verité publishes open-source labour violation prevention toolkit for coffee professionals. The resource is designed to detect, prevent, and address labour violations across the coffee supply chain. The toolkit was developed by the four-year USAID-funded initiative Co-operation on Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) project. The resource is available in three languages.

• Luckin Coffee achieves corporate level profitability for first time. The Chinese coffee chain’s 2022 first quarter revenue increased 89.5% to RMB 2.4 billion (US $379.3 million) on the same period in 2021. Luckin opened 556 new locations in the first three months of 2022.

• Fully-automatic machine manufacturer Schaerer releases new milk steaming systems. The Schaerer Coffee Soul 10 and 12 machines include Autosteam and Supersteam steam wands. The Autosteam system features temperature monitoring, while the Supersteam system can be pre-set to various foam and temperature settings.

• Caffè Nero partners with Just Eat to scale UK delivery services. The coffee chain reported that delivery sales increased 81% in the last half of 2021. More than 400 UK Caffè Nero stores will join the food and beverage delivery platform.

• Gruppo Cimbali launches new Hub in Melbourne. The new showroom includes immersive espresso machine experiences, including LaCimbali, Faema, and Slayer models.

Wed, 25 May

• Best of Yemen 2022 auction set to be held on 9 August. The theme of the second annual auction is “Catalysing Peace and Prosperity”. Alliance for Coffee Excellence will donate 10% of auction proceeds to the Qima Foundation, which supports development projects in Yemen.

• British Coffee Association to host webinar on coffee wastewater management. Taking place on 7 June at 12:00 BST, the webinar will discuss research from the University of Surrey and University of Antioquia on how to reduce wastewater contaminants and how to produce electricity from wastewater.

• Stone Street Coffee partners with water charity. The US roaster will donate 5% of all online orders of US $50 and over to fund water projects in developing countries.

• New US barista-owned oat milk company closes first investment round. Ghost Town Oats is co-founded by Michelle Johnson, the first black woman to ever qualify for the US Barista Championships. The brand completed its first production run and will begin distributing to southern California and Arizona. Ghost Town Oats also plans to run a subscription service and launch in international markets over the next four years.

• Specialty Coffee & Tea Asia 2022 to be held from 22 to 24 June. The festival was created in partnership with the Singapore Coffee Association, and will host the 2022 Singapore Barista Championships and Brewers Cup.

• Kenya hosts first-ever G-25 Africa Coffee Summit. The focus of the event is to secure a more sustainable future for African coffee farmers and build more resilient agricultural systems. More than 300 visitors are expected to attend, including producers, government officials, and representatives of the private sector.

Thu, 26 May

• Peruvian Chamber of Coffee and Cacao hosts virtual 2022 National Convention of Coffee and Cocoa. The two-day digital event’s panel speakers included consultant Judith Ganes and director of P&A Carlos Brando. The 24th annual in-person 2022 National Convention of Coffee and Cocoa will be held from 30 to 31 May.

• UK roaster Pact Coffee to launch limited-edition jubilee coffee. As part of Queen Elizabeth’s 70th anniversary, Pact sourced the limited-edition coffee from producer Epiphanie Mukashyaka – a survivor of the Rwandan genocide.

• Ally Coffee to host 2022 Brazil Champ Trip after three-year hiatus. The green coffee importer will travel to Brazil with current and past World Coffee Championship winners, including 2021 World Barista Champion Diego Campos. Attendees will visit several of Ally’s producer partners, including Fazenda Bela Epoca, Fazenda Minamihara, and Fazenda Primavera.

• Italian roaster Caffè Mauro joins Gruppo Gimoka. The two Italian roasters entered an agreement, which will allow Caffè Mauro to expand in other international markets.

• Oatly launches one-hour delivery service in New York and Los Angeles. Oatly products can be ordered through food and beverage delivery apps, such as Postmates, Uber Eats, and DoorDash.

• World Coffee Alliance hosts first episode of three-part virtual series on digital identity in the coffee supply chain. The first webinar in the WCA Technocoffee Innovation Series – A Trilogy in Digital Traceability focuses on how digital identities can improve sustainability in the coffee sector. The next webinar entitled Big Data and Climate Change will take place on 27 July.

Fri, 27 May

• Bucharest Coffee Festival 2022 hosts four national Coffee Championships. Over three days, the national Bucharest Coffee in Good Spirits Championships, Latte Art Championships, Roasting Championships, and Cup Tasters Championships will take place at the festival.

• Hawaii Coffee Association announces winners of annual cupping competition. The results of the 13th Hawaii Coffee Association Cupping Competition include a record top score of 87.45 points for a Gesha coffee. The three highest-scoring coffees were all naturally processed.

• World AeroPress Championships announces three national competition dates. The Austrian championships will take place on 5 July in Vienna, the Slovakian competition will be held on 12 and 13 August in Bratislava, and Académie du Café in Lausanne will host the Swiss nationals on 24 September.

• Coffee capsule recycling scheme expands in UK. More than 200,000 people in Cheltenham Borough Council and South Derbyshire District Council can now sign up for curbside pickup of their used coffee capsules. The Podback scheme includes Nespresso, Nescafé Dolce Gusto, Tassimo, L’OR, and Starbucks at Home coffee pods.

• Melitta releases limited-edition fully-automatic coffee machine for Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee. The Purista Jubilee Edition Series 300 fully-automatic machine is available in gold and Union Jack design.

• Scottish roaster Matthew Algie launches own plant milk range. The barista-formulated Espresso Warehouse brand includes oat, almond, coconut, and soya options.

Here are a few news stories from previous weeks that you might find interesting. Take a look.

• Wed, 11 May – Krispy Kreme reports 15.8% year-on-year growth in 2022 first quarter results. The coffee and doughnut chain also stated organic growth increased 15% on the same period in 2021. The company claims growth is attributed to its omni-channel model, which includes e-commerce and delivery.

• Tue, 17 May – Brazil’s domestic coffee consumption grew 1.71% in 2021. Fast Company Brazil found that domestic consumption accounted for around 45% of the country’s coffee production.

• Wed, 18 May – Tim Hortons partners with musical artist Justin Bieber on new cold brew product. The French Vanilla Cold Brew uses 100% arabica coffee and is steeped for 16 hours.

• Thu, 19 May – Starbucks fired more than 20 union leaders over past several months. The US’ National Labour Relations Board has accused Starbucks of more than 200 violations of federal labour laws. So far, more than 250 Starbucks have filed to unionise in the US.

• Fri, 20 May – SCA New Zealand elects four new board members. New members include President Roz Cattell from Bon Accord, Vice President Megan Wyper from Acme Cupco, Second Vice President Scott Pepler from UCC Coffee, and Treasurer Nic McClean from Extra Shot Consultants.

• Fri, 20 May – Ellianos Coffee secures US $25 million in funding for franchisees. The US drive-thru chain secured funding from a new partnership with First Federal Bank. The company says the funding will allow franchisees to streamline lending processes to open stores over a shorter time frame.

• Fri, 20 May – World Coffee Research awards six grants for Philippine Coffee Advancement and Farm Enterprise (PhilCAFE) project. The grants will provide funding for coffee research and development projects in the Philippines. All recipients will produce research that can be used by the Philippine coffee community.

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Photo credits: Julio Guevara