An earthquake devastates Colombia’s coffee heartland. Plus, coffee drive-thrus are battling it out over bankrupt salad stores, and a new competition asks: Who closed last night?
‘Colombian Earthquake Disrupts Vital Coffee Export Route’ – via Financial Times
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, killing nearly 300 people and injuring thousands. Hundreds are still missing.
The quake’s epicenter was in the department of Chocó and impacted many other nearby coffee-growing departments, including Risaralda, Quindío, and Antioquia.
Emergency response is ongoing. The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) said it is working closely with farming communities to assess damage and has launched a campaign to raise funds for affected families. FNC head Germán Bahamón said in a statement that the priority was to assist those immediately impacted. “We will remain in permanent contact with national and regional authorities to place our institutional capacity at the service of Colombia,” Bahamón said. “The absolute priority is to save lives, find those who need help, and respond to the emergency.”
More than 12,000 homes were destroyed, and another 75,000 were damaged. The earthquake also destroyed infrastructure across Colombia’s coffee heartland—significantly, the quake damaged key roads to the Pacific port of Buenaventura, which exports the bulk of Colombia’s coffee.
Exports through the port partially resumed on Aug. 12, but bottlenecks from congestion and logistical difficulties continue. Exporters have redirected some cargo to other ports on the Caribbean coast. Gustavo Gómez, head of Colombia’s export association Asoexport, told Bloomberg that traffic to Buenaventura remains “intermittent and limited.”
Read more on the Colombian earthquake here.
‘7 Brew Thinks That It, and Not Dutch Bros, Should Get Closed Salad and Go Locations’ – via Restaurant Business
As drive-thru coffee chains expand across the country, Dutch Bros and 7 Brew have spotted an opportunity for some quick growth: acquiring stores from bankrupt drive-thru brands.
On Aug. 4, the drive-thru restaurant chain Salad and Go filed for bankruptcy. The next day, Dutch Bros Coffee announced it had agreed to acquire up to 65 Salad and Go locations for more than $100 million. A week later, 7 Brew threw its hat into the ring, saying it could pay more.
Salad and Go has more than 70 locations across the American Southwest and announced it would close all its stores the day after declaring bankruptcy. Some workers, who found out the news from customers, used up remaining supplies by making food for homeless people.
But all those shuttered drive-thrus won’t stand empty for long. “These sites would expand our leadership position across Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas, where we’ve built strong brand awareness and see a significant opportunity to continue densifying our footprint,” Dutch Bros’ CEO Christine Barone said in a press release about the deal.
In an analysis of the deal for Restaurant Business, Jonathan Maze noted that the price Dutch Bros paid was high, which highlights “the insatiable need for real estate in the fast-growing, drive-thru-beverage business.”
That explains why, just a few days later, rival coffee drive-thru start-up 7 Brew threw its hat in the ring for the closed stores. 7 Brew argued in a court hearing that Salad and Go should run an auction for the locations, saying that it could offer a better deal. 7 Brew’s offer “provided more dollar value and provided certainty of closing greater than that which was provided by the Dutch,” attorney Ross Fiedler said at the hearing.
Maze wrote that the battle for the Salad and Go locations points to an “arms’ race” between the two fast-growing coffee chains. The potential bidding war shows that they are willing to “devote tens of millions of dollars to secure new sites and keep them out of the other’s hands,” he wrote.
Drive-thru coffee chains have been growing at top speed in recent years. Dutch Bros has more than 1,200 stores and aims to have 2,029 locations by 2029. Meanwhile, 7 Brew has been the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the U.S. over the past three years, and is already the country’s fourth-largest coffee chain—right behind Dutch Bros.
Read more on the coffee drive-thru wars here.
‘Are You The Best Opener In The Coffee Game? A New Competition From Mazzer Wants You To Prove It’ – via Sprudge
Most coffee competitions focus on the coffee itself, whether that’s roasting, brewing, or creating specialty drinks. A new competition from grinder company Mazzer USA takes a different, more hands-on approach: who can dial in espresso and prep a cafe for opening the fastest?
Every barista has to get a cafe ready to open, and it takes a lot of skill to do it well. The competition, called The Opener, puts those skills to the test. The event will take place at La Colombe’s Los Angeles cafe on Aug. 20 to coincide with Coffee Fest LA (although luckily not at 5:30 a.m.).
“Who in LA can dial in the fastest while tackling a mountain of side work left behind by a lazy closer,” Mazzer wrote on The Opener’s Eventbrite page, “all with someone banging on the door 15 minutes early asking for an extra-hot cappuccino?”
In the qualifier round, eight baristas will go head-to-head to dial in espresso at speed (using a Mazzer Super Jolly, natch). The fastest baristas move on to the semis, and the finalists will have to deal with “absurd side-works tasks, unexpected curveballs, and total shift mayhem to get those doors open on time.” Tickets for the free event have sadly already all gone.
More News
‘Nocturnal ‘Coffee Frog’ Discovered in Costa Rica’ – via France 24
‘IDH Launches Regenerative Coffee Investment Platform’ via Daily Coffee News
‘The 2027 US Roasters Championship Schedule Has Been Announced’ via Sprudge
‘Development Stage to Explore Coffee ‘Beyond the Cup’ in Oakland’ via Daily Coffee News
Is Coffee Good For You?
Traditionally, doctors have advised people diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AFib) to avoid or minimize caffeine consumption. According to recent research, this advice may be out of date.
AFib is a quivering or irregular heartbeat that affects around 5% of U.S. adults. People with the condition are five times more likely to experience a stroke and are also at higher risk of blood clots, diabetes, and dementia. Despite research increasingly showing that coffee could be good for our hearts—the American Heart Association even said so recently—the medical consensus still recommends that those with AFib avoid caffeine.
But it turns out one cup of coffee per day could lower the risk of AFib patients suffering an arrhythmia episode.
In a commentary article in the journal Cardiovascular Research, Christopher Wong and Gregory Marcus described the results of their recent research, published in November. Rather than relying on observational data, as many similar coffee health studies do, Wong and Marcus designed a randomized trial.
The DECAF (Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation?) trial split 200 AFib patients into two groups, one that drank a cup of coffee per day for six months and one that abstained from caffeine altogether. The result? Coffee drinkers had a 39% lower risk of a recurrent AFib episode.
The trial had a few limitations. In particular, the study group was small, mostly because many potential participants declined to take part. This was either because they didn’t feel comfortable abstaining from coffee altogether or because they believed caffeine worsened AFib.
“We believe that the DECAF trial should strongly challenge conventional beliefs,” the authors wrote. “At the very least, our results suggest that modest amounts of caffeinated coffee, approximating the one cup per day consumed in the trial, are unlikely to precipitate or worsen AF in most individuals.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘Amidst Economic Turmoil and Climate Crisis, Are Coffee Scores Still Relevant?’ by Chloé Skye Weiser
