Breaking news: the Supreme Court says the President cannot impose tariffs. Plus, coffee-growing regions are getting hotter due to climate change, a U.K. chain buys Compass Coffee, and a new tool helps farmers replace old coffee trees.
‘Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs, Upending Central Plank of His Economic Agenda’ – via the Associated Press
On Friday, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the President’s global tariff policy, ruling it unconstitutional. The ruling comes three months after the Trump administration rolled back tariffs on coffee.
As Lindsay Whitehurst reports for the AP, the justices ruled 6-3 that “tariffs that Trump imposed under an emergency powers law were unconstitutional,” saying that taxation power belongs to Congress. The U.S. Department of the Treasury had collected $133 billion from tariffs as of the end of December. It remains unclear what will happen to that money or if companies might be refunded.
“The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined him in the minority opinion.
Trump called the ruling “incorrect” and said he would impose a new global 10% tariff. He was “absolutely ashamed” of the justices who voted against his agenda. On Saturday, he said he wanted to impose a 15% tariff on global goods, up from the 10% he had announced the day before.
Early into his second term, Trump imposed tariffs on nearly all imported goods, including coffee. Tariffs, which ranged from 10% to 50%, completely upended the industry. It was arguably the biggest news story of 2025, raising costs for companies and prices for consumers and redefining how green buyers sourced and sold coffee.
This story is actively unfolding, and we hope to have more to report to you in the coming weeks.
Read more on the final nail in the tariff coffin here.
‘Coffee-Growing Countries Becoming Too Hot To Cultivate Beans, Analysis Finds’ – via The Guardian
The world is heating up, which is bad news for coffee.
Coffee thrives within a stable temperature range, which for arabica is between 64°-70°F (18°-21°C). However, a new analysis has found that the majority of producing regions are facing dozens of extra days with temperatures well above that range. Driven by climate change, these extra hot days could put coffee production at risk.
The analysis was conducted by Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and science communicators, and published on Feb. 18. Looking at 25 coffee-growing countries, the group found that on average each country had 47 extra days each year of “coffee-harming heat.” This is where temperatures exceed 30°C (86°F), the threshold considered harmful to coffee plants. Extreme heat can reduce yields and bean quality, stunt tree growth, and increase vulnerability to pests and disease.
These additional days would not have occurred without fossil fuel pollution, Climate Central wrote in a press release.
To conduct the analysis, the group examined temperatures from 2021 to 2025 and compared them with those in a hypothetical world without carbon pollution. Between them, Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Indonesia experienced 57 extra days of coffee-harming heat that would not have happened without carbon pollution.
These five countries grow 75% of the world’s coffee. Other countries fared even worse: El Salvador saw 99 extra days, Nicaragua 77, and Thailand 75.
“Nearly every major coffee-producing country is now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can harm coffee plants, reduce yields, and affect quality,” said Dr. Kristina Dahl, Climate Central’s vice president for science, in the press release. “With this analysis, we looked just at coffee crops, but climate change is hitting other crops and farmers everywhere, with ripple effects on food prices and livelihoods.”
Read more on the climate change-driven heating here.
‘U.K.-Based Caffè Nero Wins Auction To Buy Compass Coffee’ – via The Washington Post
In January, after a turbulent few months, Compass Coffee filed for bankruptcy protection. The Washington, D.C.-based company operated 25 cafes across the capital but had struggled with declining foot traffic at many of its locations and faced multiple lawsuits from landlords and other creditors.
As Tim Carman reports for the Washington Post, the U.K. chain Caffè Nero submitted a winning bid of $4.75 million during a Feb. 19 bankruptcy auction to purchase most of Compass’ assets. Co-founder and CEO of Compass, Michael Haft, told the Washington Post that five groups went through 24 rounds of bidding to purchase the company’s inventory, equipment, and intellectual property, among other assets.
Haft anticipates that Caffè Nero will keep 17 D.C.-area cafes operating under the Compass brand “for the time being.” Haft emailed staff to say that he expected their jobs to remain safe. However, in an interview with NPR affiliate WAMU, Carman said that some Compass locations were closing: “Caffe Nero … has said it doesn’t want some of these shops. So you’re starting to see them close.”
Caffè Nero has more than 1,000 locations in the U.K. and internationally. Its parent company, the Nero Group, has been on what the Times called an “expansion blitz.” The group has opened dozens of new locations and bought up smaller chains, leaving the brand with over $500 million in debt.
In its bankruptcy filing, Compass listed liabilities of between $10-50 million. Caffè Nero’s $4.75 million buyout won’t cover all these debts, Carman reports. This means Compass will still owe unsecured creditors around $5 million, of which more than $726,000 is owed to what Carman previously reported were “three coffee suppliers or importers.” Haft said that none of Compass’ investors will make anything from the sale.
Read the full story on the Compass bankruptcy sale here.
‘CafeClima: A Free New Tool From WCR Aiding Farmers Replanting Coffee Trees’ – via Sprudge
In the wild, coffee trees can live for a hundred years. On farms, they are most productive before age 20, after which they begin to decline. This means that, worldwide, billions of trees are aging and need to be replaced. But as climate change takes hold, choosing the right varieties is key.
That’s where CafeClima comes in. The new platform from World Coffee Research and the Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT aims to give industry stakeholders “actionable predictive insight to identify which coffee varieties are most likely to thrive as climates change.”
The free, open-access tool provides farmers with localized data, national climate trends, and future projections to help them choose the right varieties for their specific needs.
Worldwide, WCR says farmers will require billions to fund replanting. The tool is also designed to help public and private investors assess and reduce the risk of funding these projects. “CafeClima provides governments, development funders and private investors the information they need to make smart renovation investments,” said Dr. Jennifer “Vern” Long, WCR CEO, in a press release. “The world needs to replace billions of coffee trees. The only thing more costly than inaction is action without insight.”
Read more on the open-access replanting tool here.
More News
‘US Café Named World’s Best Coffee Shop’ – via Global Coffee Report
‘In Wake of India’s “Green Revolution,” Scientists Find Organic Soils Healthier’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘The 2026 US Barista Championship Is Heading To Denver’ – via Sprudge
‘Robusta Prices Plummet to Six-Month Low’ – via Global Coffee Report
‘New $1 Billion USDA Specialty Crop Bailout Includes Coffee, March 13 Deadline’ – via Daily Coffee News
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
Crumbs & Whiskers, a cat cafe in Washington, D.C., closed abruptly a month after its staff announced their intent to unionize. As Jenae Barnes reports for The Washingtonian, the company said the closure was temporary to recruit a new leadership team, but workers allege it was a union-busting tactic.
In January, staff asked the cafe’s owner, Kanchan Singh, to voluntarily recognize their union, but Singh declined. Workers alleged unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, including being required to work while sick and sudden cuts to hours. They also raised concerns about the well-being of the cats, a claim Singh disputed.
“We just want a seat at the table to advocate for ourselves, the animals, the guests, everyone,” Maddy Hanson told Barnes. After Singh declined to recognize the union, the cafe’s manager resigned, and staff filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. In an email to staff announcing the immediate closure, the company said its attempts to “stabilize the location” by recruiting new management and addressing staff concerns hadn’t been successful.
In other union news, a group of Starbucks investors is urging shareholders to oppose the re-election of two board members at the company’s upcoming annual meeting on Mar. 25. The board members in question, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Beth Ford, are responsible for “backsliding” labor relations and “sustained oversight failures of labor relations,” the group says.
The investors point to specific actions overseen by the pair, including the elimination of the Environmental, Partner, and Community Impact Committee, which was responsible for labor relations. “Shareholders expect – and deserve – a board that strengthens oversight when risks intensify, not one that dismantles the very committee responsible for monitoring them,” said Jonas D. Kron, Trillium Asset Management’s chief advocacy officer, in a press release. “The board’s rollback of the EPCI Committee amid unresolved labor issues is a red flag.”
Starbucks told Business Insider: “We have a world‑class board of directors with deep, relevant expertise, who is supporting our management team in driving a business turnaround.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘What If We Stopped Calling Them Coffee Beans?’ by Jordan Michelman
