Has pumpkin spice had its day? McDonald’s thinks so. Plus, climate-resilient robusta may not be so hardy after all, and it might be a good idea to let your scalding hot coffee cool before drinking.
‘Robusta Coffee Climate Resilience ‘An Internet Myth,’ Author of New Study Says’ – via Reuters
One of the coffee industry’s most widely accepted beliefs is that robusta is more resilient than arabica. Our newsletter often features stories of farmers planting robusta as a way to combat climate change: for example, we featured a story from Bloomberg about Brazilian farmers switching to robusta due to its perceived hardiness.
But that belief isn’t necessarily backed up by science, and a new study throws further doubt on claims of robusta’s resilience.
Published in the journal Sustainable Development, researchers examined more than 50 studies on climate change’s impact on coffee. The authors found that the idea that robusta is more resilient than arabica “is not supported by scientific evidence.”
Many of the studies on robusta and climate change were flawed, the authors wrote, and those shortcomings “have led to misleading assessments and assumptions.” The researchers found that robusta production is less drought-tolerant than assumed and thrives only in areas like Brazil and Vietnam because of large-scale irrigation.
The idea that robusta is more resilient than arabica is an “internet myth,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Aaron Davis from the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, told Reuters. The misunderstanding emerged about a decade ago, Davis said. “I found it troubling that people weren’t interpreting the science correctly and that they were advocating robusta as the savior of the coffee sector under climate change.”
Davis did note that robusta is more heat-tolerant than arabica, although even there the news isn’t as positive as many thought. A 2020 study found that robusta’s ideal growing temperature is lower than previously assumed, with every 1°C increase leading to a roughly 14% decline in yield.
Read more on the robusta climate resilience myth here.
‘The Pumpkin Spice Era Is Changing—if Not Over, As McDonald’s Replaces the Flavor for the First Time in a Decade’ – via Fortune
As the days shorten and the leaves start turning yellow, many a coffee drinker’s thoughts turn to the pumpkin spice latte. The PSL is a huge deal, with independent cafes and chains alike bringing it back each fall—Starbucks alone earns $500 million a year from the beverage. However, a story from Fortune suggests the PSL is falling out of vogue.
This year, McDonald’s is opting out of the PSL frenzy. According to reporting by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, McDonald’s choice not to include the PSL in its fall lineup is an indication that the drink’s grip on seasonal beverages may be loosening.
Other evidence includes data from Google Trends, which show that searches for “pumpkin spice latte” are falling while other drinks like matcha and chai are climbing. And according to DoorDash, flavors like caramel, apple, and cinnamon are trending higher than pumpkin spice.
The PSL has been around for a while, so maybe people are just temporarily branching out to try something new. Starbucks is widely credited with inventing the drink in 2003, though evidence suggests it had been around for a decade before that (and may have been invented by Tori Amos).
But even if McDonald’s is trying to move on, Starbucks is faithfully playing the hits. Right on cue, the coffee giant launched this year’s PSL in late August—surprise, surprise, it was hugely successful.
Read the full story on pumpkin spice’s fall here or via Yahoo! Finance here.
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‘Mubadala Backs China’s Luckin Coffee Chain in $1 Billion Deal’ via Bloomberg
‘Anaerobic Natural Processing Lifts Quality Scores in China’ via Daily Coffee News
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
In 2024, workers at a Philz Coffee location in Berkeley, California, voted to unionize. Since then, the San Francisco-based specialty chain has been bought by private equity and embroiled in controversy after its CEO ordered the removal of Pride flags from stores.
Earlier this year, the formerly independent union decided to affiliate itself with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, the largest private-sector union in Northern California. Now, workers at four more Philz locations are unionizing.
According to Olivia Peluso in the San Francisco Gazetteer, the unionizing stores are in San Francisco, Glendale, Cupertino, and Torrance. “We joined Philz because we believed in its values of being kind, keeping it real, and always pursuing better,” Irene Leavitt, a Philz Coffee worker at the store in Torrance, told Peluso. “But too often, our concerns about safety, scheduling, wages, and transparency have gone unheard.”
Philz did not respond to Peluso’s request for comment.
Fueled by venture capital, the chain expanded throughout the 2010s from its Bay Area home across California and beyond, and now has 79 locations across the state and in Chicago.
Is Coffee Good For You?
There’s nothing better than a piping hot cup of coffee in the morning. But it might be worth waiting a few minutes before taking that first sip.
New research has found that drinking very hot beverages could triple the risk of developing a type of esophageal cancer.
Researchers at the University of Oxford examined survey data from nearly one million British adults, including questions about beverage temperature, following up with respondents for over a decade. The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, then compared the answers with rates of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
People who said they drank their tea or coffee “hot” were almost twice as likely to develop ESCC as those who drank them “warm,” while those who enjoyed “very hot” drinks had three times the risk. The authors noted that an estimated 14% of ESCC cases in the UK could be avoided if those who drank their coffee “very hot” instead waited until it was slightly cooler.
As with many such studies, the results were observational and the surveys were self-reported. But the findings are yet more evidence that drinking extremely hot coffee can be detrimental to your health. Last September, we brought news of a similar study that reached similar conclusions about hot coffee and ESCC. Meanwhile, back in 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer said that drinking very hot beverages was “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘A Growing Taste for Zambian Coffee’ by Fiske Nyirongo
‘What’s Behind the Dubai-ification of America’s Yemeni Cafés?’ by Lara-Nour Walton
