[F]resh Cup Magazine closed its doors in late 2020 as Jan Weigel, president, publisher, and original co-founder, retired after an esteemed 29-year run.
For those of us who’d flipped through the magazine’s pages, contributed stories, and found Fresh Cup a valuable source of knowledge and inspiration, the news represented a terrible loss for the coffee and tea industries. Fresh Cup’s legacy and influence as a resource, storytelling, and community hub for professionals was too rich to let fade away.
Today, Fresh Cup relaunches as an online publication and celebrates 30 years of being a nexus of information for baristas, beverage professionals, business owners, and all lovers of coffee and tea.
“It’s been a huge honor to work with so many incredible people and cover important stories in the last 29 years,” Jan shared. “I’m thrilled that Fresh Cup will live on and continue to serve these industries.”
The Next Era of Fresh Cup
The coffee industry is one of paradoxes.
We elevate coffee growers in marketing campaigns, but those same producers struggle to make farming financially viable. Barista-customer relationships drive business for cafes, but baristas rarely earn a living wage. Cafes are social centerpieces for whole communities, but independent owners leave and close shops from debt and stress. Our society runs on coffee, but our industry doesn’t create prosperity for all its inhabitants equitably. Something is deeply out of balance.
We believe that there’s a way to develop a more balanced and equitable industry where everyone contributes towards mutual success. To get there, it’ll take meaningful change in how we manage our teams, pay employees, market and sell to customers, source coffee, and build businesses.
Fresh Cup is the home of this ongoing conversation about what it means to build a profitable and just business within an industry that’s desperate for a rebalancing.
To start, we’ve got a fantastic group of writers and experts ready to cover topics ranging from marketing to technology to business financials to racial equity—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Reach out if you’re interested in writing for Fresh Cup.
New Ways to Learn and Engage
Fresh Cup will continue to evolve throughout our relaunch year, so make sure to follow us on social media and join our newsletter to keep up with updates.
Here are a few of the things we’re looking forward to:
- More high-impact stories and insights for industry leaders and business owners
- A must-read weekly newsletter will be an experience of its own (sign up here!)
- New website and reading experience on the horizon
Here’s to the next 30 years.
