Things you should know #2
Wellington cries into its piccolo; Brazil grows a lot of coffee; Aunty Donna open a cafe.
Welcome to The Magic Roast! It is Tuesday 18 April - and this is what you need to know this week.
Wellington excluded from top coffee cities list; melts down in own self importance
Oh wow - Tambia, some website on the internet, did a list of the top 50 coffee cities in the whole world and shock, NEW ZEALAND’S SELF APPOINTED KING AND QUEEN OF COFFEE, WELLINGTON, WAS LEFT OUT.
Cue the meltdown and and the outrage from Stuff (‘A bald-face lie’) and RNZ (‘Brewing up trouble’). Worth noting that they are both based in Wellington…
“Wellington, especially, is very particular about it’s coffee” says RNZ’s Kirsty Frame. No wonder the city couldn’t cope with not being in the top 50.
The outrage has got all the way back to Tambia, based in Colombia, who obviously fared for their lives and had this to say to the millions of Wellington moustaches and opshop swanndris:
This isn’t the last you’ll hear about this. Wellington didn’t deserve to be in the top 50 list, but there is a city in Aotearoa who should… more to come on The Magic Roast about that…
Pull & Pour: Coffee production across the world
Pull & Pour do great infographics to make everyone a bit smarter.
This one shows coffee production across the world. It’s amazing to see how much more coffee Brazil produces compared to everyone else.
This list includes both main coffee bean variety (simply) Arabica and Robusta. Vietnam, for example, produces mostly Robusta, which is why it is so high in the list.
Seeing this in an infographic helps to explain why global coffee prices are impacted so heavily by the success (and failure) of Brazilian coffee crops.
The crops in Brazil have, in recent years, been impacted by COVID-19, climate change and disease, pushing the price of coffee sky high.
The CDC (Canada’s version of Radio NZ) did an article in 2021, which had this quote from a Brazilian coffee producer on the impacts of climate change:
On top of the drought that hurt this year's harvest, Brazilian farmers were also hit by previously unheard of frost, which is bad news for next year's crop.
"This drought is not a normal occurrence, but at the same time, the frost that just happened last week is the second time in three years that it's happened," Haque noted.
"It's possible that we're going to have to live with more extreme weather conditions. And if that's the case then ... supply will vary, and when supply varies, inevitably prices are going to go up and down."
That means for coffee lovers, uncertainty will be the name of the game from now on.
"…we're kind of up against the clock with climate change and other pressures."
So, the next time your barista wants to charge you a bit more for that flat white, just accept it with good grace, otherwise you might lose your favourite spot.
Go follow Pull & Pour to get more smart.
Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe is live on ABC iView
Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe is a sitcom that follows three best-friends who run ‘Morning Brown’ a trendy cafe down one of Melbourne’s less than iconic lane-ways.
The funny as hell show covers the trials and tribulations of owning a cafe, which will be pretty familiar to most cafe owners all around the world. Things like trying to find cool customers, getting burgled, not paying the rent, and getting bad reviews are all tackled with the level of grot and absurdity you’d expect from Aunty Donna.
It’s very, very, very (three verys), funny.
It’s only available on ABC’s iView in Australia, but it’s worth firing up that VPN to catch it while it’s hot.
And for a taster, here’s a clip that all baristas and hospo owners would relate to - trying to find new cool customers by running a fun, interactive competition.
This week, done.
Go, be awesome.