Ona Coffee and Project Origin Founder Sasa Sestic has announced an Australian speaking tour, which will see him visit Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane in June.
Behind Closed Doors: What Goes Into Creating A Specialty Coffee Farm is based on a lecture Sasa delivered at the recent Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) expo in Boston, titled The Future of Specialty: How Innovations in Processing Can Change Perceptions of Specialty Coffee. Read more
Rumble Coffee Roasters has released its 2018 Transparency Report, detailing its efforts to address key threats to the sustainability and longevity of the coffee industry.
The report is part of Rumble’s Transparency Project model, which makes pricing data at the core of Rumble’s trade available to the public. Read more
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a new activation hub, ReSource: Plastic, to help address global plastic pollution. Food and beverage companies Starbucks, McDonald’s, Keurig Dr Pepper, Tetra Pak, and The Coca-Cola Company, have joined Procter & Gamble as principal members of the hub. Read more
Green bean trader Minas Hill will host a cupping of 12 Brazilian coffees at Collective Roasting Solutions in Alexandria, New South Wales, on 21 May.
Coffees on the table will include lots from Minas Hill’s producing partners Ismael Andrade, Gabriel Oliveira and Pedro Gabarra, as well as seasonal lots from Bahia State in the Mantiqueira region. Read more
Coffee equipment manufacturer Victoria Arduino has launched an Instagram campaign, #iamonevictoriaarduino in the leadup to the preview of a new product in September.
The winner will receive an exclusive Victoria Arduino experience, and participate back stage at the grand premier. Read more
The University of South Australia’s (UniSA) has revealed that drinking six or more coffees a day can increase the risk of heart disease up to 22 per cent.
According to the Heart Foundation cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death, with one person dying from the disease every 12 minutes.
UniSA Researchers Dr Ang Zhou and Professor Elina Hyppönen of the Australian Centre for Precision Health say its new research confirms the point at which excess caffeine can cause high blood pressure, a precursor to heart disease.
This is the first time a limit has been placed on a safe coffee consumption and cardiovascular health.
“Coffee is the most commonly consumed stimulant in the world – it wakes us up, boosts our energy, and helps us focus – but people are always asking how much is too?” says Elina.
“Most people would agree that if you drink a lot of coffee, you might feel a little jittery, irritable or perhaps even nauseas – that’s because caffeine helps your body work fast and harder, but it is also likely to suggest that you may have reached you limit for the time being.
Researchers say the risk of cardiovascular disease also increases with high blood pressure, a known consequence of excess caffeine consumption.
“In order to maintain a healthy heart and a healthy blood pressure, people must limit their coffees to fewer than six cups a day – based on our data six was the tipping point where caffeine started to negatively affect cardiovascular risk,” says Elina.
Using United Kingdom’s Biobank research and data, UniSA studied more than 347,000 participants aged 37 to 73 years. The study explores the ability of the caffeine-metabolising gene to better process caffeine and identify increased risks of cardiovascular disease in line with coffee consumption and genetic variations.
Elina says that carriers of the fast-processing gene are four times quicker at metabolising caffeine. The research doesn’t support the belief that people could safely consume more caffeine, more frequently, without health effects.
“An estimated three billion cups of coffee are enjoyed every day around the world,” says Elina. “Knowing the limits of what’s good for you and what’s not is imperative. As with many things, it’s all about moderation, overindulge and your health will pay for it.”
New Zealand-based Mojo Coffee has announced it will continue its United States expansion with the opening of two new cafés in Chicago, US in winter 2019.
The roaster began its North American expansion in in 2017. The new outposts will join two Mojo Coffee cafés already open in Chicago and more than 40 worldwide.
Mojo says the new stores will further its mission of elevating hospitality and specialty coffee in Chicago’s central business districts. Read more
Maiko Morimoto of Extraction Artisan Coffee has won the first regional Breezey Masters competition of the 2019 season, held at her workplace in Queensland on 7 May.
Kyujong Han of Ginger & Green Café placed second, with Naoto Tanabe of Bellissimo Coffee and Jake Huang of B+C Lab rounding out the final four. Read more
Australian airline Qantas soared to new heights with launch of the world’s first ever zero-waste flight, with the help of environmentally friendly packaging company BioPak.
Flying from Sydney to Adelaide on 8 May, the flight is part of Qantas’s wider initiative to remove 100 million single-use plastic items per annum by 2020.
“We want to give customers the same level of service they currently enjoy, but without the amount of waste that comes with it,” Qantas Domestic CEO Andrew David said. Read more
In April 2019, the International Coffee Organization (ICO) composite indicator fell by 3.2 per cent to 94.42 US cents per pound, the lowest monthly average since July 2006 when the price reached 88.57 US cents per pound.
The daily price fell to 91.79 US cents per pound on 17 April, the lowest it had been since 1 August 2006 when it hit 88.77 US cents per pound.
The ICO says prices for all group indicators fell in April 2019. Read more