Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s stories.

Mon, 4 Jul

• PRF to be held in El Salvador in 2023. Following on from the success of PRF Colombia, which was held from 30 June to 1 July, a PRF event was announced for El Salvador next year. PRF is held in a different coffee-producing country each year.

• Blank Street Coffee opens first location in London. The New York specialty coffee cart brand will open two brick-and-mortar locations in London by 5 July, and plans to open 25 UK locations in total.

• Cup of Excellence launches Sensory Education Training programme in Italy. In partnership with the Coffee Knowledge Hub, the course will launch in Italy for the first time at the SCA-certified Simonelli Group HQ campus.

• Pret A Manger to debut in Indian market. In partnership with Reliance Brands Limited, the coffee and food-to-go chain plans to open 100 stores in India by 2028.

• More than 20 Geshas win in 2022 Cup of Excellence Guatemala competition. All 30 coffees scored 87.23 points or more, with the highest-scoring coffee (a washed Gesha from El Morito in the Jalapa region) receiving 91.75 points. The auction will be held on 19 July 2022.

• WOC Milan generates over US $115.5 million for Brazilian coffee sector. More than 30 Brazilian companies were present at the event, which the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association estimates resulted in US $21.9 million in business deals.

• Cultivos Coffee concept store opens in Athens International Airport. The project, which was created by Taf Coffee, operates 20 stores across Greece.

Tue, 5 Jul

• Global Coffee Platform partners with Partnerships for Forests to scale sustainable coffee production. Through the agreement, the two organisations will work to improve sustainable coffee farming practices across East Africa. The partnership will run until July 2023.

• Tiny Mile trials robot coffee delivery service in North Carolina, US. The two-month pilot programme is taking place in the city of Charlotte in partnership with local roaster Undercurrent Coffee.

• Organic roaster Groundwork Coffee receives B Corp certification. The company received an overall score of 93.5 across five impact areas. Groundwork operates a direct trade model with several smallholder coffee farms.

• Ten coffee varieties win in the 2022 Cup of Excellence Honduras competition. The highest-scoring coffee was a washed Gesha produced by Benjamin Paz Muñoz from Finca La Salsa, which received 91.25 points. The auction will be held on 16 August 2022.

• UK roaster 200 Degrees welcome 200th team member. Vlad Deliu is the 200th person to join 200 Degrees as general manager of the Leicester location. The company operates 17 stores across the UK.

Wed, 6 Jul

• Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee releases study on how coffee consumption affects athletic performance. ISIC’s research indicates that acute caffeine intake (between 3mg and 6mg per kg of body weight) increases the body’s capacity to perform physical activities, as well as improving muscular strength and muscular endurance.

• Plant-based protein company ChickP seeks to create barista-formulated plant milks. The company says its chickpea-based protein product results in a neutral taste and smooth texture when combined with coffee, as well as producing high-quality microfoam.

• May coffee prices reach highest levels since February 2022. The International Coffee Organisation Composite Indicator Price gained 4.5% over April, increasing to an average of 202.46 US cents/lb. Global coffee exports totalled 10.80 million 60kg bags in May 2022, compared with 9.82 million in the same month the previous year.

• Twenty-two coffees win in the 2022 Cup of Excellence Costa Rica competition. Some of the winning varieties include Milenium, Kenia, and San Roque. The highest-scoring coffee was a honey processed Gesha from Don Cayito farm in Los Santos, which received 91.08 points. The auction will take place on 11 August.

• Costa Coffee and McDonald’s UK to collaborate on national cup recycling scheme. Motorway service station operater Roadchef will install 65 cup recycling stations at all of its 30 locations across the UK.

• Milan Coffee Festival 2022 to take place from 12 to 14 November. The festival will be held at the Superstudio Più event centre.

Thu, 7 Jul

• La Marzocco’s Accademia del caffè releases limited-edition Peace cups to support Ukraine humanitarian efforts. The handmade cups debuted at World of Coffee Milan and are available as a set for €100 (US $101.79). Proceeds of sales will go to Ospedale dei Bambini Vittore Buzzi pediatric hospital in Milan to support Ukrainian child refugees.

• Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority launches new strategy to increase sustainable coffee exports. The new strategy is based on six key pillars, which include research and marketing. The ECTA hopes to increase the value of the country’s coffee exports to between US $3.6 billion and US $4.6 billion within the next 15 years.

• Brazil’s domestic coffee prices increase throughout June. The CEPEA index for arabica closed at BRL 1,361.20 (US 260.27 cents) per bag on 30 June – 6.9% higher than prices on 31 May. Price increases are attributed to the valuations of future contracts.

• Riff’s cascara-based energy drink receives carbon-neutral certification. The Energy+ functional beverage received the certification from the Carbonfree Product Certification Programme. The drink is also certified non-GMO.

• Rancilio Specialty launches the Invicta espresso machine. The new single-boiler machine includes thermal stability technology Steady Brew and manual temperature setting T-Switch.

Fri, 8 Jul

• Volcafe and Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE) extend sustainable agroforestry partnership. The green coffee trader and the Costa Rican research centre will work to establish model farms across Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Volcafe and CATIE will also design a digital tool for farmers to measure the impact of the agroforestry systems.

• Steeped Coffee raises US $5 million in 48-hour crowdfunding round. More than 4,500 investors contributed to the campaign. The single-serve coffee brand has now launched an additional Regulation D fundraising campaign.

• Ozone Coffee Roasters International appoints Lizzie Gurr as its first-ever CEO. The roaster and hospitality group (which includes Ozone Coffee Roasters and Hasbean) will work to achieve B Corp status by the end of 2022. OCRI has also appointed Dale Harris as UK Chief Operating Officer.

• Neumann Kaffee Gruppe and Coffee Quality Institute pilot robusta training workshops in Uganda. The trial workshops took place at NKG’s Kaweri Coffee Plantation, with the course expected to fully launch by the end of 2022. Findings from the workshops will be included in new Q Processing 2 robusta programmes, which help to assess quality of both robusta and fine robusta.

Here are a few news stories from previous weeks that you might find interesting. Take a look.

• Thu, 23 Jun – Research finds coffee and tea businesses have biggest reduction in delivery lead times since beginning of the pandemic. Data from Unleashed’s Product Lead Time Index found that delivery lead times in the coffee and tea industry dropped by 61.9% between 2020/21 and 2021/22 – decreasing from an average of 8.5 days to 3.2.

• Thu, 23 Jun – Starbucks Reserve locations sell handmade products from Rwandan women. The merchandise is inspired by the packaging design of Starbucks Reserve’s Rwanda Hingakawa coffee. The products were made by women working with All Across Africa, which helps connect small business owners with international markets.

• Mon, 27 Jun – Lavazza sponsors Wimbledon 2022 for eleventh year. The Italian coffee company will serve its coffee products at the tennis tournament, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

• Tue, 28 Jun – EATX launches first coffee shop under Encounter Coffee brand. The store opened in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. EATX plans to open more kiosk locations in the near future.

• Wed, 29 Jun – Hugh Inc. releases preorders for new manual espresso machine. The Leverpresso Pro can brew up to 12 bar of pressure and includes a thermally-insulated silicone sleeve.

• Wed, 29 Jun – Califia Farms releases plant-based creamers designed for iced coffees. The Iced Café Mixers are available in Vanilla Sweet Crème and Caramel Crème flavours.

• Wed, 29 Jun – Löfbergs appoints Kajsa-Lisa Ljudén as new Head of Sustainability. Ljudén has worked as one of the company’s sustainability strategists since 2020.

• Thu, 30 Jun – Intelligentsia Coffee launches K-Cup range. The coffee capsule range includes the Intelligentsia House blend and the organic El Gallo blend.

• Fri, 1 Jul – Death Wish Coffee launches new product as part of its rebranding. The new Fairtrade certified Espresso Roast includes notes of cocoa, caramelised sugar, and black cherry.

Sign up to our weekly coffee news recap to get a summary of all the biggest stories in the sector, delivered straight to your inbox every Monday.

Want to keep up with current affairs in the coffee industry? Check out last week’s stories.