The One by Copper Coffee (Issue 6)

Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Coffee???

Everyone has heard of Big Pharma and Big Tech and how the scale of these companies can hurt the customer experience. We have seen drug prices sky rocket and tech companies that have overreaching control over our privacy. What about coffee?

The coffee industry is fairly similar when you peel back the layers a bit.

Have you ever heard of JAB Holdings? Probably not. Have you heard of Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Peets, Caribou Coffee, and Keurig? All of these companies are owned by JAB Holdings.

We have noticed the more coffee companies grow and receive outside funding, the more relaxed they become with freshness standards.

Cheaper brands rarely – if ever – display the roast date on the coffee bag. These brands typically show the expiration date, which could be > 1 year after the roast date. There is really no way to know how old the coffee is.

Then there are the large premium brands that do a great job marketing themselves as "local". I’ve recently noticed these brands with bags on shelves that are several months old. Maintaining freshness and quality standards is not cheap. It’s easy to see why these brands compromise on those standards after they transition from local coffee roaster to portfolio company that needs to hit quarterly earnings targets.

Our challenge to you is to not compromise on the freshness of your coffee. We certainly won't. 

Stay Charged.

Seth

P.S. The Coffee Guy had a busy week. Keep the questions coming! 

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