2014 was an exciting year for our beloved coffee, some good, some bad, some weird. As we near the end of the year, we take a look at some of the most notable stories from 2014.

December: A time for giving… but probably not for cocaine.

December, time to give and the warmth of seeing others open their gifts. These acts of generosity were put to the test in Berlin when a local coffee roaster opened his latest shipment of coffee from Brazil and found that it contained 33 kilos of cocaine! We’re not sure if they had a full Christmas smile on their face, but we’re guessing confusion and fear was a more likely response. They reported the “shipping” to the police and to Santa.

November: maximum coffee prices

Coffee prices reached their highest point in 2.5 years during November. Dry weather in Brazil that has affected much of its annual harvest played a major role in the increase. Much of the speculation now is how this year’s drought will affect the 2015 crop. Although there has been rain in recent months, the question remains how this will affect the flowering of new plants during 2015.

Many predict that if the weather returns to some semblance of normal, then the harvest should be about the same as it was in 2014. If the weather continues to become more extreme, production would drop below 2014 levels.

October: Northern Cup

A little closer to home we saw the opening of the “Cup North”, a coffee party for all coffee lovers in the north of England. Organized by the local coffee community, it was an opportunity to turn the spotlight on culinary and coffee developments outside of London.

While the focus was on coffee, the 2-day event also promoted beer, chocolates and some of the exciting ‘foodie’ developments in and around Manchester. Let’s hope it continues in 2015.

September: Coffee and Biofuels

There are many known alternative uses for leftover coffee ranging from effective composting to its use as an odor eliminator for smelly socks. One of the most exciting developments of 2014 was the new Bio-Bean company.

Established in January by Arthur Kay, the company takes used coffee grounds from London cafes and turns the waste into an advanced biofuel. In September they received a €500,000 grant from the Dutch Lottery.

Though widely suspected to be a snippet to boost their UK scores during EuroVision (okay, I made that up), the money will help eco-friendly Bio-Bean expand its operations and build a plant big enough to to handle the processing of the collected coffee grounds. A gold star for Bio-Bean. A great idea and good luck for 2015.

August: Coffee Theme Park receives the green light

If you’ve ever dreamed of visiting a theme park with a giant caffeinated mouse, then August may have been the month for you. Funds were awarded to develop a 64-acre coffee theme park in the Gangwon province of South Korea.

The area has seen a lot of development since the announcement that the 2018 Winter Olympics would be held in the area. Designed as an environmentally friendly family theme park, the venue will also house a production, roasting and distribution facility. Presumably, the latter will not be of interest to children. A distribution roller coaster with embossed livery on the side doesn’t really appeal to kids.

However, the project will create more than a thousand jobs for the local community and will feature a tourist center and a coffee museum.

July: fresh vs. Moment

In July, the Euromonitor International Study published its latest research highlighting the continued growth of instant coffee in countries that were historically associated with tea drinkers, namely China, Turkey and India. Almost half of the world prefers instant coffee to freshly ground coffee.

In the UK, although the coffee market is maturing and we are seeing a greater understanding of fresh and gourmet coffee products, the market for instant coffee continued to gain strength, especially when consumed at home. Amazingly, in the UK, British Americans are responsible for more than a third of all instant coffee sold in Western Europe.

While it’s still often considered unacceptable to offer instant coffee in many social or business situations, when you’re at home, these malleable rules seem to disappear. Convenience in many situations trumps quality.

Some of the growth was attributed to the marketing of instant coffee, many of the words traditionally reserved for fresh coffee making their way onto packages, jars and bags in the supermarket. A product describes itself as the world’s first “instant whole grain”…we still have no idea what that means!

June: World Championships

June saw the winner of the 2014 World Barista Championship. The title ultimately went to Hidenori Izaki of Maruyama Coffee Company, Japan. The judges awarded him the prize after evaluating all the contestants on a selection of criteria including cleanliness, creativity, technical skills and presentation.

Hidenori was the fifteenth winner of the competition, produced and organized by the World Coffee Event (WCE). The annual championship was held in Rimini, Italy and was the culmination of many local and regional finals around the world.

Congratulations to all the entrants, especially Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood from the UK who ultimately came in fifth, yes we are showing a geographical bias.

Final Positions

Champion: Hidenori Izaki, Japan

2nd: Kapo Chiu, Hong Kong

3rd: Christos Loukakis, Greece

4th: Craig Simon, Australia

5th: Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, UK

6th: William Hernandez, El Salvador

May: Coffee and Cows

It seems that used coffee grounds can be used for just about anything! Starbucks has partnered with a Japanese contact lens maker in hopes of turning coffee grounds into a viable, environmentally friendly cattle feed for the Tokyo dairy market.

The fermented grounds were removed from Starbucks stores and incorporated into cattle feed. The process has been tried before, but the results showed that the coffee acted as a diuretic among cattle and the high salt content was a concern. Apparently the new process includes lactic acid fermentation which ensures that the food produced becomes a viable option. Again, we have no idea how this works, but it sounds very impressive.

April: UK Barista Championships

If you mention the World Championship during April, most people (probably tea drinkers) would immediately think of the F1 Grand Prix in China, or the start of the World Snooker Championship with its rustling, fancy vests. For the creative coffee people of the UK, April can only mean one thing; preparation for the World Barista Championship had begun.

Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, who took home his second title, finally won the UK Regional Barista Championship, held during the London Coffee Festival. Congratulations to Maxwell. With the prize under his arm, he would travel to Italy to compete in the World Championships in June. Flying the UK flag… probably without a vest.

February/March: The Soccer World Cup

Much of the speculation throughout February and March centered around the soccer world cup and how Brazilians’ passion for their national sport would affect the coffee industry.

With around a third of all coffee coming from Brazil, concerns were that the games held in Rio de Janeiro would disrupt production, delivery and the general infrastructure of the coffee industry. At the risk of sounding anticlimactic, it all worked out, although it didn’t for the Brazilian soccer team.

January: Myth busted

We’ve probably all heard the old wives’ tale that coffee causes dehydration. We are told that we should drink a glass of water for every cup of coffee we consume. We have no idea where this theory came from, but research published in January by the University of Bath concluded that it was actually a myth.

Instead of causing dehydration, moderate coffee consumption actually hydrates us in a similar way to water. Personally, if I was stranded in the Sahara with a choice of a cup of coffee or nothing, I’d definitely go for the former…but only if it had cream…and sprinkles.