Latest news with #Arabica
Daily Mail
20 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE McDonald's Australia announces major change to its popular menu item: 'Our best one yet'
McDonald's Australia has announced a major change to a popular menu item, which comes into effect nationwide. In a move that will interest coffee connoisseurs, Macca's has revealed it will be using a new blend for its McCafé coffees, starting Wednesday. The fast food chain is changing its coffee blend for the first time in four years, with the last update made in 2021. Amanda Nakad, Marketing Director of Menu and Brand for McDonald's Australia, said the change will be 'our best McCafé blend yet'. 'We refresh our coffee blend every four years to keep up with the evolving tastes of our customers and we reckon this one is the best one yet,' Ms Nakad told FEMAIL. 'We know how much our Aussie customers love coffee and care about the taste and quality of their brew – and so do we.' The coffee beans are sourced from around the world and shipped to a roastery in Melbourne, Australia's coffee capital. There, they are roasted and blended on-site into the new coffee blend. Like the previous brew, the new blend is made from 100 per cent Arabica coffee beans, sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. However, there are some subtle differences to the taste of the new takeaway coffee. The new blend includes four origins of coffee beans from Colombia, Honduras, Brazil and Ethiopia. As a result, coffee drinkers should expect the taste to feel richer and rounder with fruity and nutty notes. In addition to refining the taste of the coffee, Ms Nakad said confirmed that they remain committed to 'invest' in barista staff training and equipment to ensure quality and consistency of McCafe coffee across all their stores. McCafé is a true Aussie success story, having first launched in the laneways of Melbourne back in 1993. Today, the cafe serves up more than 300 million cups of barista-made coffee and hot drinks per year. This effectively means that one in five store-bought coffees in Australia are sold at McCafé. 'It's a brand that was created by coffee lovers for coffee lovers, and we're extremely proud to welcome this new blend to our loyal Aussie customers,' Ms Nakad said. The new blend comes hot on the heels of the limited-edition launch of Macca's matcha beverage range at select stores around Australia. The fast food restaurant chain is now selling a classic Matcha Latte ($4.60), an Iced Matcha Latte ($5.20) and a trendy Iced Strawberry Matcha Latte ($6.05). When FEMAIL contacted McDonald's Australia to enquire about the new matcha range, a spokesperson remained tight-lipped but offered a vague confirmation. 'Seeing green? Macca's is currently trialling a special treat in select restaurants across NSW and Victoria,' a McDonald's Australia spokesperson told FEMAIL. 'While we can't confirm anything further yet… We can say: stay tuned.' Sydney food blogger Nina was one of the first to break the news on social media about the little-known Matcha range spotted at Wynyard Station. 'Guess what?! McDonald's Australia has released matcha lattes. Finally matcha available at Macca's,' Nina said in her video. Nina said she purchased a medium iced matcha with oat milk for $6.40. 'Although they use syrup, the matcha flavour was strong with no bitterness - but it was very, very sweet,' she said in her verdict. 'Not very traditional, but the sugar sure was a great pick me up in the morning. To be honest I think I'll be buying this again.' The Sydney-based foodie posted a six-second video that has already been viewed more than 750,000 times, which showed her spotting the item on an in-store menu. The video shows the McDonald's store at Wynyard Station - along with a sign confirming the matcha range won't be around for long. 'Hurry limited time,' the sign read. The video has already notched up over 40,000 likes, and received hundreds of comments from excited customers. 'FINALLY MY DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE,' read one excited response. But the top-liked comment expressed disbelief about whether 'this is actually true'. This warranted skepticism stems from an incident last year when a 'fake' Macca's matcha drink caused a frenzy and disappointment among customers. Last year, a group of Melbourne friends filmed themselves apparently ordering a 'Strawberry Matcha' from a McDonald's Drive-Thru window as part of a social media prank. The staged video quickly sparked confusion among McDonald's customers, who soon reported being unable to find the drink anywhere in stores. The misinformation about the Macca's Strawberry Matcha got so out of hand that McDonald's eventually released a statement confirming the product did not exist. The subsequent outcry from social media fans led many to campaign for Macca's to develop their own drink featuring the popular green tea powder. Now, it appears their wish has come true as Macca's trials the new drinks range at select stores. In addition to the Wynyard Station, some other NSW locations where the range has quietly launched included Thornleigh, Bondi Junction, Wyong and Haberfield. In Melbourne, one fan noted that they'd seen it in the Doncaster store. Matcha lattes – and in particular strawberry matcha lattes – have soared in popularity in the last few years. The trendy iced strawberry matcha lattes are understood to have originated from Asian tea specialty stores, and became prolific on social media. The striking visual appeal of iced strawberry matcha lattes is one of the reasons why the drink went viral. Matcha is known for its health benefits, with the green tea powder renowned for being rich in antioxidants. It also contains fibre, vitamin C, chromium, magnesium, selenium and zinc.
Wakala News
2 days ago
- Business
- Wakala News
India's latest coffee hub? Beans and brews offer new hope to Nagaland
Dimapur, Mokokchung, Wokha, Chumoukedima and Kohima, India — With its high ceilings, soft lighting and brown and turquoise blue cushioned chairs, Juro Coffee House has the appearance of a chic European cafe. Sitting right off India's National Highway-2, which connects the northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, the cafe hosts a live roastery unit that was set up in January by the Nagaland state government. Here, green coffee beans from 12 districts in Nagaland are roasted live, ground and served, from farm to cup. On a typical day, the cafe gets about a hundred customers, sipping on coffee, with smoke breaks in between. Those numbers aren't big – but they're a start. For decades, an armed rebellion seeking the secession of Nagaland from India dominated the state's political and economic landscape. Thousands have been killed in clashes between security forces and armed rebels in Nagaland since India's independence, soon after which Naga separatists held a plebiscite in which nearly all votes were cast in favour of separating from the Indian union. India has never accepted that vote. The state's economy has depended on agriculture, with paddy, fruits like bananas and oranges and green leafy vegetables like mustard leaves, the main crops grown traditionally. Now, a growing band of cafes, roasteries and farms across the state are looking to give Nagaland a new identity by promoting locally grown Arabica and Robusta coffee. Juro Coffee House is among them. While coffee was first introduced to the state in 1981 by the Coffee Board of India, a body set up by the Indian government to promote coffee production, it only began to take off after 2014. Helped by government policy changes and pushed by a set of young entrepreneurs, Nagaland today has almost 250 coffee farms spread across 10,700 hectares (26,400 acres) of land in 11 districts. About 9,500 farmers are engaged in coffee cultivation, according to the state government. The small state bordering Myanmar today boasts of eight roastery units, besides homegrown cafes mushrooming in major cities like Dimapur and Kohima, and interior districts like Mokokchung and Mon. For Searon Yanthan, the founder of Juro Coffee House, the journey began with COVID-19, when the pandemic forced Naga youth studying or working in other parts of India or abroad to return home. But this became a blessing in disguise since they brought back value to the state, says Yanthan. 'My father used to say, those were the days when we used to export people,' he told Al Jazeera. 'Now it's time to export our products and ideas, not the people.' 'Back to the farm' Like many kids his age, Yanthan left Nagaland for higher studies in 2010, first landing up in the southern city of Chennai for high school and then the northern state of Punjab for his undergraduate studies, before dropping out to study in Bangalore. 'I studied commerce but the only subject I was good in was entrepreneurship,' said the 30-year-old founder, dressed in a pair of smart formal cotton pants and a baby pink polo neck shirt. The pandemic hit just as he was about to graduate, and Yanthan left with no degree in hand. One day, he sneaked into a government vehicle from Dimapur during the COVID-19 lockdown – when only essential services like medical and government workers were allowed to move around – to return to his family farm estate, 112km (70 miles) from state capital Kohima, where his dad first started growing coffee in 2015. He ended up spending seven months at the farm during lockdown and realised that coffee farmers didn't know much about the quality of beans, which wasn't surprising considering coffee is not a household beverage among Nagas and other ethnic communities in India's northeast. Yanthan, who launched Lithanro Coffee, the parent company behind Juro, in 2021, started visiting other farms, working with farmers on improving coffee quality and maintaining plantations. Once his own processing unit was set up, he began hosting other coffee farmers, offering them a manually brewed cup of their own produce. Gradually, he built a relationship with 200 farmers from whom he sources beans today, besides the coffee grown on his farm. Yanthan sees coffee as an opportunity for Nagaland's youth to dream of economic prospects beyond jobs in the government — the only aspiration for millions of Naga families in a state where private-sector employment has historically been uncertain. 'Every village you go to, parents are working day and night in the farms to make his son or daughter get a government job,' Yanthan told Al Jazeera. Coffee, to him, could also serve as a vehicle to bring people together. 'In this industry, it's not only one person who can do this work, it has to be a community,' he said. Brewing success So what changed in 2015? Coffee buyers and roasters are unanimous in crediting the state government's decision to hand over charge of coffee development to Nagaland's Land Resources Department (LRD) that year. The state department implements schemes sponsored by the federal government and the state government, including those promoting coffee. Unlike in the past, when Nagaland – part of a region that has historically had poor physical connectivity with the rest of India – also had no internet, coffee roasters, buyers and farmers could now build online links with the outside world. '(The) market was not like what it is today,' said Albert Ngullie, the director of the LRD. The LRD builds nurseries and provides free saplings to farmers, besides supporting farm maintenance. Unlike before, the government is also investing in the post-harvest process by supplying coffee pulpers to farmers, setting up washing stations and curing units in a few districts and recently, supporting entrepreneurs with roastery units. Among those to benefit is Lichan Humtsoe. He set up his company Ete (which means 'ours' in the Lotha Naga dialect) in 2016 after quitting his pen-pushing job in the LRD and was the first in the state to source, serve and supply Naga specialty coffee. Today, Ete runs its own cafes, roasteries and a coffee laboratory, researching the chemical properties of indigenous fruits as flavour notes. Ete also has a coffee school in Nagaland (and a campus in the neighbouring state of Manipur) with a dedicated curriculum and training facilities to foster the next generation of coffee professionals. Humtsoe said the past decade has shown that the private sector and government in Nagaland have complemented each other in promoting coffee. Nagaland's growing coffee story also coincides with an overall increase in India's exports of coffee beans. In 2024, India's coffee exports surpassed $1bn for the first time, with production doubling compared with 2020-21. While more than 70 percent of India's coffee comes from the southern state of Karnataka, the Coffee Board has been trying to expand cultivation in the Northeast. Building a coffee culture in Nagaland is no easy feat, given that decades of unrest left the state in want of infrastructure and almost completely reliant on federal funding. Growing up in the 1990s, when military operations against alleged armed groups were frequent and security forces would often barge into homes, day or night, Humtsoe wanted nothing to do with India. At one point, he stopped speaking Nagamese – a bridge dialect among the state's 16 tribes and a creole version of the Indian language, Assamese. But he grew disillusioned with the political solution rooted in separatism that armed groups were seeking. And the irony of the state's dependence on funds from New Delhi hit the now 39-year-old. Coffee became his own path to self-determination. 'From 2016 onwards, I was more of, 'How can I inspire India?'' The quality challenge Ngullie of the LRD insists that the coffee revolution brewing in Nagaland is also helping the state preserve its forests. 'We don't do land clearing,' he said, in essence suggesting that coffee was helping the state's agriculture transition from the traditional slash-and-burn techniques to agroforestry. The LRD buys seed varieties from the Coffee Board for farmers, and growers make more money than before. Limakumzak Walling, a 40-year-old farmer, recalled how his late father was one of the first to grow Arabica coffee in 1981 on a two-acre farm on their ancestral land in Mokokchung district's Khar village. 'During my father's time, they used to cultivate it, but people didn't find the market,' he said. 'It was more of a burden than a bonus.' Before the Nagaland government took charge of coffee development, the Coffee Board would buy produce from farmers and sell it to buyers or auction it in their headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. But the payments, said Walling, would be made in instalments over a year, sometimes two. Since he took over the farm, and the state department became the nodal agency, payments are not only higher but paid upfront with buyers directly procuring from the farmers. Still, profits aren't huge. Walling makes less than 200,000 rupees per annum (roughly $2,300) and like most farmers, is still engaged in jhum cultivation, the traditional slash-and-burn method of farming practised by Indigenous tribes in northeastern hills. With erratic weather patterns and decreasing soil fertility in recent decades, intensified land use in jhum cultivation has been known to lead to further environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change. 'Trees are drying up and so is the mountain spring water,' Walling told Al Jazeera, pointing at the evergreen woods where spring leaves were already wilting in March, well before the formal arrival of summer. 'Infestation is also a major issue and we don't use even organic fertilisers because we are scared of spoiling our land,' he added. And though the state government has set up some washing stations and curing units, many more are needed for these facilities to be accessible to all farmers, said Walling, for them to sustain coffee as a viable crop and secure better prices. 'Right now we don't know the quality. We just harvest it,' he said. Dipanjali Kemprai, a liaison officer who leads the Coffee Board of India operations in Nagaland, told Al Jazeera that the agency encourages farmers to grow coffee alongside horticultural crops like black pepper to supplement their income. 'But intercropping still hasn't fully taken off,' said Kemprai. Meanwhile, despite the state's efforts to promote sustainable agriculture, recent satellite data suggests that shifting cultivation, or jhum, may be rising again. The future of Naga coffee Though it is the seventh-largest producer of coffee, India is far behind export-heavy countries like Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Italy. And while the Nagaland government maintains that exports have been steadily growing, entrepreneurs tell a different story. Vivito Yeptho, who co-owns Nagaland Coffee and became the state's first certified barista in 2018, said that their last export of 15 metric tonnes (MT) was in 2019, to South Africa. Still, there are other wins to boast of. In 2024, the state registered its highest-ever production at 48 MT, per state department officials. Yeptho said Nagaland Coffee alone supplies 40 cafes across India, of which 12 are in the Northeast region. And Naga coffee is already making waves internationally, winning silver at the Aurora International Taste Challenge in South Africa in 2022 and then gold in 2023. 'To aim for export, we need to be at least producing 80-100 MT every year,' Yeptho told Al Jazeera. But before aiming for mass production, entrepreneurs said they still have a long way to go in improving the quality of beans and their post-harvest processing. With a washing mill and a curing unit in his farm, where he grows both Arabica and Robusta varieties, Yanthan's Lithanro brand is the only farm-to-cup institution in the state. He believes farmers need to focus on better maintenance of their plantations, to begin with. 'Even today, the attitude is that the plants don't need to be tended to during the summers and monsoon season before harvest (which starts by November),' Yanthan told Al Jazeera. 'But the trees need to be constantly pruned to keep them within a certain height, weeding has to be done and the stems need to be maintained as well.' Even as these challenges ground Naga farmers and entrepreneurs in reality, their dreams are soaring. Humtsoe hopes for speciality coffee from Nagaland to soon be GI tagged, like varieties from Coorg, Chikmagalur, Araku Valley and Wayanad in southern India. He wants good coffee from India to be associated with Nagas, not just Nagaland, he said. 'People of the land must become the brand'.
Time of India
4 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Three Arabica coffee varieties ready for multi-location trial
Mysuru: On the occasion of the 100th-year celebration of the Central Coffee Research Institute, Chikkamagaluru, scheduled for Oct 2025, three Arabica varieties, namely S 5085, S 5086, and S 5059, are set to be released for multi- location trial (MLT), and the S 4595 variety is to be released for planters' use. All these four varieties were developed at the institute. According to M Senthil Kumar, director of research, CCRI, Coffee Board, these are the F1 hybrid varieties. F1 hybrids refer to first-generation offspring resulting from a cross between two genetically distinct parent varieties. The S 4595 variety, known for its tolerance to the stem borer, is now available for use by planters. The white stem borer (Xylotrechus quadripes) represents a major pest that impacts Coffea Arabica (Arabica coffee) in Karnataka, where around 70% of the nation's coffee is cultivated. This pest constitutes a significant risk to coffee plantations, especially in the coffee belt of the state, which includes Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, and Hassan, owing to its damaging lifecycle and the favourable agro-climatic conditions present in Karnataka. S 5059, which is an improved HDT-Catuai line with enhanced rust tolerance and yield; S 5085, which is an improved Chandragiri line with enhanced rust tolerance and yield, and S 5086, which is another improved Chandragiri line with enhanced rust tolerance and yield, are ready for the MLT. These varieties are already planted in arabica growing areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as part of the MLT. The CCRI invited names for these new varieties. The CCRI is looking forward to authentic names reflecting Indian coffee quality, tradition and innovation, regional (showcasing place and culture), simple and short, which are easy to say and recollecting 100 years of CCRI. June 30 is the last date for the nominations.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Brazil 2025 Arabica coffee harvest showing smaller crop with better beans, experts say
SAO PAULO, May 28 (Reuters) - Brazil's 2025 Arabica coffee harvest is starting with mixed sentiment as ground operations confirm forecasts of a smaller crop during a so-called off year, while bean size shows improvement, industry experts told Reuters this week. In the Cerrado Mineiro region, where producers have collected around 4% of the expected crop, an average of 30% to 40% of beans have a screen size of 17-18, said Wellis Caixeta, coffee purchasing manager for cooperative Expocacer. Screen size 17-18 is near the top of the scale and bigger beans more easily fill the 60-kilogram (132.3-lb) bags that coffee is sold in. "It's very good and much better than in previous years," Caixeta said, adding the results could indicate a harvest with a better yield. The proportion of so-called peaberry coffee beans, which resemble peas instead of sporting two flat sides, is also slightly higher, Caixeta added. Productivity for Arabica coffee is leaning towards the lower end, confirming forecasts, said Jonas Ferraresso, a coffee agronomist who advises Brazilian farmers. The biennial Arabica coffee cycle alternates between years of higher and lower production, with 2025 expected to be an off year. "It's rare to find farms with high productivity this year," Ferraresso said, adding that harvesting has started in most areas. Dry weather earlier in the season led to poorly developed and undersized beans in the top third of many trees, while coffee cherries that ripened earlier have already dropped to the ground and will likely also be of lower quality, Ferraresso said. "I estimate that around 20% to 30% of the Arabica crop will consist of defective or lower-quality beans, while 70% to 80% will be of good quality," he said. Arabica output is expected to decline 13.5% in the 2025 crop, said Fernando Maximiliano, coffee market intelligence manager for broker StoneX in Brazil. While Ferraresso expects less than 10% of the crop to be harvested so far, StoneX estimates that just over 12% of Arabica has been collected as of May 26, Maximiliano said. With low Arabica stocks in storage, StoneX expects availability to increase towards mid-June, Maximiliano said, adding that the arrival of a colder front could slow harvesting. "Forecasts show the arrival of a polar front," Maximiliano said. "If that happens, everything will change."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Brazil 2025 Arabica coffee harvest showing smaller crop with better beans, experts say
By Oliver Griffin SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's 2025 Arabica coffee harvest is starting with mixed sentiment as ground operations confirm forecasts of a smaller crop during a so-called off year, while bean size shows improvement, industry experts told Reuters this week. In the Cerrado Mineiro region, where producers have collected around 4% of the expected crop, an average of 30% to 40% of beans have a screen size of 17-18, said Wellis Caixeta, coffee purchasing manager for cooperative Expocacer. Screen size 17-18 is near the top of the scale and bigger beans more easily fill the 60-kilogram (132.3-lb) bags that coffee is sold in. "It's very good and much better than in previous years," Caixeta said, adding the results could indicate a harvest with a better yield. The proportion of so-called peaberry coffee beans, which resemble peas instead of sporting two flat sides, is also slightly higher, Caixeta added. Productivity for Arabica coffee is leaning towards the lower end, confirming forecasts, said Jonas Ferraresso, a coffee agronomist who advises Brazilian farmers. The biennial Arabica coffee cycle alternates between years of higher and lower production, with 2025 expected to be an off year. "It's rare to find farms with high productivity this year," Ferraresso said, adding that harvesting has started in most areas. Dry weather earlier in the season led to poorly developed and undersized beans in the top third of many trees, while coffee cherries that ripened earlier have already dropped to the ground and will likely also be of lower quality, Ferraresso said. "I estimate that around 20% to 30% of the Arabica crop will consist of defective or lower-quality beans, while 70% to 80% will be of good quality," he said. Arabica output is expected to decline 13.5% in the 2025 crop, said Fernando Maximiliano, coffee market intelligence manager for broker StoneX in Brazil. While Ferraresso expects less than 10% of the crop to be harvested so far, StoneX estimates that just over 12% of Arabica has been collected as of May 26, Maximiliano said. With low Arabica stocks in storage, StoneX expects availability to increase towards mid-June, Maximiliano said, adding that the arrival of a colder front could slow harvesting. "Forecasts show the arrival of a polar front," Maximiliano said. "If that happens, everything will change." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
