Monday Morning Coffee News

Happy Monday! Some interesting coffee news from this past week: Researchers found a way to recycle used coffee grounds into carbon capture material, new reusable cups featuring the winning designs of Starbucks Partner Cup Contest are now available in stores, and a Breaking Bad themed coffee shop is creating a buzz internationally.

Researchers working at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea recently developed a way to modify used coffee grounds and use them for methane storage. To activate the used coffee grounds, they were added to potassium hydroxide solution and stirred for 24hrs at 65°C, before being heated to 100°C to dry into a solid, and then heated to 700°C -900 °C for 1 hr. The activated carbon formed by the used coffee grounds was then filtered, washed, and then left to dry overnight. When tested the activate carbon proved to be a “an effective and stable medium for methane storage” and may have future uses for “storing anthropogenic gases from industrial processes, as well as for automobile on-board storage systems”.

You may remember back in May when Starbucks announced the 3 winners of their Partner Cup Contest. Reusable cups featuring the winning designs are now available for purchase while supplies last in participating Starbucks stores in the U.S and Canada. But there’s a bit of a twist – not all designs are available at all locations. In Canada only the night sky design will be available at participating stores and in the U.S, each store will carry 1 design of the 3 available designs, to be determined by region. On the bright side, $0.50 from every purchase of these partner-designed reusable cups will be donated to the Starbucks Caring Unites Partners (CUP) Fund – a financial assistance program started by partners to help each other in times of need.

Walter’s Coffee Roastery, founded by Deniz Kozan, is a Breaking Bad “inspired” (they are verrrry careful to skirt the line to avoid copyright infringement) coffee shop with staff members wearing yellow hazmat suits and gas masks, coffee served in beakers, blue “crystal” rock candy, and a giant Periodic Table on the back wall. The original plan was to open the coffee shop in Brooklyn, New York, but after an investor backed out plans changed. With help from a Kickstarter campaign, Walter’s Coffee Roastery was able to open in Istanbul this March, and it’s been drawing quite a crowd. Plans are in the works to expand the operation to Turkey, Europe, and hopefully, eventually, the U.S.