Fionn Pooler
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thepourover.coffee
Fionn Pooler
@thepourover.coffee
610 followers 350 following 1.6K posts
Writer of The Pourover, a newsletter about coffee and how it connects to the wider world. Subscribe! 👉🏻 thepourover.coffee

Posting about coffee, mainly, but also movies, Arsenal, and other bits and bobs. (It's pronounced Fin | he/him |📍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿)
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thepourover.coffee
One of the best bulk food purchases I've made in a long time (expensive, but as a vegan oh so worth it)
The label of a 3kg bag of nutritional yeast
January 10, 2026 at 11:12 AM
thepourover.coffee
Fish's perspective is very different from other coffee chains of Biggby's size (the company has 450 franchised locations in 13 states). But as he says, it's not that complicated. Coffee brands just have to want to make the change.

www.thepourover.coffee/coffee-conve...
When we’re done with this first goal, we want to move on and change how the industry purchases coffee, and move a higher percentage of it to a direct trade model, or one that decouples from the C market so you can't knowingly pay somebody less than what it costs them to produce their coffee. That is inhumane and immoral. But the coffee industry has really hidden behind a veil of, “It's complicated”, and I would suggest that it's not complicated, it's just difficult. And difficult is not enough of a reason to not do it.
January 9, 2026 at 5:36 PM
thepourover.coffee
TIL that back in the 1920s, when Belgian football was still amateur, clubs would often get around the strict rules by setting up their players as cafe owners.

This led to the Belgian FA banning its best player, Raymond Braine, who missed the 1930 World Cup.
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/sites/defaul...
Belgium’s challenge had been exacerbated by the fact their best player, Raymond Braine, was missing A prolific striker, he had helped fire Beerschot to four league titles throughout the 1920s Confusingly, Braine had been banned by the Belgian FA themselves, for opening a cafe Back then, football was an amateur activity in Belgium, with every player having some form of employment Running a cafe was a popular option but Braine was ruled to be using his reputation to enhance profits, something outlawed at that time as an amateur The whole situation is even stranger when you consider Braine’s parents ran the cafe in Antwerp, and his brother Pierre was allowed to captain the Red Devils in Uruguay
January 8, 2026 at 2:01 PM
thepourover.coffee
Procrastinating from the writing I should be doing by listening to the new @themountaingoats.bsky.social record on repeat instead.
A blue record playing on a record player, with the sleeve propped up behind. It is Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan by The Mountain Goats.
January 6, 2026 at 3:18 PM
thepourover.coffee
I used to post lots of photos of coffee on Instagram, with my favourite subject being a Chemex on a fence.

But Instagram sucks now and I barely feel like bothering, so I post maybe one a year. Here's this year's. #CoffeeSky
A snowy landscape scene with a glass Chemex full of coffee teetering on a fence in the foreground.
January 2, 2026 at 5:25 PM
thepourover.coffee
I guess this is what happens when you hire a Gen Xer as CEO...
www.businessinsider.com/brian-niccol...
Screenshot of a Business Insider headline reading "Brian Niccol said he wants Starbucks to feel like the coffee shop from 'Friends'"
January 2, 2026 at 1:42 PM
thepourover.coffee
"dissolve the coaching staff"
Dr. Evil from Austin Powers
January 2, 2026 at 1:23 PM
thepourover.coffee
Researching the latest festive coffee news for this week's Fresh Cup roundup...
Screenshot of a local newspaper called Olney Enterprise, featuring a headline reading "OPD Arrests Grinch at Hometown Coffee", with a picture of a police officer handcuffing a person dressed as the Grinch.
January 1, 2026 at 5:04 PM
thepourover.coffee
Me to 2026:
David Lynch on set speaking in to a megaphone: "Okay, let's try that again, but this time good."
December 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM
thepourover.coffee
I'm still working on my code of ethics, but this is going to be a v prominent part.
Artificial Intelligence The Pourover is explicitly opposed to generative AI and will never use LLMs or chatbots in any part of the research, writing, or publication process. That means no help with outlining, drafting, editing, or image generation
December 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
thepourover.coffee
Always fun when Wired or whomever posts these shilly articles about some gen-AI nonsense and all the replies are telling it to fuck off.
A bunch of replies to the Wired story on Gemini, all saying "no" or "nope" and one at the bottom saying "Why are you promoting this at all? It's an educational tool that can't be trusted."
December 29, 2025 at 11:35 AM
thepourover.coffee
Obviously this sucks for the company affected, but I do appreciate the image of thieves trying to sell sacks of green coffee off the back of a truck like they're car stereos. #CoffeeSky
ALERT!! to friends and contacts in the coffee industry We have been notified that a full 40,000 pound trailer load of green coffee intended for us was stolen after release from a terminal facility in Carteret New Jersey Law enforcement has informed us that this is the fourth reported coffee theft in the past two weeks involving similar circumstances. If anyone is offered suspicious green coffee, becomes aware of unusual inventory, is asked to trans-ship or store product by unknown parties or has any information that may be helpful, please reach out directly to me or We are sharing this to help protect others in the industry and prevent further incidents. Product looks similar to picture below. Thank you.
December 26, 2025 at 6:26 PM
thepourover.coffee
r/thepourover "Jeffrey Epstein's Pourover Setup" has an image of Epstein's Manhattan townhouse kitchen. The caption reads "2 Aeropresses, a Kettle, and a Baratza Encore with a hopper full of unknown beans. Photo is from a July 2019 police raid on his Manhattan townhouse."
December 20, 2025 at 3:37 PM
thepourover.coffee
Still from the Simpsons The Homer They Fall episode with a punch drunk Homer about to be hit by Drederick Tatum
December 20, 2025 at 10:27 AM
thepourover.coffee
Reading the Grand Designs episode descriptions
Vince McMahon getting progressively more excited meme Scunthorpe 2023 Devoted dad Danny Who has no self-build experience Builds a sustainable tree house
December 18, 2025 at 10:17 PM
thepourover.coffee
Tomorrow's newsletter is about degrowth and coffee. How can the coffee industry, beset by challenges from climate change to inequality, take inspiration from this radical economic and social movement?

Sign up to get the newsletter in your inbox: thepourover.coffee/subscribe
Graffiti on a wall reading "the only sustainable growth is degrowth"
December 18, 2025 at 8:11 PM
thepourover.coffee
Cursed magazine.
ChatGPT for Seniors magazine, with two older white people looking happily at a laptop on the cover.
December 16, 2025 at 9:50 PM
thepourover.coffee
Martin Scorsese "absolute cinema" meme but "cinema" is overlaid with "literature"
December 16, 2025 at 1:08 PM
thepourover.coffee
Hmm, maybe I was on to something...
As Rudy Coffee demonstrates, we seem to be scraping the barrel of what the celebrity coffee concept can achieve. Celebrity retail in general is stuttering, while low margins and stiff competition mean coffee remains a difficult industry in which to succeed. This is the case even for celebrities, unless they have a lot of investment behind them and a proper respect for coffee. So why do celebrities keep starting these often half-baked companies? Why do we care so much? And does Rudy Coffee herald a beginning of the end for the concept?
December 16, 2025 at 11:38 AM
thepourover.coffee
Christ the Redeemer statue with Gabriel Jesus superimposed.
December 13, 2025 at 9:59 PM
thepourover.coffee
Bugs Bunny meme I wish all TNT COMMENTATORS a very SHUT UP
December 13, 2025 at 9:56 PM
thepourover.coffee
It's that time again...
Two stills of Bilbo holding the one ring. In the top image he says, "After all, why not?" from the movie. In the bottom image he says "Why shouldn't I combine all the last bits of coffee from the bags in my cupboard into one mystery superblend" which is not from the movie.
December 13, 2025 at 10:39 AM
thepourover.coffee
This shit is all over Instagram now. I don't like it.
"I can't go the rest of my life asking if it's AI or not" meme with a pensive cow standing in the waves on a beach.
December 12, 2025 at 11:48 AM
thepourover.coffee
Feels pretty bleak to be using gen AI to create an image of a coffee picker, rather than just, I don't know, going out and photographing one?
Screenshot of an Instagram post of an AI-generated coffee picker, alongside text that reads very much like it was also AI-generated. "🌺 Thankful for Hawaiʻi Coffee 🌺 Today we pause to honor the hands, hearts, and hard work behind every cup grown here on the Hawaiian Islands. From the farmers walking the lands before sunrise, to the pickers, processors, roasters, and baristas who carry the story forward — this post is for you. Growing coffee on island isn’t easy. It takes dedication, patience, resilience, and deep respect for the land. To live on origin is a gift — one we don’t take lightly. We celebrate the people who make Hawaiian coffee what it is: world-class, intentional, and rooted in aloha. Mahalo to everyone who pours their life into this craft."
December 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
thepourover.coffee
Trying to write this week's coffee news roundup...
On April 18, 1930, during what was supposed to be the scheduled news bulletin, BBC Radio announced, simply, “Good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news.” Piano music followed for the remainder of the newscast.
December 12, 2025 at 10:51 AM