Issue 40: Highs, Lows & Coffee

Our 40th exploration into the world of coffee brings you the theme of crisis—because when things fall apart, we discover what truly holds. Coffee is rather good at this sort of thing. It doesn’t fix the problem, but it does make the conversation warmer, the silences less awkward, and the world marginally more bearable. In a cafe, people share tables, sugar, and—occasionally— life stories they’d never dream of revealing outside those walls. We begin in Ecuador, where a fragile but biodiverse coffee ecosystem is struggling to endure. Our journey then moves to Rio de Janeiro to meet Boquinha, the surfer-barista whose life—and whose coffee—has been defined by resilience. Elsewhere, we examine beauty and inequality through the lens of a single café, before throwing ourselves into the noisy chaos of the Italian espresso bar. Our essays push the theme further: What hidden truths can coffee’s precolonial past offer about power? How does the humble one-way valve on your bag of beans speak volumes about waste and preservation? And in Ireland, we meet a professional surfer Noah Lane who confronts both waves and business with equal courage. Finally, our city profile brings us to Sarajevo, where coffee culture—wedged between fallen empires and rising tensions—remains a symbol of survival, defiance, and shared humanity. Join us as we navigate the fractures and turning points, and discover how, even in crisis, coffee remains a companion, a catalyst, and a quiet reminder that we are never quite alone.