Sips: Big companies, small packages

News from big roasters, about big plans, with some science and sustainability tossed in.

• Smucker, owner of Folgers, etc., has now purchased Sara Lee’s North American foodservice coffee business. Smucker can now buy even more uncertified coffee.
• And Oliver Strand points out in the NYT that Folgers in K-Cups costs $50 a pound!
• Meanwhile, Sara Lee realizes it neglected the single-serve market, and wants to re-invigorate its Senseo brand. It is already discontinuing marketing Senseo in North America at the end of March, so it looks like this will be a foreign effort.
• Coffee producers in India are asking the national coffee board  to provide subsidies for sustainable practices like pulpers that use less water and the preparation of worm composting beds.
• Meanwhile, Starbucks is set to begin opening stores galore in India. There was even a piece on NPR about it.
• And Starbucks is also moving forward in China, partnering to source Yunnan coffee for use in global blends.