[heavy weight! The coffee world is about to change! The reason why Blue Bottle withdrew from SCA has been exposed!

For professional baristas, please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

Blue Bottle announces withdrawal from SCA

On December 1st, Blue Bottle (one of the top four boutique coffee brands in the United States) announced its formal withdrawal from the participation of SCA (Specialty Coffee Association). The reason: SCA's decision to host a number of world championships (including the World Coffee Brewing Competition, the World Coffee roasting Competition and the World Coffee Cup Test Competition) in Dubai next year in 2018, as well as the controversial policy of "postponing the candidacy".

Screenshot from | BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE official website

In an interview with James Freeman, founder of Blue Bottle, James said, "in our opinion poll of employees, we think that the response given by SCA is not sufficient." So we decided to revoke our membership from SCA, no longer participate in any activities of SCA, and will not pay any related fees. "

But James also said: exit is not permanent, at least Blue Bottle hopes not. They plan to return to their original position after the SCA has made the appropriate changes.

The Origin of the Blue Bottle exit SCA event

In September, SCA announced that three top coffee competitions (the 2018 World Coffee Brewing Competition, the World Coffee Cup Test Competition and the World Coffee roasting Competition) would be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

As soon as the incident came out, it could be said that one stone stirred up thousands of waves. The big names in the coffee industry, especially developed countries such as Europe and the United States, which pay attention to human rights and personal safety, do not like Dubai as a Muslim country. In particular, blatant abuse and discrimination against homosexuals in Dubai has made many people deeply worried about going to Dubai to participate in or watch coffee competitions, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by 10 years in prison.

SCA's decision to host a number of major international competitions in a country that severely discriminates against homosexuals and has long-standing human rights problems is a great discrimination and violation of LGBTQ (gay group). SCA then conducted a two-month re-investigation to determine whether to change its original choice.

Unfortunately, in November, SCA's board issued a final decision on whether these events should be hosted by the United Arab Emirates. The answer was unfriendly to LGBTQ-SCA finally bowed to the golden aura of Dubai.

The controversial policy of "postponing the candidacy"

SCA then offered a policy called "postponing the candidacy". According to this policy, "qualified contestants" can postpone their participation in the World Coffee Competition "the coming year" if they do not want to enter the United Arab Emirates: "protect contestants who cannot participate in the World Championships because of nationality, race, gender identity, gender identity / orientation, health, bereavement or force majeure".

In fact, SCA's so-called "deferred candidacy" is only aimed at "contestants" and does not take into account the behind-the-scenes teams of "contestants"-volunteers, coaches, referees, suppliers, members of the press and competition visitors, etc. there is actually no protection or recognition of the risks faced by such people.

In addition, the policy essentially forces LGBTQ contestants to be the first to expose their privacy in public to prove why they are reluctant to go to a country that opposes homosexuality. To put it simply, once applying for this "deferred candidacy", the contestant will have to face situations such as "admitting that he is gay" or "being questioned about bereavement", which is actually still a global homosexuality. Direct insult and discrimination by homosexual skeptics and coffee professionals.

Worst of all, the SCA's decision and policy is selfish in nature: it puts the responsibility of choosing whether or not to participate in a race held by a country with gay terrorism on the victims themselves. They do not protect any other event participants, including SCA and WCE's own employees, many of whom are gay, gay, skeptical or bisexual. For them, such an international coffee competition is a piece of shit.

Many professionals in the coffee industry soon showed their anger at the matter.

Blue Bottle is not the first coffee company to quit its SCA membership because of this incident, but it is certainly the most influential one-- don't forget that Blue Bottle, with only 48 stores, is behind the behemoth Nestl é.

In fact, SCA officials have not commented further on the outrage and Blue Bottle's withdrawal announcement, but SCA's board of directors has announced that their decision was made after "a difficult conversation about inclusiveness and difficult conversations with world coffee contestants", and they did admit that their policies were "imperfect".

So in the end, what is your point of view?