Fionn Pooler, The Pourover
Fionn Pooler started The Pourover newsletter in an effort to stay engaged with the coffee industry, and has grown it into a unique voice willing to critique and celebrate the coffee industry.
Role(s): Founder and Coffee Journalist
Location: Scotland, U.K.
Find Online: https://www.thepourover.coffee/
Follow on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thepourover.coffee
What they drink: A filter coffee at home. When out and about he appreciates an eclectic range, from an iced latte to a nice pourover. He tries to buy beans wherever he goes.
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Fionn Pooler is the coffee journalist behind the highly readable, well-researched, and impressively sourced The Pourover coffee newsletter. If it isn't obvious, we here at Coffee People podcast are fans of his work. It challenges us to explore areas of the coffee industry that we don't normally go. Fionn finds the path between presenting accurate information and speaking with a clear voice.
The Pourover offers Fionn the opportunity to delve deeply into topics that may not be primary post fodder among coffee industry publications. They aren't clickbait or quick regurgitations. His articles are not for scrolling in the john or waiting in line at the cafe.* Recent topics cover generative AI use by coffee businesses, solar usage on coffee farms, and Starbucks continued retreat from DEI policies. If you're interested in coffee industry unionization, you'll find all you can handle.
That's not meant to scare you off! Fionn's writing challenges and inspires. Despite the challenging topics, they're often tinged with optimism. I asked him later in the podcast if the work weighs on him at all. He admits that it does, but there is so much "context and nuance" in the news surrounding the industry. It would be lovely if everything were black-and-white, but so much lives in the grey. Listen to this clip of Fionn explaining:
The grey audio
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That grey area overlaps with a bigger coffee industry that can be a challenge to keep in focus when you're in it, as I like to refer to the grind of hospitality.
I think that for most people, especially if you're in the industry day-to-day, you are, kind of, you know, mired in getting the [espresso] shot ready, opening and serving coffees, and, you know, roasting coffee...
It's just kind of one day to the next, and you really don't have time to think about the wider picture, but I think people are interested in it, or they could be, if it's presented to them. And I also think coffee is inherently a fascinating subject.
• Fionn Pooler
It's that kind of awareness, a willingness to follow the story, and his background as a barista and coffee roaster that make The Pourover a storytelling force in coffee.
*With the exception of his news round-ups on Fresh Cup (linked below), which are helpful at cutting through the noise.
Beyond The Pourover, we found some of Fionn's other works:
- Sierra Club: The Age of the Zero-Waste Cafe.
- Fresh Cup: A collection of articles.
- The Scotsman: What exactly is a flat white?
- A documentary film that was easily searchable online, even though it is 15 years old:
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