Good Morning - Tuesday, March 18: There are 2 events during the year where the following day should be a mandatory day off. The Super Bowl & St Patrick’s Day. Both are massive party days that may require a post-party day of silence to remove the headache and readjust to daylight. I don’t need a holiday to enjoy the creamy goodness of Guinness. Drink up and enjoy!

This weeks grind:

• Starbucks Tax Season: Their CPAs are better than yours

• New Gear Alert: Industrial steamer to silk your milk (don’t be nasty)

• Brewed & Looted: Coffee heists are on the rise in the U.S.

COFFEE NEWS

How Starbucks Brewed a $1.3 Billion Tax Loophole without Spilling a Drop

Starbucks is back in the headlines, but this time it’s not about pumpkin spice or union drama—it’s about a Swiss tax maneuver that let them skate on $1.3 billion in taxes. A new report uncovered how a little-known subsidiary in Switzerland has been playing middleman with coffee beans, marking them up and shifting profits to lower-tax regions. Is it illegal? Nope. Shady? Weeeeeell, it’s never shady to try and keep your hard earned cash. Just make sure you hire a pro to sign off.

It’s the classic playbook: some people use TurboTax, others hire tax wizards to work the system—Starbucks just happens to have an army of them. While they tout social responsibility, critics argue this kind of financial gymnastics leaves regular taxpayers footing the bill. So, is Starbucks still the ethical coffee giant it claims to be, or just another mega-corp finding creative ways to keep more cash? Read the full story here.

New Gear Alert

Coffee McGregger hit me up with a YouTube video last week that had me wondering “That looks awesome. Why do I need that”. The price point of this new stand-alone steamer warrants a second look. At $189 you could buy a full espresso machine. Like the DeLonghi or Casabrews. If you’re really lazy you can pickup this Nespresso pod thing, but it makes it harder to impress the ladies when you have no steamer wand.

I’m talking about The Flair Wizard Milk Steamer. If you admire fine art then this tickles your design beans a some type a way. This stovetop steamer is beautifuly technical. It has an engineering feel to it like the tunnel or terror train in old school Willy Wonka movie. Turning knobs, levers and dials for heat… this is an industrial design masterpiece. Does it work? No clue, when McGreggor hit me with the link this was on pre-order. Now it looks like it’s available / in stock.

If you want the JTD crew to test one out drop us a note.

COFFEE HEIST

Coffee Crime Wave - Thieves Turning Green Beans into Black Market Gold

Some get eyes on Mark Wahlberg & Charlize Theron, the heists are picking up and these 2 know how to rob stuff. If they can walk with all those gold bars, then they could definitely the biggest green bean bust in history.

Forget diamonds—these days, coffee is the real hot commodity. With green coffee prices soaring to record highs, organized crime has turned to hijacking truckloads of green beans, disappearing into the night with cargo worth upwards of $180,000 per load. At the recent U.S. National Coffee Association conference in Houston, industry insiders sounded the alarm on a spike in thefts, a crime that was once rare but has now become a serious concern. Unlike the armed farm raids seen in coffee-producing countries like Brazil and Vietnam, these U.S.-based heists are more sophisticated—criminals pose as legitimate trucking companies, score small contracts, and then ghost once they secure the goods. With America importing nearly all of its coffee, and trucking as the primary mode of transport, the risk is growing.

To combat the wave of coffee crime, importers are turning to high-tech solutions like GPS tracking on shipments, but the stolen beans still need somewhere to go. Some believe the black-market coffee is being funneled to smaller roasters who are feeling the sting of sky-high prices. Whether intentional or not, these roasters may be fueling a criminal supply chain—one that shows just how valuable coffee has become. As thefts increase, the industry is being forced to tighten security and vet transportation partners more carefully. In a world where coffee is liquid gold, no one wants their morning brew to be part of a heist.

Random Wake-Ups

• SpaceX Uber to the Rescue: Is there Surge Pricing in Space?

• Coffee Gear Flex: Coffee Supreme x La Marzocco Threads

• Klarna Buy Now Pay Later: Put my options on layaway.

• Way to Go Rory: Ireland Golfer brings home the Players on St Patrick’s Day

• Spirit CEO Drops Dis Track: “It’s gonna be painful…We’re gonna take advantage of that”