Coffee Firm Suit Says Crown Valley Winery Contaminated Coffee Firm's Products

Cafe Agave Inc., a San Diego alcoholic coffee drink company, sued Crown Valley Winery, alleging Crown Valley contaminated a large amount of Cafe Agave's product.  It says Crown Valley had a contract to can some of Cafe Agave's product.

The suit says the contamination forced Cafe Agave to withdraw and destroy 14,294 cases of its Spiked Cold Brew beverages because they were contaminated by bacteria.

Cafe Agave's suit says Crown Valley promised it that all machinery was cleaned before and after production run, and that samples of each batch were sent to a quality assurance lab.  But Crown Valley didn't have a quality assurance program in place and it didn't send samples of each day's production to the outside lab for testing.

A few days later, Crown Valley sent samples to the lab and the next day was notified of wine spoilage microorganisms in the product. Cafe Agave says it was not made aware of the contamination until October 2018 – after it had negotiated an agreement with Pabst Brewing Co. to test market the product, and an agreement for Pabst to distribute the product.

Ultimately, the complaint alleges that all flavors coagulated and became unusable and all 14,294 cases of its Spiked Cold Brew beverages had to be destroyed and Pabst refused to go forward with the test marketing or distribution.