A species of naturally caffeine-free coffee from the Cameroon, Coffea charrieriana, has been named one of the top ten new species described in 2008 by the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) at Arizona State University. The coffee was actually…
Revised on July 8, 2021Coffee news and miscellany
One of the best things to happen at the the Specialty Coffee Association of America expo in Atlanta this year was meeting coffee people I had only corresponded with up to that time. Surely one of the highlights was getting…
Revised on January 7, 2022Here were the measures the SCAA announced they were taking to minimize the impact on the environment.
Revised on December 11, 2018Once again C&C will be at the SCAA’s Annual Exposition. This year it takes place in Atlanta on April 16 to 19. I’ll be there along with my husband Darrin, permanent member of the C&C tasting panel, fellow coffee farm…
Revised on December 11, 2018On my recent trip to Nicaragua, I was fortunate to have a chance to meet Lili and Georges Duriaux-ChavarrÁa, owners of Finca El Jaguar, a forest reserve and shade coffee farm in Jinotega. They were completely charming, and I was…
Revised on January 7, 2022Last month, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters announced a request for proposals for four $200,000 grants to organizations working on climate change. The grants will be awarded in each of four categories: transportation-related emissions, threats to coffee-growing communities, building political will,…
Revised on January 7, 2022BirdScope is the newsletter for members of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, one of the world’s best known bird research, education, and citizen science organizations. This latest issue has a short article on shade coffee. Yours truly is quoted in…
Revised on November 14, 2019The Discovery Channel program “HowStuffWorks” had an episode about coffee. There are short (under 3 or 4 minutes) video clips from the show on their web site. Some I thought were especially good were: Hand picking coffee Organic coffee Coffee…
Revised on November 14, 2019In a previous post I mentioned that I had kept track of all the coffee I had in 2008. That post emphasized the low price ($2.70 a day) of drinking only really good, sustainable, specialty coffee. Here, I’d like to…
Revised on November 24, 2020At the beginning of 2008, I started keeping track of all the coffee I purchased. Since I drink (and share) a lot of coffee — all specialty coffee and some quite expensive — I was curious how many kinds I…
Revised on November 14, 2019My husband and I attended the Coffee Conference at Miami University in Oxford, OH.
Revised on November 28, 2020Half of Vietnam’s half-million ha of coffee trees will have to be replaced in the next 5 to 10 years. So far, farmers have ignored expert advice and cleared forests to plant cheap robusta coffee. What will they do now?
Revised on November 14, 2019A Problem Judging by the enormous market shares of the Big Four corporate coffee multinationals, a lot of people don’t mind drinking lousy tasting coffee. However, plenty of people won’t do it. But more imporantly, if it doesn’t taste better,…
Revised on November 14, 2019I have a lot to report on sustainability and certification issues from the SCAA conference, but it will be doled out over the coming weeks. Here, I thought I’d like to give some quick impressions of some of the most…
Revised on November 25, 2020The Specialty Coffee Association of the Americas (SCAA) presented its annual awards last night. One is the Sustainability Award, which honors individuals, businesses or organizations in the coffee industry that have created innovative projects to expand and promote sustainability. And…
Revised on January 7, 2022