Category: Coffee Research

Colombia Sensory Trial: Re:co Symposium Video and Resource Page

2015-08-11 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Yesterday our friends at the Specialty Coffee Association of America uploaded this video of my Colombia Sensory Trial presentation to Re:co Symposium in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June. . . It was the second time in three months I had the opportunity to deliver to industry leaders the results of our sensory research collaboration with the […]

A Napa valley vineyard – a glimpse into the future of coffee farming?

2015-07-06 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

(I’m interrupting my series on investment in farms for a few posts on current topics) I’m currently in Northern California visiting family for the week and happened to have a serendipitous encounter with the CEO of a mid-size winery in the Napa Valley while camping with friends. This winery is probably a label that Ric […]

Equal. Different.

2015-06-16 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

I explained here last week that we subjected the Castillo and Caturra samples we collected for the Colombia Sensory Trial to two different kinds of sensory evaluation: two cupping panels at Intelligentsia Roasting Works in Chicago that applied the CQI’s Q protocols and two sensory panels at the Sensory Analysis Center at Kansas State University […]

Coffee ground: The importance of soil health

2015-05-27 Hugh Aprile Comments Off

In my last Coffeelands post, as part of our tribute to the International Year of Soils, I promised to seek out experts in the area of soil management and coffee production and to share their invaluable insights with you. Fortunately, I didn’t have to look far. My colleague, Luis Álvarez Welchez, knows soil and coffee. […]

Coffee hybrids and a frank talk about breeding coffee

2015-05-25 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

Greek mythology is full of mythical beasts that are created from a fusion of two distinct entities. Some great examples are the centaur, a half-human, half horse warrior and the harpy, a bird of prey with a woman’s face and chest. These are extreme examples of hybrids – the offspring of two very distinct […]

A (coffee-focused) David Letterman mash-up

2015-05-20 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Tonight is the last broadcast of the Late Show with David Letterman. In homage to his 33 years on the air, I offer this coffee-focused mash-up of the venerable “Top 10 List” and the comparatively lesser-known sketch “Is this anything?” The first needs no introduction; the second featured oddball performances by guests, then banter between […]

Costs of production: Field data from Colombia

2015-05-12 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

At The SCAA Event last month, our CIAT friend and colleague Mark Lundy presented the results of costs-of-production research we did together on the basis of 2013 data from our Borderlands Coffee Project in Colombia. Today I explore with Mark what we learned from those data and what implications they may have for coffee buyers […]

Some Ethiopian Farmers’ success comes at a steep price for wild coffee (& the future of the sector)

2015-05-11 Kraig Kraft Comments Off

A reaction to: Protecting coffee from intensification – Science Magazine, January 8, 2015. In the highlands of Ethiopia, farmers’ successes are putting in peril one of the most important resources to the global coffee industry in the face of a changing climate: the wild coffee forests. Arabica coffee, as you all know, has its origins […]

4 Perspectives on the Colombia Sensory Trial

2015-05-06 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

I have been writing here about the Colombia Sensory Trial for more than a year. With presentations of the findings coming up at Re:co Symposium in Sweden and the Nordic Roaster Forum in Denmark, there will certainly be more to say in the coming months. For now, however, I will let this topic rest, leaving […]

SCAA Symposium video: “A Simple Question”

2015-04-29 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Yesterday SCAA Symposium organizers posted a video of my presentation “A Simple Question: Castillo or Caturra?” Watch it in its entirety here. .