Since I started this blog in late 2009, I have been scouring dozens of other coffee blogs and commenting here on narrative content I have found to be informative, persuasive or provocative. Today, I want to share a few items that are just plain beautiful to behold.
I have been spending a lot of time on the road lately. I am currently on a three-week tour of CRS coffee programming in Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua that so far has included two police roadchecks in Colombia, a stop by an anti-narcotics official while walking across the Colombia-Ecuador border, a fender bender in Managua, […]
I have been pestering you for a few weeks now to take the CRS Coffeelands Blog survey, with the promise of sharing the preliminary results once they were available. Here they are: Most of you are industry professionals who make your living from coffee, followed by people who identified themselves as development professionals, academics and […]
OK, maybe that headline is a little rude. But I am trying to grab your attention and get you to take the CRS Coffeelands Blog survey, and this is my last call for responses. (I promise!) If you can help us answer (more polite versions) of those three basic questions, we think your responses will […]
I thought I had heard of every innovative, alternative use imaginable for coffee grounds: compost for home gardens, skin care (exfoliant), hair care (sheen and shine) and even home constipation remedies (enema). Then last week in Nicaragua I met Carlos Vargas, a native of the coffeelands who claims to be the first artist to work […]
My friends and colleagues at our headquarters in Baltimore announced recently that they are hiring a Fair Trade program advisor. While the job description doesn’t say so, I happen to know the job will involve lots of work on our Fair Trade Coffee Project, contact with lots of farmer-focused Fair Trade roasters and participation in […]
In a few hours I will be boarding a flight for the United States and leaving Guatemala for good after living and working here for nearly four years. Two nights ago I had dinner and a great discussion with the owner of a coffee estate — a parting conversation that served to remind me of […]
These are the three basic questions I am asking visitors to the CRS Coffeelands Blog to answer in a brief survey designed to make this blog better. After blogging here for the better part of two years on issues that are relevant to our work here in the field, it is finally time to better […]
Have you ever noticed that when people ask you for “just two minutes of your time,” it almost never takes just two minutes? After 19 months, I am finally trying to learn a little more about who visits this humble blog and why, and what I can do to make it better. (Right now you […]
Until recently, the most memorable reference to coffee cupping I had ever read was the analogy made in The Coffee Cupper’s Manifesto by Paul Katzeff — founder of Thanksgiving Coffee, former SCAA president, political firebrand and baseball fanatic. Then, on a recent visit to Honduras, I discovered the coffee cupper’s prayer.
