Tag Archives: Peter Giuliano

271. Counter Culture microlot research update

2012-05-16 Comments Off on 271. Counter Culture microlot research update

With apologies for the delay: Counter Culture Coffee has published the full report from its groundbreaking study “The Social Impact of Microlots.” Milestones and more related content from the CRS Coffeelands Blog: November 2010.  Counter Culture Coffee Director Peter Giuliano discusses the potential perils of microlots with Matt Earley of Just Coffee, a Fair Trade […]

264. Overheard at SCAA 2012

2012-04-24 Comments Off on 264. Overheard at SCAA 2012

As usual, this year’s SCAA was a blur, with great coffee from the country’s best roasters and baristas fueling long days and late nights punctuated by lots of thought-provoking discussions.  It always takes me a few weeks to really digest all the discussions from SCAA and understand their implications for my work here in the […]

263. Research review: Counter Culture’s case study on the social impact of microlots

2012-04-21 Comments Off on 263. Research review: Counter Culture’s case study on the social impact of microlots

Counter Culture Coffee Buyer and Sustainability Manager Kim Elena Ionescu was scheduled to present the company’s brilliant case study on the social impact of microlots to the 2012 SCAA Expo today.  She was unable to attend, so Counter Culture’s Coffee Director Peter Giuliano stood in for her — arguably one of the more notable understudies […]

261. Measuring Direct Trade’s impact

2012-04-19 Comments Off on 261. Measuring Direct Trade’s impact

Later this week, Counter Culture Coffee will present the results of its study “The Social Impact of Microlots” to an audience at the 2012 SCAA Expo.  I am excited about the report because it directly addresses two issues that have been the source of much discussion on this blog in recent years: the potential for […]

159. SCAA highlights – The Pop-Up Café

2011-05-05 Comments Off on 159. SCAA highlights – The Pop-Up Café

Counter Culture Coffee may have scored the show’s biggest hit with its brilliant Pop-Up Café, a full-on mobile coffee shop the crew erected outside the Expo.  While everyone else serving coffee was slogging it out in the scrum on the show floor, Counter Culture was staying cooly out of the fray, doing its thing with […]

147. More on Counter Culture’s Direct Trade model

2011-04-12 Comments Off on 147. More on Counter Culture’s Direct Trade model

Yesterday I shared some good news:  Counter Culture Coffee is now offering a Direct Trade Certified coffee from 5 de junio, a cooperative we work with in Nicaragua under our CAFE Livelihoods project.  The cooperative has been working hard over the past few years to improve the quality of its coffee, and we are delighted […]

110. Coffee quality: Fair Trade’s competitive advantage

2010-11-25 Comments Off on 110. Coffee quality: Fair Trade’s competitive advantage

Yesterday I suggested that Fair Trade has little to do with quality on the roasting and retail end of the coffee chain. On the sourcing end, however, I believe that there are elements of the Fair Trade model that help certain Fair Trade roasters get a leg up on the competition.

103. GCQRI – Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative

2010-10-29 Comments Off on 103. GCQRI – Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative

Several dozen of the most influential and quality-obsessed people in the coffee industry are gathered this week in College Station, Texas, for the Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative (GCQRI) Symposium — the first step in launching a massive, five-year collaborative research project involving industry, bilateral donor agencies and research institutes and designed to increase the availability of high-quality coffee. Here are some links to very good real-time coverage of the event from people who are participating.