Author Archives: Coffeelands Staff

451. Intelligentsia releases first lot from the Borderlands

2015-03-04 Comments Off on 451. Intelligentsia releases first lot from the Borderlands

Intelligentsia wasn’t just a charter member of the Advisory Council for our Borderlands project in Nariño, Colombia–conversations with coffee buyer Geoff Watts dating back to 2010 helped shape the project’s design and planted the seeds for the Colombia Sensory Trial, our partnership with leaders in specialty coffee, research and philanthropy on a rigorous comparative analysis […]

450. What difference does policy make?

2015-02-26 Comments Off on 450. What difference does policy make?

The sustainability conversation in specialty coffee has evolved in important ways since I first tuned in more than 10 years ago.  I find it to be more robust.  More nuanced.  More mature.  And, well…just more. The list of topics on the industry’s sustainability agenda is longer than it was a decade ago.  One topic that […]

449. La Florida: Meet the growers

2015-02-20 Comments Off on 449. La Florida: Meet the growers

Since early this morning, members of the 33 families who grew the coffee in Counter Culture’s La Florida single-variety Caturra lot have been gathered in Pasto, the capital of Nariño.  They are waiting until 3:12 pm local time, when their coffee takes center stage in the able hands of Anna Utevsky.  Meet some of them […]

448. USBC preview: Anna Utevsky and intentionality

2015-02-19 Comments Off on 448. USBC preview: Anna Utevsky and intentionality

The U.S. Barista Championship gets underway tomorrow in Long Beach.  The live broadcast of the competition will reach viewers in a place not accustomed to watching barista events. I’m not talking about Las Vegas, North Carolina. Or Holland, Michigan. Or even Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I am talking about Nariño, Colombia, where the farmers who grew Anna […]

447. Six lenses on gender

2015-02-10 Comments Off on 447. Six lenses on gender

It seems 2015 is shaping up to be the year of gender equity in specialty coffee. CQI is conducting research on the issue as part of the industry-driven Partnership for Gender Equity, and the SCAA has announced a Symposium session on gender equity–a good sign that this is an issue whose time has come. In […]

445. Alpha. Bravo. Coffee?

2015-01-22 Comments Off on 445. Alpha. Bravo. Coffee?

I have a lot of travel in the coming months, and have been spending more time than usual dealing with the alphanumeric reservation codes that airlines use.  As I recently Alpha-Bravo-Charlied my way through a conversation with airline staff, a random thought occurred to me: what would a coffee version of the phonetic alphabet look […]

444. B is for Business model

2015-01-20 Comments Off on 444. B is for Business model

The B in “Certified B Corporation” stands for Benefit.  But the B Corp certification may be the best one out there for consumers who want a holistic assessment of a company’s Business model. .

443. A Malacara reunion

2015-01-13 Comments Off on 443. A Malacara reunion

Back in September, I published this interview with my colleague Ivania, who was born as a landless worker on Finca Malacara, one of El Salvador’s most storied coffee estates. I was moved by Ivania’s story.  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. José Guillermo Álvarez Prunera, the Finca Malacara owner affectionately known as “Epe,” was so […]

442. Counter Culture presents single-variety Borderlands lot from La Florida

2015-01-08 Comments Off on 442. Counter Culture presents single-variety Borderlands lot from La Florida

In Nariño, Colombia, we have been working for more than three years to build relationships between the 1,600 smallholder growers who participate in our Borderlands Coffee Project and six allies in the marketplace who are part of the project’s Advisory Council. This year, four of those companies purchased 41 separate lots from 324 different growers, […]

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