Author Archives: Coffeelands Staff

431. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings: Counter Culture

2014-11-04 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Counter Culture Coffee is a roaster that needs no introduction. Its innovations in coffee sourcing, quality and sustainability have outsized influence in the coffee industry. Counter Culture is, in short, a tastemaker. And Counter Culture likes Caturra. A lot. As part of the CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings, Counter Culture’s QC Director Timothy Hill cupped 22 […]

430. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings

2014-11-03 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Readers of this blog will know that we have partered with World Coffee Research (WCR) and some of the brightest lights in specialty coffee, research and philanthropy on the Colombia Sensory Trial–a side-by-side sensory comparison of Castillo- and Caturra-variety coffee samples taken from farms in Colombia growing, harvesting and processing both under virtually identical conditions. […]

429. Colombian coffee commission’s 10 key messages

2014-10-27 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Late last week I published this post on the preliminary report of the blue-chip presidential commission assigned to analyze Colombia’s coffee institutions and recommend reforms. The following day, Juan José Echavarría, the former Colombian Finance Minister and trusted economic advisor to President Juan Manuel Santos who leads the Misión del Café, gave this interview to […]

428. Colombia: The gloves come off

2014-10-23 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Last week, in an interview published here, SCAA Executive Director Ric Rhinehart held up Colombia as a shining example of a country in which public investment in the coffee sector has helped to make the coffee trade more inclusive, profitable and sustainable. This week, a presidential commission in Colombia asked to analyze the country’s coffee […]

427. A conversation with Ric Rhinehart on the future of coffee in Mesoamerica

2014-10-16 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Last week I participated in Let’s Talk Coffee, importer Sustainable Harvest’s annual value chain event, for the fifth time. The content of the event was broader the caliber of the speakers higher than at any other LTC event I remember. But the best presentation of the event—the one that still has me thinking the better […]

426. CRS seeks coffee professionals in Africa

2014-10-09 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

CRS is seeking coffee professionals for ongoing projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda. DRC. CRS is continuing to search for a Chief of Party to lead the Bora Ya Kivu Specialty Coffee Program in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The project, funded jointly by the […]

425. And so it begins

2014-10-01 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

When we published our 2014 New Year’s resolutions back in January, at the top of the list was this: “enlist industry leaders and research institutes in a comparative cupping of two leading Colombian coffee varieties, Castillo and Caturra.” That public commitment set off nine months of frenetic activity during which we collaborated with the International […]

424. CQI launches gender initiative

2014-09-29 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Kimberly Easson has been present at the creation of lots of noteworthy efforts to make the coffee trade more equitable. She was part of the original team that brought Fair Trade Certification to the U.S. coffee market in 1999 to create new market opportunities for smallolder farmers. In 2003, she co-founded the International Women’s Coffee […]

423. Born into coffee: Observations from a third-generation colono in El Salvador

2014-09-22 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

From 2008-2011, I was involved in a CRS coffee project in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua called CAFE Livelihoods. In late 2008, I convened the project teams from each of the four countries for the first time in Managua. To open the first session, I paired each person with a colleague from another country […]

422. Women’s work in coffee

2014-09-15 Coffeelands Staff Comments Off

Last week Root Capital published this issue brief on gender lens investing in the coffeelands. I posted some reflections on that publication here, and made reference to the fact that men and women experience the world differently as a result of the social construct of their respective gender roles. The data we collected in Colombia […]