Category: Coffee Research

THE TIME TO REGENERATE COFFEE IS NOW, AND IT STARTS WITH HEALTHY SOIL

2018-04-20 Comments Off on THE TIME TO REGENERATE COFFEE IS NOW, AND IT STARTS WITH HEALTHY SOIL

  It is time to move beyond the idea of sustainable coffee. Sustaining something assumes that what we have is already good enough. Yet numerous studies have shown that if the coffee industry does not change its current “business-as-usual” approach, we will not have quality coffee in the future. And this will hurt everyone that […]

Parsing apart the SCA report on farm profitability

2017-11-15 Comments Off on Parsing apart the SCA report on farm profitability

Following the recent Avance coffee sustainability conference held in Guatemala, the SCA released a report that analyzed existing public information about farm profitability and costs. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of reliable cost of production data available to them. Shockingly, the analysts only found nine studies and publications from around the world that they considered […]

ROYA IS EVOLVING. SO WHAT NOW?

2017-05-22 Comments Off on ROYA IS EVOLVING. SO WHAT NOW?

World Coffee Research has spoken.  Lempira, a high-yielding, popular variety planted throughout Honduras is no longer what thousands of farmers hoped that it would be: resistant to coffee leaf rust.  While there is not yet any conclusive scientific evidence that la roya has evolved into a new race or strain, all indications are pointing to […]

COFFEE LEAF RUST REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN

2017-05-08 Comments Off on COFFEE LEAF RUST REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN

Right in the build up to the SCA, there popped up a bit of news out of Honduras that caught my attention.  Like the villain in the in a cheesy horror movie, coffee leaf rust, better known as la roya, just won’t go away.   Initial reports in late March said that there was an outbreak […]

Zen and the Art of Natural Coffee

2017-02-22 Comments Off on Zen and the Art of Natural Coffee

Last year, I waded into the debate on natural coffee with a post called “Natural Coffees – Good for Water Resources” concluding that, “I think that natural coffees should have a future, and that the coffee industry (from roasters to farmers) should invest in methods and systems to make natural coffees more consistent”. After that […]

Calculating Water Benefits on Coffee Farms

2016-06-23 Comments Off on Calculating Water Benefits on Coffee Farms

This a guest post by Will Garde, from the Caffeinated Engineer,  who has provided technical support to CRS’ Blue Harvest program this past year. Knowledge-based Coffee Watershed Management We know a lot about sustainable agricultural practices, and the specialty coffee industry has been a pioneer in incentivizing farmers to adapt good practices. But these practices, require time […]

Beyond the hot take on the Starbucks sustainability bond

2016-06-06 Comments Off on Beyond the hot take on the Starbucks sustainability bond

A few weeks ago, Starbucks made an incredible announcement.  They were going to have nitro cold brew in their cafes!! I think this definitively answers the Symposium question, is cold brew a category or craze?  OK, OK.  I’m joking.  The real earth-shaker is that Starbucks has issued the first US corporate bond for sustainability.  The […]

SCAA lecture in review: The Coffee Variety Conundrum:  Does Breeding for Disease Resistance come at the expense of flavor?

2016-05-02 Comments Off on SCAA lecture in review: The Coffee Variety Conundrum:  Does Breeding for Disease Resistance come at the expense of flavor?

This review is for those of you who were not able to make it to the lecture a few weeks ago.  There was a lot of competing lectures held concomitantly with really interesting content.  There is 0 chance of me getting to hear all the ones I want to be at.  Yet when the Expo comes, […]

The SCAA Event: Annual Coffeelands Preview

2016-03-22 Comments Off on The SCAA Event: Annual Coffeelands Preview

In less than one month the gavel will sound to open The SCAA Event.  That means it’s time for the annual Coffeelands preview of The Event’s best “origin content.” In my 2012 SCAA preview post, I divided my picks into three “streams of enlightenment”—“downstream” presentations that push knowledge of origin toward the marketplace, “upstream” presentations […]

Natural Coffees – good for water resources

2016-03-08 Comments Off on Natural Coffees – good for water resources

Six years ago, James Hoffman started a post on natural coffees saying, “You could say this debate is old news, but somehow it still seems to be rumbling on.” Well, I’m fairly new to specialty coffee, and I’m so green to natural coffees that I was surprised (and delighted) to discover there was a debate.  After studying […]