Category: Coffee Research

More precision on Castillo v Caturra

2015-04-22 Comments Off on More precision on Castillo v Caturra

Earlier this month, I had the honor of presenting to the SCAA Symposium the preliminary results of the work we did with friends in the research and specialty coffee communities on the Colombia Sensory Trial.  The following day, the Colombian Coffee Hub published this summary of my presentation, which concluded with my observation that the […]

The coffee variety conundrum: How Caturra vs. Castillo plays out all over the coffeelands

2015-04-20 Comments Off on The coffee variety conundrum: How Caturra vs. Castillo plays out all over the coffeelands

For my first few posts on Coffeelands, I’d like to explore a number of issues regarding coffee varietal development and farmer adoption. This week’s post will look at the undercard of the Caturra vs. Castillo bout.

A simple question: Castillo or Caturra?

2015-04-09 Comments Off on A simple question: Castillo or Caturra?

Yesterday I had the honor to present the preliminary results of the Colombia Sensory Trial at the 2015 SCAA Symposium. The Colombia Sensory Trial is a cross-sector collaboration with allies in the research community (the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Kansas State University and World Coffee Research), industry (Counter Culture, Federación Nacional de Cafeteros, George […]

452. The SCAA Event: The annual Coffeelands preview

2015-03-09 Comments Off on 452. The SCAA Event: The annual Coffeelands preview

The 27th SCAA Event opens one month from today, which means it’s time for my annual SCAA preview and picks for the show’s best origin content. This year’s preview, which ran a little longer than last year’s, is thematic in focus.  If you are in a hurry, or prefer a chronological format that presents the […]

440. Revisiting our 2014 New Year’s resolutions

2015-01-06 Comments Off on 440. Revisiting our 2014 New Year’s resolutions

A year ago we made three New Year’s resolutions on this blog: Generate more results-based evidence. Help the coffee sector navigate uncharted waters. Borrow a page from the microfinance playbook. Today we revisit those resolutions to see how we did on each one in 2014.

439. The best of Coffeelands: 2014 in review

2014-12-30 Comments Off on 439. The best of Coffeelands: 2014 in review

The CRS Coffeelands Blog turned five in November. Here is the content from the blog’s fifth year that you, the readers, liked the best. Or rather, it is is the content you read the most, since in some cases you did not care too much for what I had to say.

438. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings series adjourns (for now)

2014-12-17 Comments Off on 438. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings series adjourns (for now)

Over the past six weeks, this blog has been devoted exclusively to the CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings–a series of comparative cuppings of Castillo and Caturra samples from our Borderlands project involving leading roasters and importers in the United States, Europe and Australia.  Even when I took a week off from reporting on the results of […]

437. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings: George Howell

2014-12-09 Comments Off on 437. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings: George Howell

Today I publish an interview with specialty pioneer George Howell–my fifth post in the CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings series. This year marks 40 years since he started The Coffee Connection in Boston.  The SCAA gave him a lifetime achievement award in 1996 for his uncompromising commitment to coffee quality, but he was hardly done innovating […]

436. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings: Stumptown

2014-12-02 Comments Off on 436. The CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings: Stumptown

Today I interview Adam McClellan, green coffee buyer for the iconic Portland-based roaster Stumptown, as we resume our series of conversations with specialty coffee tastemakers regarding their participation in our Colombian Varietal Cuppings. In September, together with Stumptown’s head roaster and quality control manager, Adam cupped sample pairs from 10 farms in Nariño participating in our […]

435. In defense of Caturra: A conversation with Alejandro Cadena

2014-11-27 Comments Off on 435. In defense of Caturra: A conversation with Alejandro Cadena

When I read this article by Kenneth Davids in The Coffee Review assigning Caturra to the second tier of varietal quality, I thought immediately of Alejandro Cadena, whose pioneering Colombian exporter Virmax can stake a solid claim to intellectual and material authorship of the microlot model. Why did I think of Alejandro?  Because when he […]