Tag Archives: Blue Bottle

The USBC Origins Project – Day One

2016-04-15 Comments Off on The USBC Origins Project – Day One

Back in Februrary, after watching the USBC Qualifying Event in Kansas City, I committed myself to this, an initiative I called the “USBC Origins Project.”  I found myself wanting more info on the coffees that baristas had so carefully chosen for their routines—who grew those coffees?  where?  how?  which exporters and importers took such good […]

380. Overheard at Let’s Talk Robusta 2013

2014-01-14 Comments Off on 380. Overheard at Let’s Talk Robusta 2013

Let’s Talk Robusta 2013 was by all accounts bigger and better than its predecessor.  Here are 10 of the most memorable quotes from the event.

379. Just how big is the market for fine Robusta?

2014-01-13 Comments Off on 379. Just how big is the market for fine Robusta?

Over the past two years, CRS has partnered with Sustainable Harvest to create Let’s Talk Robusta, a workshop series held during the importer’s annual Let’s Talk Coffee event.  After more than a decade of working almost exclusively in the realm of specialty Arabica, we have seen Let’s Talk Robusta as a kind of market intelligence […]

374. Five survival strategies for smallholders

2013-12-02 Comments Off on 374. Five survival strategies for smallholders

Two weeks ago, I suggested that the coffee business is broken and that we need to take extraordinary measures to fix it: create alternative pricing mechanisms, build a permanent institution to foster cross-sector collaboration and send explorers to the frontiers of coffee to search for new insights.  We have our work cut out for us, […]