Tag Archives: CQI

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 […]

Equal. Different.

2015-06-16 Comments Off on Equal. Different.

I explained here last week that we subjected the Castillo and Caturra samples we collected for the Colombia Sensory Trial to two different kinds of sensory evaluation: two cupping panels at Intelligentsia Roasting Works in Chicago that applied the CQI’s Q protocols and two sensory panels at the Sensory Analysis Center at Kansas State University […]

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 […]

424. CQI launches gender initiative

2014-09-29 Comments Off on 424. CQI launches gender initiative

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 […]

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 […]

376. This is not your father’s Arabica

2013-12-17 Comments Off on 376. This is not your father’s Arabica

Manuel Díaz is an independent consultant who helped CQI create its new R standards, which aim to do for Robustas what the Q standards have done for Arabicas.  His presentation on Day Two of the 2013 edition of Let’s Talk Robusta reinforced the central appeal of the brilliant keynote delivered on Day One by Ken […]

326. The most important conversation in specialty coffee?

2013-01-08 Comments Off on 326. The most important conversation in specialty coffee?

One overcast Sunday last September, Nick Cho published this searching reflection on the relationship between coffee quality and social impact.  Somehow it managed to escape my notice until this past weekend.  Nick’s post is beautiful in its candor, frankly acknowledging the limitations of specialty coffee and honestly exploring “the true human condition of the coffee […]

319. Please call me by my true names

2012-11-19 Comments Off on 319. Please call me by my true names

CRS has been working to support smallholder coffee farmers — both in the coffeelands and in the U.S. marketplace — for the better part of 10 years.  For most of that time we have kept a low profile, working quietly to help farmers increase coffee productivity, quality and income at origin and  expand the market […]

316. CRS and the great debate

2012-11-07 Comments Off on 316. CRS and the great debate

Yesterday I referred here to some recent salvoes in the escalating debate over the appropriate role for Robusta coffees in the U.S. specialty market.  Today, some reflections on our modest role in support of the fine Robusta project.