For pioneering roasters and importers whose interest in sustainability goes beyond sourcing certified coffees, the question may not be whether to reinvest at origin, but how? Is it best to go it alone, reinvesting in the farmers who grow your coffee and their communities? Or is it better to work collaboratively at origin with the […]
The final data for the CRS Coffeelands Blog for 2011 are in. Google Analyticator tells me that the Fair Trade USA split from Fairtrade International was the year’s top storyline — related posts took the top five spots. Here are the 10 posts that were most frequently visited in 2011: 1. Paul Rice makes the […]
Many moons ago, I suggested that microlots can help everyone in the coffee trade, even farmers who don’t produce them and roasters who don’t buy them. The argument is that by better understanding the quality of the coffee they have to offer — a skill that is developed naturally in the pursuit of microlots — […]
The Global Coffee Quality Research Initiative’s (GCQRI) Research Planning committee met in Nicaragua back in April to sketch out a preliminary five-year strategic research plan. The meeting produced two research agendas — one for coffee supply and another for coffee quality. On the supply side, there are two places where GCQRI and the international development […]
Good things continue to come from 5 de junio, a cooperative of determined farmers in the rugged mountains of Madriz in Nicaragua. Mostly, they are coming via Counter Culture Coffee, which is offering four different coffees from 5 de junio: a special-process single-origin espresso, a single-varietal microlot, an organic lot, and a Swiss Water decaf. […]
A few weeks ago I asked here some searching questions regarding the standard for disclosure in Direct Trade. I will get back to that issue soon, but first it may be helpful to acknolwedge all the great work already done to establish and communicate clear standards for Direct Trade.
Until recently, the most memorable reference to coffee cupping I had ever read was the analogy made in The Coffee Cupper’s Manifesto by Paul Katzeff — founder of Thanksgiving Coffee, former SCAA president, political firebrand and baseball fanatic. Then, on a recent visit to Honduras, I discovered the coffee cupper’s prayer.
Microlots may be the exclusive domain of quality-obsessed roasters who are willing to pay top dollar for the finest coffee a grower or group of growers has to offer. But that doesn’t mean that microlots don’t generate benefits for those roasters who aren’t. Microlots may help farmer organizations be better trading partners for everyone in […]
In my last post I mentioned that we are hiring a director for the Borderlands Coffee Project, which will serve more than 3,000 farmers on both sides of the Colombia-Ecuador border. Earlier this month, I visited with partners and farmers in a half-dozen communities on the Colombia side as part of our project start-up activities. […]
SCAA 2011 preview – the view from the coffeelands.
