Announcing the USBC Origins Project
I am delighted to announce the USBC Origins Project, an initiative to identify and celebrate the growers behind the coffees that will be featured in the 2016 US Barista Championships in Atlanta in April.
I am delighted to announce the USBC Origins Project, an initiative to identify and celebrate the growers behind the coffees that will be featured in the 2016 US Barista Championships in Atlanta in April.
The CRS Coffeelands Blog published perspectives from the intersection of coffee and international development from 2009-2013. We launched the blog because we believe that despite a quarter-century of investment and innovation to get closer to the source of our coffee, “there are still real opportunities for discovery and growth in terms of our understanding of […]
A noted coffee breeder at the French research institute CIRAD has suggested that the coffee leaf rust emergency in Central America is the result of a “perfect storm.” Is there a silver lining anywhere in those storm clouds?
Last week, the Coffeelands Blog marked the third anniversary of its first post. It has been a good year for the blog. Unfortunately, that is due in part to the fact that it has been such a difficult year for Fair Trade.
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.
Earlier this month in Colombia, we worked with Sustainable Harvest to stage an event-within-an-event during its annual Let’s Talk Coffee gathering. Our event, which focused on “the other coffee,” was a three-part program called “Let’s Talk Robusta” that culminated in a fine Robusta cupping led by the great Sunalini Menon. Video coverage of the cupping […]
Last October, I wrote the R-word on this blog for the first time. I was explaining our collaboration with smallholder farmers in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region to explore the emerging market for specialty Robusta coffees. It took us more than a year to re-engage publicly with the idea of fine Robusta, but we think it […]
A lot has been said already in social media about “Let’s Talk Robusta,” a three-part program we sponsored as part of Sustainable Harvest‘s 10th annual Let’s Talk Coffee event earlier this month in Colombia. I will share more in the coming days about the event, and I am confident that the contested concept of fine […]
I have been so busy preparing for and participating in Sustainable Harvest’s 10th annual Let’s Talk Coffee in Colombia last week that I am just getting caught up on some recent news in coffee. Here are some of the biggest stories in specialty coffee from the last month.
The study on the economic impacts of Fair Trade and organic certifications that appeared in a recent issue of Ecological Economics has prompted some good, informed discussion, but also its share of distortion. After carefully reading (and re-reading) the study, here is my take on it as someone who works with both certified and non-certified […]