By Emma Sage, SCAA Coffee Science Manager Now that we have released the new SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel, I want to tell you more of the story as to how we got there. Specifically, about the quantity and quality of scientific research that went into this project, which was a massive collaborative effort worth …
By Lily Kubota, Content & Communications Manager, SCAA Delivering a spectacular coffee service was just the beginning for the Roasters Guild’s inaugural “second event” (the “first event” being Roasters Guild Retreat), which took place last week on the University of California, Davis campus. Over 100 seasoned coffee professionals and academics gathered at the inaugural Sensory Summit: A Roasters Guild Event for an educational …
Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel Revised for the First Time in Over 20 Years One of the most iconic resources in the coffee industry, the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel has been updated for the first time in its 21-year history. The foundation of this work, the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon, …
By Ric Rhinehart, SCAA Executive Director Just over twenty years ago, Ted Lingle, then the Executive Director of the SCAA, undertook a tremendous project to formally catalog and describe many of the practices and beliefs of the specialty coffee community around the intersection of coffee quality and taste. One of the results of this exercise …
By Emma Sage, Coffee Science Manager This summer, arguably one of the most significant advances in coffee science in recent years occurred, and passed quietly by, (that is, if you don’t frequently peruse scientific journals). In fact, in Scientific Reports, published by Nature Publishing Group, a study was published to announce the draft genome of …
By Eton Tsuno, Director of Coffee, Temple Coffee Roasters Inc. The University of California Davis officially opened their new coffee lab on Friday, October 22, 2015. This may sound odd, as coffee is generally not thought of as an academic subject, but at the University of California Davis it is taken seriously. UCD has a …
By Emma Sage, SCAA Coffee Science Manager In late April 2015, I was privileged to join a scientific field expedition of a climate resiliency project, led by coffee botanist Dr. Aaron Davis, Senior Research Leader of Plant Resources at Kew Gardens in London. I spent my leg of the trip, which was about a week …
By Michael Sheridan, CRS Coffeelands CRS is working with friends and allies in the specialty coffee and research communities to compare the cup quality of Castillo and Caturra, the two leading coffee varieties in the fabled Colombian coffee origin of Nariño, as part of The Colombia Sensory Trial. I presented the preliminary results of our research …
By Jesse Bladyka In the specialty coffee industry, we have heard a lot over the last few years about Coffee Rust (Roya in Spanish), also known as Hemileia vastatrix. This fungus has been affecting coffee crops in devastating ways since the late 19th century. While it can be managed through the use of hybrid cultivars, …
By Emma Sage, SCAA In late January of this year, World Coffee Research (WCR) gathered a group of coffee breeders and other interested parties to discuss the future of coffee cultivars in Central America. Representatives from WCR, SCAA, Anacafé, Promecafé, AGRITECH NST, CATIE, USAID, and CIRAD discussed the results of the WCR genetic diversity study, …