Since the early days of the specialty coffee movement, freshness has been one of its central pillars. It is best defined as coffee having its original unimpaired qualities. It is often understood as freshly roasted, ground within a few days, immediately extracted and consumed. In spite of this pivotal role of freshness for high-quality coffee, …
Today’s lecture explores the different chemical and physical markers that characterize espresso extraction. By using TDS, acidity, caffeine and chlorogenic acids extractions of different grinders, machines and brew ratios can be compared to each other. Recent studies by Dr. Marco Wellinger’s lab have demonstrated that for a given roasted coffee TDS, as measured by a …
Specialty coffee’s artisanal and handcrafted customer face is real and supported by a complex supply chain and highly specialized production. These two things create and collect lots of information. Understanding what can be collected and how it can help coffee businesses is simpler than people think and is also the first step towards gaining real …
Straddling the humanities and sustainability, the panelists of today’s episode discuss how understanding culture and context improves approaches to sustainability. Drawing on experiences in Vietnam, Mexico, and beyond, they describe setbacks arising when producers and buyers speak different languages of sustainability, data collection is incomplete, and development “top-down.” This episode shares tips to guide industry …
World Coffee Research (WCR) and Counter Culture have both independently been working on better more up-to-date reference guides on the coffee varieties and research that has been done, and currently being done, in Ethiopia and East Africa. Counter Culture will present on their newly published material, that for the first time consolidates over 50 in-depth …
At Bloom Providence, Dr. E. Michelle Ramsey gave a talk about managing conflict and emotional labor in the coffee workplace. Discussion focused on misconceptions about conflict, the role of power in conflicts and how we can better balance power between people, the impact of emotional labor on coffee professionals, and ways to manage oneself and …
It goes without question that the US is currently locked in a very public debate over what type of country we want to be for refugees. The US has a long tradition of welcoming refugees, but is at a crossroads of what that will look like in the future. The coffee industry is uniquely positioned …
Join us today for an exciting panel made up of microbiologists working to develop strains of yeast specifically designed for coffee fermentation and leading coffee producers. In this discussion, they deep-dive into the ongoing research in coffee processing using selected cultures and the analog between scaling microbiological technology in the traditional worlds of wine and …
Today’s episode seeks to explore our industry’s emphasis on educating customers, and the value of education for employees: While it has potential to be alienating, education will always add to an individual’s experience of a product in specialty coffee. Lecturers Amy Moore and Jennifer Haare explore the roots of education in specialty coffee, what we …
As a barista or production roaster, it’s hard to make a living in the specialty coffee industry. Some of our industry’s brightest, most passionate, and creative individuals ultimately leave coffee for other higher paying industries even though their true passion lies in coffee. This is a shame as these people are the representatives of our …