by Emma Sage, SCAA Coffee Science Manager (Warning: this is a blog post. Get ready for some super-casual coffee science conversation.) In early September, hundreds of coffee scientists gathered in the remote city of Armenia, Colombia to attend the 25th ASIC (Association for Science and Information on Coffee) international conference on coffee and science. The …
By Maria Hill In recent years, the specialty coffee industry has actively focused on the producer. There are two major issues the industry faces when it comes to empowering the farmer: coffee prices are determined by the commodities market and the farmer is far removed from the consumer. In response to these obstacles, several new …
by Lily Kubota, SCAA When I was hired at SCAA, I had been a barista for over a decade, working my way through high school and college. The coffee shop was the world I knew, a world I could relate to—something that was larger than myself. It was a place where I could connect with …
by Colin Whitcomb, Madcap Coffee Recently, much has been said and written about the evolution of specialty coffee’s retail side. Oftentimes the cry to disrupt current models has centered on an argument that diversity in an increasingly competitive retail environment is the key to discovering new modes that will carry us forward. These arguments in favor …
by Thom Huppert, NIZO Food Research We’re always focused on the coffee, but most baristas use milk nearly as frequently every day to make customers’ favorite cappuccinos, lattes, and cortados. More than just nature’s baby food for calves, milk is a chemically complex fluid with unique physical properties. The more we know about how milk “works,” …
The road coffee takes from seed to cup is most often conceptualized as a chain. The beans, or later their extracted essence, are handed off from farmer, to green buyer (and/or importer and exporter), to roaster, to retailer, to barista, to consumer. Each link typically only interacts directly with the ones before and after, and …
by Maria Hill, Say Hey Girl Over the past few years, the specialty coffee industry has experienced a fluctuating market with coffee prices trading slightly higher than traditionally expected. A shift in the price of coffee also affects the price of the finished cup, which has led even major cafe chains to increase their menu …
by Julie Housh, Intelligentsia Coffee As coffee professionals, we practice tasting coffee on a regular basis—whether via cupping or dialing in—employing tools like the SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel to articulate the flavors we find in coffee. In my everyday role as a coffee educator, I often hear new baristas and consumers admit that “coffee just …
by Anne Nylander, SCAA The term “professional barista” simply did not exist in coffee 30 years ago. This role in the industry was built in no small part by large coffee retailers who brought the professional barista to the masses, and baristas now grace our cafes on a daily basis. Today, baristas are often seen …
by Amy Hall, Espresso Elevado It’s a quiet afternoon in Plymouth, Michigan. A young woman strolls into the little coffee shop on the corner where I am standing behind the counter with a smile, ready to take her order. “I’m waiting for someone,” she quickly alerts me. I nod and tell her that if she …