By Mike Ebert, Alterra Coffee Roasters Personally, I was going to be a rock star, but coffee got in the way. Back in the late 80’s, there were few people who set out to make coffee their career, including me. It just wasn’t thought of as a career choice. Yes, you could open a small …
By Erin Meister, Counter Culture Coffee “When I retire, I want to open a coffee shop.” For years, those words rankled me. As a coffee professional with a decade’s worth of experience culled from trial and error (lots of error), I found the suggestion that someone would enter into coffee as a secondary or “for-fun” …
By Lily Kubota, Content & Communications Manager, SCAA The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) is a membership organization that, for the past quarter of a century, has provided its members with resources, education, training, networking opportunities, and business services that allow coffee professionals to do what they do to the best of their ability. …
By Timothy J. Castle, President, Castle & Co. Are you thinking of making your way in the coffee business? If so, why? Can you answer that question? If you can’t, maybe stop reading until you can. What do you want the coffee business to give to you? If you’re still reading this, you may already …
By Thomas Hodges, Director of Coffee, Lamill Coffee I will begin and conclude this brief article with my own coffee-roasting axiom: “There is no substitute for time behind the iron.” In fact, Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book Outlier even talks about the “ten thousand-hour rule”, stating that it takes ten thousand hours of dedicated practice to achieve mastery of …
By Emma Sage, Coffee Science Manager, SCAA Coffee scientists all over the globe are examining important issues in coffee. There are research groups investigating everything from volatile aroma components, pest and disease biology and resistance, environment and agricultural impacts, flavor formation and precursors, health impacts, environmental influence, processing technology and practices improvement, microorganism biology, taste …
Who are you and what do you do in coffee? I’m Rick Peyser, Director of Social Advocacy and Supply Chain Community Outreach for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR). In my current role, I lead a team that works to improve the quality of life for producers and their families in our supply chain communities. …
Awarded at 25th Annual SCAA Event in Boston, MA The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) declared Erin Wang of Molinos de Honduras as the winner of its 5th Annual U.S. Cup Tasters Championship. The championship was held at SCAA’s 25th Annual Exposition, April 11-14, 2013 in Boston, MA. SCAA is the world’s coffee knowledge …
Prestigious Honor for Coffee Roasters Awarded at SCAA’s 25th Annual Event in Boston, MA The Roasters Guild, a trade guild of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), the world’s coffee knowledge leader and largest coffee trade association, held the annual Roasters Choice Competition at SCAA’s 25th Annual Exposition, April 11-14, 2013 in Boston, MA …
Pete Licata of Parisi Artisan Coffee in Kansas City, Missouri took the top spot at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 2013 United States Barista Championship (USBC). Licata beat out other top baristas and coffeehouse professionals during a heated competition that took place April 11-14, 2013 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, in Boston, …