Sustainability at The Event: Five Ways to Get Involved
By Samantha Veide, Mars Drinks According to the 2015 SCAA membership survey (hot off the presses!) sustainability is very important to you, our membership. 47 percent of you say that you would not belong to any association that did not dedicate resources toward conservation and sustainability; And 9 out of 10 of you are interested …
SCAA Lecture Series Offers Engaging Sessions Included in the Price of Admission
By Andrew Hetzel, Café Makers This year’s SCAA Event Lecture series promises to be one of the best in the association’s history, offering a variety of engaging topics that provide practical solutions to business challenges or encourage discussion of important issues facing our industry, all presented by knowledgeable experts in their respective fields. Returning from …
Driven: An SCAA Member Supported Cafe Experience
By Christopher Schooley, SCAA One important aspect of my role with SCAA is working to insure that attendees have access to excellent coffee offered at our events. Over the past few years, SCAA staff has been working closely with sponsors and volunteers in order to transform the way that we approach coffee service at the …
Opening Ceremonies and First-Ever Block Party to Kick-off SCAA Event
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Welcome to SCAA’s 27th Annual Event! We’re so glad that you have joined us once again in the coffee mecca of Seattle. The show kicks off tonight, April 9th, with the Opening Ceremonies, followed by the SCAA Event Block Party and Thursday Night Throwdown (TNT), and runs through Sunday, April 12th. …
A Gen Xer’s Informal Review of the Millennial Coffee Scene
By Mark Inman, Olam Specialty Coffee As a 40-something Gen Xer, being approached to write about the Millennials’ impact on the specialty coffee industry seemed too good to pass up. Sure—I can poke fun at the younger generation just as easily as the next person. It would be simple enough to fill this space with witty …
Rules of the New School: Thoughts on Education and Shaping the Future of Specialty Coffee
By Todd Mackey Let’s face it–coffee is cool. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, I already knew that!” But now the market is telling us loud and clear that it thinks so, too. Consumers are seeking more of the qualities that we always hoped they would, while slowly but surely beginning to pony up the premiums …
Investing in the Next Generation of Coffee Farmers
By Willy Foote, Root Capital For decades, SCAA members have made significant investments that support the millions of farmers at the heart of the global coffee market. These investments have helped strengthen livelihoods, conserve the environment, improve quality, and promote women’s empowerment and gender equality. Yet something’s still missing. Past efforts have too often failed to …
A New Generation of Coffee Professionals
By Alexandra LittleJohn, Equator Coffees and Teas I started as a barista. Of course that’s not the whole story, but it kicks off the chronology of my career. What I usually omit from the dialogue is all of the non-coffee jobs I had to keep to pay my bills. I always worked a second job while …
The Millennial Marketplace: Shifting Values
By Heather Ward, SCAA From a market perspective, the mushrooming Millennial generation is taking the spotlight. Many business resources are devoted to learning how to address this target audience. We’ll talk more about that, but first, let’s take a look at who makes up this demographic that seems to be the talk of the town. …
Coffee Plants for the Future: Update on the World Coffee Research Breeding Program
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, …
Staying Relevant: Meeting Consumer Demands in Changing Times
By André Cabrera, Distant Lands Coffee Savvy, discerning millennial consumers (people between the age of 18 and 35 who make up around 25 percent of the U.S.’s population) have shown that they expect quality, value, and convenience. They have sophisticated palates and desire a variety of flavor and options. But they also want to know …
Local Communities, Global Collaboration
By Carl Sara, MTC New Zealand Everyone thinks New Zealand is isolated, almost as far away as Mars. That we have to take a long-haul flight to do our grocery shopping. That hobbits populate the lower realms of our country. And it’s all true. While those facts may remain, we still feel like we are at …