Exploring Gender Equity in Coffee—Next Stop: Uganda!
by Kimberly Easson, Coffee Quality Institute You’ve probably been hearing a lot about gender equity and women’s empowerment, and it’s no coincidence, since the development world has been highlighting the importance of this issue in global development circles. Statistics are impressive for both the challenge and the opportunity. For example, these data are taken from the …
Coffee Talk: Brazil
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA This week’s staff meeting was wholly dedicated to The Event in April, but we (of course!) set aside some time for our weekly coffee talk, focusing on Brazil’s impact on the coffee industry. While sipping on a brew of Future Great Coffee, a Brazilian natural coffee with taste characteristics similar to …
Under One Roof: Places to be, Things to Do, People to Meet
By Tracy Allen I am honored to invite you to peruse the virtual pages of The Specialty Coffee Chronicle’s annual SCAA Event issue, where you’ll learn about the exciting things in store for our 27th Annual Exposition. The show kicks off on the evening of Thursday, April 9, with the Opening Ceremonies and SCAA Block Party, …
Starbucks Returns as Official Host Sponsor for 2015 Event
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Excitement is building and plans are well underway for another stellar SCAA Event in Seattle this spring. As we prepare to return to this world-renowned coffee city, we are also pleased to welcome back Starbucks as the Official Host Sponsor of SCAA’s 27th Annual Exposition. “This past April, we had the honor of welcoming …
Exhibitors: The Heart & Soul of SCAA’s Annual Exposition
By Lisa Pacini For nearly 27 years now, people have come to the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Annual Exposition, The Event, looking for new and innovative ideas. The best place to encounter these products and services on the cutting edge of specialty coffee is the show floor. New coffee brewing equipment, preparation techniques, packaging, …
Discover Ethiopia: A Portrait of a Coffee Producing Country
By Christopher Schooley 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 annual Exposition and other SCAA events throughout the year. The goal has been to create true specialty coffee experiences; setting a proper stage for sponsors …
Food Safety Modernization Act: What you Need to Know
By Mike Ebert Coffee production has long been pushed aside in the world of food safety. Having run roasting plants for almost 30 years, I learned early on that any health inspector, from any level–local, state or federal–did not know what to look for with coffee, thought it was a waste of their time, and …
The SCAA Event 2015: The View from the Coffeelands
By Michael Sheridan I have been living at origin and working with coffee growers since 2007. I started blogging about my work in the coffeelands on behalf of Catholic Relief Services in 2009. The next year, I began publishing an annual review of “origin content” of The SCAA Event, under the title: “The view from …
Decaffeination Processes: How do they make decaf coffee when the caffeine is in the bean?
Mental Floss recently posted a video answering a user-submitted question, “How do they make decaf coffee when the caffeine is in the bean?” Craig Benzine, “host/coffee connoisseur,” describes a method for decaffeinating coffee called “supercritical carbon dioxide decaffeination,” where green coffee beans are put in a pressure vessel and carbon dioxide is used as a …
Coffee Talk: Gesha
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Our coffee talk from this week’s staff meeting was a sort of team effort between Peter Giuliano and Ric Rhinehart. While working as a coffee buyer at Counter Culture coffee in 2004, Giuliano received a phone call from Rhinehart, co-owner of Groundwork Coffee in Los Angeles at the time. He called …
The End of an Era and the Future of Sustainability: The Coffee Kids Legacy
By Lily Kubota, SCAA On Tuesday morning, thousands of coffee professionals around the world woke up to the news that Coffee Kids, a non-profit NGO supporting a wide variety of projects in coffee farming communities would be suspending programming and seeking “an appropriate organization with which to merge.” This announcement spurred a lot of conversation about …
Coffee Talk: Naturals
By Danny Pinnell, SCAA Walking into the conference room for our weekly staff meeting, our fearless “coffee talk” leader Peter Giuliano asked us to smell three different coffees, which were presented in cupping glasses as dry grounds, and note their fragrance. One of these coffees was Huabal, a “washed” coffee from San Ignacio, Peru. The other …