SCAA Educational Pathways: Opportunities at Expo and Beyond
By Todd Arnette, Academy of Coffee Excellence I have been in the specialty coffee industry for 20 years. About 15 years ago I asked a colleague, “How do I become a better coffee professional?” Ironically, the answer then is the same now. However, the accessibility to, and the depth and breadth of, the answer is vastly …
Sustainability at the Show: Reduce, Recycle, Report
By Kim Elena Ionescu, SCAA Expo, the biggest event of the year for the specialty coffee community, is a unique opportunity to model our commitment to insuring and improving coffee’s future. In 2016 we will continue hustling to make the event better than ever by both environmental and social measures, all the while recognizing the …
Re:co Symposium: Carrying on the Conversation
By Peter Giuliano, SCAA Eight years ago, we had a new idea: what if we brought together the leaders in coffee to discuss new ideas, future challenges, scientific research and the other issues facing us in Specialty Coffee? The result was the Specialty Coffee Symposium, and we had our very first Symposium in Atlanta, just …
U.S. Coffee Championship Arena
By Lara Gallagher, SCAA Welcome to the 2016 U.S Coffee Championship season! This year in the USCC Arena, we’ll be holding the Final rounds of the United States Barista Championship and the United States Brewers Cup along with the newly re-named United States Roaster Championship. Prior to arriving in Atlanta, Barista and Brewers Cup competitors …
Three New Additions for SCAA in Atlanta
By Stephen Morrissey, SCAA The world is changing rapidly around us. Coffee is being consumed, prepared, and sold very differently today, even compared with just a few years ago. Our annual Expo has always been one of the best places to see these emerging trends up-close, with many companies choosing the event to unveil new …
Katie Carguilo – Beyond the Bar
All CoLab: Paris ‘coffeetalks’ – by speakers such as Klaus Thomsen, Katie Carguilo and Morten Münchow – were produced by our content partner Tamper Tantrum. We’ll be releasing the videos of these talks over the next months so we keep fuelling discussion and building an inventory of knowledge. Don’t hesitate to share your comments, thoughts or …
How to Use the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel in 8 Steps
The Coffee Tasters Flavor Wheel, a collaborative effort by the Specialty Coffee Association of America and World Coffee Research, is designed to be a tool for the coffee taster. As a tool, it is meant to be intuitive, enjoyable to use, and a benefit to those who seek to analyze and describe coffees. Here are …
A Science Primer on the SCAA/WCR Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel
By Emma Sage, SCAA Coffee Science Manager Now that we have released the new SCAA Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel, I want to tell you more of the story as to how we got there. Specifically, about the quantity and quality of scientific research that went into this project, which was a massive collaborative effort worth …
The Inaugural Sensory Summit: A Roasters Guild Event Takes Place on UC Davis Campus
By Lily Kubota, Content & Communications Manager, SCAA Delivering a spectacular coffee service was just the beginning for the Roasters Guild’s inaugural “second event” (the “first event” being Roasters Guild Retreat), which took place last week on the University of California, Davis campus. Over 100 seasoned coffee professionals and academics gathered at the inaugural Sensory Summit: A Roasters Guild Event for an educational …
Tim Wendelboe – Soil Biology
All CoLab: Paris ‘coffeetalks’ – by speakers such as Klaus Thomsen, Katie Carguilo and Morten Münchow – were produced by our content partner Tamper Tantrum. We’ll be releasing the videos of these talks over the next months so we keep fuelling discussion and building an inventory of knowledge. Don’t hesitate to share your comments, thoughts or …
Reinventing the (Flavor) Wheel: Industry Collaborates to Identify Coffee Flavor Attributes
Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel Revised for the First Time in Over 20 Years One of the most iconic resources in the coffee industry, the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel has been updated for the first time in its 21-year history. The foundation of this work, the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon, …
A New Flavor Wheel: a Message from Ric Rhinehart
By Ric Rhinehart, SCAA Executive Director Just over twenty years ago, Ted Lingle, then the Executive Director of the SCAA, undertook a tremendous project to formally catalog and describe many of the practices and beliefs of the specialty coffee community around the intersection of coffee quality and taste. One of the results of this exercise …