Barista Guild of America Offers Level 1 Certification Exam at MANE
The Barista Guild of America posted this announcement to their blog and we are excited to share the news. By Colin Whitcomb, BGA Executive Council Member Taking place on October 12-14 the MANE (Mid-Atlantic/ Northeast) Coffee Conference is one of our favorite coffee events of the year. In addition to the dynamic speakers that have already …
SCAA Signs Letter Of Understanding With International Women’s Coffee Alliance
During the SCAA Leadership Summit and International Women’s Coffee Alliance joint meeting in Boston this past weekend, SCAA President Max Quirin and IWCA President Grace Mena signed a Letter of Understanding (LOU) to solidify a strategic partnership between the two organizations. The IWCA released this statement: “The International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) is pleased to announce that …
Hosting A Successful Public Tasting
By Christopher Schooley, SCAA Coffee Design & Experience Coordinator The central experience in the world of specialty coffee is tasting coffees, thinking about them, and discussing them with others. Perhaps we enjoyed a number of cups of coffee or espresso based drinks before we ever stopped to really take careful consideration of them, but it …
SCAA Brings Educational Programming to Australia
By Sasha Jade, Coffee Logic International The Australian specialty coffee market, as those who venture down-under for next year’s World Barista Championship (to be held in Melbourne in May 2013) will find, is a well-developed coffee market; albeit a very espresso-based coffee market. Ironically, for such a competitive national industry, formal coffee education for professionals while …
Fostering an Authentic Experience: The True Value of Specialty
By Lily Kubota, Content & Communications Manager, Specialty Coffee Association of America If there is one thing about coffee that you can count on, it is change. Coffee is an ever-evolving, amorphous concept. Coffee is the seed of a fruit, it is a roasted “bean”, it is a batch brewed cup, a shot of espresso. …
A New Craft Era: Parallels, Perils, and Possibilities
By Christopher Schooley, Coffee Roaster, Coffee Shrub I currently live in the middle of America in a fairly small college town, however, I used to live in another town in the middle of America, albeit a much larger one. In that larger town there was a rich history of service and independent businesses that made …
The Gestalt of Gratuities… The Context of Tips… The Background on Bakshish…
By Tim Castle, Author & President of Castle & Co. Supposedly, the term “TIP” first came into use shortly after the founding of London’s Lloyd’s Coffeehouse in 1688. Perhaps apocryphally, the word is said to have been an acronym signifying “To Insure Promptness”, and may have even come into use first at Lloyd’s. It is …
(Specialty) Coffee and Our Health
By Emma Sage, Coffee Science Manager, Specialty Coffee Association of America We have been hearing a lot of chatter lately in the popular media about the health effects of coffee. Generally, it is great to have some media coverage, especially when the stories are favorable towards coffee. But why do we drink specialty coffee? We …
Adaptation: A Brief Look At Changes In Specialty Wholesale Roasting
By Steven Lee, Director of Coffee Quality and Education, Groundwork Coffee Not too long ago, the world of coffee was simpler. Coffee was coffee back then. It came served in nondescript cups. It came from one of those little glass pots that sat on a hotplate for hours, or it came out of an urn. It …
With Age Comes Wisdom: Smart Growth in Today’s Economy
By Mary Allen Lindemann, Co-Founder, Coffee by Design Of course your business is doing well. Everyone needs coffee. We hear it from customers every day as they enter our bustling coffeehouses. Although it is true that specialty coffeehouse sales have outperformed overall US foodservice operations (according to the most recent SCAA Quarterly Sector Report, specialty …
Over the Counter: The History and Future of the Barista-Customer Relationship
This article was written as a collaboration between long-time baristas and coffee professionals Lorenzo Perkins and Michael Harwood. This informal interview covers their views of where we are in coffee retail history, perceptions of a barista, identifying and tackling challenges that exist for baristas in connecting with consumers and promoting specialty coffee, as well as …
The New Consumer
By Marcus Young, Community Outreach and Customer Coordinator, Batdorf & Bronson Coffee consumers are increasingly aware of specialty coffee. At the same time the specialty coffee industry is constantly evolving. Roasters offer Cup of Excellence coffees, micro-lots of different cultivars, and focus on seasonal and limited offerings. Specialty coffee retail is progressing with advancements in espresso equipment, …