In an interview at Re:co in Boston last April, Merling Preza, General Manager of PRODECOOP in Nicaragua, gave an honest answer to a personal question: Do you get tired of speaking to groups about the same things time and time again? “The truth is that sometimes I get tired. Sometimes I get upset. I get …
Photographer JUAN PÁEZ asks: With so many of the younger generation seeking job opportunities and education elsewhere, is it possible to preserve Colombia’s coffee culture? Since 2011, Marsella Risaralda has been a part of the UNESCO-protected Colombian Coffee Cultural Landscape, made up of six sites with eighteen urban settlements inthe central part of the Andes …
ANDREA OTTE asks: Why does farmworker invisibility persist? What can be done? Photos by JUAN PÁEZ. This low profitability, combined with difficult, often dangerous working conditions and discrimination against women, migrants, and minorities, has led to circumstances of profound hardship and uncertainty for many farmworkers. To challenge this, we often look to premiums associated with …
SOPHIA JIYUAN ZHANG and FLORAC DE BRUYN share research findings amassed during a four-year research collaboration focused on creating a better understanding of the impact of post-harvest coffee processing on coffee quality across different geographic locations. As we walk along this path through the seeds, fruits, green coffee beans, roasted beans, and, finally, a brewed …
VICENTE PARTIDA sat down with development economist and SCA Board Member VERA ESPINDOLA RAFAEL to learn more about the preliminary results of a forthcoming research project challenging the industry to rethink the pervasive export-oriented approach to coffee growing. Supported in part by the SCA, Vera set off to conduct interviews with coffee producers, buyers, roasters, …
ERIKA KOSS explores the many ways in which we define “resilient” and why it matters in specialty coffee. An explosion of “resilience research” – noted by Swedish scientist Dr. Carl Folke – has seen 250 scientific publications on resilience in 2006 increase to more than 6,000 in 2016. As the Co-founder and Science Director of …
Anybody who’s been there once knows it’s unlikely to be a one-off trip, and I certainly got the bug to make it a regular destination for work and pleasure over the years. My last trip was specifically to look more closely into the specialty coffee movement and to visit what may be the heart of …
In April, we gathered in Boston to celebrate all our community has to offer; now, entering June, we look forward to reconnecting again in Berlin. As our global community grows, so too does our events calendar: coming together reminds us how important it is to stay connected to one another as we face the challenges …
STEPHANIE ALCALA explores the current state of genetic diversity and how we can create climate resilient crops, as she shares some highlights from her research project investigating the genetic composition of the beloved Panamanian Geisha.[1] The specialty coffee industry is most vulnerable to climate change, because it relies solely on the production of Coffea arabica, …
MARCO WELLINGER of ZHAW (Wädenswil, Switzerland) explains why alkalinity is more important than pH and why you should adjust your water recipes to your beverage ratio and extraction method. Even as raindrops are falling to earth, gases already diffuse into it, most notably CO2. The dissolved CO2 combines with water to form carbonic acid, which …