By Marvin G. Perez No matter how you brew it, higher coffee prices are here to stay. How high and for how long will depend on several factors, ranging from dollar fluctuations to growers’ ability to improve output and possible regulation on speculators’ participation in commodity markets. Careful What You Wish For Over the last …
Reflections on the year’s SCAA Symposium By Kevin Knox At this year’s SCAA Symposium one presenter asked whether quality alone was enough to equal sustainability. Another suggested jettisoning the carefully crafted SCAA and Cup of Excellence cupping forms in favor of a more “objective” form that simply measured intensity of flavor, acidity, aroma and body. …
By Max Nicholas-Fulmer The last time the New York “C” contract reached the levels we’ve witnessed over the last few months was 1997, when futures hit $3.20/pound. The impetus for that move was neither frost nor drought, but the simple fact that in February of that year the “Certified Stocks” of green coffee in bonded …
By Trish Rothgeb From the moment that SCAA Executive Director Ric Rhinehart asked the 400 plus attendees at SCAA Symposium 2011 to “get orbital,” I knew this annual event of presentations, forums and conversations was not going to be an easy ride. Rhinehart knew we would be hearing about climate change, diminishing coffee quality, market …
By Ric Rhinehart At the recent SCAA Symposium, I had an opportunity to present some thoughts on the challenges facing our industry as we come to grips with a new market reality. It occurred to me that there are really three fundamental value propositions for which we are responsible and that our task is to …
By Peter Giuliano There is an academic discipline that studies the way human beings relate to food and the culture we develop around the ways we eat and drink. It’s called foodways and it documents and analyzes what we do in regards to food and why we do it. Foodways looks at our traditions of …