Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

From the print edition of The Economist, an article on Andrea Illy of Illycaffè: Face value | Head barista | Economist.com. Andrea Illy is the head of Trieste-based Illycaffè. And despite the standards gap between Italian espresso and the chain that made the most riches exporting their own version of it, Mr. Illy has only [...]

With coffee prices reaching new highs, suddenly the premiums that organic and Fair Trade coffee beans used to command are dwindling in comparison to the additional overhead required of growers. Or so suggests an article today from Reuters: Reuters AlertNet – FEATURE-Farmers question value of ‘responsible’ coffees. The article points out that coffee farmers that [...]

Today Reuters reported on organic coffee’s diminishing financial appeal for Nicaraguan growers: Organic coffee loses appeal for Nicaragua growers | World Crises | Reuters.com. Organic coffee certification involves a process where a farm typically takes years to demonstrate itself “chemical free” (of pesticides, growth additives, etc.). Between this expense and the lower per-acre yields of [...]

Today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on: The dark story of poverty in your coffee cup. In particular, it discusses the coffee paradox — i.e., how there could be a coffee boom in the consuming countries at the same time as a coffee crisis in the producing countries. Despite citing the impacts of the Vietnamese robusta glut [...]