Posted by TheShot on 07 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Beans
Today’s post comes to you from the Big Island of Hawaiʻi — home of Kona coffee. A local story here about genetically modified coffee in Hawaiʻi apparently has gone national: Hawaii won’t ban genetic coffee - USATODAY.com.
I’ve been on Hawaiʻi for the past few days, drinking up the good local Kona as filter coffee and [...]
Posted by TheShot on 09 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Beans
Yesterday, a Syrian blogger posted a rather well-informed introductory article on the notable varietals of many coffee producing countries: Latest hip hop news: worlds greatest coffee by country.
Just don’t ask why it’s on a blog called “Latest hip hop news”. Rapper T.I. is apparently a big fan of Costa Rica La Minita when he’s not [...]
Posted by TheShot on 12 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade
Today’s New York Times featured an article on how the upper echelon of coffee roasters pursue the finest cup the world over: To Burundi and Beyond for Coffee’s Holy Grail - New York Times. Introducing a number of America’s celebrity roasters, including Stumptown and Intelligentsia, the article touches on some of the key tools of [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 07 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Starbucks
Just when you think that Starbucks chairman, Howard Schultz, might be the last person left at the corporation who understands anything about good coffee, he makes boneheaded comments that dispel any chance of that happening again: Starbucks chairman sees gourmet coffee shortages | Reuters.
Today in Mexico City, Mr. Schultz publicly predicted a global shortage of [...]
Posted by TheShot on 10 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew
As posted today by the Brazil-Arab News Agency, the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC) forecasts that Brazil will unseat the USA as the coffee consumption capital of the world by the year 2010: Brazil to be world’s greatest coffee consumer market, association forecasts - ANBA. According to a report released yesterday, Brazilian coffee consumption is [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Fair Trade
In a previous article, I made the curious observation that coffee has become a lightning rod for social and environmental angst in a way that is disproportionate with just about any other export. (As if nobody buys children’s toys or clothing from Wal-Mart.) As a point of comparison, I noted that while we obsess over [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew
Earlier this year, we wrote about the growing consumer appetite for coffee in China. Today’s The Vancouver Sun published an article on coffee grown in China for domestic use and international export: Coffee catches on in a nation of tea drinkers.
In particular, there’s a growing interest in quality arabica beans from Yunnan province in the [...]
Posted by TheShot on 10 May 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade, Roasting
BBC World Service radio recently aired a program (make that programme) that tracked a kilogram of coffee from its origins at an Ethiopian coffee farm to retail coffee houses in the Western world: BBC NEWS | Business | Tracking the true cost of coffee. The article mentions the gross imbalance in the distribution of profits [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade, Quality Issues
The April 2007 issue of Coffee Talk primarily focused on the annual SCAA conference next month. The most interesting article comes from George Howell, president of Terroir Coffee Company, who wrote about the state of the world’s quality coffee supplies: Towards a segmented quality coffee market [PDF file, page 8].
With the growing public awareness of [...]
Posted by TheShot on 05 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: Beans, Fair Trade
Today’s Santa Barbara Independent published one of the more informed, and hence balanced, views of Fair Trade coffee I’ve seen in the past year: The Santa Barbara Independent :: cover story :: Bean Counting. By choosing Fair Trade coffee, you’re essentially outsourcing your ethical decisions to a third party proxy. All is well and good [...]
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