Coffee Varieties

https://varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org/

 

Clothed and Caffeinated with Coffee

A piece on coffee’s physical structure being excellent for inhibiting odors.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1850124313/atlas-performance-professional-comes-to-socks

“Odor molecules (from your stinky feet) are largely made of carbon, and are strongly attracted to the carbonized coffee”

These coffee particles are put into socks and clothing to capture bad smells!

This is partly why coffee releases so much aroma, it’s like a sponge when you look close up.

Thanks to kickstarter again, go the masses

Are We All Just 1%-Ers

Blog post

Blog discussion originally from Nick Cho from Wrecking ball coffee, commented on by James Hoffman.

Interesting reflections coming from a high end Specialty coffee roaster:

Are we all too focused on the top 1% of coffee quality,

how effective is this 1% at raising the quality of coffee as a big picture,

does the concept of ‘quality’ need go further than flavours in a cup

The roasteries who sell and preach about this top 1%, is it the bread and butter of their business? or do they actually make their profit from the 80-85 scoring coffees? How many consumers actually buy 90+ coffees? and buy them more than once?

http://www.jimseven.com/2012/12/13/response-are-we-all-just-1-ers-too/

Quality has to be an aspiration for anyone who is seriously about coffee, and specifically that the quality of ‘mainstream’ is going up progressively over time, and the ‘mainstream’ consumer can get to taste and love the ‘good’ coffees and brewing preparation some of us industry people do.

This topic closely relates to what Peoples Coffee is about, creating a market where the ‘main producers’ – 70% of the world coffee, WILL ACTUALLY BENEFIT from their trade, then the producer can use this ‘benefit’ to continue to raise their quality, so the mainstream consumer can then taste it.

As opposed to being part of the elite business circle who represent the top 1% of those who can go to the lengths required to produce 90+ coffees, and hoping the differences in production techniques will trickle down to the rest of the producers.

There is a gap in roasters’ mind who believe they just have to buy high quality, but take little responsibility in creating an environment where quality can be raised. Each year after harvest time they chose a supplier with the best blind cupping score, rather than work with 1 supplier to maintain and raise their quality.

One important thing to note here is in New Zealand, we are mainly talking about coffee being sold to cafes and onto consumers as espresso. Coffees with scores over 90 are not usually part of the wholesale espresso market, but the coffees we buy from co-ops, which have score between 80 and 88 are perfect for our espresso market, and through our buying practices we can trade in partnership with producers on quality.