INDIA - Coffee region gets less rain, but recovery expected

The area under coffee has seen an upward trend in India, with areas from non-traditional regions in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa being added.

“The area under coffee is pegged at 380,000 hectares (ha) in the current crop season, 10 per cent higher than the production area in the last three years,” said Jayarama, director (research) of the…

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Cupping

By aboutcoffeegr



Cupping is perhaps one of the most important skill anyone can develop within the coffee industry. Developed by green coffee buyer – cupping – provides a consitent methodoloy for evaluating a coffee’s quality before determining a price on a lot. In much the same way that a wine connesour would evaluate a fine Cabernet or Chardonnay – cuppers use a strict set of tasting protocols to assess quality.



The practice, however, is relatively subjective… Continue

Coffee: Healthy Or Harmful?



The findings on caffeine change so often, I sometimes suspect that they depend on whether the scientist doing the study likes the brew! The latest reports are a mixed bag, but all the findings are important.



The good news: A study from SUNY Downstate Medical Center found that seniors with normal blood pressure who drink four or more cups of coffee a day are less likely to die from heart disease. Caffeine is presumed to be protective by… Continue

OTA-producers in coffee



What organisms are involved in the production of OTA in coffee?



As noted above, certain fungi have ecological associations with certain crop plants, and some processing or storage conditions favour specific fungi - hence certain crops have a tendency to contain particular mycotoxins and not others. Coffee is no exception.



Neither of the OTA-producing species of Penicillium (P. verrucosum and P. nordicum) have been isolated from coffee. P.… Continue

It is with profound sorrow that the Lavazza Group announces that



Cavaliere del Lavoro Emilio Lavazza passed away yesterday.

A member of the family’s third generation, he was an extraordinary captain of industry who devoted 50 years of exemplary leadership to the company.



Born in Turin in 1932, he joined the family business — founded in 1895 by his grandfather Luigi — in 1955. When his father Giuseppe died in 1971,

Emilio was appointed CEO of the… Continue

Costa Rican engineers find solution to brewing coffee in space



Dec 8, 2008 - Two Costa Rican engineering students have a developed a coffee brewing device that can be used in space. So what's the problem you ask? Well apparently since space in confined to a vacuum -(and thus, lacks atmospheric pressure) any heat applied to water causes it to evaporate immediately. Thus making it impossible to brew a cup of coffee under normal conditions. Now for some physics: in order for water to… Continue

What is specialty coffee? Do you know?



Specialty Coffee

by Ric Rhinehart





In a 1998 article for the Specialty Coffee Chronicle Don Holly wrote the following as he grappled with the question of defining specialty coffee: “My understanding of the origin of the term ‘specialty coffee’ is that it was first coined by Erna Knutsen, of Knutsen Coffee Ltd., in a speech to the delegates of an international coffee conference in Montreuil, France, in 1978. In essence, the… Continue

What is cupping?

Cupping is the industry term used for the process of analyzing a coffee based on its sensory qualities – for example, its aromas and flavors. For our cuppings at Equal Exchange, roasted samples of coffee are divided into six different glasses of equal amount and grind size, steeped with hot water (198 to 205 degrees), and slurped (or aspirated) from a spoon for about 35 minutes.



Aspiration is the process of slurping a beverage across the tongue with force, in a… Continue

Tanzania produces between 30-40,000 metric tons of coffee per year (70% Arabica, 30% Robusta). The three main Arabica growing regions are in the North/Kilimanjaro, Mbeya and the Matengo Highlands (Mbinga). Other Arabica areas include the Usambara Mountains, Iringa, Morogoro, Kigoma and Ngara. Robusta coffee is grown mainly in the Kagera region around Bukoba.



More than 90% of Tanzania's coffee is produced by 400,000 smallholder farmers. Larger estates are found in Arusha, Kilimanjaro… Continue

On October 12 in the city of Tingo Maria, a jury of five international cuppers and five of Peru’s best cuppers determined, with 94.68 points, that Cecovasa’s coffee was the best coffee in Peru. The coffee was presented by Wilson Sucaticona from the Tunkimayo sector, a member of the San Jorge Cooperative that is the base of the Association. This was the result of the Third National Quality Coffee Competition organized by the National Coffee Board, the Peruvian Chamber of Coffee and Cocoa, the… Continue