Featured Stories
Last year was an exciting and inspiring year for us at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Throughout 2023, the hard work of many enabled us to engage in research, develop standards, expand education, create events, and design experiences with a global reach—all in service on our continuous journey to fulfill our association’s commitment to make coffee better. Dive in to the newly published 2023 SCA Annual Report
The Specialty Coffee Association is proud to present the Non-Profit and For-Profit companies awarded the 2024 Sustainability Awards, recognizing excellence in sustainability across the industry.
In 2024, the SCA will introduce the first major overhaul to its membership program in decades. The new model will focus on providing value and connectivity to the growing international community, enhanced features for companies, and new pricing structure.
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) are proud to announce the 2024 Sustainability Award finalists.
The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) is proud to announce that the Thermoplan Black&White4 CTS is the Qualified Espresso Machine for the 2024-2027 World Latte Art Championship. This marks the first time that a fully-automatic espresso machine has been qualified for use in the World Coffee Championships.
Sponsored Content by BWT water+more
World of Coffee (WOC) is the meeting point and showcase for the latest coffee trends. As the official Water Filtration sponsor of the World Barista Championships (WBC), BWT water+more will be presenting its latest development in Hall 1, Stand E301-E309. BWT best barista ROC Coffee prepares all local raw water for the perfect enjoyment of coffee. Trade visitors will also be able to meet the 2023 Barista World Champion, Boram Um.
Last year was an exciting and inspiring year for us at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Throughout 2023, the hard work of many enabled us to engage in research, develop standards, expand education, create events, and design experiences with a global reach—all in service on our continuous journey to fulfill our association’s commitment to make coffee better. Dive in to the newly published 2023 SCA Annual Report
Sponsored Content by BWT water+more
World of Coffee (WOC) is the meeting point and showcase for the latest coffee trends. As the official Water Filtration sponsor of the World Barista Championships (WBC), BWT water+more will be presenting its latest development in Hall 1, Stand E301-E309. BWT best barista ROC Coffee prepares all local raw water for the perfect enjoyment of coffee. Trade visitors will also be able to meet the 2023 Barista World Champion, Boram Um.
Last year was an exciting and inspiring year for us at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Throughout 2023, the hard work of many enabled us to engage in research, develop standards, expand education, create events, and design experiences with a global reach—all in service on our continuous journey to fulfill our association’s commitment to make coffee better. Dive in to the newly published 2023 SCA Annual Report
Despite entering my sixth year of editing 25, I’m (somehow) still astonished at the organic way the editorial team often ends up with some kind of unifying link between all the features despite our best efforts to avoid any “theming” at the start of each cycle.
The Specialty Coffee Association is proud to present the Non-Profit and For-Profit companies awarded the 2024 Sustainability Awards, recognizing excellence in sustainability across the industry.
The Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), in collaboration with the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), has opened registration for the CAS in Coffee Excellence 2024/2025 graduate certificate program intake of the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Coffee Excellence.
Last year was an exciting and inspiring year for us at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Throughout 2023, the hard work of many enabled us to engage in research, develop standards, expand education, create events, and design experiences with a global reach—all in service on our continuous journey to fulfill our association’s commitment to make coffee better. Dive in to the newly published 2023 SCA Annual Report
In 2024, the SCA will introduce the first major overhaul to its membership program in decades. The new model will focus on providing value and connectivity to the growing international community, enhanced features for companies, and new pricing structure.
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Last year was an exciting and inspiring year for us at the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Throughout 2023, the hard work of many enabled us to engage in research, develop standards, expand education, create events, and design experiences with a global reach—all in service on our continuous journey to fulfill our association’s commitment to make coffee better. Dive in to the newly published 2023 SCA Annual Report
In 2024, the SCA will introduce the first major overhaul to its membership program in decades. The new model will focus on providing value and connectivity to the growing international community, enhanced features for companies, and new pricing structure.
We’re thrilled to announce that nominations are now open for the 2024 Sustainability Awards! The deadline to submit an application is January 31, 2024. The 2024 Sustainability Awards will recognize for-profit and non-profit organizations that advance sustainability in the coffee sector while inspiring others to design and initiate similar endeavors innovations.
Yoonseo Choi advises coffee retailers on how to succeed in e-commerce.
Payhere is a Point-of-Sale system chosen by one out of every three new coffee shops in Korea.
Kona coffee growers in Hawaii are now eligible for settlements in a 2019 class action lawsuit; Digital Coffee Future will host a series of webinars on the intersection of climate change and technology; Canadian chain Tim Horton’s has announced significant investment into the digital guest experience; UK press outlets cover the staying power of coffee consumption shifts.
US coffee roasters have seen significant cost increases in their operations due to shipping and transport logistics; Demetria, an Israeli-Colombian food-tech startup, closed a seed funding round after emerging from “stealth”; Hurricanes devastated more than 200,000 hectares of crops in Central America last year; a new coffee trend is sweeping TikTok.
World Coffee Research announces its next five year strategy will prioritize origin diversity; researchers at the the University of Reading, the Andean Information Network, and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru explore the similarities between Bolivia and Peru’s coffee and coca trades; 12 of the 16 winning lots in the recent ACE Private Collection auction with Hawaii’s Isla Custom Coffees featured controlled yeast fermentation in processing.
The Alliance for Coffee Excellence announced a partnership with scientific traceability company, Oritain, to build a database of coffee origin “fingerprints”; a new study explores the relationship between coffee leaf rust and a co-evolved hyperparasite; the International Coffee Organization’s Coffee Development Report 2020 finds the that the value of annual coffee exports has more than quadrupled from 1991 to 2018.
Rabobank Group, a lender known for financing agricultural traders, joined other commodity lenders in reducing its activity following a difficult year; the Hivos 2020 Coffee Barometer suggests there is little evidence coffee companies’ voluntary sustainability efforts have made an impact; Sucafina has announced a number of growth initiatives, including the acquisition of a Costa Coffee green supplier, Complete Coffee Limited; Seven Miles Coffee Roasters has launched a new telemetry system.
“Worlds Apart” tells the stories of the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship and the World Brewers Cup, two competitions that take vastly different approaches to growing the specialty coffee community. Along the way, co-host Kimberly Yer leads us through stories of unlikely inspiration, the value of setting expectations, the push and pull of subjectivity and objectivity, and the shape of things to come through interviews with Dave Jameson, Cheryl Lee Su Yin, Nick Cho, Chad Wang, and Kristina Jackson.
25, A Publication of the SCA
Despite entering my sixth year of editing 25, I’m (somehow) still astonished at the organic way the editorial team often ends up with some kind of unifying link between all the features despite our best efforts to avoid any “theming” at the start of each cycle.
MARY BASCO, SCA Research and Knowledge Development Programs Manager, outlines the Coffee Science Foundation’s 2024-2025 Research Agenda and outlines which research projects are on the horizon.
Commodity market analyst JUDY GANES explains the Intercontinental Exchange grading process and considers how recent changes to this practice, which results in exchange-certified coffee and impacts levels of “certified stock,” are likely to impact C market dynamics.
SCA Sustainability Director, ANDRÉS MONTENEGRO, writes an “after action review” on the SCA’s Equitable Value Distribution Survey tool, offering insights into its process, highlighting key elements from its results, and providing early insights into how these results will impact the SCA’s Sustainable Coffee Agenda.
University of California Davis Coffee Center scientists LAUDIA ANOKYE-BEMPAH, IRWIN R. DONIS-GONZÁLEZ, and WILLIAM D. RISTENPART describe research undertaken in 2023 with a goal of developing new roast color standards for the coffee industry.
Drs. JOSHUA MÉNDEZ HARPER and CHRISTOPHER H. HENDON discuss the chemistry and physics behind the electrification of coffee during grinding, its effect on extraction, and strategies to mitigate it. All images are adapted from their recent academic publication “Moisture-Controlled Triboelectrification During Coffee Grinding,” published in Matter.
Corresponding author MATEUS MANFRIN ARTÊNCIO shares the findings of a recent paper, “The Impact of Coffee Origin Information on Sensory and Hedonic Judgment of Fine Amazonian Robusta Coffee,” published in the Journal of Sensory Studies, confirming the significant influence of origin information on the sensory perception of professional coffee tasters.
ALEXA ROMANO explores the emergence of specialty coffee culture as an embedded subculture within the broader coffee industry, and how the resulting shift from passive to active consumption asks us to rethink the consumer’s role in value creation and distribution.