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The nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) and Yemeni coffee organization Qima Coffee are reprising their high-end coffee auction with potentially more coffees and  additional positive outcomes for coffee farmers throughout Yemen. For the Best of Yemen 2021 auction, tentatively scheduled to take place online in August, the groups are working to scale the program
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Just as coffee is a living, changing thing, so too is the industry’s collective evaluation of it. One organization pushing the envelope in coffee evaluation is the professional education-focused Sustainable Coffee Institute (SCI). After years of development, the Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit has released a new cupping form and associated cupping protocols, free resources designed to
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2021 Colombia Cup of Excellence winning producer Pablo Andrés Guerrero in Nariño. Image courtesy of the Alliance for Coffee Excellence. Results for the Cup of Excellence green coffee competition of 2021 are in, with nearly two dozen high-quality coffee lots coming from Colombian coffee growers now heading to auction. The winning producers were celebrated during
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Traded volumes of high-quality specialty coffee declined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic while volumes of lower-quality specialty coffees increased, according to a recent analysis from the authors of the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide. Peter W. Roberts and Chad Trewick penned the 19-page report documenting the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on specialty coffee purchasing behaviors
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A scene from a Fincas Mierisch farm in Nicaragua. All images courtesy of ACE/Fincas Mierisch. Renowned Nicaraguan specialty coffee producer Fincas Mierisch and the Portland, Oregon-based Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) have re-teamed up to relaunch the Los Favoritos auction. Taking place online on Tuesday, May 18, following international judging led by ACE, the auction
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Researchers are exploring the potential of coffee growth in areas currently suitable for citrus growth. For centuries, coffee has been grown between two somewhat arbitrary lines above and below the equator. The stretch between roughly the 23.43°S and 23.43°N parallels — also known as tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, respectively — is also often referred
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CIRAD photo from a coffee farmer survey in Nicaragua. Several of the world’s largest coffee roasting and trading companies have joined a pre-competitive research initiative with the goal of progressively reducing pesticide usage in coffee farming. The initiative, called Ecoffee R&D Initiative (styled as ECOFFEE by the group), is being coordinated by the pioneering French
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Coffee pulp being delivered to the test site in Costa Rica. All images by Rebecca Cole, courtesy of the British Ecological Society. New research has found that coffee pulp, a natural organic byproduct of post-harvest coffee processing, can exponentially speed up tropical forest recovery on previously deforested lands. Researchers from the British Ecological Society reported “dramatic
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The Samayoa family receiving a green coffee shipment in Central Georgia. All images courtesy of Over The Border Coffee. A seventh-generation, 200-acre coffee farm in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, has gained a foothold selling its coffees directly to consumers and wholesale accounts in Georgia through Over The Border Coffee. The family-run startup coffee company, founded by Tabitha
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Courtesy photo from the Alliance for Coffee Excellence in 2017. The nonprofit Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) has announced that the Cup of Excellence (COE) program and coffee genetics research firm RD2 Vision have signed a memorandum of understanding for genetic testing of COE-winning coffees. In an announcement yesterday, COE organizer ACE said the partnership
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A view of coffee fields in the Kona region in Hawaii. “Kona Coffee plantation road.” by jai Mansson’s photography. is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Costco, Marshalls/T.J. Maxx parent company TJX and Gold Coffee Roasters have joined the list of defendants reaching settlement agreements with a group representing farmers from Hawaii’s Kona region. Thus far, settlement agreements from the class
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Minas Gerais state police vehicles. Photo by the Ministério Público de Minas Gerais. Prosecutors in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Paraná yesterday carried out a widespread probe targeting numerous large coffee businesses, alleging tax evasion, money laundering and other criminal activities. Dubbed “Operação Expresso,” or Operation Expresso, the police action included 35 temporary
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