Carlos Arcila is a farmer first and a businessman second. As a child, he recalls riding horses with his grandfather through the fields of coffee trees in Armenia, Colombia and stopping to taste the different cherries on the farm.
“From a young age I learnt how to distinguish different types of coffee varietals based on their leaf size and shapes. We’d pick a ripe cherry off the tree, pop it into our mouths, and spit out the seed,” Carlos says. Read more
One of my favourite things to do on the weekend is to go exploring to find a café I haven’t visited before. While I like visiting specialty coffee cafés for my morning coffee fix, specialty is not my criteria, just good coffee and good service. Read more
There’s something special about childhood memories, the way they retrace forgotten parts of your upbringing and create feelings of nostalgia. For Hazel de los Reyes, memories of school holidays spent at her grandmother’s house in Batangas in the Philippines became the catalyst for a career she’s obsessed with. Read more
In specialty coffee shops around the country, menu boards mark top coffee prices anywhere between $6 to $16 per cup. To the uneducated coffee consumer, it’s ludicrous. To specialty coffee professionals, it’s not enough.
Campos Coffee Founder Will Young has always paid more than the average price for his specialty coffee purchases, and has reflected that quality in cup prices. But Will doesn’t want to be among the minority paying more and charging more for specialty coffee, he wants others to join in. Read more
For years, consumers have received takeaway coffees, assuming their order matches the same volume of liquid had they had time for a sit-down experience, but it doesn’t.
According to Veneziano’s Craig Simon, there has been no way for café owners to ensure consistency between dine-in and take away cups, with most disposable coffee cups larger than the volume advertised, resulting in a completely different taste experience for the customer. Read more
Just over 2 kilometres from Australian shores in Papua New Guinea lurks the most harmful plague known to coffee producers – Coffee Berry Borer (CBB).
The beetle, known for its speedy reproduction, burrows into and destroys coffee beans. The pest has devastated thousands of crops throughout the world, and there’s fears it could pose a threat to Australia’s $100 million coffee industry. Read more
Katherine Galatola of Jacob Douwe Egberts (JDE) had stared at Piazza D’Oro’s coffee packaging many times before. She’d held it, read the description, and appreciated its simplistic design, but had never really thought about the effort that went into the colours staring back at her. Read more
By John Russell Storey
On the wall of the Apo Angra Kange Co-operative (AAK) offices in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, is an article about how a family has finally been able to send their young son to school. In the article, a photo shows a young boy, Ukuni, smiling shyly. It’s a picture that Brian Kuglame, Project Co-Ordinator at AAK Co-op, refers to frequently when he’s talking about the co-op and what its aims are. Read more
By Adeline Teoh
Although the word café is native to France, one might be surprised at how difficult it is to find a good cup of specialty coffee. Some say that the coffee culture is so strong it will take years before the French accept any change.
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Jamaica Blue has committed to a long-term partnership with Beacon Foundation to help increase opportunities for young Australians. Read more