This week, we’re excited (and a little bit sad) to release the sixth and final episode of the World Coffee Championships Podcast’s first series. “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 subjec...
Dec 03, 2020•48 min•Ep. 112
This week, we’re excited to release the fifth episode of the World Coffee Championships Podcast. “Turn It On” tells the stories of the World Coffee Roasting Championship and the Cezve/Ibrik Championships, two competitions with incredibly close-knit communities at their heart. Along the way, co-hosts Anna Oleksak and Sara Al-Ali lead us through stories about navigating subjectivity, all kinds of development, and the lengths we go to for coffee (and love) through interviews with Trish Rothgeb, Syl...
Nov 26, 2020•46 min•Ep. 111
This week, we’re excited to release the fourth episode of the World Coffee Championships Podcast. “But I Need It!” continues the story of the World Barista Championships from where we left off in Episode 03, nearly halfway through the competition’s journey, to today. Along the way, co-host Roukiat Delrue leads us through stories of evolutionary meetings, competitors who played in the grey areas of the rules, wildcards, and the drive to “bring the trophy” through interviews with Carl Sara, Federi...
Nov 19, 2020•47 min•Ep. 110
“We Were the Punks” traces the early days of the World Barista Championships from a rag-tag group of volunteers looking to raise specialty coffee awareness to a powerful, monetizable stage grappling with questions of scale and professionalism. Along the way, co-host Sonja Bjork Grant leads us through stories of spit buckets, snakeskin boots, backstage woes, intensifying competition preparation, and devastating debriefs through interviews with Tone Elian Liavaag, Emma Markland-Webster, Simi Benza...
Nov 12, 2020•46 min•Ep. 109
This week, we’re excited to launch the second episode of the World Coffee Championships Podcast. “Paint a Picture” traces the history and evolution of the World Latte Art Championship through the medium itself, from early etchings to the innovative realistic pours that grace the competition’s stage today. Along the way, co-host Rie Moustakis leads us through stories about the role of the rules, the value of art, and family dynamics through interviews with Carl Sara, Daniel Acosta Busch, and Um P...
Nov 05, 2020•35 min•Ep. 108
This week, we’re excited to launch the first episode of the World Coffee Championships Podcast. “It’s a YES!!” traces the history and evolution of the World Cup Tasters Championship through stories about rule-breakers, phone calls home mid-competition, and backstage ballet. Co-hosted by Gloria Pedroza, 2006 World Cup Tasters Champion and long-time WCE Judge and competition organizer, this episode features interviews with Alf Kramer, Kim Staalman, José Joaquín Ordoñez, and Chloe King. Find a full...
Oct 29, 2020•35 min•Ep. 107
Coming soon to the SCA Podcast channel: The World Coffee Championships podcast! Across six episodes, the series offers a glimpse behind the scenes, bringing to light some of the hidden stories woven in and around these annual events that serve as the culmination of local and regional events around the globe. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to make sure you don't miss the launch! Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Transistor / RSS Feed Full Transcript "It was onl...
Sep 18, 2020•3 min
There are big questions facing specialty coffee sellers and buyers. According to numerous studies in different coffee-producing countries, prices paid for green specialty coffees often don’t cover the full cost of production, let alone support thriving livelihoods for farmers and their families. Moreover, unless price discovery moves beyond commodity price references, younger farmers cannot expect these prices to evolve in ways that make them excited about remaining in the industry. As such, mor...
Apr 13, 2020•49 min•Ep. 93
With producers facing issues of climate change, migration of the younger generations to urban areas, and fluctuating coffee prices, it has become increasingly difficult for smallholder farmers to be successful and sustainable. It’s been 17 years since the last coffee crisis, and since then the industry has largely failed in making sustainable coffee a reality. Coffee prices are near record lows, overproduction and deforestation are continuing at a rapid pace, natural resources are being depleted...
Apr 06, 2020•58 min•Ep. 92
This week, we're taking a break from the 2019 World of Coffee lecture series to share Recap's fifth episode. The Recap podcast offers a brief overview of recent coffee developments every two weeks from the Specialty Coffee Association. Now a pandemic, the COVID-19 outbreak continues to have a devastating impact on the coffee industry. Around the world, coffee shops, roaster/retailers, and factories have been greatly impacted by government-mandated closures to mitigate the virus’ spread. As the s...
Mar 18, 2020•4 min
This session brings together recent work on the history and anthropology of coffee in the context of a discussion about the role of specialty in rebalancing the fundamentals of the market. Professor Jonathan Morris presents an overview of the history of price volatility across the five eras of coffee history he has identified, with some suggestions as to how this might be resolved in a sixth era as producer countries start consuming their own coffee. Sabine Parrish focuses on Brazil where this h...
Mar 09, 2020•40 min•Ep. 91
Consumer-driven changes will reshape the global coffee world. To help companies throughout the coffee value chain prepare for the future, today’s presenters - Maria Catroviejo and Michaël de Groot - look ten years ahead at key change they expect to stir up the coffee market, offering a TED-style discussion about how changes in consumer preferences, their perspective on coffee, and their buying behaviors will change the global coffee world. Related Links: Learn about the SCA's 2017 Western Europe...
Mar 02, 2020•32 min•Ep. 90
The SCA has a history of investigating the scientific principles of coffee, from chemistry to physics to agronomy and sensory perception; this research is then used to develop education, standards, and best practices. In today's lecture, learn about the science driven by the SCA's Research Center, with reports on projects and outputs of our research streams in sensory science, coffee extraction, coffee freshness, and more. Many of these projects are still ongoing, so this is a chance to get a sn...
Feb 24, 2020•39 min•Ep. 89
In December of 2018, the SCA launched its Coffee Price Crisis Response Initiative to develop alternative economic models for the specialty coffee sector. In today's lecture, recorded at World of Coffee in Berlin, representatives from the SCA Sustainability Center and Board of Directors identify factors that contributed to the wholly unsustainable economic position facing many coffee producers, discuss the limitations of current coffee purchasing practices, and explore actions that industry actor...
Feb 17, 2020•56 min•Ep. 88
Throughout its long history, coffee has been cast in very different roles: exotic beverage, colonial good, global commodity – but also as a staple of the local cuisines of the countries where it was produced. Leaning on an ongoing Sociological study conducted in Paris, today’s lecturer - Noa Berger - will show how specialty coffee changes and adapts to the culture of the countries in which it is introduced, and exploring what it means for coffee, a global commodity, to become “local.” According ...
Feb 10, 2020•42 min•Ep. 87
This week, the SCA Podcast is taking a quick break while we put the finishing touches on an upcoming lecture series recorded at last year’s World of Coffee event in Berlin. In the meantime, I’d like you to meet Recap. It’s our newest podcast! Every two weeks, Recap offers a brief overview of recent coffee developments in less than five minutes. If you like what you hear, subscribe by following the link in the show notes. Related Links Listen to the first episode of Recap Recap's RSS Feed Subscri...
Feb 03, 2020•4 min
Coffee shows an appealing bitterness when properly roasted and prepared. But how do the compounds that make coffee taste bitter develop during roasting and how do you analyze and identify them? What lessons can be learned from academic research on coffee roasting to make coffee even more pleasantly bitter-tasting? And after a century of intensive research, why does research still not know exactly what makes coffee bitter at all? Learn more as Dr. Sara Marquart, curator of the “Cosmos Coffee” exh...
Jan 20, 2020•32 min•Ep. 86
The original brewing control chart is overlaid with acceptability zones describing cup flavors. However, these terminologies (strong, bitter, weak, over, and under-developed) are outdated and their definitions are not standardized in the industry. In this lecture, the newest results from the UC Davis Coffee Center will be presented, which used the WCR Sensory Lexicon in order to elucidate new flavor attributes related to coffees of different strengths and extractions. The experiment evaluated a ...
Jan 13, 2020•42 min•Ep. 85
Last April, much of the discussion - at Expo and Re:co Symposium - was centered on the Coffee Price Crisis and the future of specialty. In a special episode to kick off the new year, we’re releasing a two-part lecture on the C market that sought to provide clarity and actionable data for the specialty industry. Over the past few years, many began to question coffee’s ability to provide a sustainable household income to smallholder producers. Although there’s still much to learn about the full co...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 84
Last April, much of the discussion - at Expo and Re:co Symposium - was centered on the Coffee Price Crisis and the future of specialty. In a special episode to kick off the new year, we’re releasing a two-part lecture on the C market that sought to provide clarity and actionable data for the specialty industry. Over the past few years, many began to question coffee’s ability to provide a sustainable household income to smallholder producers. Although there’s still much to learn about the full co...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 84
Hundreds of smallholder coffee farmers in Yepocapa, Guatemala have experienced leaf-rust, drought, volcanic eruptions, and price fluctuations over the last few years. Profitability is the main constraint these farmers face, in maintaining healthy households and addressing price issues and other shocks - much like many other smallholder coffee farmers around the world. Since 2015, Taya Brown has been conducting a multi-phase evaluation of constraints to technology uptake and profitability as part...
Dec 16, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 106
The UC Davis Coffee Center is engaged in comprehensive sensory research using trained panel descriptive analysis to investigate how different parameters related to coffee brewing impact the flavor, and how these can be manipulated to an individual's desired effect. Of these factors, time can be an important variable—in multiple ways—and this talk will highlight two recent projects. The first investigated the time-evolution of coffee flavor extraction during the brewing process. By dividing a dri...
Dec 09, 2019•43 min•Ep. 105
Coffee freshness is one of the core values of specialty coffee. But why is preserving the freshness so important? We might strive to maximize coffee’s potential to keep its vibrancy as fresh as the day when roasted or we keep coffee fresh to ensure quality and consistency. Regardless of why we may want to keep coffee fresh, understanding the fundamentals of freshness and applying them in our daily routine will help to improve our cup of coffee. In this lecture, Samo Smrke explores the topics of ...
Dec 02, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 104
World Coffee Research predicts that within the next 30 years, the demand for coffee will double while viable land in current coffee-growing countries will diminish by half. How can we combat this? Through an engaging panel discussion, learn about the future of coffee production in emerging origins such as Myanmar and Nepal and the role consumers, roasters, and importers can play in building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships across culture and distance. Today’s panel is moderated by Cr...
Nov 25, 2019•59 min•Ep. 103
World Coffee Research is working to improve the genetic potential of coffee cup quality. To start this task, you first need to define the meaning of “quality.” WCR believes it is a market-driven definition and organized new protocols to assess quality from the perspective of the coffee industry. With experts and partners, WCR produced the coffee lexicon that allows an objective analytic description of coffee quality attributes. In their presentation, Hanna Neuschwander discussed these innovation...
Nov 18, 2019•53 min•Ep. 102
In today’s lecture, a panel delves into the challenges faced by East African processors of high-quality coffee and shares solutions to these challenges, found by three organizations in Ethiopia, Burundi, and Rwanda. These organizations have been working on the cutting edge of methods to improve both the farmgate price and workers’ pay while increasing cup quality. Representing one cooperative and two private companies, their discussion addresses working with large numbers of smallholders, the im...
Nov 11, 2019•56 min•Ep. 101
Skilled farmworkers are necessary to harvest specialty coffees in most parts of the world, but they are too often undervalued and invisible to the industry. A collaborative and innovative project in Colombia is attracting a dwindling labor force to actively participate in coffee production. Its main objective is to meet the needs of farmworkers, producers, and local organizations, while identifying solutions that will make employment within the coffee industry more socially viable. This lecture ...
Nov 04, 2019•59 min•Ep. 100
A lot has been written about the workforce -- millennials in particular -- choosing between a career and a passion. That shouldn't be the case. While baristas and other coffee professionals may find it hard to make millions, they should be able to make sustainable wages while also developing as a professional. What are ways that cafes, roasting companies, and other coffee industry organizations can provide this working environment? Two small business owners with a proven track record in employee...
Oct 28, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 99
With over a decade of experience in specialty coffee, Erika Vonie believes that coffee is for everyone. Like many before her, she started as a barista, and worked her way through management, events coordination, quality control, education, green buying, and importing. Along with being the 2017 Coffee Masters Champion and an Arabica Q Grader, Erika is committed to using her position to further the advancement of marginalized people within specialty coffee, using her unique platform as Director of...
Oct 21, 2019•53 min•Ep. 98
The process for brewing coffee appears simple: One pours hot water over some coffee grounds, and then drinks the liquid that passes through a filter. This superficial perspective, however, belies a sequence of complicated physical and chemical processes that govern the quality of the resulting beverage. In today’s lecture, Professor Bill Ristenpart discusses the origins of the "Coffee Brewing Control Chart" widely used to interpret the quality of drip brew coffee and how several implicit assumpt...
Oct 14, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 97
