In this issue, we’re taking a step back and focusing on some big questions that could shape the future of our industry.

Dr. ILJA CROIJMANS explores why the vocabulary we use to describe aromas matters, sharing findings of previous research on the evolution of sensory language from hunter-gathers to wine and coffee professionals.

JENN RUGOLO distils findings of the SCA’s Price Crisis Response (PCR) report and offers some ways we can begin to put some of the report’s recommendations into practice immediately.

Specialty Coffee Association CEO YANNIS APOSTOLOPOULOS shares findings from the recent Coffee Growth Dynamics Report from Euromonitor International.

We know that high-quality coffee comes at a cost, but what are the unseen costs of selling that coffee with a story? EVER MEISTER asks herself this question every day—and now she’s asking all of us.

NOA BERGER explores some of the different ways packaging helps to construct different types of authenticity.

Sitting at the crossroads between Scandinavia and the Baltics, Helsinki has this wonderfully Finnish feeling about it while remaining accessible, vibrant, and dynamic.

“An update on the status of coffee vocabulary is very much called for,” wrote Ilja. And so, when presenting this work at Sensory Summit in Zurich—complete with wine and coffee samples—Ilja also collected data.

Globalmente conocido por sus enormes establecimientos cafeteros, Brasil ocupa el primer lugar del marcador como el “productor de café más grande del mundo” desde hace 150 años.

La generación más joven es en este momento la más grande del mundo, pero la edad promedio de los agricultores del café sigue aumentando.

There’s no doubt that, as 2019 comes to a close, our community’s conversations have been dominated by the Coffee Price Crisis.

It’s been one year since the SCA set up the Price Crisis Response (PCR) Initiative, a one-year project tasked with producing a report of recommendations on both short- and long-term actions we can take to alleviate the crisis.

The current price crisis requires us to form a clear understanding of the determinants of profitability, or economic sustainability, for small farmers.

If you ask most people to describe how black coffee tastes, you will almost invariably hear the word bitter.

Known globally for its huge coffee farms, Brazil has been at the top of the leaderboard as the “highest global producer of coffee” for the past 150 years.

For the past five years, the city of Zürich has organized week-long festivals in inspirational cities around the world.

The youngest generation is now the largest generation on earth, but the average age of coffee farmers continues to increase.

My gastronomic curiosities have frequently led me in the direction of Southeast Asia, yet I never thought the coffee trail would bring me back home to the Philippines.

La crisis de precios actual nos exige formar un entendimiento claro de los factores que determinan la rentabilidad o la sustentabilidad económica para los pequeños agricultores.

Despite a nuanced backdrop of challenges to coffee farm labor, attracting and retaining farmworkers is crucial to the industry’s survival.