My name is Miles, I’m a Business Development Manager at IKAWA, a former AST and roasting educator, and a black coffee professional. Moving through life as a member of the minority, the layers of my identity are always front of mind. Even the same when participating in coffee: I’m a woman who roasts coffee in a male-dominated sector, as well as a Black person working in a white-dominated industry.

There are times in the history of an industry when discussions and decisions must be made regarding the definition, identity, or purity of a product. MARIO FERNÁNDEZ, Technical Director of the Specialty Coffee Association, traces the debates around coffee’s identity, from the first to the third wave.

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.

Perhaps more than ever, coffee shops are putting a massive focus on design: the drive to distinguish a specialty café from the “Central Perk/coffeehouse” vibe of the 1990s is largely being achieved by way of brand, architecture, packaging, and signage.

Over the past few decades, technology has changed the very nature of human interactions and relationships. Phone calls, letter writing, and in-person meetings have been complemented–and in many cases–replaced by social media posts, text messages, and video chats. Olam’s Rob Stephen and Hayden Kwast explore the impact of technology on the role of coffee trading.