In this series, SCA Sustainability Director, ANDRÉS MONTENEGRO, explores different sustainability frameworks in relation to the SCA’s sustainability agenda of equitable value distribution, beginning with “climate justice.”

In Autumn 2022, the Barista Guild, the Coffee Roasters Guild, and the Coffee Technicians Guild all nominated new members for their respective Leadership Councils. We’re pleased to welcome new faces to the guilds from February 2023!

"When I first ventured into the world of coffee in 2007, in my final year at Ashesi University in Ghana, I like many others had no idea that any coffee was produced in Ghana. There was no access to coffee education, no introduction to green coffee courses, or any training on processing methods, roasting, or barista training. Fast forward 15 years and the African coffee landscape has completely evolved. With the rise of global coffee chains and artisan roasteries, coffee education and barista championships have finally come to Africa."

The Coffee Science Foundation (CSF) is excited to announce the launch of a new research project, “Sweetness in Coffee: Sensory Analysis and Identification of Key Compounds,” in collaboration with the Flavor Research and Education Center (FREC) in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

MARIO R. FERNÁNDEZ-ALDUENDA, PhD explains the learnings of the evaluation phase of the SCA’s Coffee Value Assessment System work as well as an update on the pilot process at the heart of the project’s ongoing evolution phase.

The Coffee Science Foundation is excited to announce this output from the Cold Brew Extraction research project. This project is underwritten by Toddy, LLC and the research related to this publication was performed by a research team led by DR. MACKENZIE BATALI, at the University of California, Davis.

We are pleased to announce that we have received sufficient nominations to fulfil five open coordinator roles to form the SCA France Chapter Committee for a new term.

The nomination stage is closed and five candidates have accepted their nominations. This means we have an uncontested election for SCA Czech Republic!

As presented to SCA members on August 31, the SCA Board of Directors, led by President Juan Luis Barrios, nominated a group of eight professionals from a pool of dozens who responded to our annual call for nominations made in June. As the number of candidates this year is equal to the number of open seats, there is no need to proceed with a voting process, and the SCA Board has confirmed the eight professionals listed below as members of the SCA Board of Directors, in accordance with Section 7.4(h) of the SCA Bylaws.

Undoubtedly, a high degree of obsession is required for engineering better coffee grinders in the pursuit of making coffee better. Re-engineering, tweaking, and testing with the objective of product improvement and optimization is the only road to the elusive grinding utopia. As with all great journeys the path is windy and long, and progress is realized in years, not days or months.

On a very basic level, we all know that our present actions are the seeds of our future—but it can be easy to forget the exact steps you took to get to where you are, unless you deliberately stop to mentally retrace them.

Today’s SCA Cupping Protocol and the SCA Cupping Form are among the most used tools of the coffee industry, applied daily by thousands of people around the world, serving actors across coffee’s vast and complex value-generating system.

Originating in the early 2000s as an acronym to capture non-financial areas connected to business performance, the term ESG—short for “environmental, social, and governance”—has become significantly more visible over time. While the term now appears in mainstream outlets more often than it did a decade ago, many people are still unclear on what it really means, how it differs from or aligns with sustainability, and its potential relevance for their own organizations. KELLEM EMANUELE offers an ESG primer tailored for the coffee industry.

The word “sustainability” is everywhere, but do we really know—or agree on—what it means? Professor SARAH GRANT explains why, despite its difficulty, understanding “sustainability” as a framework is a worthwhile endeavor, especially in understanding culturally relative perspectives and the power relations inherent in the promotion of sustainable coffee.

Dr. JORGE BERNY and Dr. MARIO FERNÁNDEZ-ALDUENDA share initial results of a collaborative study examining how cuppers cup and exploring the potential impacts of a proposed component of the reengineered cupping protocol.

Professors CARLOS CARPIO, PhD and LUIS SANDOVAL, PhD worked with BRENDA MAMANI, MSc to ask: what are the living wages in El Salvador and Honduras, and how would current total costs and profitability of coffee production be affected if farmworkers were paid living wages?

Assistant Professor CHRISTOPHER H. HENDON shares the theory underpinning an ongoing Coffee Science Foundation research project, supported by Simonelli Group, toward deepening our understanding of espresso extraction.

Corresponding author MATEUS MANFRIN ARTÊNCIO shares the findings of a recent paper, “A Cup of Black Coffee with GI, please! Evidence of Geographical Indication Influence on a Coffee Tasting Experiment,” published in Physiology & Behavior, confirming the significant influence an extrinsic attribute like a geographical indication has on consumers’ tasting.

The 2022 SCA Czech Republic Chapter Election has started! Nominations are open October 12 - October 19 and voting will take place November 2 - November 16. The results of the election will be announced on November 23.