Category Archives: Origin

Rate my predictions for 2008

On January 2nd this year I made five predictions – you can read them here – and I guess before I put up my predictions for 2009 I should probably decide how well I did last year.  Or better still – you guys decide!
1 – The spread of the Clover.
I could be really brave and [...]

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Thoughts on the last Esmeralda auction

According to the owner of the stoneworks auction website, I was one of up to 3000 users watching or participating in the latest auction. It went on for 9 hours and you had to feel very, very sorry for the Japanese who would have started bidding at 10pm and finished around 7am. (though [...]

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Off to Costa Rica

Writing this from Miami airport (not a likeable airport at all, but that could be jetlag/travel cynicism kicking in). About to catch my flight down to San Jose and then I am there for a week doing various bits and pieces. The video camera is packed, the camera too so I shall try [...]

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Off to Colombia tomorrow

Really looking forward to it. Will try and post from there – depending on connection of course. Memory cards emptied, camera batteries charged and a few barista bits and pieces packed.
Hopefully gonna get to a few farms, and I think it is harvest time so lots of delicious cherries for me. (I [...]

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Independent branding of microlots – Aida Batlle and “Los Luchadores”

I read as much as I can these days to try and keep abreast of what is going on and today I stumbled across something very interesting that Peter Giuliano had written.
When I was with Aida in Salvador in January, we talked about her identifying really awesome coffees she came across as “Aida’s Selections”, [...]

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Sebastião Salgado – In Principio

After a few nudges from friends, and by sheer coincidence I ended up at Gallery 32 to have a look at the photographs of Sebastião Salgado, who took on the project with Illy.
All the photos of origin are in black and white, which was interesting. He used a really high ISO and then used [...]

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Quebradon

Today was a good day.  Mercanta had a Meet the Grower event for some farmers from the Quebradon Cooperative.  I was really looking forward to this because I am a huge fan of their coffee, and this year’s crop really is great.  It was so good in fact that during Anette’s practise for the World [...]

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Book Review: “I love Coffee” by Susan Zimmer

Several weeks ago an e-mail came through this site from a publishers asking for my address so they could send me a book. I was surprised, a little skeptical but gave it to them and this morning a book arrived. For free. I’ll be getting guest list for CoE next….
Anyway – I’ve [...]

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Green Coffee – A Photographic Guide

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I’ve been thinking about doing a green bean gallery for a while, and when I had a little spare time this evening I thought I’d have a go at it. Right from the off I should make it clear that this is not my [...]

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The mighty Maragogype

Caught a quick cupping after the latte art course I was teaching today.  On the table were a couple of massive Maragogypes – really huge beans.  Once I remember Arno from Probat poking through some of a blend I was pulling shots with and talking about what he saw.  At one point he picked up [...]

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