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Coffee Cupping For The Fun Of It
Coffee cupping is a method to compare the different characteristics of a coffee bean. Cupping lets us compare different coffees against each other to evaluate the uniqueness between them. This information can give us a better understanding of each...
Coffee, Tea or Liver Problems; Study Finds That Coffee Reduces The Risk Of Chronic Liver Problems
The link between the diet and the liver has long been studied by the American Liver Foundation and other organizations. Research in this area is important because it could help reduce the suffering and economic burden posed by liver diseases. ...
Roasting Coffees at Home
Roasting Coffees at home is a passion with many coffee
aficionados, and there are even societies, special interest
groups and online mailing lists dedicated to this hobby. But
with so many options for pre-roasted, pre-packaged...
Two Coffee Substitutes from Plants Around Us
The American Beech Tree's nuts when taken out of the husks, roasted until dark and brittle, then ground, will make a fine coffee. Store this in an airtight container. They are best collected after the first hard frost when they normally drop to the...
Which coffees are highest in antioxidants?
As researchers learn more about antioxidants with health and disease, they increasingly find themselves drawn to their influence on overall health. With them becoming an ever larger realm of study, people are looking for new ways to obtain high...
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What is Sustainable Coffee and How Does it Affect My Wake Cup?
Gourmet coffee lovers have been seeing a few new terms in the
local premium coffee shop as they file past the seasonal retail
displays of roasted whole bean bagged coffees. Phrases include
eco-friendly, organic, shade grown, fair trade and certified
sustainable. Most often those beans seem to the casual buyer to
be simply more expensive than the corporate mega-brands.
But these few phrases represent far more than at first glance,
including economic and social gains for the growing regions and
farmers, harvesters and processors of green coffee beans at the
local level. Sustainable coffee means premium prices and quality
coffee due to organic farming practices, fair market payment for
beans to local growers and quality controls being adopted by the
"certified" coffee brands.
Those premium coffee prices reflect growing concerns worldwide
of paying fair wages to growers, using more expensive
ecologically friendly organic farming practices, better pay for
traditionally underpaid harvesters and processing workers and
strict quality controls being adopted for "certified sustainable
coffees."
Daniele Giovannucci consults with governments, international
agencies, and businesses on coffee markets and production
strategies to improve competitiveness and support innovative
environmental and rural poverty reduction work. Giovannucci has
authored exhaustive studies, including the 2003, "The State of
Sustainable Coffee Report - A Study of Twelve Major Markets."
http://www.cec.org/files/PDF/ECONOMY/CoffeeSurvey_EN.pdf
This study discusses coffee market forces in Europe and Japan
and the growth of sustainable coffee around the world,
estimating that fair trade, organic, and eco-friendly coffees
represent less than 2 percent of coffee consumption in developed
markets.
Another Giovannucci authored study, "Sustainable Coffee Survey
of the North American Specialty Coffee Industry," he estimates
the Global market for sustainable coffee to be approximately
$565 million retail for over a million 60 kilo (about 132
pounds) bags of green coffee beans.
http://www.eftafairtrade.org/Document.asp?DocID=391&tod=21534
It is estimated that growers of certified sustainable coffees
can nearly double their income from otherwise depressed coffee
prices. So economically challenged third world countries see
small farmers adopting organic growing techniques as a ticket
out of poverty and subsistence. Corporate buyers are attracted
to sustainable growers by consumer goodwill and health concerns
related to those organically grown coffees. This leads to
dubious claims by some of the corporate coffee representatives
and has
lead to the need for certification authorities.
One group, Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO)
has been active in monitoring and certifying, auditing and
verifying standards for sustainable coffees. Another, named
Transfair USA, carries on similar activities in the American
coffee market. Consumers are justifiably confused when many
terms are applied to sustainable coffees and fail to
differentiate between organic, eco-friendly, fair trade and
sustainable terms.
Premium prices are sometimes supported by certification,
labeling and monitoring by third-party organizations and
sometimes by local governments such as the "Jamaica Coffee
Industry Board." But some labeling is simply slick sales and PR
by greedy corporations seeking premium prices for average coffee
beans, so support for labeling initiatives and independent
certification is growing.
Fair Trade and sustainable coffees are seeing increasing
production in Central and South American growing regions, most
notably in Mexico and Peru. Columbia has seen some pressure and
attempts to divert production of cocaine with coffee crops for
the fair trade market with little major success to report so
far. Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia are big participants in
sustainable coffees in Africa while East Timor, India and
Indonesia are major supporters of sustainable coffee in Asia.
With the North American coffee market dominated by multinational
giants Sara Lee, Kraft and Procter & Gamble, little interest has
been shown in adopting sustainable coffee by major corporate
coffee producers. Meanwhile, Brazil and Vietnam, the world's No.
1 and No. 2 coffee producers, respectively are flooding the
market with poor quality beans and driving down coffee prices.
But major grocery chains are seeing demand for sustainable
coffee and may adopt fair trade and organic coffees to sell
nationwide at Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's stores. Increases
in availability, demand and awareness of sustainable coffee are
leading to more of the same in a spiraling increase for fair
trade organic and shade coffees in premium markets. Some
sustainable coffees are even finding their way into instant
coffees, but the vast majority of the sustainable market is in
premium and specialty markets.
About the Author
Tastes of The World coffee company
http://www.tastesoftheworld.net Rare Gourmet Coffee from Jamaica Blue Mountain to Kopi
Luwak exotic and fine Italian Espressos from Illy and Marcafe as
well as a selection of premium Puerto Rican coffees including
Cafe Tres Picachos. Come discuss your favorites in the coffee
talk forums at http://www.tastesoftheworld.net/talk/
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| Starbucks Homepage |
| Starbucks Coffee Company is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world. The Company's other brands enhance the Starbucks ... |
| www.starbucks.com |
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| Coffee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. ... Coffee aficionados may even distinguish auctioned coffees by lot number. ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Peet's Coffee & Tea |
| Coffee, tea and brewing equipment, information and store locator. |
| www.peets.com |
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| Coffee Review :: The World's Leading Coffee Buying Guide |
| Coffee and coffee-related reviews done by Kenneth Davids and others. |
| www.coffeereview.com |
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| Coffee @ nationalgeographic.com |
| The history of coffee, descriptions of different varieties, map of coffee-producing countries and a discussion forum. |
| www.nationalgeographic.com |
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| Trojan Room Coffee Machine |
| The official site. Includes the final image of the machine being switched off, a non-technical biography, and an audio copy of a 1994 radio report. |
| www.cl.cam.ac.uk |
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| Espresso and Coffee Information from Coffee Universe |
| Linking the entire specialty coffee and espresso industry from coffee beans, coffee roasting to espresso machines. |
| coffeeuniverse.com |
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| CoffeeGeek - News, Reviews, Opinion and Community for Coffee and ... |
| Offers reviews of coffee appliances, news, and articles. |
| www.coffeegeek.com |
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| Coffee Break Arcade - Free Games |
| Play the best FREE games on the web. Select online games from 6 categories including Sports, Shooting, Racing, Classic, Casino and Cool. |
| www.coffeebreakarcade.com |
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| Too Much Coffee Man - Home |
| Online strips, merchandise, and multimedia. [Graphics intensive] |
| www.tmcm.com |
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| International Coffee Organization - News From The Executive Director |
| London-based intergovernmental body of coffee exporting and importing countries. Offers current industry news and legislative alerts; ... |
| www.ico.org |
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| Caribou Coffee — Gourmet Coffee Shops and Online Specialty Coffee ... |
| Caribou Coffee shops and online store feature gourmet coffee and gifts. |
| www.cariboucoffee.com |
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| Fair Trade Coffee |
| Fair Trade for coffee farmers means community development, health, education, ... Updated Action Pack for Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolate Campaigns ... |
| www.globalexchange.org |
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| Gevalia.com - Gourmet Coffee & Tea Collections |
| Selections of fine coffees, flavorful teas, gifts and inspirations offered via direct automatic delivery or catalog order. |
| www.gevalia.com |
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| Dunkin' Donuts Coffee | Buy Coffee Beans Online |
| Coffee sold by the pound, regular delivery programs, gifts and accessories. |
| www.dunkindonuts.com |
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| Over The Coffee |
| Top Ten Coffee Producing Nations Brazil Colombia Indonesia Vietnam Mexico Ethiopia India Guatemala Cote d'Ivoire Uganda. |
| www.cappuccino.com |
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| INeedCoffee - Monthly Caffeination Information |
| This coffee brewer guide is meant to assist buyer to choose the ideal single cup ... I found coffee paradise. The best coffee city is Auckland, New Zealand. ... |
| www.ineedcoffee.com |
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| Coffee Forums Coffee Discussion about Espresso, Coffee Beans and ... |
| Offers discussion boards for enthusiasts to talk about topics such as beans, espresso, machines, and cafes. |
| www.coffeeforums.com |
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| Green Mountain Coffee Roasters: Organic, Fair Trade and Signature ... |
| Gourmet coffees and specialty coffee accessories and gifts. Shop online for Fair Trade and Organic coffee, single-cup coffee, decaf and flavored coffee, ... |
| www.greenmountaincoffee.com |
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| Equal Exchange: Fairly Traded Coffee, Tea & Chocolate |
| Dedicated to fair trade with small-scale coffee farmers in the developing world. |
| www.equalexchange.com |
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