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.

Anthropologist SARAH BESKY, PhD considers the relationship between tea’s sensory lexicon and ideas of quality across tea’s colonial history and current-day trading practices, highlighting that quality is far from an objective measure—and that it must be constantly reproduced in practice, including how we choose and use words to adjudicate quality over time.

Anthropology Professor EDWARD F. FISCHER, author of Making Better Coffee: How Maya Farmers and Third- Wave Tastemakers Create Value, explains the different types of value, ways of determining worth, and how we create economic value by drawing on other sorts of values (moral, social, political, and other cultural values) through the lens of his fieldwork in Guatemala.

In this four-part series, we will hear from the authors of two recent publications by the Specialty Coffee Association, the Coffee Sensory and Cupping Handbook and the Attributes White Paper. Drawing upon advances in sensory science, the global expansion of specialty coffee, and a commitment to making specialty coffee a thriving, equitable, sustainable activity for the entire value chain, SCA speakers Kim Elena Ionescu, Dr. Mario Fernández Alduenda, Peter Giuliano, and Jenn Rugolo will make the case that the coffee industry's understanding of value has evolved over the past two decades and our tools - like the SCA Cupping Form - must evolve, as well.

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.

Desde su creación en el 2004, el actual sistema de cata de la SCA se ha transformado en una norma del secto cafetero, con reconocimiento global por parte de muchos actores interesados en todo el mundo, para evaluar la calidad del café y ayudar a determinar su valor en contratos comerciales. Mientras tanto, nuestra comprensión de la ciencia sensorial y de las propiedades sensoriales del café, así como del sector del café de especialidad y su contexto global, han avanzado significativamente

SARAH CHARLES, writer, Communications Officer at the International Trade Centre, and author of a recent dissertation on mandatory supply chain due diligence, outlines the history, opportunities, and challenges of regulatory sustainability approaches while offering a path forward for coffee businesses grappling with the shift from a voluntary to a regulatory approach.

There are so many possible interpretations of sustainability, with some of the more familiar driven by a particular mode of thinking or focus on a particular angle of such a complicated topic. 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 the second in a series of features on sustainability frameworks and their relationship to the SCA’s sustainability agenda of equitable value distribution, SCA Sustainability Director ANDRÉS MONTENEGRO explains the concept of the circular economy through the use of a doughnut-and-coffee metaphor and highlights an upcoming seminar at Re:co Symposium in Portland designed to help participants apply its principles to their own work.

The Algrano market report is a once-annual analysis of coffee sourcing and production trends, and to date has focused on the European market. Over the course of one hour, the panelists discuss how the trends they identified at the end of 2021 and at the beginning of 2022 have evolved over the course of the past year, and they provide insight into what these evolutions might mean for the coffee sector going forward.

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?

Jessica Yinka Thomas shares a new model of business designed to maximize wellbeing, interdependence, and drive change.

SARAH CHARLES, writer, Communications Officer at the International Trade Centre, and author of a recent dissertation on mandatory supply chain due diligence, outlines the history, opportunities, and challenges of regulatory sustainability approaches while offering a path forward for coffee businesses grappling with the shift from a voluntary to a regulatory approach.

In recent years, impact investment allocation increased exponentially also in agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa. Yet, few had the chance to understand what hides behind the hype surrounding the phenomenon. Is impact investing just a buzzword, or are there concrete opportunities for operators in the coffee value chain? What approaches and synergies are best suited to access new sources of financing for sustainable coffee trade and production?

Smallholder coffee farmers face unique challenges in improving their coffee production and productivity. Recognizing this, the coffee sector has rolled out a variety of interventions and programs over the past decade (or more) aimed at enhancing productivity, profitability, and eventually, the income of these smallholder farmers. But have these programs worked?

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.

As the word "sustainable" continues to grow in importance to consumers, it is being used in many different ways. While we're shifting our definition to encompass concepts like living income, argues Catalina Eikenberg, we're still under-utilizing tools and leverage points to help us move forward.

Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian shares a business model to help build more sustainable communities.