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 Spotlight: Consuming Markets

 

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Featured Video

Coffee's Essential Worker Community: An Action Oriented Path to Building Back Better with Living Wage and Living Income

Living wage and income have long been gaining steam among the media, global governments, sustainability standards, businesses, and a wealth of other actors, including consumers. But the necessity of ensuring a basic but decent living is more stark than ever in an age where vulnerability abounds.

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NEW Market Research

Five Key Takeaways from the National Coffee Data Trends Study: Specialty Coffee Breakout Report

The National Coffee Data Trends Study is packed with information: conducted twice a year, the report tracks coffee consumer trends, attitudes, and behavior. What are five key things that the specialty coffee industry should pay attention to specifically? Learn more from the SCA’s Research Manager, Katie von der Lieth →

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How Do Cuppers Cup? | 25, Issue 18
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How Do Cuppers Cup? | 25, Issue 18

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.

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Evaluating and Evolving the SCA Coffee Value Assessment System
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Evaluating and Evolving the SCA Coffee Value Assessment System

Since it was created in 2004, the existing SCA cupping system has become a globally recognized industry standard used by many stakeholders across the globe to assess coffee quality and to assist in the determination of a coffee’s value in contracts. Meanwhile, our understanding of sensory science and coffee’s sensorial properties, as well as the specialty coffee industry and its global context, have advanced significantly

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The Power of the Extrinsic
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The Power of the Extrinsic

"It's what's in the cup that matters," right? But is that actually true? The SCA's Chief Research Officer, Peter Giuliano, examines trends in consumer preference research that suggests a coffee's extrinsic attributes play a significant role in coffee choice and enjoyment by specialty coffee consumers.

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What Would It Cost? | 25
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What Would It Cost? | 25

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?

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All in the Mind | 25
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All in the Mind | 25

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.

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Exploring the Intrinsic
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Exploring the Intrinsic

Using the attributes-based definition of specialty coffee, we’ll explore how our understanding of “specialty” has widened—and will continue to widen—in the coming years as we integrate new species and new processing methods into our specialty lexicon.

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Walk on the Wild Side: The Future of Wild Coffees in Your Cup
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Walk on the Wild Side: The Future of Wild Coffees in Your Cup

In late 2018, scientists rediscovered Coffea stenophylla— a species unrelated to either Arabica or robusta—in the wild in Sierra Leone, and later confirmed century-old reports of its high cup quality. This rediscovery, and other events, have reinvigorated discussion about the role of non-commercial and underutilized species in the future of coffee. Learn more from a panel of experts on wild coffee: Dr. Aaron Davis, Dr. Sarada Krishnan, Dr. Vern Long, and Dr. Katherine Kiwuka, moderated by Hanna Neuschwander.

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Paradigm Shift: The Post-Harvest Processing Revolution
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Paradigm Shift: The Post-Harvest Processing Revolution

The current coffee processing revolution offers us means to improve the live of coffee growers and processors not just through direct product improvement, but through a new, powerful narrative that can drive more respect, and value, back to producers. But, says Joel Schuler, it requires a paradigm shift, one we can only make if we ask—and collectively answer—many questions, and a movement towards parity.

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Understanding Today's Specialty Coffee Consumers
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Understanding Today's Specialty Coffee Consumers

As more consumers come to the coffee-laden table, our collective preferences haven’t just shifted; they’ve fragmented. The “emerging market” isn’t limited to tea-drinking cultures—new markets are also emerging in coffee-producing regions as well as with new consumers groups in more traditional, established markets.

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From Underdog to Frontrunner: The Opportunities of Specialty Robusta
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From Underdog to Frontrunner: The Opportunities of Specialty Robusta

While the use of wild coffees is still years away from commercialization, another coffee species already makes up 40% of coffee's global production: Coffea robusta. Lower global demand and limited recognition of robusta's quality potential has stifled investment in exploring the opportunities of specialty robusta, but in the face of climate change, it feels as if its time has come. Emi-Beth Aku Quantson makes the case for reframing robusta as a specialty product across impacts from farmer livelihoods to consumer preferences.

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Opportunities for Added Value Under the Attributes-Based Definition of Specialty
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Opportunities for Added Value Under the Attributes-Based Definition of Specialty

Do we really understand the impact of the attributes-based definition of specialty coffee on what is now "specialty"? Jenn Rugolo, the SCA's Curatorial Director, examines the impact categorization has on our perception of the world and explains why the new definition of specialty coffee released by the SCA in 2021 gives us more opportunities to deliver on specialty's promise.

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Not Just Fresh: Expanding Our Concept of Functional Packaging
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Not Just Fresh: Expanding Our Concept of Functional Packaging

Coffee's interest in understanding multimodal perception on coffee experiences has most recently focused on cup shape, size, and weight or environmental ambiance like color, music, and texture. As home coffee consumption continues to increase even as pandemic restrictions ease, so too has our interest in understanding packaging (an element of the coffee experience making its way consistently into the home) through a multimodal lens. Dr. Fabiana Carvalho introduces an ongoing study, conducted in collaboration with the Coffee Science Foundation, exploring the effect of packaging on the perception of specialty coffee and explains why we need to expand our concept of "functional" packaging beyond simply keeping coffee fresh.

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On Redefining Sustainable Coffee
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On Redefining Sustainable Coffee

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.

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Aprender

Un caso de negocio para incrementar el consumo de café especial en países productores

Las oportunidades adicionales para crear y capturar más valor son clave para que los productores reduzcan el riesgo. Por lo tanto, es vital comprometerse con estrategias que les permitan a los productores crear (más) valor y obtener un mayor y mejor parte del precio al consumidor →