Welcome to the SCA’s Green Coffee Summit, a home for coffee market resources.
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.
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 →
Explore the Latest Resources
ESG for You and Me | 25
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.
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.
The Incommensurability of Sustainability | 25
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.
Carbon and Coffee
The ongoing threat of climate change, and the impact it is expected to have on coffee yields worldwide, is of particular concern to the global coffee sector in 2022. This report aims to highlight some of the key tools, strategies, and best practices that coffee industry actors could adopt to achieve carbon emission reduction as well as encourage more targeted conversation about verifiable methods and outcomes, in order to increase proven and positive action on climate change throughout the entire coffee sector
Korea Coffee Market Overview 2021
The purpose of this report is to give a broad overview of the South Korean coffee market and the value of select segments therein, as well as indicate trends across both out-of-home and at-home coffee consumption. This overview can give insight into how the South Korean coffee environment is changing over time, and how coffee is consumed in this important market
US Coffee Market Overview 2020
An overview of retail value of coffee across places of consumption, channels, categories, and brands.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Israel's Booming Specialty Market
Make a quick list of the countries you know are experiencing exponential growth of coffee consumption and a blossoming specialty coffee scene: does it include Israel? If not, it should. Using her experience studying specialty coffee in France (a traditional market) and Brazil (a domestic market), Noa Berger shares more about an exciting intersection of cultural identity and specialty coffee driving the growth of the Israeli specialty coffee market.
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.
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.
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.
The Evolution of Business: Understanding the B Corp Model
Jessica Yinka Thomas shares a new model of business designed to maximize wellbeing, interdependence, and drive change.
The Changing Definition of Fine Wine
As we grapple with our own definition of “specialty,” Pauline Vicard shares ARENI’s journey of defining “fine wine” and explores opportunities for mutual learnings between industries.
In Conversation with Darrin Daniel
What impact does the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and the associated Cup of Excellence competition have on coffee farmers and roasters?
What We Know (and Need to Know) About Climate's Impact on Coffee Quality
Corresponding author Dr. Selena Ahmed outlines the findings of a systematic review of research conducted to better understand climate change’s impact on coffee quality, what prompted the review, and what we need to research next.
Deanonymizing Coffee: A Case Study
Namisha Parthasarathy explores the history, challenges, and opportunities of specialty coffee in India.
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 →