Category Archives: Coffee

Coffee

The Costly Effects of the Current Drought on Coffee Farmers

 

While Peru prepares for El Niño & potential flooding, many coffee regions are experiencing drought conditions which are affecting crop results, not just in coffee, but in other farm products.

Via Roast magazine:

It is no secret that the current El Niño phenomenon has caused drought in the global coffeelands, particularly Central America, the Caribbean, and East Africa. Drought conditions in Central America and the Caribbean are occurring for the second consecutive year, wreaking havoc on cash crops, food staples, and livestock. Continue reading The Costly Effects of the Current Drought on Coffee Farmers →

Coffee

Love coffee? Need coffee? Your genes may have something to do with it!

 

Do genetics make you want more coffee? One nutritionist thinks so…Via Public Radio International:

Marilyn Cornelis, a nutrition scientist at Northwestern University, looks at the numbers behind all this coffee consumption. What she’s found is that genes play a major role.

“Ultimately what our genes are telling us that those who can quickly metabolize caffeine are consuming more,”

Cornelis explains. “Partly because they’re obviously metabolizing it quickly, but also in order to maintain that drive or that psychostimulant effect that most of us connect with caffeine, they need to consume more.

Continue reading Love coffee? Need coffee? Your genes may have something to do with it! →

Coffee, Curibamba

Grand Opening Week

New Website Update

This is it! We’re officially open today, and as this post is written, work is proceeding on the new website look and feel. We are testing, correcting, rereading everything to have a brand new shiny appearance. It’s a ton of work, but we have a talented tech – Joshua of Tolento Group doing the heavy lifting, while I ask for the endless changes that happen at a web launch. Continue reading Grand Opening Week →

Coffee, Sustainable Farming

Vournas Coffee Trading and Growers First Team up in Oaxaca to Fight Coffee Rust

 

Coffee Rust has devastated the coffee growing communities of Central and South America. In some cases as much as 75-90% of crops can be lost, and in a community where every dollar is precious.

 

Vournas Coffee Trading of Westlake Village, CA has been working with Growers First to provide new coffee seedling in areas that have been hard hit by “la roya” or coffee rust. This post describes a recent replanting trip to Oaxaca, Mexico.

Last month I arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico and began a two day journey to the isolated coffee community of Ixtepec. This was no vacation. Traveling with Dave Day and Geron Gray of Growers First, I was part of a call-to-action aimed at saving a group of farmers whose coffee crop had been ravaged by la roya. Continue reading Vournas Coffee Trading and Growers First Team up in Oaxaca to Fight Coffee Rust →

Coffee

What an El Niño Weather Pattern Can Mean for Coffee Production

 

Many of us in the coffee world are concerned that El Niño could have a disrupting effect on coffee production. When rains are extreme, besides loss of crops roads become difficult, and the harvest can be reduced or lost. Here’s a guest post from Stu Macleod of Vournas Coffee Trading in California:

Recent weather headlines have screamed about a potential “Godzilla El Niño” weather pattern affecting winter weather for the United States. Similar headlines began popping up in coffee related websites, not regarding U.S. weather but rather how an El Niño could impact coffee growing and coffee production throughout the world. What is El Niño and why does it matter?

El Niño is a tropical weather event in the Eastern Pacific Ocean that can increase rain and snowfall totals in the Southwest U.S. Warmer ocean waters in the Eastern Pacific redirect the jet stream winds southward and eastward as it moves through the U.S. Eastern Pacific ocean waters are currently 1.2 degrees Centigrade higher than normal; this has alerted NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to declare a “strong” rating for an El Niño weather pattern for the winter of 2015. This strong rating has occurred 5 times since 1950 so is a relatively uncommon event.

Historically, the El Niño weather pattern has also influenced rain and weather conditions in other countries. Central America, Brazil and Colombian coffee growing regions can receive less than normal rainfall during an El Niño leading to drought and decrease coffee production. Indonesia can also be affected; in a recent letter to their investors, Rabobank highlighted the likelihood of El Niño bringing unusually dry weather to South East Asia. Most Indonesian specialty coffee farmers do not use irrigation and depend on rainfall to water their trees. This could result in lower than normal coffee production from Sumatra, New Guinea and Java.

What does it all mean for us? As usual there are events outside of our power that control coffee prices and availability.

Peru has been bracing for extreme weather due to the El Niño warming in the Pacific Ocean, and working to fortify communities that are frequently flooded during heavy rain seasons. This year has seen so many landslides and washouts that many roads have not yet recovered. Many fear that any more extreme rainfall will isolate some villages for weeks at a time.

Time will tell what effects we’ll see, and how coffee will fare.

Coffee

Square Unveils Data Mined from Thousands of U.S. Cafés

Interesting data from point of sale systems company Square regarding coffee & more gleaned from cafes across the US. (Via Roast Magazine:)

Popular point-of-sale systems and analytics provider Square today released the Square Coffee Report, which includes some interesting although generalized data related both to consumer trends and operational strategies among thousands of U.S. cafes.

Continue reading Square Unveils Data Mined from Thousands of U.S. Cafés →

Coffee

Finding Natural Solutions to Destructive Coffee Leaf Rust in Chiapas, Mexico

 

Coffee Leaf Rust has had a devastating effect on many coffee growers, small and large. Many farms have lost production & quality for many years now. The Rust continues to plague many farmers, and the search is on for a safe, environmentally friendly method to combat this fungus.

One husband and wife team of ecologists are currently working in Chiapas, Mexico to battle the scourge of coffee rust.
Continue reading Finding Natural Solutions to Destructive Coffee Leaf Rust in Chiapas, Mexico →

Coffee

Drinking Coffee May Reduce the Risk of Falls

Just one more reason to drink coffee: reduced risk of falling. European scientists have determined that coffee can improve your stride and help prevent dangerous falls.

Research published in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that consuming more than one cup of coffee per day is associated with better gait – an important health indicator that relates to the risk of falling, morbidity and mortality, and is influenced by the nervous and cardiovascular systems, as well as musculoskeletal structure.

The research, conducted at the Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, investigated associations of alcohol, coffee and tobacco consumption with gait, using 2,546 participants with a median age of 68 years.

The results of the study showed that consuming more than one cup of coffee daily was associated with better gait when compared to drinking one or less cups of coffee.

Specifically, consuming one to three cups of coffee daily was associated with higher pace (or length of stride) and consuming more than three cups daily with better variability in stride length, pace and turning time compared with consuming one or less than one cup of coffee. Such effects may have important implications on the risk of falling in older populations. Source: Coffee & Cocoa International

©2015 Ben Gangloff

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Coffee

Everything You Need to Know About Single Origin Coffee

 

Here at A Little Further South we promote Direct Market, and single origin coffees. These are coffees that we buy from small farmers, everything is traceable, and we actually get to see the operations behind the coffees that we are importing.

Here’s an article that appeared in the “Perfect Daily Grind.” Please read the excerpt, and click on the link for the full article. Enjoy!

Single origin is a small phrase with a big definition. The meaning’s often simplified to a coffee that’s sourced from one single producer, crop, or region in one country. Single farm and single estate mean that the coffee is sourced from one farm, mill, or co-operative. Then you can go a step further and find coffee labels that tell you the estate name, the specific lot or paddock the coffee was grown on, or if it’s a microlot (a specific varietal from a specific farm).

Yet this isn’t all that single origin means.

Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Single Origin Coffee →