How climate change could affect coffee  Mar 29 2013

Earlier in the week I posted about how climate change is affecting wine. Turns out that coffee is in trouble as well.

But in recent years, keeping the world's coffee drinkers supplied has become increasingly difficult: The spread of a deadly fungus that has been linked to global warming and rising global temperatures in the tropical countries where coffee grows has researchers scrambling to create new varieties of coffee plants that can keep pace with these new threats without reducing quality.

While coffee researchers can do little to prevent climate change, they're hard at work to keep up as Earth braces for temperature increases of several degrees over the next several decades.

"Coffee is the canary in the coal mine for climate change," says Ric Rhinehart, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. "If you can't think about the long term risk for planetary impacts, think about the short term risk for your coffee. Know that a day without coffee is potentially around the corner."

(via nextdraft)

A short article about coffee and its  Mar 07 2008

A short article about coffee and its relationship to The Enlightenment, and smart drugs and body enhancements that may lead to a second Enlightenment. Short on details, but long on implications.

Clever ad folks turn steaming manhole cover  Apr 28 2006

Clever ad folks turn steaming manhole cover into steaming hot cup of coffee advertisement for Folgers.

Long, varied, and interesting recap from a  Apr 20 2006

Long, varied, and interesting recap from a participant at the 2006 United States Barista Championship. The drink he prepared for the competition (scroll to the bottom for the recipe) was called Coffee and a Cigar, a coffee drink with tobacco in it. "The tray never touches the table - ever. That's just a faux pas that I think should result in immediate disqualification. What reason is there to place your dirty tray bottom on your clean table? None."

Any Starbucks in the US (and 22 other  Oct 25 2005

Any Starbucks in the US (and 22 other countries) is supposed to sell you a cup of fair trade coffee if you ask them to. The Starbucks Challenge is motivating people to take them up on their offer. You can track people's progress or join in the fun yourself.

Slide show depicting a collection of New  Jun 28 2005

Slide show depicting a collection of New York City coffee cups.

Coffee in Paris sucks?  Jun 17 2005

Coffee in Paris sucks?. I don't drink coffee myself (vile, vile stuff), but I've never heard anything bad about the coffee in Paris, aside from the complaint of some Americans that you can rarely get it to go.