ENSEMBLE COFFEE RESEARCH + EDUCATION
RESOURCES
A grab-bag of ideas, instructionals and ruminations we've found on our internet adventures.
 

GREEN COFFEE & SOURCING

READ / 14 MIN
How Should You Store Small Quantities of Green Coffee?

With the launch of Roast From Home, ECRE is interested in exploring solutions for storing small amounts of green coffee at home. This article speaks to coffee professionals to answer this question.

BY JOSEF MOTT
READ / 7 MIN
A Coffee Shortage Is Coming, And It Could Last Three Years, Importers Warn

The effects of climate change and COVID-19 have combined to create a global shortage of green coffee, meaning prices will invariably rise. What does this mean for our industry?

BY RHIANA WHITSON & EMILIA TERZON
READ / 10 MIN
Why Is Frost in Brazil Causing Global Coffee Prices to Increase?

Brazil has endured a freak frost season that has devastated the country’s coffee plantations. This article explores what happened and what it means for the future of the coffee industry.

BY TASMIN GRANT
LISTEN / 30 MIN
Making Coffee with Lucia Solis (Podcast)

Lucia Solis' (a former winemaker turned coffee fermentation specialist) clear eyed meditations on specialty coffee. It's deeply thought provoking stuff. A mind-expanding listen. Essential.

BY LUCIA SOLIS
READ / 30 MIN
Coffee Variety Catalogue by WCR

A catalogue of the most commonly cultivated coffee varieties, with info on yield, cup quality, nutritional requirements and lineage.

BY WORLD COFFEE RESEARCH
READ / 10 MIN
Counter Culture Variety Map

Our favourite variety map, tracing the lineage of the coffee varieties we know today over hundreds of years of evolution and breeding.

BY COUNTER CULTURE COFFEE
READ / 5 MIN
Cafe Imports Coffee Origin Guide

A guide to regions, harvest dates and varieties by country (bonus: coloured maps and helpful coffee grade decoding). Includes common regions as well as underdogs like Malawi, Jamaica and Yemen.

BY CAFE IMPORTS
WATCH / 10 MIN
Direct Trade Coffee Adventures by Tom Owen

A hilarious parody by Tom Owen (of Sweet Maria’s), poking fun at buyers who spend a couple days a year in a coffee-producing country.

BY SWEET MARIA’S
IN THE STORE /
Dear Coffee Buyer—A Guide to Sourcing Green Coffee

Ryan Brown started at Ritual Coffee Roasters in SF and subsequently set up buying programs for many others. His sourcing strategies can all be found in this must-read.

BY RYAN BROWN
IN THE STORE /
A Reference Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Varieties

Don’t be calling Ethiopian varieties ‘heirloom’ anymore. Why? Read this. Essential for anybody wanting to learn the ins-and-outs of coffee’s most unique and inscrutable origin.

BY GETU BEKELE & TIMOTHY HILL
READ / 30 MIN
The Fermentation Effect

A four-year research collaboration that attempts to better understand post-harvest coffee processing on coffee quality across different geographic locations.

BY SOPHIA JIYUAN ZHANG AND FLORAC DE BRUYN (SCA)
LISTEN / 30 MIN
The Caravela Podcast

A thought-provoking podcast from Caravela, a coffee exporter that facilitated the entry of thousands of coffee farmers into the specialty coffee market.

BY CARAVELA COFFEE
 

ROASTING & BREWING

READ / 10 MINS
Was it the green? The roast? The extraction?

Anyone who’s QCd their own roast has asked “what went wrong?” when a cup doesn’t taste as good as they’d like. Scott Rao chats about how you might find answers.

BY SCOTT RAO
WATCH / 7 MIN
James Hoffmann’s Dialling In Guide

When it comes to coffee, nobody is as thoughtful or eloquent as James Hoffmann.

BY JAMES HOFFMANN
READ / 60 MIN
Socratic Coffee—The Coffee Gadfly

Get schooled at the geekiest coffee place online, as a coffee nerd and a scientist join forces Mythbusters-style to test prevailing brewing equipment and extraction theories.

BY SOCRATIC COFFEE
 

COFFEE SCIENCE

LISTEN / 20 MINS
Can we create a climate-resistant coffee in time?

A great, short podcast about the rediscovery of Coffea Stenophylla and the promise it holds for the future of coffee production on a warming planet.

BY THE GUARDIAN
READ / 3
A new tasty coffee species? Coffea Stenophylla

A wild species of coffee from West Africa is resistant to warm temperatures and tastes like arabica! This article summarises the exciting finding.

BY SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
READ / 30 MIN
Water activity in specialty green coffee: a long-term observational study (PDF)

Deep dive into the very real science of water activity: the energy status of water rather than its quantity in a system.

BY IAN FRETHEIM (CAFE IMPORTS)
 

COFFEE INDUSTRY

LISTEN /
'In Good Taste' Podcast hosted by Ever Meister

The wonderfully thoughtful and articulate Ever Meister's podcast series that examines ethical issues raised when marketing coffee, including use of farmer photos, cultural appropriation, and more.

BY SPRUDGE
READ / 10 MIN
The global coffee market and the commodity exchange of coffee

A great blog by Sweet Maria’s, with links to research articles on “the global coffee market, coffee value, Fair Trade and commodity fetishism!”

BY SWEET MARIA’S
LISTEN / 60 MIN
Opposites Extract Podcast

The archives of this podcast are well worth exploring. It was hosted by Ever Meister and Joe Marrocco, two of coffee’s cleverest minds.

BY CAFE IMPORTS
LISTEN / 20 MIN
The SCA Podcast

A podcast from the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) presenting stories, lectures, and debates.

BY SPECIALTY COFFEE ASSOCIATION
LISTEN / 60 MIN
Sweet Maria’s Podcast

It’s no secret we’re fans of Tom Owen from Sweet Maria’s, a one-of-a-kind coffee human with a one-of-a-kind podcast. Worth an archive trawl.

BY SWEET MARIA’S
LISTEN / 60 MIN
The Coffee Podcast

Conversations with industry experts for coffee enthusiasts, from home brewing to sustainability.

BY THE COFFEE PODCAST

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