Resources

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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