Coffee Tao

Below you’ll find posts related to coffee education. From history and trivia to in-depth analysis, these posts are centered around increasing your overall coffee knowledge.

Jacu Bird Coffee–When Kopi Luwak Isn’t Gross Enough–1/13/08

If you thought there weren’t nearly enough coffees being created from animal dung, now we have Jacu Bird coffee from South America.

Water: the Most Important Part of Coffee that Isn’t Coffee–12/7/07

Coffee is 95% water, so you can easily guess that the quality of your water is critical to the final cup, as Klaus Thomsen demonstrates by A/B testing various filters.

When Is an Arabica Coffee Not an Arabica? A Robusta Not a Robusta?–11/9/07

It sounds like a Zen koan, but there’s a method behind the madness. People typically associate arabica beans with specialty (i.e., good) coffee and Robusta beans with commodity (i.e., bad) coffee, but is that always accurate?

Understanding the Caffeine in Your Coffee–11/4/07

Everyone knows that coffee has caffeine. But what is caffeine, and how and why does coffee produce it?

The World’s Most Expensive Coffee–10/28/07

Hacienda La Esmeralda may be the best coffee this year, but it’s not the most expensive. That honor belongs to Kopi Luwak, whose unusual method of production may surprise you.

Fair Trade vs. Direct Trade, Pt. 1–Which Is Which?–10/20/07

“Fair Trade” and “direct trade” are terms commonly confused by consumers. What do they mean, and what’s the crucial difference between them?

SCAA Creates Certification for Coffee Cupping Judges–10/9/07

The SCAA recently finished creation of a certification process to qualify instructors to teach cupping classes.