Coffee for the Birds

Archive for October, 2015

Coffee for the Birds

By Tim Thompson on Wednesday, October 28th, 2015 | No Comments

Everyone likes their coffee and coffee is good for your health as well. But many of us are concerned about the environment, global warming and the loss of species. Birds are especially vulnerable to deforestation and here is where coffee comes into the picture. When large farming operations cut down trees to plant sun-tolerant coffee […]

Ethiopia, Coffee and Injera

By Tim Thompson on Saturday, October 24th, 2015 | No Comments

Coffee was discovered in the East African country of Ethiopia by a man tending his goats (which become so energetic after eating beans from the plant that they did not sleep at night). Although coffee has certainly moved on from the highlands of Ethiopia and adjacent Eritrea coffee is still part of the culture. When […]

Colombian Economy and a Shortage of Coffee Pickers

By Tim Thompson on Tuesday, October 20th, 2015 | No Comments

When we think about the quality of regular or healthy organic coffee we usually think about sustainable agriculture, certification and coffee varieties. As a rule the state of the economy does not come to mind. Nevertheless, this article is about the Colombian economy and a shortage of coffee pickers. Bloomberg Business writes that coffee workers […]

Most Popular Coffee Brands

By Tim Thompson on Thursday, October 15th, 2015 | No Comments

While we would prefer that everyone drank healthy organic coffee the fact of the matter is that the most popular coffee brands are somewhat more common. Fortune wrote about the top 5 American brands. High-end, fair-trade, organic coffee beans might seem to be the only kind of coffee people drink now, but it turns out […]

Coffee Varieties: Sarchimor

By Tim Thompson on Thursday, October 8th, 2015 | No Comments

A coffee variety more resistant to coffee leaf rust than most is sarchimor. This is a hybrid between the Costa Rican Villa Sarchi coffee and a Timor variety. Timor coffee itself is a hybrid between Arabica and robusta which is what gives the coffee its leaf rust resistance. Besides being grown today in Costa Rica, […]

Coffee Varieties: Blue Mountain

By Tim Thompson on Monday, October 5th, 2015 | No Comments

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is known throughout the world. As it turns out Blue Mountain is its own coffee variety although the same coffee is called PNG Gold in Papua New Guinea and Boyo in Cameroon. Aside from its lack of bitterness this coffee is derived from typica and has some natural resistance to coffee […]

International Coffee Day

By Tim Thompson on Saturday, October 3rd, 2015 | No Comments

The first International Coffee Day was October 1, 2015. Sponsored by the International Coffee Association this day is meant to promote fair trade coffee and raise awareness of the plight of coffee growers. The promoters hope to make this a yearly event. Your favorite coffee shop may offer free cups of coffee but don’t expect […]

Archive for October, 2015