2015: Digital Coffee Summer

The sun is out and the summer is sweaty; it’s the season of cold brew and there’s lots that has been steeping here at When Coffee Speaks.

First, When Coffee Speaks: Stories from and of Latin American Coffeepeople is now an ebook! Find it on amazon.com (where it’s also now available in hard copy) or on your Kindle, Nook, device with an iBooks app, etc. Thanks to Alonso Tomas of Altico Trading for making this possible (and contact him if you’re looking for a trustworthy futures/options broker.)

Second, I have my first guest blog up at Angels’ Cup, the impeccably tasteful Brooklyn-based coffee subscription service curating really exciting tasting flights. I’ll be doing more for them in the future, so stay tuned (and try their app if you’re looking for a fun way to learn what coffee cupping and flavor profiles are all about).

Third, the International Coffee Organization (ICO) hosted its first competition of coffees roasted at origin in Paris at the beginning of the summer. The ICO is the force behind the coffee agreements and quotas of the past. The ICO is the data collectors and BFF of the big guys, so the fact that they are concerned with individual farmers is quite exciting and a true testament that the way we buy, sell, and understand coffee is beginning to change to include voices it did not used to include. The concern now is to make sure that producers are actually voicing their opinions and not being used as celebrity marketing. Using someone as a prop is worse than ignoring them. More on this soon.

Fourth, Nela Montero is in Scandinavia! Nela, the daughter of a Costa Rican coffee family, has been on an odyssey to explore coffee consumption culture. (Sort of the inverse of my original travels–and she has far surpassed me in the continents she has covered!) She is now in Norway, taking over the world. If you don’t read her blog you should!

Fifth and finally, New York Coffee Festival is happening Sept 24-27th at the Armory in Manhattan! I also don’t want to be thinking that September is as soon as it in fact is, but since fall has to come eventually, we might as well embrace it by kicking off the return-to-hot-coffee season. Check out their site to get involved. I’ll be there speaking/selling books/interviewing people/otherwise hustling.

Happy rest of the summer!

(Now get off your computer and get outside before it’s too late!)