The Reading Room

 Photo by Blogdeguatemala.com Landing in Guatemala City is a pleasure to the sight. Clear blue sky, sunlight softly caressing the magnificent volcanoes, gently reminding us they are still alive.  Agua volcano nourishes coffee plantations soils with sand, once in a while,...

I was born right next to a coffee plantation, here in San Jose, Costa Rica. Even my earliest memories are attached to the coffee. I remember when I was around 3 years old to see my grandmother roasting coffee in...

As if it wasn't complicated enough.Sometimes I think that coffee is more complicated than wine.  Forget about the up-front factors, like location, weather, ripeness of the fruit, processing, aging, etc.  They both have those things in common.  I'm just talking...

Guatemala City, November 8th. 2009. The National Growers Association's, ANACAFE, officials announced yesterday that Raul Rodas was the three time winner of the Guatemala Barista Competition. Noe Castro, representing Café San Lucas and Barista Champion in 2006, and Pablo Bobadilla...

I well remember the proverbial first day of the rest of my life. I had arrived in Bali at 10.30pm after leaving Wellington some 23 hours previously and transiting in Sydney. I was on a QANTAS flight packed with an...

Last week, I had the great pleasure of co-hosting the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe's (SCAE) origin tour to Hawai‘i.  Ok, I wasn't really hosting; rather, I was giving moral support.  Andrew Hetzel of Cafemakers did all the hard work...

For most people the geography lesson is not necessary. Java is a name that has been closely associated with coffee ever since the Dutch East Indies Company began growing the trees on the island in the early years of the...

As a new member of the roaste.com site, I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge about Indonesian coffee with all the members here. I have been living here in Indonesia working with farmers throughout Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Flores, Bali...

Our customers can now purchase coffee direct from Costa Rica, shipped direct to your home, by Cafe Paradiso in San Jose, Costa Rica. We've been negotiating for months with this innovative roaster in Costa Rica coffee/wp/wp-content/uploads/files/uploads/paradiso_shadegrown_sticker.jpg" alt="Cafe Paradiso Shadegrown /...

/files/u143/SanGuayabapeq.jpg" alt="Guatemala coffee Finca El Socorro y Anexos, located in Palencia municipality, Guatemala department" title="Guatemala coffee Finca El Socorro y Anexos, located in Palencia municipality, Guatemala department" height="336" width="448" /> Guatemala coffee Finca El Socorro y Anexos, located in Palencia...

I was born and spent my pre-teen years on the island of Trinidad, in the Caribbean, and I have fond memories of coffee.  Not the beans, the fruit.For some reason, we never had real coffee in the house.  My mom...

Our roasters make small batches of exceptional coffee. It will arrive to your home fresher than anything you've purchased before. It won't be overroasted like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and other supermarket brands. It will be half the price of Starbucks...

Buy micro-lot coffees.  These premium coffees can be traced to a specific crop and season.  They taste better. Or buy a single origin coffee for a unique taste. Store in an airtight container in your panty, not in the refrigerator...

Coffee is as complex and interesting as wine.  It's also 1/10th the cost. And if you're like me, you drink 5-10x more coffee during a typical week than wine. So it's time to appreciate coffee more! Properly brewed, coffee has...

You can enjoy the largest collection anywhere of coffee micro-roasters on ROASTe.com.  And a lot of our micro-roasters are unique finds.  They're well worth trying.  They're worlds apart from the bitter swill served at places like Starbucks and McDonalds.  Here's...

Recently, I traveled to Puerto Rico by invitation of their Dept. of Agriculture.  I spent a week exploring their Puerto Rico coffee industry.  I met farmers, processors, roasters, cafes and government personnel well versed in coffee.  They asked me to...

Like many of our customers, I probably drink 1 or 2 glasses of wine (or beer) a week but I drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day.  Yet what do I know more about?  Wine and beer! What about coffee,...

Initially, the hacienda was named Cafetal El Porvenir and in the exquisitely preserved original house (see photo in the first part of this blog), Orlando has kept in mint condition several of the accounting books, the harvest logs and a...

Smooth is just one way to describe the delicious taste of Fitger's Coffees! Those who experience this coffee describe the same accolades. Unbelievably Smooth, Full of Big flavor... and if that isn't enough... No Bitterness or Aftertaste! Fitger's on the Lake, ( Lake Superior in...

Ingredients 1/2 tbsp Molasses 1/4 tsp caramel pinch ground ginger 1 ounce freshly brewed espresso pinch ground cinnamon 1/2 cup steamed whole milk   Preparation Add molasses and caramel into wide brim demitasse Sprinkle ground ginger add espresso slowly to...

A Briton by the name of James Tyrrell Moore (London 1803 - Bogotá 1881) landed in Colombia in 1829 and, after several ventures as an engineer mining gold, building furnaces and promoting a diversity of projects, he settled in Cundinamarca,...