The National Coffee Association of U.S.A., Inc. (NCA) will hold its 96th Annual Convention on 1-5 March 2007 at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz. Entitled Coffee On The Move: Forging New Profiles, the convention will put special emphasis on a category being redefined by changing consumer expectations and product variety.
This year’s Official Convention Host is the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC) on the occasion of its 80th anniversary. Over the years, the Federation promoted the development of a sustainable coffee economy, with revenues from the sale of Colombian coffee going back to the farmers, their families and communities. The Federation is entirely owned by more than 566,000 Colombian coffee growers, 95% of them small scale farmers.
Registrations are now being accepted at early-bird rates by contacting NCA at www.ncausa.org. Sponsorships and table-top exhibits are also available on a first-come, first-served basis by contacting Gerri Buchanan at 212-766-4007.
Posted by beanybabe at 12:41 AM PST
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This recipe is making the Internet rounds. I wouldn’t trust it (I’m into buying only so many coffee pots per year), but my buddy Taylor Lockwood (Kingdom of Fungi) illustrates the benefits behind this life-savvy dish:
Take one package of Ramen Noodles (package, not styrofoam), break the noodles in half IN THE PACKAGE, open the package and dump noodles into the coffee pot. Fill your coffee maker with water (only about three cups). Turn coffee pot on and allow it to drip. Let set for about 10 minutes so the noodles cook, then drain soup into a bowl. Add the flavoring of your package and any other seasonings you may like. Then eat.
You can do the same in hotel room coffee pots, only break the noodles up a little finer. You might need to add more water after the first pot cooks.
Posted by beanybabe at 12:53 AM PST
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AJ is the moniker for a woman who is spending a year in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, S. America, as an International Human Rights Accompanier. She uses her blog, “Limping Towards Justice,” to talk about her daily life in a small community. One recent entry entitled, “Cows, Coffee, Chocolate and Corruption,” details her experience with coffee and cocao beans. Delightful writing and an engaging perspective. She ends her entry with the following:
I think it is worth noting that the famous Juan Valdez has retired and been replaced this past year. While reading “Semana,” Colombia’s version of Newsweek/Time I came across a blurb about the switch over. The Coffee Growers Federation elected a 40-year-old Antioquian campesino named Carlos Castañeda out of an applicant pool of 406 aspiring icons. He replaces Carlos Sánchez, the Juan Valdez we have known and loved over the last four decades, and will soon set off on a world tour, I’m unsure if the donkey has also been replaced. I had no idea that there was an actual man out there traveling the world and promoting Colombian coffee, I thought it was just a picture on a coffee can.
Posted by beanybabe at 12:53 AM PST
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BANGALORE (India): Coffee Board, which had its last official meeting on April 22, is set to meet on February 2. The gap of over nine months and nine days is not due to numerology but the prolonged delay in constituting the new board after the old one had served its term…or something like that. Read more at The Economic Times.
Some of the world’s largest coffee firms have been unwittingly sourcing beans from illegal plantations inside one of the world’s most important wildlife sanctuaries, a new report says. Coffee industry giants Nestle and Kraft Foods were both implicated in the report, published by the World Wildlife Fund, which says growers in Indonesia had illegally used 45,000 hectares of the country’s Bukit Barisan Selatan (BBS) National Park. Read more at Nutra.
BRODIES, the Edinburgh coffee and tea merchants formed in 1867, has been sold for an undisclosed sum to the privately owned, Geneva-based Massimo Zanetti drinks group. Massimo Zanetti owns coffee estates in Brazil and in Costa Rica and roasting plants throughout Europe and the US. Read more about this story at the Scotsman.
Posted by beanybabe at 12:31 AM PST
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A few Starbucks news items: 1) Starbucks currently defending itself against the Oxfam campaign. Read the rest of the article about Starbucks defense at The Guardian; 2) ACK! Milk with bovine growth hormone (otherwise known as rBGH)! Last week, Starbucks said it dropped dairy products containing the artificial growth hormone at its coffeehouses in the West and New England, and is looking into doing the same nationwide. Starbucks has 5,668 stores in the U.S. Whether rBGH is in Starbucks China milk (or any other country for that matter) is unknown.
Comments? First, organizations like Oxfam should take a lesson from Oxfam’s willingness to lie in bed with Starbucks in 2004. Linking up with big business remains a thorny issue for charities, especially groups like Oxfam whose anti-globalisation messages often jar with the profit-making policies of multinationals working in the developing world. The Starbucks/Oxfam fiasco provides a classic example of what might happen (so will the same happen with U.K. McDonald’s and The Rainforest Alliance?).
As for the milk problem, retail competitors and non-organic dairy farmers could experience big headaches and even bigger costs from this changeover. Read how the Milk Industry responded to this issue. Otherwise, I wonder if people in America’s southland and midwest need to be subjected to the hormone, or will Starbucks prohibit the rBGH dairy products there as well?
Posted by beanybabe at 12:31 AM PST
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