Why every global coffee brand loves a dark roast — It wasn’t until I was 29 years old, spending a year living in Costa Rica, that I had my first real cup of coffee. As an inner-city middle school teacher, the first six years of my professional life were fueled by an unhealthy Diet Coke habit. Little did I know…

I heard voices outside in the darkness of the night. People were dragging something on the ground. A quick look at my phone, it was 4 a.m. Still drunk, I fell back into slumber. Rain was drumming on the wooden roof. In the morning, I realized farmers woke up at…

Two solutions to save your cup of coffee from climate change. — Imagine that you are struggling to find water during the dry season, from October to April. Imagine that every year, the dry season is longer and drier because of climate change. Now, imagine that you cannot move to get water because you are a coffee plant. A coffee tree does…

“It’s warm and rainy today. Coffee trees are flowering, if it’s too wet flowers will rot before giving fruits. In December, it should be cold and dry, the weather is becoming weird recently…” My brother is a middleman in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. He buys coffee to farmers, roasts…

Everybody knows that the world is becoming warmer each year because of the carbon we release in the atmosphere. A warmer world will allow me to swim more often and spend less money on clothes; however, the heat will also hamper my consumption of coffee. Coffee trees, even though they…

Exploring the hills of Vietnam and its coffee plantations — The slope was steep, the road very narrow. Farmers skillfully drove their motorbikes on this narrow path of concrete. They often transported huge boxes or even large tree trunks — just mind blowing.

The journey from Vietnam to your cup. — A cup of coffee looks so simple. A cup. With a tasty black liquid inside. You can savour it with your friends surrounded by the cozy atmosphere of your home or at a café for a date. Coffee brings people together. It brings joy. From the place where it is…

The ecological processes behind one of the world’s most popular beverages — You drink it everyday. It’s black. It smells good. It tastes good too. A lot of people drink it just like you. They order a “cup of coffee” and drink it quickly before work, or during a break. Among the millions of people drinking this black fluid, only a few…

Trading coffee is not an easy job. In a recent trip to Vietnam, I had the chance to meet a coffee trader and visit his wet mill. First of all, let’s remember that there are two coffee species traded around the world; coffee arabica which is 60% of the traded…

Coffee is appreciated by millions of drinkers everyday around the world. Around 25 million farmers grow coffee in 60 tropical countries. Coffee plantation covers about 11 million ha around the world including both arabica and robusta coffee. Vietnam is the second producers in the world with 700 000 ha of…