If you are a fan of Third Wave, then you have come across the three different post-harvest processing methods for coffee. Here’s a guide to what they mean and how different processing methods can affect flavor.
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Thoughts and Tastes from Castronovo Chocolate in Stuart, FL
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Digging deeper into coffee and cocoa, the specialty markets and how their cost structures attribute to their price tags. Transparency is the heart and the root as well as complete dedication to the beans and where they come from!
Read MoreGlobalized agriculture markets carry within them great price volatility due to many extraneous variables like seasonality, water conditions, and pest-management to name a few. Here I want to begin the conversation on how a globalized market can work with the farmers to provide them with prices high enough to sustain them through the off-season or drought years. Check out this interview: http://coffeelands.crs.org/2015/11/conversations-in-prm-part-3-jorge-cuevas-a-shared-cost-approach-to-price-insurance/
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In the late 1990s Vietnam suddenly popped onto the map as the second largest coffee producing country in the world surpassing Columbia and falling second only to Brazil.
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Direct Trade is a highly variable system devised by each company to focus on their particular concerns, but almost always these programs include long-term partnerships with their farms, quality control and paying well over the Fair Trade minimum price ($500 + PNYSE).
Read MoreNext year marks the 10th anniversary of craft chocolate. In this time the industry has grown and changed with no signs of stopping. Specialty Chocolate to the American consumer can be a very personally rewarding relationship and for most people when you start adding $10+ bars on the table it can create an immediately alienating atmosphere. It’s better to work up to the higher end slowly, and I think the Wine and Coffee industries have done a good job at setting a tone like that.
Read MoreWhy Farmers Markets are important! and how they are a main artery for being and educated consumer, improving your quality of life and consuming deliciously!
Read MoreDelving deeper into my background and how understanding the chocolate industry paved the way and shaped my approach to the world!
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