Intelli(dot)LA

Below, a repost from the Intelligentsiacoffee.com blog of Geoff Watts’ hopes for the next decade. A really great read.

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A new decade is arrived. Are you ready for it? Is the world of Specialty Coffee ready for it?

Just to help ease the transition I put together a little list of things to look forward to in coffee, along with some things I hope get left behind as artifacts, as we flip the pages of the calendar.

Things I hope become historical footnotes:

- The near-fanatical obsession with dry-processed coffees. Increased risk for the farmer + significant loss of varietal/terroir nuance in the cup + likelihood of current trend reversing at some point = probably not the kind of coffee we want to promote.

- The rapid proliferation of poor-tasting varietals. During the last couple of decades, various Catimor types have overtaken coffee fields worldwide. While there is good reason in some cases, it has nevertheless meant a measurable loss in quality potential over 90% of the time. There are surely better options.

- Super-sizing it. Got to get rid of the big urns. At our own coffeebars, we killed the 20 oz size and it caused a bit of a stir. But it was a good decision; another step in the noble pursuit of quality over all else. Single-cup, brewed-to-order coffee should become the new standard for those seeking a great coffee experience.

- Blind devotion to certification bodies. Don’t get me wrong, most existing coffee certifications have some kind of purpose and some role to play in the coffee world. But they often fall way short of delivering the intended benefits to either producers or consumers. Like all things in life, they ought to be treated with some scrutiny and expected to perform as advertised.

Continue reading ‘Watts on the Next Decade’