We have it on good authority that Fort Smith is a charming place, one where travellers and explorers can visit exhibits such as the Northern Life Museum, take in the sights and sounds of the South Slave Friendship Festival and catch a peek of wildlife such as pelicans and the endangered Whooping Crane. And coffee loving truck destroying bears.
Yes, coffee loving truck destroying bears.
Ellen Zhang, the managing director of Esquires Coffee’s Chinese operations, and other members of Esquires’ corporate team have signed a deal which will see a number of franchised coffee shops pop up in China.
Zhang has put pen to paper with the Chinese retail conglomerate Bu Bu Gao (BBG) – also known as Better Life – who operated over 3,000 stores in the country and plan to open up ten new shopping centres in Hunan province, catering to the populations of Changsha, Shaoyang and Chenzhou.
Vietnam is one of the world’s biggest producers of coffee, specifically robusta. According to some facts and figures the country accounts for about 20% of global exports, second only to Brazil.
But despite commanding a sizeable share of the market, Vo Thanh Do, a senior government minister, says that Vietnamese coffee makes up about 3% of the worldwide trade from an economic point of view.
The reasons, according to Do, range from the use of obsolete technologies, poor business strategies and a focus on quantity, not quality.
…continue reading What’s the reason for Vietnam’s low export prices?
Which country is currently producing the best coffee in the world?
Colombia? Nope.
Guatemala? Wrong
Brazil? Nada.
Ethiopia? Getting closer….
We’ve taken a liking to covering stories emanating out of Rwanda recently, mainly because there’s a lot of interesting news coming out of the country’s coffee sector at the moment. Some are good, like Starbucks’ Executive Vice-President giving the nation’s coffee a ringing endorsement, but some aren’t; it’s safe to say that Rwanda’s experiencing a turbulent period at the moment. Prices have tumbled, competitiveness across global markets has increased and many farmers were worried about being had voiced concerns about being left behind.
The National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) has previously spoken in a bid to quell those fears and now they’ve begun to act – by beginning a nationwide coffee census.
If ever a product should have been launched on 4/20, it’s this one.
In a Seattle shop customers can wander in a purchase “premium infused coffee” for $10 a pop. These coffee pods and capsules work with most popular single-serve coffee machines on the market and are infused with a 10mg dosage of THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana.
The Rwandan coffee industry is hoping to export around 26,000 metric tonnes of coffee this year, bringing in around $75 million to the local economy. Hitting these self-imposed targets is always a tough task, but they hope to do so thanks to their relationship with Starbucks, the global coffee giants – a partnership which has recently received a glowing recommendation for the Seattle-based chain.
Starbucks’ Executive Vice President, Craig Russell, was in Kigali recently and spoke highly of Rwanda’s coffee. The salutations were certainly flowing as he spoke to the local press.
Earlier today whilst gazing out of the office, watching the world pass by and pondering the meaning of life, our attention was diverted towards a the creation of some transparent coffee by an entrepreneurial Slovak by the name of David Nagy.
Nagy, you see, has spent the past couple of months developing a drink that is coffee in all but name and, importantly, colour.
What, coffee that isn’t a sort of brownish colour?
If you’re reading this then there’s a good chance that you are partial to a cup of coffee or two per day and that you know all about the drink’s potential health benefits. Drunk without milk, cream, sugars or sweeteners (no, expensive syrup laden Frappuccinos don’t count in this!), coffee is low in calories – not to mention it’s remarkably tasty too.
But researchers have uncovered that some by-products of the coffee production process have antioxidant effects that far surpass those found in vitamin C.
Last weekend an estimated 350 acres of arable land in Jamaica went up in flames. The fires raged, pushing through fields in Flamstead and the surrounding Mavis Bank vicinity, destroying cash crops without mercy.
The inferno was described as “the worst in the history of the area,” said one resident and has severely affected the Caribbean nation’s coffee farmers who grow the prized Blue Mountain variety that the island is famed for.
…continue reading Fire blazes through Jamaican plantations, Jm$500m damage caused
