From Tim…

Hello Reader - After ten+ years the Coffee Curmudgeon is going live and will try not to hide in as much obscurity. From now on I plan to mention the Coffee Curmudgeon at least once a month (if only to…

I am not sure why I've waited until now to post this here ("The Coming Third Wave of Coffee Shops - Dec99/Feb00 - Tea & Coffee Asia"). The term Third Wave Coffee caught on in the 2000s, but I was…

During a recent visit to Portland (20-23 April’23) for the 2023 SCA Expo, a barista, fifty or so years younger than me, asked what was the last thing that surprised me in the world of Specialty Coffee — that’s how…

“Coffee drinkers in the U.S. don’t know how much work it is to produce our coffee — how much more work it takes to grow a great coffee, if they did they’d want to pay more for our coffee, they’d…

Blockchain is a technology in search of work, or more work, and it will get it because it aids people in archiving and managing data. It does so while protecting that data and people seem to especially like that part.…

There has been an ongoing conversation regarding the U.S.A.’s pending candidacy for Failed State Status. I am sure that this goes back further than 2006, when Noam Chomsky wrote a 240 page indictment in the shape of a book, nominating…

After my last post the world seems to have reversed in its orbit.  This is what it’s like to live in a time when no one is in charge and everyone else is to blame (except the ones that are supposed…

In the sense of its first meaning (1509, according to Merriam-Webster), the word organic described something intrinsic to the whole of a thing, and not incidental.  As someone who has traveled to certified organic coffee farms, I have known for…

OK, alright, it had been a while since we spoke directly with COFFEE (see previous post), but we usually just have a cup of the stuff, so to speak, and get on with our day. So it was a little…

Someone wrote to me a few weeks ago and suggested that I write an “Onion” inspired piece for April Fool’s Day on some coffee-related topic. In the meantime, though, I had the opportunity to actually speak with COFFEE about the…

It has been some time since I have posted anything here. I have "thought I should" many, many times. I am now moved to say something when, ironically, I feel my voice, un-voiced for so long, was being misappropriated. Some…

There’s a lot going on in the world of coffee but the headline right now is this: The internationally traded prices for coffee have fallen dramatically over the past few months while at the same time, the outlook for the…