Coffee is a multi-million dollar industry in Costa Rica. But the work on coffee farms is demanding and carried out mainly by migrants, many of whom have left neighboring Nicaragua in search of a better life.
Tag: coffee
Even four cups a day! Coffee can be good for you, and not just for waking you up. A series of recent scientific studies show drinking abundant good brew can prevent heart disease and dementia and help you live longer. But how and when you prepare are key.
Extreme weather and climate events have severely affected the two largest coffee producers on the planet, Brazil and Vietnam. Here’s how climate change is fueling the surge in prices.
The debate over the potential dangers of energy drinks, especially for young people, was revived recently in Spain, following a teenager’s death in Madrid and the Galicia region’s ban on sales to minors.
A gigantic and multi-faceted new location near Shanghai epitomizes the American giant’s ambition to quench China’s growing but still-nascent thirst for coffee.
Follow a coffee enthusiast and professor of marketing who studies justice in capitalist systems through the aisles of all the java claiming to be doing the right thing. Not all so-called *ethical coffee merits the label.
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The Benefits Of “Buongiorno”
Our Naples-based psychiatrist reflects on her morning walk to work, as she passes by people who simply want to see a friendly smile.
It has been five years since Starbucks first opened in Milan, where the company’s CEO first got the idea that the world wanted quality coffee. Today they set their sights not on retreat but expansion. The path ahead in this mecca for “caffé” for the Seattle-based coffee shop is a rosy one.
The food and drink scene in Montreal is just as vibrant and diverse as the city itself. It’s a delightful fusion of French and North American influences, resulting in a unique gastronomic experience that draws food enthusiasts from far and wide. From fresh bagels to more hearty meals — to be expected in a city […]
Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, offers myriad delightful culinary experiences. Portuguese cuisine is known for its fresh ingredients, bold flavors and a rich mix of Mediterranean and Atlantic influences. From the sweet Pastéis de Nata to the savory Francesinha, local markets, neighborhood eateries or seafood restaurants will have everything you need to try! A […]
East African concerns about food security are accompanied by farmers’ concerns that they will not have sovereignty over their own crops in the wake of a push toward GMOs.
Coffee producers in Oaxaca, Mexico, are adapting to climate change by restoring their coffee plantations in agroforestry systems. While the costs of their work are increasing, the price of coffee is not.
In Uganda, people grow coffee to export but rarely consume it themselves. Now a push to dispel myths about the beverage and introduce new ways to use the beans is changing that.
This essential morning drink for millions worldwide was once considered an addictive menace, earning itself a ban on pain of death in the Islamic world.
Amid post-pandemic trade distortions and changing consumer habits, Latin American countries seeking to boost coffee exports should eye a growing specialty market in prosperous Asian countries.
What else…?
They haven’t actually gone anywhere. But because of the pandemic, the city’s celebrated cafés are off limits — and sorely missed.
Peruvian coffee farmers desperately need help — from both the public and private sectors — to improve quality and bring down production costs.
The country faces dramatic debt levels among small-scale coffee farmers, as prices fall on world markets. Some have suggested a fixed minimum price for this key Colombian export.
Taco Bell in Mexico? McDonald’s in Hamburg? Americans find the recipe abroad, bastardize it, and then have the stomach to go back and sell it where it all began.
Companies like Tres Montes in Santander are focusing on quality, not just quantity, and improving the lives of small-scale growers in the process.
BEIJING — If you’ve ever had trouble ordering at Starbucks, just know you probably have plenty of company: millions of Chinese coffee lovers. When one customer recently posted an open letter online to the chief executive of Starbucks in China to complain about the way the American coffee chain calls its different size cups, the […]
More and more coffee growers are going organic in Colombia. A boost for the environment, the trend is also improving lives, as producers in the coastal Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta can attest.
A handful of producers are trying to boost the quality of coffee in Colombia, and improve rural lives in the process. They’d also like local consumers to be a bit more discerning.
What if everything were free? Well, it is at Debora Fischkandl’s little Paris shop, no strings attached. And hers isn’t the only one. A look at the radical side of the sharing economy.
OBAMA’S IRAN ULTIMATUMIran should agree to a verifiable freeze of its nuclear program for at least a decade if the country wants to strike a deal with the U.S., President Barack Obama told Reuters in an exclusive interview. Obama explained his goal was to make sure “there’s at least a year between us seeing them […]
The Netherlands, a major consumer of sustainable coffee, is helping to make production in Colombia more environmentally friendly for the benefit of grower and drinker alike.
BOGOTA — Call it the South American version of selling ice to eskimos: Starbucks is opening its first store in Colombia on July 16. The shop marks the start of the American coffee giant’s operations in a country that grows and produces lots of its own brew, and already has a strong, local but international, […]
Producers from Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia have visited the Colombian estates of producers to discover the social, environmental and aesthetic benefits of growing shade coffee.
KUWAIT CITY — Juan Valdez coffee shops, as familiar in some Latin American cities as Starbucks is elsewhere, opened their first franchise shop in Kuwait this month. The inauguration heralds the firm’s arrival in the cash-rich market of the Middle East, a region also believed to be key in cultural and branding terms. The chain […]
BUENOS AIRES — There was a time when we resolved everything, absolutely everything, around a café table. Or at least, that was the feeling. A coffee bar provided the perfect backdrop and the necessary mutual understanding with friends that allowed you to talk about anything at all: the world, the country, sports, sex, television, you […]
BOGOTA — After a long, drawn-out build-up, Starbucks has confirmed it will be coming to Colombia. The arrival of Howard Schultz’s company’s in the South America country famous for its coffee production will be the start of a very interesting showdown with local chain Juan Valdez — as well as all the small coffee shops […]
GENEVA – From one culture to another, the temperature of what people drink during their meals can vary. In many Asian countries for instance, people like to drink a hot beverage while they eat. Europeans for their part tend to favor drinks at room temperature, while North Americans prefer them ice-cold – on the rocks. […]
Worldcrunch OSAKA – Tired of getting the same cup o” Joe every morning? Think your Starbucks barista should be more of a bartista? Meet Kazuki Yamamoto, a 26-year-old Japanese “cappuccino painter” based in Osaka, who took latte art (drawing on espresso with milk) to the next level. No doubt Yamamoto’s unbelievable 2D and 3D moch’art […]
Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – Last week, a study was released that showed Argentinians drink 100 liters of mate per capita annually, double their consumption of beer or wine. It’s even more popular than tea and coffee which, for most of the rest of the world, are the go-to hot drinks. Food and drink traditions are […]
MAGNATE – The jeep makes its way along a path of red earth, bordered on either side by forest trees. We have not passed a living soul for miles, apart from a few baboon troops scampering away as we approach, quickly climbing up trees for a better perch to watch us drive by. We are […]
MOSCOW – Natasha writes “Frank, 11:20 a.m.” on a slip of white paper and hangs it on the pin board behind the counter next to “Nina and Katya, 10.55 a.m.,” “Sergei, 11 a.m.” and other names. Then she opens an antique cabinet filled with dozens of old alarm clocks and watches, all different, but with […]
TAPACHULA – “I’ve come here to earn money, and then I’ll go back home…” Josefina Perez talks as she cuts coffee trees with a machete on the 617-acre Irlanda farm perched on the Tacana volcano in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Like this 40-year-old seasonal worker, more than 100,000 Guatemalans cross the border each year […]
ADNKRONOS, LA STAMPA (Italy), BIOSCIENCE TECHNOLOGY (USA) Worldcrunch MILAN – Great news for coffee junkies worldwide from the place where it’s brewed to perfection: Italian researchers say even three or four cups of espresso a day is actually good for you. A study at Mario Negri Pharmacological Institute in Milan showed the daily cup or […]
PARIS – In the last years of his life, French novelist Marcel Proust mostly fed himself with café au lait. Made by the two best roasters in Paris, Proust’s coffee came from freshly ground beans that were extracted drop by drop according to an unchangeable ritual. Sometimes the verdict would be without mercy: “Celeste, how […]