I Took the Q Grader Exam After Just Seven Months (and It Was Great)
Originally posted on the NKG PACE Journal. One offering of the NKG PACE program is for the Partners to take the Q Arabica Grader Course at no expense (thanks to the generosity of the CQI and the Atlas instructor, Drew Billups), so that we can add this distinguished credential to our resumes, if we’d […]
Kenya Main Crop 2023: Interview with Ibero’s Christophe Brinker
The Kenya harvest is well underway, and we’re in the midst of our purchase planning process for 2023 shipments! To get a sense of how things are going on the ground, we reached out to our good friend Christophe Brinker with our primary Kenya exporting partner Ibero. Atlas: Christophe, thanks for helping us share updates […]
Thoughts on Calibration
If there’s one word I could use to describe my experience with NKG PACE, it’s calibration. Why calibration, you might ask? It is the crux of everything we do as coffee quality control specialists. Before joining the program, calibration wasn’t something I would have associated with people but rather equipment. You can calibrate a thermometer, […]
2022 SCA Expo Education: Atlas Flavor Game + Survey
At Atlas, we cup a lot. And we think about flavor. We’ve been doing this with care and taking notes for over two decades! Some flavors are viscerally enjoyable and make us want to buy that coffee. Other flavors are unpleasant and, on rare occasions, engage our sympathetic nervous system with a “poison” warning that […]
Getting Hygge Part 2: Upcoming and Fresh Seasonal Arrivals
It’s that time of year… the air is getting crisper, leaves are starting to turn, and people are reaching for cozy coffees! Recently we featured some of our landed seasonal lots; this week we are highlighting some of the coffees that are afloat now and will be arriving just as winter reaches its coldest. Catch […]
Getting Hygge: Atlas Winter Coffees
It’s that time of year… the air is getting crisper, leaves are starting to turn, and people are reaching for cozy coffees! If you are looking for seasonal options to add to your lineup, read on for some of our current favorites. Catch up on past seasonal coffee recommendations here. Santa Elena Estate, Costa […]
2020 Honduras Las Capucas
Over the last couple of decades, steadily increasing demand for outstanding specialty coffee has benefited many farmers around the world. Those farmers have come to count on buyers consistently paying prices that exceed their cost of production and allow them to have profitable livelihoods. The same farmers often invest a great deal in labor and […]
Cupping in the Time of Coronavirus
The arrival of COVID-19 has brought many changes. Standard patterns are no longer advised or even possible. These last few weeks have brought a cascading series of adaptations – just as we get used to the new normal; there’s a new, new normal. But during all this change, some things carry on. For us at […]
The Who, How, and Why of Cupping Competitions
We Atlasians see a lot of value in bringing our coffee supply chain partners together to honor the work of microlot producers whenever possible. We do this in a variety of ways, including open cuppings here in the Atlas lab, cupping at origin with roasters and exporters, and – whenever possible – holding community microlot […]
All Things Robusta: An Interview with Four Q Robusta Instructors
Many of us in the specialty coffee industry are familiar with “the Q”, or the Q Arabica Grader Exam: a 6-day series of calibration exercises and 20 individual tests that evaluate a person’s cupping, sensory skills, and general Arabica coffee knowledge. What’s more of a mystery in our neck of the woods is the Q […]