News & Events | Page 2 | Center for Coffee Research and Education

Jul 27 2018

Staff Highlight Rodrigo Chavez

Rodrigo Chavez is the Coffee Research Center’s Project & Training Coordinator. His expertise in coffee ranges from being a coffee grower in Guatemala to purchasing a specialty coffee roasting and commercialization facility here in College Station, Texas called What’s The Buzz.

“I enjoy traveling and learning about other cultures. I have had the opportunity to travel throughout most of Europe, North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.” From each place he visits, he collects coins and bills. Besides working with “coffee” Rodrigo enjoys cooking and mixing flavors from other cultures. Outside of the coffee industry, Rodrigo is fond of building or remodeling older homes or industrial warehouses and turning them into lofts or office space.

To give you an example of what dishes Rodrigo conjures up:

Shrimp Tamales using tikka masala or curry sauce.
Grilling caramelized bacon and onions (brown sugar and pepper), chorizo burgers filled with blue cheese topped with mango/ ginger/ habanero/ cilantro chutney on ciabatta buns.
Pizza dough using honey or molasses as a yeast booster which gives a sweeter taste with toppings like pesto sauce and prosciutto, shrimp, caramelized figs and goat cheese.

Check out Rodrigo’s official bio:

https://coffee.tamu.edupeople/chavez-rodrigo/

Click here for his coffee:

https://whatsthebuzzcoffee.com/

Jun 14 2018

Coffee Test Farm in Laos

The country of Laos is now home to a Coffee Test Farm. The founder, Brian Brewer recently visited us at the Coffee Research Center and shared about his organization with our staff as well as collaborated information. The organization’s name, Ban Hao Agriculture (ບ້ານເຮາ) means “Our Village/Local”. Ban Hao strives to introduce new genetics as well as wet/dry mill to the local region in Laos where it is located. Brian works with smallholder farmers to improve their coffee. “Currently we’re doing this through a seedling distribution program where we give them new genetics to own and then in 3-4 years they give us back seedlings once their coffee is producing”, quoted Brian. After this, the coffee is distributed to local farmers. The farmers then have the right to sell the coffee for whatever profit they choose, because Brian says it was theirs to begin with. Ban Hao will buy the coffee at a much higher price (last year the price offered was almost double the average rate in their area) as long as they have the right varieties and are picked correctly.

Due to these factors, Brian’s organization is also instituting trainings for the local farmers regarding the best practices for coffee growers and picking the coffee.

We look forward to hearing more of what all they are doing and hopeful to begin collaborating as well.

May 31 2018

World Coffee Science Summit

The natural, agricultural and commercial challenges faced by the industry require breaking paradigms, investigating more, risking more and committing to technology to innovate and find new routes of viability for coffee.

Climate change is just one of the great challenges facing producers around the world. This and other threats are the subjects that the industry is obliged to discuss in academic and scientific circles.

The Center for Coffee Research and Education will be co-hosting the second edition of the World Coffee Science Summit, which will be held in San Salvador, El Salvador, from June 6 to 8, 2018.

There is still time to register. Go to coffeesummit.org and find all the information to attend the event. You can also follow their Facebook page and CCRE’s social media for live updates during the summit .

Our very own Taya Brown will be presenting on her study in Guatemala on A Study of the Adoption of the Centroamericano Coffee Hybrid by Smallholder Guatemalan Coffee Farmers.

“Yepocapa was selected by experts at Anacafé due to dramatic losses resulting from the recent CLR epidemic, which reduced production levels by up to 70%, and because coffee production is the main source of income in this region.”

Along with Taya, our centers director Dr. Leonardo Lombardini will be in attendance.

Apr 16 2018

IKAWA Pro Sample Roasters find a new home at Texas A&M

We, at the Center for Coffee Research and Education, are excited to announce our partnership with the roasting company, IKAWA. Our partnership was solidified through a sponsorship loan of an IKAWA Pro Sample Roaster. Features of the IKAWA Pro include a small batch size to fine-tune roasting with minimal waste. The addition of two IKAWA Pro Sample Roasters to our Coffee Science Laboratory means that we will be able to roast in tandem which is ideal for our research, training, and education. Two IKAWA Pros will be especially useful in our undergraduate coffee course: Coffee Processing and High-value Food Crops. We are excited for future growth opportunities between IKAWA and the Coffee Science Laboratory in the Center for Coffee Research and Education at Texas A&M University.

Dec 25 2017

Updates from the Study Abroad course in Guatemala

It is the peak of the holiday season and all of us at the Coffee Center wish you a very Merry Christmas. However, at this time of year, harvest season is also in full swing in most producing countries. One of our Ph.D students, Taya Brown, has been investigating the lifestyle of several small coffee farmers (cooperatives) in Yepocapa, Guatemala about the beans produced and cup quality.

On Dec 7, 2017, Brown conducted a workshop in which she was able to document and study the stories of these cooperatives to define specific issues between the process of harvesting the bean and processing the drink.

“Right now, once the coffee [beans] leave [the cooperatives’] sight, they have no further connection to them,” Brown says. “It’s important that the farmers are better represented along the supply chain. Telling their story can also add something to the coffee as a product.”

Brown and her Guatemalan research partner, Daniel Dubon, address the farmers of six smallholder coffee farming cooperatives.

One concern is that “no farmer currently has the ability to sell by quality or variety so, though they want to have high quality coffee, there isn’t a lot of incentive to change varieties or farming methods.”

Another obstacle lies in the course of payment for the farmers.

“The processed coffee is sold to larger contractors who don’t pay until the season is over, sometime in April. That means the farmers have to wait two to six months for payment,” Brown says.

The project is based on six smallholder farmer associations in and surrounding San Pedro Yepocapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Brown has been seriously conducting research on it since June 2017.

“My research is to uncover these issues so development projects can better suit the needs of smallholder coffee farmers in the future.”

Speaking of the future, the new year is approaching and the Coffee Center is excited to enter its fourth year of establishment. To read more about the different departments of research the we explore, click here. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Coffee Center.