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BARISTA EDITOR LETTE R here we go again HEY, IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY! This publication you're holding is the eighth anniversary issue of Barista Magazine! And it's been a heck of an eight years, let me tell you. I'm known for recalling what little clout baristas had when we first started publishing a whole magazine dedicated to their success in 2005. Back then, coffee industry bigwigs didn't ask baristas for their opinions. Only a precious few equipment companies listened to barista feedback on their new grinders and tools. The Barista Guild of America had just had its first meeting, and Heather Perry was still competing. Eight years later, Heather sits on the board of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). Eight years later, a grassroots event based on free education called Barista Nation is the top training and community-building forum in the world. It's been an intensely progressive eight years. No one's happier than I am about this; baristas have grabbed the reins and taken the lead; they are by nature strong-willed and curious, insightful and motivated. Our global coffee industry is sturdier, our future brighter, because of baristas. But I just want to say one thing: we really need to remember and respect where we came from. No one's arguing that the barista community isn't awesome and powerful; it is! It rocks! It's just that a lot of people came before baristas and helped pave the way. It's important that we continue to give them the props they deserve. We feature outstanding baristas and business owners on our covers and in articles, and we'll always do that. But we're bringing back an old favorite column beginning with this issue. This column is about recognizing as well as honoring the roots of our coffee world, the authorities. We call it simply, "Master Q&A.;" Beginning with the profile of incoming SCAA president Tracy Allen on page 90, we'll feature luminaries of the industry as we did in our first years of publication, when we spotlighted George Howell, Paul Katzeff, Kent Bakke, and others of that esteemed ilk. I invite you to join us in this and future issues as we sit down with specialty coffee pioneers to talk about their places in the industry and the history they helped to create. M AGA Z I N E There's also some bad news—some really, really bad news. Believe me, I'd rather discuss something else; I wish coffee-leaf rust—or la roya—wasn't on our radar, but it is. It's hemorrhaging our industry like nothing before it. The encouraging part is that there are armies of coffee scientists and researchers working to find a way out of this. As coffee-leaf rust ravages Central America—something that will be even more evident as production yields dramatically shrink over the next decade—organizations like the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC) are working tirelessly to develop new Arabica strains that will survive in the face of the massively adaptable coffeeleaf rust disease. Green buyers like Chad Trewick of Caribou, who heads up the SCAA's Sustainability Committee, study coffee-leaf rust in their global travels and convene with their expert peers to devise strategies for combatting it, or at least surviving it. I urge you to read Chad's article in this issue on page 78 about coffee-leaf rust and what's ahead. Further, see the FNC's new promotion, "Origin Insights From the Hub," on page 18. The organization's top scholars will be writing an interactive column every issue beginning with this one, answering your pertinent questions about the science of coffee. And their first installment focuses on rust. I also ask that you read Sam Penix's "Field Report: Nicaragua" on page 36. The owner of one of New York's most celebrated coffee companies, Everyman Espresso, Sam writes of his first visit to a coffee-producing country in a wondrous voice, communicating the experience of seeing coffee growing for the first time with eloquence and charm. But Sam also conveys his dismay at encountering coffee-leaf rust in person, seeing the devastation it has caused throughout Nicaragua with very real fear. As a business owner who is not only successful but compassionate, Sam knows coffee-leaf rust is going to change everything; our life in coffee will cease to be recognizable as la roya encumbers production to the point that coffee producers seek new employment and abandon stricken farms, as coffee prices soar, as quality goes down. This is dead serious. Hopefully, though, we can help. Barista Magazine exists to make café owners' lives a little easier. We find the news you need to know, and we source experts to explain it. As complicated as our industry is right now, there's a lot to be grateful for. At least, on our eighth anniversary, that's how we feel. Publisher Kenneth R. Olson Editor Sarah Allen Art Direction Demitri Fregosi Powers Photographer Jesse Pinkman Business Manager Cheryl Lueder Copy Editor Erin Meister Advertising Sales Sarah Allen 800.296.9108 Contributors Marie Cullinan Darrin Daniel Rev. Ian Fretheim Erin Meister Sam Penix Tara Shenson Chad Trewick Ryan Willbur Editorial Advisory Board Christopher Nicely Abel Alameda, The Hart and The Hunter Joshua Boyt, Metronome Coffee Lemuel Butler, Counter Culture Coffee Trevor Corlett, Madcap Coffee Company Roukiat Delrue, WBC Sonja Grant, Kaffismiðja Íslands Gerra Harrigan, InterAmercain Coffee Heath Henley, Dose Coffee & Tea Jannicke M. Johansen, 3FE Rita Kaminsky, J. Hill y Cia Troels Poulsen, Kontra Coffee Dan Streetman, Irving Farm Coffee Colin Whitcomb, Madcap Coffee Company Barista Magazine 4345 NE 72nd Ave. Portland, OR 97218 phone: 800.296.9108 fax: 971.223.3659 e-mail: info@baristamagazine.com www.baristamagazine.com Barista Magazine is published bimonthly by the Barista Magazine Company, LLP. Subscriptions are $20 in the United States, $40 USD in Canada/Mexico, and $50 US for the rest of the world. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Postmaster please send address corrections to: Barista Magazine, 4345 NE 72nd Ave., Portland, OR 97218. ISSN: 1944-3544 Copyright 2013 Barista Magazine. All rights reserved. 14 barista magazine