This is Coffee

[geir oglend]

I'm sure alot of you have seen this short film before, but for those of you who missed it, enjoy...
Keep in mind it was made in 1961. I was only 10 and loved my coffee with lots of milk now I drink it black? A few things might have changed since then, but the romance stays the same.

geir oglend http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3518335410

[Demian L]

Thanks for posting this. It was epic. It would be cool to know more about the production and purpose. Also, I don't know much about he Coffee Brewing Institute. Anyone have anything on their history?

[Mike Ferguson]

Much of the original science behind brewing was conducted by the Coffee Brewing Institute. In his forward and introduction to The Coffee Brewing Handbook, Ted Lingle acknowledges the pioneering work of the Coffee Brewing Institute and Dr. E.E. Lockhart. The SCAA library contains a number of original CBI publications and they make for fascinating reading.

According to Lingle, The Coffee Brewing Institute was a joint effort between the National Coffee Association and the Pan American Coffee Bureau. The PACB was responsible also for a lot of consumer promotion of coffee. I have two or three coffee advertisements in my ephemera collection that were created by the PACB, one featuring broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. Dr. Lockhart was an MIT food scientist and was the scientific director for the CBI from 1952 until 1964 and he once wrote "In the case of coffee, agriculture and industry have fostered art."

Lingle explains that the CBI was closed and replaced by the "Coffee Brewing Center" in 1964. The CBC, he says, was focused on the foodservice industry and created The Golden Cup award, which SCAA revived about 16 years ago. The CBC conducted a lot of outreach to the trade and training. It is my understanding that a number of people from the founding generation of the specialty industry participated in these trainings or were trained by those who did. The CBC closed in 1974.

Today, the closest "living relative" to the CBI and CBC is the Norwegian Coffee Brewing Center (which was renamed to the European Coffee Brewing Centre a few years ago). Located in Oslo, it is a fascinating place that I have been lucky enough to visit. A "spiritual offspring" of the CBI and CBC would be the SCAA Technical Standards Committee.

Like all things funded by the ICO (an expansion of the Norwegian center to other countries was funded by the ICO in the late 1980s), they rise and fall with the fortunes of the industry and the existence or collapse of a International Coffee Agreement. In any case, all of these entities produced virtually identical standards in terms of the fundamental science of coffee.

[geir oglend]

Wow Mike that's some great story, thanks. I'm familiar w/ the Norwegian Coffee Brewing Center.
http://www.kaffe.no/?l=13 (click on the Union Jack for English)
Have not had the chance to visit, but I'm sure Tim W and the crew over at Solberg Hansen have.
Seems to me that the membership list is full of BIG players.
Over here you have more than likely seen the "sticker"on all the Moccamasters.

geir oglend