Coffee Prices and Columbia

You may not have heard about this, but there has been a strike in Columbia for a couple of weeks now by coffee farmers demanding better prices for their Arabica beans. Arabica beans are the higher quality beans most of us drink everyday in our cups. Robusta is seen as an inferior bean. The problem is what farmers are being paid for coffee.

From a recent Financial Times article:

Arabica prices have plunged in the past 18 months are are fluctuating around $1.40 per pound. That compares with the unusually high 2011 average of about $2.55 a pound, and $1.76 a pound last year.

To off set the lower prices, the Columbian government has subsidized the coffee industry. Farmers are paid around $266 per sack of coffee. A sack of coffee equals approximately 132 pounds of coffee. According to The Columbian Coffee Growers Federation it costs $366 a sack to produce the coffee. If true, that is a significant hardship for coffee growers.

Let's think about this for a moment. Let's say you go to Intelligentsia Coffee and buy a 12oz (.75pounds) bag of coffee for $18. You just paid $18 for not even a full pound of coffee. The farmer is being paid on average $1.40 a pound for coffee. 

Now I understand the coffee has to be transported to the U.S., housed, shipped, roasted and marketed. Seems to me though, a fairer price needs to be negotiated with the farmer. We know that fair trade has made some headway in this, but obviously it isn't enough. 

Now there have been violent outbusts in Columbia with protestors and farmers. The strike will be ending this week, but what will have been gained by it. By reporting this, I hope more people will really think about what is going into their cup of coffee.

Charlie

Today's Cup of Coffee 2/26/2013

What do Cher, Moonstruck and a cup of Bolivian coffee have in common? Well that is what today’s cup of the day will explain. Today’s cup is roasted courtesy of my friend Kris. Kris homes roasts using beans from Sweet Maria’s. Her roaster is a Gene Cafe drum roaster. This week she roasted several coffees for us. Today’s coffee was Boliva Buena Vista Organic Colonia Villa Rosario.

How best to describe this coffee? There are strong Mocha hints in it. In fact, I thought for a moment it might be a Mocha, but nope, it was a cup of coffee. Some mornings you need a strong cup of coffee to get going. If you saw the film “Moonstruck” you will remember that Cher’s character, Loretta has spent the night with the brother of her fiancee, played by Nicholas Cage. In her attempt to get him to understand her anger, she slaps him hard in the face and says,” Snap out of it!” That is what this coffee did today. It slapped me in the face, told me to “Snap out of it!” I woke up, and it got me going. Now THAT is a cup of coffee. 

No wishy washy brown water here my friends. This was a good strong cuppa joe!

Charlie

Today's Cup of Coffee 2/20/2013

This morning we are drinking a Bolivan Fair Trade coffee from Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's coffee is roasted by Mountanos Brothers Coffee Co. in California. Their coffee usually comes in vacuum sealed canisters. When you pull the freshness seal off....the smell is wonderful.

We brewed a pot of coffee, and put our usual soy creamer/splenda combo into it. So how is it? This is a coffee we have liked. There is a smoothness to it, and there are hints of caramel to the coffee. This is not a very light roast. The can says medium roast,  but I believe it to be a bit darker than the average medium roast. There was no burnt flavor to the coffee, which tells me that it wasn't over-roasted.

A can of the coffee is $6.99. For that price this is a nice coffee. We enjoyed it.

Charlie

Cups

I read earlier this week that New York City Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban styrofoam cups. I'm sure this is from an ecological standpoint. I am going to take a different approach. Foam cups make coffee taste horrible.

I have railed against Dunkin Donuts coffee, but this will include McDonald's and most gas stations as well. Foam cups make coffee taste like there is some odd chemical inside. Isn't it bad enough the coffee is bad to begin with, but now you want to add a chemical taste to it as well? Yikes. I go back to this one thought, "What on Earth did that coffee do to you to deserve such a fate?"

On a road trip I will in purpose drink bad coffee. I do this so it will slap me awake as I drive. Still I really am repulsed by the taste of coffee in a styrofoam cup. Starbucks uses paper/cardboard, and their coffee has not chemical taste(there is the odd drip of coffee from the back of the cup,  but that's another posting for another day).

I hope Mayor Bloomberg is successful. Coffee deserves better.

Charlie

Fair Trade?

Many of us have heard the term "fair trade" in relation to coffee. Ideally, this means that the coffee was negotiated at a price with the grower(s) so they can make a better living off their products. For too long coffee growers have been living in poverty, because coffee companies take advantage of them, and pay way too little for coffees they grow. Fair trade was developed as a practice, in which fairer coffee pricing was negotiated and the farmers have a chance to pull themselves out of poverty. On various coffee packages, you may see a Fair Trade symbol indicating this practice.

Matt Earley, co-founder and Farmer Relations/Outreach Coordinator, for Just Coffee Cooperative in Madison, WI, believes the notion of Fair Trade hasn't worked, but it can. In piece written for Daily Coffee News he details the problems with Fair Trade, and some steps to turn the practice around. He argues with other critics that we should really be calling this, "slightly less unfair trade."

To be fair, there are coffee companies around the world who work with growers and cooperatives to assist farming communities achieve better standards of living. They help provide economic and educational assistance, as well as medical services to these communities. Earley would argue though, that these same companies are still bidding for the lowest price to pay for coffee, which they will markup and sell to you in a grande sized cup for $2.

Earley writes:

A lot of us who “do” what we have collectively identified as fair trade have been struggling mightily to prevent the term from being co-opted and carried off by the forces of big business, their friends, and their apologists. We have just not been able to stomach the idea that this moniker — one that so many have poured years of sweat equity into — can simply be taken away by folks in a real hurry to sell it to the lowest bidder. Even though many of these good people know that their time is better spent building their own visions, they find that they cannot quite stop fighting for the identity of “fair trade.”

Just seeing the Fair Trade label on the coffee is just that a marketing label. Earley believes that organizations have capitalized on this, so you will feel good about helping a farmer by buying this specific package of coffee. He believes that people are deeper than that.

In the article, Earley poses four steps to turn things around in the Fair Trade movement:

1) We need to build a movement, not a brand, because trade is only capable of doing so much

2) We need to create relationships with those who make or grow the things that we depend on

3) Labels are, by their very definition, severely truth-impaired

4) Don’t believe the hype

I encourage you to read the article, which is more in depth than what I am including in this posting. 

http://dailycoffeenews.com/2013/02/12/the-failure-of-fair-trade-and-four-steps-moving-forward/

There is also a series of videos about this issue, which the Just Coffee Cooperative produced detailing what they have learned about Fair Trade. Take a look at those.

http://fairtradechronicles.com

For those of us who love coffee, I think it's important for us to really look at what Fair Trade is, and what we can do to make sure it works better for the growers.

Charlie

Today's Cup of Coffee 2/9/2013

A co-worker was kind enough to get coffee for us today, and she headed to Starbucks. I always get the "bold pick of the day." Today's coffee was the Caffe Verona. Typically I like this coffee, but today's cup wasn't very good. In fact it was pretty bad.

Starbucks describes the coffee as "Dark Cocoa and Roasty Sweet." It is one of their multi region blends. I can say there was nothing cocoa or roasty about it. It tasted fairly bland, almost forgettable. I could tell I was drinking coffee, but only barely.

I would almost drink 10 cups of their Sumatra before I would have this again.

Charlie

Coffee Kids

During my experience in Costa Rica in 2008, I was struck at the work the local cooperatives and coffee company partners do to assist the regions farming families. Not everyone is so lucky to have a co-op to help. Recently I discovered Coffee Kids.

Coffee Kids is a 25 year old non profit organization which:

 works with organizations in coffee-farming communities throughout Latin America to create projects in the areas of education, health care, economic diversification, food security and capacity building. These efforts allow coffee farmers to reduce their dependence on the volatile coffee market and confront their communities’ most pressing needs.

Whether it be microcredit programs in Nicaragua, or food security programs in Mexico, Coffee Kids partners with local organizations to help these farming communities improve. Coffee companies in developed nations have donated and partner with Coffee Kids. Business donations account for 81% of the revenue Coffee Kids receives. 72% of funds raised go back to the projects which help so many families.

For more information on Coffee Kids go to

http://www.coffeekids.org

I am impressed with what I have read, and plan to donate at some point this year.

Charlie

Today's Cup of Coffee 2/6/2013

This week we are having a Kona Blend courtesy of Target. Target sells coffee labeled as Archer Farms, which comes from Coffee Bean International(CBI). I have had this coffee previously, but it's been a while.

Kona Blend is a lighter roast, but I found this one very full bodied. I know it says Kona, but there is no hint of pineapple(hehehehe). I've been trying to figure what the aftertaste is, there was a bit a smokiness to it, but it didn't taste burnt or anything like that.

CBI coffee, from what I have read, is able to preserve quite a bit of the freshness of the coffee. One writer said that it might hold 75% of its freshness. Is that something the average drinker would realize as they sip this cup of coffee? Probably not. As I drink more and more freshly roasted coffee though, I can tell. It isn't enough for me not to drink this again. At the same time it isn't the $3.99 a bag special I saw of White Castle Coffee today(for the record if their coffee tastes anything like a slider, then they should be shot).

Overall a decent cup of coffee this morning. If you are on a budget, the $6.29 a bag is a pretty good price. For about $1 more, they offer fair trade varieties of coffee at Target.

Charlie

Coffee Maker Follow Up

In a follow up to my coffee maker post, I read this in “The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee the other day, and thought I would share:

Would you cook a good steak in a microwave? Why would you let a machine make your coffee? Letting a machine brew your coffee is like putting popcorn in a microwave and “popcorn.” It takes the power away from you.

For most of us the answer is yes. Now I’m not going to diss the coffee maker. Nope. I own one, and am on record as loving it. Coffee makers serve a purpose for us - they provide coffee when we want it. For the on the go person, they can have coffee waiting for them before they head out the door in the morning. 

Now, for the more devotees of coffee, other methods have a way enhancing the flavor, bringing to the forefront all the flavors the roaster wants you to experience. A pour over is a preferred way to achieve this. In fact, more and more coffee houses around the country are serving pour over coffee.

Does the average person running into the coffee house taste the difference? I don’t know. I’d like to think so, because they go back again and again. Starbucks though insists their regular drip coffee if the biggest selling drink they serve. 

You’ve seen how they brew coffee. There are vats of it brewed, and they are all timed for freshness. When the beeper goes off, it’s time to make more coffee. 

The problem for most coffee lovers is, as coffee sits in a pot, the flavor of the coffee changes. Oils separate, and coffee can become more bitter as it sits. And please, don’t get me started on my old pet peeve of microwaving coffee. Good lord what did that poor coffee bean do to deserve that fate. 

As I drink my coffee in a thermal mug over an hour, do I notice a change in how it tastes? Yes. I still drink it though. I understand you want to drink the coffee at its freshest, but I liken this to wine. You want to savor a coffee, as you would a glass of wine. The difference is you if the coffee gets cool, you might want to drink it a bit quicker. 

I leave it to you to decide how you like your coffee. As long as the coffee is good, and nothing bad has happened to it, it can be brewed in any number of ways.

Charlie

My Coffee Maker

When I grew up my folks had either a Mr. Coffee or a Bunn coffee maker. For the time, that was the best there was for at home brewing. At least there didn't seem to be as many options as there are now.

Now and then I am asked what do we have at home for coffee making. We have a Breville You Brew System.

http://www.brevilleusa.com/beverages/coffee-makers/youbrew.html

We love it. We load the beans in the top of the machine. The beans eventually go into an integrated burr grinder, then into the filter, then the brewing begins. There are various settings for cups, strength and flavor of coffee. We have it set just shy of SUPER STRONG. Ok, there isn't that setting, but if there were, we would be just under that. There is also a timer, so we can set it for when we wake up. No going downstairs to start the coffee. It's done we make it down.

The thermal pot keeps the coffee warm for hours. If we don't want a pot, we can make one cup at a time. Now if it could put the Splenda and soy creamer in for us too, then we would be all set. I guess you still need humans for some things.

Have we thought about the Siphons, or Chemex systems? Yes, and we may expand to those in the future. This coffee maker though fits our lives and works very well.

My dad gave this to us in a continuing effort to improve our coffee efforts. One of the best gifts he has given us.

Charlie