Coffee Production

• Where Coffee Grows

The coffee tree is a tropical evergreen shrub (genus Coffea) and grows between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The two most commercially important species grown are varieties of Coffea arabica (Arabicas) and Coffea canephora (Robustas).
The average Arabica plant is a large bush with dark-green oval leaves. The fruits, or cherries, are rounded and mature in 7 to 9 months; they usually contain two flat seeds, the coffee beans. When only one bean develops it is called a peaberry.
Robusta is a robust shrub or small tree that grows up to 10 metres high. The fruits are rounded and take up to 11 months to mature; the seeds are oval in shape and smaller than Arabica seeds.
Ideal average temperatures range between 15 to 24ºC for Arabica coffee and 24 to 30ºC for Robusta, which can flourish in hotter, harsher conditions. Coffee needs an annual rainfall of 1500 to 3000 mm, with Arabica needing less than other species. Whereas Robusta coffee can be grown between sea-level and about 800 metres, Arabica does best at higher altitudes and is often grown in hilly areas.
Harvesting
As coffee is often grown in mountainous areas, widespread use of mechanical harvesters is not possible and the ripe coffee cherries are usually picked by hand. The main exception is Brazil, where the relatively flat landscape and immense size of the coffee fields allow for machinery use.
Coffee trees yield an average of 2 to 4 kilos of cherries and a good picker can harvest 45 to 90 kilos of coffee cherry per day; this will produce nine to 18 kilos of coffee beans.
Coffee is harvested in one of two ways:
Strip Picked – all the cherries are stripped off of the branch at one time, either by machine or by hand.
Selectively Picked – only the ripe cherries are harvested and they are picked by hand.
Pickers check the trees every 8 to 10 days and individually pick only the fully ripe cherries. This method is labour intensive and more costly. Selective picking is primarily used for the finer Arabica beans.

•  Initial Processing

After harvesting the next step is to remove the coffee seeds from the ripe fruit and dry them. This can be done in two ways: the dry and the wet methods.
The Dry Method
The dry or ‘natural’ method involves drying the whole cherry. It is the oldest, simplest method and requires little machinery. The harvested cherries are sorted and cleaned, by hand, to remove unripe, overripe and damaged cherries as well as any dirt, soil, twigs and leaves. This can also be done by floating the cherries in water.
The coffee cherries are spread out in the sun, either on large concrete or brick patios, or on matting raised to waist height on trestles. If it rains they are covered up. As the cherries dry, they are raked or turned by hand to ensure even drying. It can take up to 4 weeks before the cherries are dried sufficiently. On larger plantations, machine-drying is sometimes used to speed up the process after the coffee has been pre-dried in the sun for a few days.
Dried cherries are brittle with a hard outer shell and should have a maximum moisture content of 12.5%. The dried cherries are stored in silos until they are sent to the mill for hulling, where the outer layers of the dried cherry are removed. The ‘green coffee’ beans are then sorted and graded ready for selling.
Almost all Robustas are processed by this method. Almost all the Robustas as processed by this method. The dry method is used for the majority of the Arabica coffee produced in Brazil, most of the coffees produced in Ethiopia, Haiti and Paraguay, and some Arabicas from India and Ecuador.
The Wet Method
The wet method requires the use of special equipment and the availability of water. As with the dry method, the ripe cherries are first cleaned. They are then pulped by a machine that squeezes the cherries so that the flesh and the skin are separated from the beans. The beans are left with a slippery outer skin (the mucilage) and a parchment covering.
The beans are further cleaned to remove lingering bits of pulp and put in large tanks; there the mucilage is broken down by natural enzymes and washed away. This takes between 24 and 36 hours. Then the coffee is thoroughly washed with clean water. At this point the coffee is approximately 57% moisture.
To reduce the moisture to a desirable maximum of 12.5%, the parchment coffee is dried either in the sun, in a mechanical dryer, or by a combination of both. Sun-drying takes from 8 to 10 days. This parchment coffee is then stored.
Just before sale, this coffee is hulled to remove the parchment, and cleaned, screened, sorted and graded. This ‘green coffee’ is now ready for selling.

•  Roasting & Grinding

During roasting, the characteristic coffee taste aroma components are formed, along with the typical brown colour of the beans. More than 1000 different aroma components of coffee are known.  By variation of the roasting conditions it is possible to achieve the specific flavor profile of the final coffee according to the preferences of the consumer. Green coffee beans are heated to between 180ºC and 240ºC for 1.5 to 20 minutes. Stronger roasting will generate darker colour and more intense aroma and flavour.
Coffee is typically roasted in horizontal rotating drums that are heated from below or fluidized bed roast chambers where the coffee is heated and moved by hot air. On an industrial scale, the burners are typically heated with gas or oil. Following roasting, the beans are cooled down to room temperature. They may then be packaged as whole beans ready from sale.
If required, the roasted coffee beans may be ground. This is done in a coffee grinder. Grind size needs to be adapted for each intended use (espresso machine, filter brew, instant coffee) as it will also influence the taste in the cup.

•  Coffee Production Today

Coffee grows in around eighty countries in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
Arabica coffee accounts for about three-quarters of coffee cultivated worldwide. It is grown throughout Latin America, Central and East Africa, India and, to some extent, Indonesia.
Robusta coffee is grown in West and Central Africa, throughout South-East Asia and, to some extent. in Brazil.
Brazil is the largest coffee exporting nation, but Vietnam tripled its exports between 1995 and 1999, and became a major producer of Robusta beans. Indonesia is the third-largest exporter and the largest producer of washed Arabica coffee.

Just Love Coffee Roasters Building First Three Stores in Major Expansion Plan

All photos courtesy of Just Love Coffee Roasters

Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based roastery and retailer Just Love Coffee Roasters is readying three new shops for opening, with ambitious franchising plans for approximately 150 locations, primarily throughout the South, over the next five years.
“150 is just a number we’ve put down as a goal,” says Rob Webb, who launched Just Love with a $100,000 loan in 2009 in a small warehouse, and soon after moved to a much larger Murfreesboro location after feeling some burnout from a Nashville music career. “By no means do we have all those places planned out over five years, but my partners have done something like that with another brand.”
Webb declined to disclose who else is in the partnership group, saying he is one of four people representing a diversity of skill sets, including retail operations, franchising and marketing. He’s the coffee guy.
The first three new locations — one planned for just off Music Row in Nashville, one in Brentwood, Tenn., and another in Huntsville, Ala., that will be co-branded with Gigi’s Cupcakes — are not part of the franchise model, but all three are expected to open this Spring. Webb says the performance of those stores and 10 to 15 other Just Love-branded stores in the South will guide the scope of further development.
Webb tells Daily Coffee News that he never set out to be in the retail game, but unlikely success developing a retail component at the Murfreesboro roastery has made market demand clear.
“It’s in a horrible location — on the back side of the building in a part of town that does not have a lot of commercial retail,” Webb says of the Just Love HQ. “We never intended to be a retail store. We started as a roaster. It was an online model only, and we really focused on supporting adoptive families and nonprofits. That was really the model. We outgrew our first facility and grew to a 2,400-square-foot facility. People would just kind of trickle in wondering what we did. About six months in, I realized I should have built a coffee shop there.”

The Just Love flagship in Murfreesboro

The new stores will largely replicate the retail plan of the original Just Love location, offering all manner of cutting-edge manual brewing equipment, alongside a more traditional bar for a wide range of coffee, espresso-based drinks. The food menu is based around the use of waffle irons, where sweet and savory items are created throughout the day (only four of the 20-something waffle iron items actually have waffle batter in them, Webb notes).
Webb suggests Just Love’s success in an out-of-the-way location in a market like Murfreesboro is predicated on an inclusive approach: If you want a rare, single-origin Ethiopian coffee brewed in an Aeropress or a nitrogenated cold brew, you can have that; If you want a syrup-sweetened, milk-heavy latte, you can have that, too.
“We are going to give the customer what they want, and we’re going to make it the best we possibly can,” says Webb. “We’re not going to tell them that something is right and something is wrong. How do you tell someone who’s eaten chicken nuggets their whole life that a whole roasted fresh chicken tastes better. You can’t. They like chicken nuggets. They grew up with them. Nobody instantly likes wine. Nobody instantly likes black coffee.”
That’s not to say Just Love tries to offer everything to everyone, but Webb hopes anyone who walks into the shop can find something appealing on the menu.
“There’s a place for being uncompromising in coffee quality — for being cutting edge,” says Webb. “Barista Parlor in Nashville does a brilliant job of what they do. They really captured a market, and I frequent them, because I’m a coffee guy. But if I can create a similar experience at Just Love and I can bring a friend along who doesn’t know coffee like I do, and they come away with a new coffee experience, then I think I’ve done a service.”

Webb says a large part of that service and drink menu approach is simply driven by demand.
“In coffee, I think roasters and retailers need to have a specific purpose: A third-wave shop needs to offer a high-end, perfect-quality service; then there are big box shops that are just driven by the dollar, and they do what they do,” Webb says. “I’ve found there was something missing there. We’re in the South, where it’s not exactly cutting edge. We’re not New York, or LA or Seattle. We have people who come in and say ‘I just want a regular cup of coffee.’ You have to shift gears to speak to that.”
Webb and his various ownership partners are currently working with Paul Biggers of Nashville-based nFusion Design Studio. The existing roastery will supply the new shops, although Webb says he is in the process of upsizing to a 50-kilo Dietrich roaster to help spell the 12-kilo Probat that has been “running around the clock.”
As for the longer-term retail development plans, Webb says, “We’ve had interest all over the map, but the hardest thing to do is just to say no when opportunities arise. Just in the bordering states of Tennessee, there’s plenty of market opportunity.”

Meet Southern Roots, Pairing Panther Coffee with Fresh Food and Bulk Goods in Jacksonville

Photos by Matthew Shaw

by Matthew Shaw

Jacksonville, Fla. is a deceptively large city. Its population of over 800,000 — twice that of Miami — is scattered across 885 diverse square miles of rivers, marshlands, beaches and subdivisions. Rather than sprawl, urban straggle is a more apt description. The city’s urban core is relatively sparse and foreign to much of the metropolitan population, with irregular and messy development throughout much of the metropolitan area. For some perspective, Jacksonville may have the only major city center in the United States without a Starbucks.
Despite this, the city’s core is not devoid of good, even great, coffee. Sturdy retail operations like Bold Bean Roasters and Brew Five Points saw the relatively vacant landscape as an opportunity for the city to define itself anew. Although these businesses reside in Riverside, which technically lies on the fringes of downtown, low rents, proximity to nature, and a population of progressive, free-thinking city folk eager to support local businesses, have made high-end coffee a viable pursuit here.
Now comes Juan Pablo (a.k.a. JP) and Mariah Salvat. In an attempt to inject further life into the growing scene, the couple has opened Southern Roots Filling Station at 1275 King Street in Riverside. Aside from serving an array of drinks using Miami stalwart Panther Coffee, Southern Roots also serves house-made baked goods and open-faced sandwiches. The couple plans on offering a large selection of bulk goods.

Photo by Matthew Shaw

“We saw the shop as a great opportunity to grow and expand on a blossoming coffee culture,” says JP, a Miami native by way of Colombia. “[The culture]’s so new here, you don’t really have to abide by any rules.”
Southern Roots drink menu reflects that open playing field. You won’t find a cappuccino or latte, but you will find a well-crafted espresso, café con leche, and a version of a cortado Southern Roots is calling Black Panther: 6 ounces of espresso with steamed milk over a morsel of locally made dark chocolate. Of the drink menu, JP says, “We wanted to be inspired by people doing cool things in other cities, while drawing on things that may be a little more uniquely Floridian.”
After traveling all over the world, the couple’s return is a homecoming for Mariah Salvat. The shop’s name, Southern Roots, is a nod to the couple’s ties to the area. “There’s a charm and sweetness in the South that is hard to find elsewhere,” Mariah says. “I think it’s Southern hospitality, and try as I might to get away, keeps bringing me back.”
With reclaimed wood walls, exposed concrete floors, up-cycled lighting fixtures, tables made of old doors, and driftwood decor, Southern Roots interior is a sort of beachy, rustic, mixed-bag of simplicity. “Just about everything in here is reused or up-cycled,” JP says. “And everything from the food and drinks to the design really came from our travels.”

Facebook photo. Jam Saturday!

There are Spanish-style beamed ceilings, a long communal bench inspired by the kinds of functional furniture the couple admired in Croatia, and a reclaimed wood wall plucked right from their favorite West coast neighborhood.
“When we took a van trip to California a few years ago, we stumbled on Trouble Coffee and the General Store on Judah Street,” JP says. “We were really taken by the simplicity and beauty of that area.”
Freshness and simplicity inform the food menu, as well. Cornbread with jams or seasonal greens and Wainwright Dairy cheese with either a house-made pumpkin seed pesto or smoky seed spread atop toasted local bread represent just two of the Southern Roots’ earthy offerings.
“Greens on everything is kind of my motto,” says Mariah. Spreads, sourkrauts, and prepared foods will also be refrigerated and ready to take out in the bulk foods section, which also includes bins filled with herbs and spices, oils, extracts and pasta. Says JP, “We think the bulk foods kind goes with our overarching ideas of bringing more variety to the neighborhood and city.”
With Vagabond Coffee and a new Urban Grind (Jacksonville) location also moving into brick-and-mortar establishments in the city’s core in 2015, Southern Roots has quickly established itself as part of a larger movement. “We think having a lot of coffee options is necessary for a city to really thrive,” Mariah says. “I think, as people kind of living outside of the box, we all have to be supportive of each other.”

New Brewing in Cincy: Collective Espresso’s Second Neighborhood Bar

January 22, 2015 8:00 am

Photo courtesy of Collective Espresso

After providing coffee-sacred ground in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district for espresso and manual coffee drinkers for the past two years, the team behind Collective Espresso has opened its second neighborhood shop, in Northside.
In scope, the new 500-square-foot shop at 4037 Hamilton Ave. extends Collective Espresso’s original approach in offering a simple, clean menu with a focus on drink precision and quality in an unassuming neighborhood atmosphere.
Now that some of the dust has settled since the December opening, we caught up with Collective Espresso co-founder Dustin Miller to discuss the new digs:

How long has the idea of a second shop been on your mind?

We’ve been working on this shop for about six months, but we are always dreaming up ideas that could turn into new places. We usually take an idea and sit on it for awhile, let it simmer and then come back to it. The Northside shop just made sense.

How long have you had your eyes on that particular space? How did you come across it?

I’ve loved this space since stumbling upon it over five years ago. Jan Young, the owner of Cluxton Alley Coffee Roasters — we now share the space — often had the doors open and you could stop in and get a cup for a dollar. But there weren’t any regular hours, and I always thought about how perfect it would be for a shop. Fast forward five years and I simply stopped in and asked if they would consider renting it to us to open our second location. She mulled it over and came back with a yes.

Can you tell us more about the neighborhood?

Northside is a very diverse neighborhood, both racially and socio-economically. Lots of creatives, lots of small independent businesses and an emphasis on supporting those local businesses. In the business district there are Cincinnati staples, like Shake It Records and the Northside Tavern, and new up-and-comers like The Littlefield, a new bourbon bar. All together, it makes Northside a really great place to be.

How intensive were the design and buildout?

We started from scratch with an empty room and a coffee roaster to work around. But being such a small space, I would say that the buildout wasn’t too intensive. We did all the design and build ourselves, which is work we genuinely enjoy.

Were there functional design lessons learned at the first shop applied to the second shop?

Since both of our shops are pretty tiny — they each seat about 14 — every square inch matters. We design to put the barista in the forefront.

What equipment are you brewing with?

We are brewing espresso on a 3 group Synesso Cyncra with a pair of Mazzer Majors. It’s a really beautiful machine. We are also doing french presses and pourovers on the Kalita Wave drippers and grinding on an Mahlkönig EK43.

Who is supplying the coffee?

Our coffee partners are Deeper Roots locally (Cincinnati), our house espresso is our regional partner Quills Blacksmith Espresso (Louisville), and we work with a number of national roasters including Four Barrel, Madcap, Herkimer, Kuma, and Intelligentsia. Our milk comes from Hartzler Family Dairy in Wooster, Ohio.

How would you describe the interior design vibe and how would you want a new customer to feel walking in?

The design is simple and clean. The whole front of the shop is windows, so there is wonderful natural light that highlights the maple wood used throughout.
I would hope that the customer experience be, “Wow.” I want our customers to feel immediately welcome and at home in a place where they can grab a quick espresso or spend some time working over a pourover. I want them to taste our drinks and immediately know the difference.

Any plans for shop number three?

You never know.

How would you say specialty coffee is coming along in greater Cincy?

We are a growing scene. Several great shops have opened since we did, like Cheapside Cafe and Trailhead Coffee across the river; all doing great work. I think coffee culture takes time, but we are getting the ball rolling.

Coffee King Athens

Test Tubes, Baby: The New Pre-Dose Rack System from Alpha Dominche

January 21, 2015 11:23 am
Any number of strategies and ancillary devices can help make brew-to-order coffee bar workflow more efficient during peak hours, but few are going to look as lab-groovy as these new pre-dose racks coming out from Alpha Dominche, makers of the Steampunk brewing system.
The company softly unveiled the racks, with glass, corked vessels on Instagram two days ago, showing them in action at one of the locations of San Francisco high-end tea purveyor Samovar Tea Lounge:

As you can see, these babies are for the full-on coffee laboratory effect.
Each metal rack includes 30 glass test tubes that are 32 x 200 mm, allowing for coffee capacity of up to 40 grams. Each metal stand is is 21 x 6.5 x 10.5 inches. The stoppers are rough-grained punched cork.

Photos courtesy of Alpha Dominche

“We found out pre-dosing coffees and teas is a great way to speed up work flow during peak hours, and an aesthetic way to display your coffees or teas for customers to see,” Alpha Dominche Marketing Director Jessica Tocci tells Daily Coffee News, adding that coffee can be weighed and inserted into the tubes via a separately sold filler accessory.
The pre-dose racks and tubes are not yet available on Alpha Dominche’s e-commerce store, but inquiries can be made directly to the company.

B Corp Could Be Coffee’s Next Big Certification Movement, and Here’s Why

By Michael Sheridan of CRS Coffeelands Blog

First things first: I know I am late to the B Corp party.
I first heard about B Corp certification from David Griswold at Sustainable Harvest what seems like years ago. I made a note to look deeper into the whole B Corp thing but never got around to it. Then it started showing up in some of the publications I read. The New York Times. The New Yorker. And, of course, Coffee & Conservation.
I got the gist of it all, but never slowed down to really soak in the details. Then more companies I know started signing on. And more U.S. states ratified legislation legalizing public benefit corporations. Finally, over the holiday break, I found some time to dig deeper, and found extraordinary substance behind the B Corp’s sleek communications.
There is no better example of B Corp’s marriage of style and substance in my mind than its brilliant Declaration of Interdependence:

Shareholders vs. Stakeholders

The magic of the public benefit corporation model is that it elevates stakeholders to the level of shareholders in the decisions that a company makes.
A farmer-focused friend in the non-profit sector who used to work on sustainability issues for a publicly traded company described his decision to leave the private sector this way: “Whenever shareholder value and farmers’ interests were in conflict, shareholders won out.” Naturally. Maximizing shareholder value is, after all, a legal obligation for traditional corporations.
Which is what makes legislation legalizing public benefit corporations so powerful. It legitimizes the pursuit of blended value in the private sector. Public benefit companies make their decisions only partly on the basis of the financial value their actions will create for investors; they also consider the impacts those actions will have on workers, communities, water, soil, forests, etc. If we want to extend time horizon of our species, we must get better at balancing financial value with social impact and environmental stewardship. Pioneering firms like Patagonia have known this for a long time and coded it into their corporate DNA long before the B Corp certification came along.

The ABCs of B Corp Certification

So, if a growing number of U.S. states and foreign countries have legislation legalizing public benefit corporations, why should companies like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s go the extra mile (and pay a pretty penny) to get certified as B Corporations?
Here are three compelling reasons:

Assessment

The B lab has developed rigorous and comprehensive impact assessment tools, including the QIA, or Quick Impact Assessment, and the BIA, the full B Impact Assessment required of all applicants. If your company cares about impact but doesn’t have the resources to develop its own assessment tools (or even if it does) the B lab offers valuable off-the-shelf solutions.

Benchmarking

Once members of the B Corp community rate themselves, they can benchmark their overall and category-specific performance against competitors. Among coffee roasters and traders, for example, we know that Blue State Coffee and Sustainable Harvest are the companies to beat in the area of governance (15 points each), Caravela Coffee sets the pace for community impact (92 points) and Ethical Bean is best-in-class in its impact on workers (26 points) and the environment (36 points).

Communication

The B Corp certification is a powerful evangelist for public benefit corporations, preaching the gospel of business for blended value through effective digital communications. In a marketplace littered with examples the negative impacts on people and the planet of an exclusive focus on financial value, it is a welcome and dynamic new voice. Members can bask in the light of the halo over the B Corp community and point to the B Corp third-party validation of their commitments and performance.

B Corp vs. Fair Trade

At the risk of piquing the ire of Fair Trade advocates (again), I am tempted to compare B Corp certification and Fair Trade certification. It’s not my fault, actually. B Corp made me do it by publishing this suggestion prominently on its website:

B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee.

Only B Corp certification may be even better for consumers looking for a holistic indicator of a company’s business practices.
When I was leading the CRS Fair Trade Coffee Project, we developed a high-bar standard for partnership–we invited only “100-percent” Fair Trade coffee roasters to become partners. Why? Because Fair Trade Certification only describes a transaction. A company’s decision to certify as Fair Trade only a portion of its coffee (1 percent, 5 percent, even 30 percent) didn’t necessarily tell you much about that company’s business model. A 100-percent commitment to Fair Trade sourcing, however, seemed to speak more clearly to how a coffee company makes its money and relates to its suppliers.
Why is B Corp better than a 100-percent Fair Trade standard for this purpose? Because its performance scorecard goes beyond Fair Trade standards to assesses companies across more categores and generate a clearer and more complete picture than Fair Trade Certification alone can offer of a company’s business model and its impacts on people and the planet.

The Coffee A-List B-Roll

To date, 15 coffee traders and roasters worldwide have become Certified B Corporations.
Former Roast Magazine Roaster-of-the-Year award winners (4 companies), members of the Cooperative Coffees network (3 companies) and Canada (3 companies) are particularly well-represented.
Amavida Coffee & Tea – Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. – Amavida serves the Florida panhandle and is a member of Cooperative Coffees, which imports Fair Trade and (mostly) organic coffees for 23 community-based coffee roasters across the United States and Canada. B Corp scorecard.
Blue State Coffee – Hartford, Conn. – This roaster’s mission is to use its coffeehouses to create community across New England. It is easier to do that when the coffee is good, of course, so Blue State sources its coffees with care, sometimes directly. B Corp scorecard.
Caravela Coffee – Bogotá, Colombia – This “vertically integrated green coffee company with roots in Latin America” is the second stage in the evolution of the Colombian exporter Virmax Café. The company is growing fast, with sourcing operations in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia and Ecuador and importing operations in the United States, Europe and Australia. B Corp scorecard.
Coda Coffee – Denver, Colo. – Coda Coffee is a family affair in Denver that was started by two Seattle transplants and their Dad in 2005. They love the color orange and they roast some decent coffee: Coda was the Roast Magazine 2014 Macroroaster of the Year. B Corp scorecard.
Conscious Coffees – Boulder, Colo. – Conscious Coffees is former Roast Magazine Microroaster of the Year and a member of the Cooperative Coffees family, but it is not Canadian. B Corp scorecard.
Equator Coffees & Teas – San Rafael, Calif. – A former Roast Magazine Macroroaster of the Year, Equator has contributed mightily to the understanding that coffee is culinary through partnerships with celebrated chefs and fine restaurants. And it invests in its people–health care and 401k contributions in the United States and reinvestment in social projects at origin. B Corp scorecard.
Ethical Bean Coffee – Vancouver, B.C. (that’s in Canada, people) – A family-owned Fair Trade roaster with deep ties to coffee-growing communities in Huehuetanango. Its owners went to Guatemala 15 years ago to adopt their daughter and came back with a daughter and the idea that they could use business in to foster rural development in the coffeelands. B Corp scorecard.
Grounds for Change – Poulsbo, Wash. – A family-owned roaster in the great PNW that delivers Fair Trade, organic, shade-grown coffee, offsets, composts, and contributes 1% for the Planet. B Corp scorecard.
Jim’s Organic Coffee – West Wareham, Mass. – Jim Cannell has been doing it (trading coffee, that is) organically since he opened the doors of Jim’s Organic Coffee in 1994. B Corp scorecard.
Larry’s Beans – Raleigh, N.C. – Larry’s Beans powers its roastery with solar, harvests rainwater, composts organic waste and delivers organic Fair Trade coffee in a bus that runs on biodiesel. Why? As Larry’s says, to “Make the Planet Last.” B Corp scorecard.
One Village Coffee – Souderton, Penn. – OK, so Souderton may not get confused with Portland, Seattle or Los Angeles on anyone’s list of great American coffee cities, but One Village takes its commitment to quality (and sustainability) seriously. B Corp scorecard.
Pachamama Coffee – Sacramento, Calif. – Pachamama’s model of farmer ownership is as inspiring as it is audacious. B Corp scorecard.
Reunion Island Coffee – Oakville, Ontario (more Canadians!) – Roast Magazine‘s reigning Roaster of the Year is a pioneer in Canada’s specialty coffee market that currently sells organic, Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance certified coffees sourced through direct trading relationships. B Corp Scorecard.
Salt Spring Coffee – Richmond, B.C. (Canadians everywhere!) – Salt Spring’s sustainability program includes commitments to a Fair to Farmer principle, zero waste and measuring and offsetting its carbon footprint. B Corp scorecard.
Sustainable Harvest – Portland, Ore. – A coffee importer that needs no introduction, Sustainable Harvest has been blending social impact and environmental concern with profits since its inception. B Corp scorecard.

Monthly C-Market Report: Prices Hit 10-Month Low as Brazil Forecast Improves January 15, 2015 2:05 pm

A two-year history of the ICO’s composite indicator price. Graph courtesy of the ICO.

Coffee prices worldwide reached their lowest since February 2014, largely driven by improved expectations for Brazil’s 2015/16 crop, according to the December monthly report from the London-based International Coffee Organization.
The ICO’s composite indicator price — a historical data series that reflects price monitoring for coffees from all the world’s main growing regions — dipped to a low of $1.422 USD per pound in December, finishing the month at a 10-month low average of $1.506. The ICO says revised upward estimates coming from public and private sources monitoring Brazil’s current crop, including the USDA and CONAB, help explain the downward price trend.
“The market remains well supplied with coffee, and expectations regarding Brazil’s 2015/16 crop seem to be improving,” the ICO said. “Several recent reports have forecast an increase in production in the next year, with sufficient stocks available to cover the shortfall in 2014/15.”
The ICO’s price for Brazilian naturals dropped 8.2 percent from November’s average, while Colombian Milds dropped 7.9 percent and Other Milds dropped 7.5 percent. Of the four primary coffee groups, Robustas saw the least dramatic decrease, at 4.5 percent.
In its production forecasts, the ICO now puts world production for 2014/15 at 141.4 bags, a 3.6 percent decrease from 2013/14. “Production of both Arabica and Robusta coffee is expected to fall, by 3.7% and 3.6% respectively,” the ICO said.

SEGAFREDO ZANETI

Kopi Luwak vs. Geisha at Temple Coffee’s Most Controversial Cupping

“Involuntary acquired some civet?” WT heck is going on here? We reached out to Temple tweeter, trainer and educator Cole Cuchna to get some answers.
What follows is Cuchna’s explanation of how one accidentally stumbles into some kopi luwak coffee, as well as an admittedly biased account of the cupping, which pitted the kopi luwak side-by-side against some of the most interesting players in Temple’s current coffee lineup. The Temple team particularly wanted to stage a battle against two “monsters of marketing:” The kopi luwak and two Geishas of its own:

The public cupping at Temple Coffee. All photos courtesy of Temple Coffee.

It’s not everyday that a bag of sh*t falls into your lap.
Let me explain.
A wholesale client of ours recently returned from a trip to Bali. Being a well-intentioned coffee enthusiast, he generously brought us a bag of kopi luwak, a.k.a. civet coffee, a.k.a. the cat sh*t coffee.
The allure of this notoriously expensive coffee has nothing to do with the climate or elevation in which it’s grown. Nothing to do with cultivar. Rather, its fame resides in a very specialized form of processing. First, a small, cat-like animal called the civet eats coffee cherries, which ferment while passing through the civet’s digestive system. Once excreted, the indigestible seeds or coffee beans are picked from the feces in all their ooey-gooey glory.
(Note: You should be grossed out. Please, be grossed out.)
In the coffee industry, it’s common knowledge that kopi luwak is little more than marketing hype. By most accounts, it tastes like the thing from which it came — remember, that thing is poop. That’s because the coffee is rewarded with high prices based on civet processing and little else. Not cup quality, not growing conditions, not traditional processing or varietal. But because of wildly outlandish prices and movies like “The Bucket List,” kopi luwak carries mystique and novelty that many people find attractive. That’s because kopi luwak is more than a coffee, it’s an event. Good, great, or horrible, it’s a story you tell friends.

Ironically, you can say similar things about a coffee that many specialty connoisseurs revere above all else. A coffee that often demands outrageously high prices. A coffee you tell your friends about, and somewhere in the story is how much you paid for this illustrious bean. Of course, we’re talking about Geisha, a rare coffee varietal typically grown at extremely high elevation. While Geisha often yields what coffee professionals consider a superb cup, I think we can agree there’s a certain amount of mystique and novelty about it, as well.
The opportunity to pit these two monsters of marketing against one another is rare. And what better arena to showcase the showdown than our weekly public cupping? Let the people speak. Is Geisha really that good? Is luwak really that bad? How did they compare to a typical cup of specialty grade coffee?
To answer these questions, we assembled a diverse table of coffees: a Kenya Gichuka, the Kopi Luwak, a Costa Rica Honey, a Guatemala Geisha, and Temple’s Panama La Esmeralda Geisha, a coffee produced by the most famous coffee farm in the world.
While it was important to taste these coffees blind, we prefaced the cupping by informing our 20 or so attendees that indeed they’d be tasting a coffee that came from the south side of a civet. It was a “leave now or forever hold your peace” type of thing.
Turns out, we had an adventurous crowd. No one bailed. Game on. The rules were simple: try each coffee, take a few mental notes, and select a few favorites. We also encouraged them to try and pick out the kopi luwak. Be it amazing or unpalatable, let’s see if it stands out in someway.
The cupping proceeded with a mix of modest slurps, spit cups, and a little Coltrane to set the mood. I knew where the kopi luwak coffee was on the table, so I secretly watched the faces of the attendees when they tried it. Either they all had phenomenal poker faces or it wasn’t horrible enough to involuntarily convulse.
Once the tasting concluded, we pointed to each coffee on the table and asked, by a show of hands, which was their favorite. Aside from a few hands here and there, all the action took place when we reached the juggernauts on the table.
Pointing to the Kopi Luwak, we asked, “Who liked this one best?”
No hands. Zero, zilch, nada.
Pointing to the Esmeralda Geisha, “Who liked this one best?”
It wasn’t even close. Half the people in attendance raised their hand.
Game, set, match: Geisha by a landslide.
We asked the attendees to describe the Luwak. “Musty.” “Weird.” “An encyclopedia of roasting defects.” “Rancid barbeque sauce.” “Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water.” Ok, that last one was Washington Post food writer Tim Carman, but you get the picture. Clearly, in terms of cup quality or drinkability, this particular Kopi Luwak does not carry its weight in gold.

The Esmeralda Geisha, however, was described as “full of life.” “Maybe the best coffee I’ve ever had.” “Fruity, floral.” “Like nothing I’ve ever tasted in coffee.” Just my humble opinion, but these types of coffee experiences are worth the pretty penny. They’re memorable in pleasant ways. They escape the savage exoticism of luwak while retaining genuine, justifiable excitement and wonder.
We held this cupping to dispel myths — to challenge hype. As specialty coffee grows, inevitable is the inclusion of big marketing dollars and six-dollar-burger-like campaigns that attempt to cash in on an expanding market. Our attendees walked away with very solidified opinions about at least one such gimmick. They also walked away with that rancid bathtub taste still in their mouths, because holy crap, that stuff stays with you a while.

Kenyan Leaders Unveil National Branding Effort, “Coffee Kenya Mark of Origin”

Coffee drying in Kenya. Creative Commons photo by Adam Posey.

In yet another effort to recharge Kenya’s coffee sector, the country’s agriculture ministry has unveiled a branding and direct marketing initiative using the label “Coffee Kenya Mark of Origin.”
Unveiled by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei Wednesday in Nairobi, the mark will be used by green coffee traders selling in bulk to international buyers, according to the Coffee Board of Kenya, which may also undergo some restructuring as part of the branding program.
Despite a reputation for quality in many growing regions, political corruption, lack of organization and resulting decreases in investment among farmers have diminished Kenya’s coffee output since high points in the 1990s. Coffee exports from Kenya in the 2013/14 season represented approximately $254 million USD, according to sources in a recent Reuters report, representing its fourth largest foreign exchange industry.
The 2013/14 crop year was also a controversial one in Kenya, as government leaders struggled to put forth mandates for central milling in several key growing regions, including Nyeri.
Government regulators have alleged unethical trading practices and mis-marketing of Kenyan coffees in international trade as reasons for increased regulation, while many buyers from consumer markets have voiced frustration that their previous trade relationships have been obscured by government interference in the sector.
The “Coffee Kenya Mark of Origin” label will require traders of Kenyan coffees to pay a small fee of approximately $109 USD and undergo a vetting process. All Africa reports that several already-approved sellers were highlighted at Wednesday’s announcement of the branding initiative, including Dormans Coffee, Gibsons Coffee and Kenya Nut Company.