Why not?

Good question, especially given that our bags promote our coffee as “ethical” (see right).

Firstly I want to state that we don’t want to denigrate the work of FT; nor its proponents. We simply feel that FT isn’t enough. I know little of the efficacy of the movement outside coffee, and we stand alongside FT advocates in desiring a better deal for coffee producers.

I’ll give two main reasons why we as a roasting company think we can do better than FT.

1. Fair Trade doesn’t promote quality.

Coffee is traded in such massive volumes that it is done on the commodities market – alongside oil, wheat and gold etc. This establishes a standard price for coffee – the “C” price.

The C market rises and falls with global supply and demand for coffee. When supply is high, or demand low, the C market falls. It fell heavily in 2000, resulting in incredible hardship for millions of coffee producers around the world, and forcing many out of the industry altogether.

The way that FT operates is to set a minimum price – for when the C price is low – as well as adding a premium to the C price for when it is above the FT minimum.

Producers and cooperatives can purchase certification as FT (and/or organic) as a way of increasing or protecting their income.

Our problem with the FT system is that it does nothing to encourage good quality coffee; it increases the value of a coffee (very slightly) without reference to how it tastes.

We firmly believe that by improving coffee quality producers create a more sustainable income for themselves. Quality sells; if their usual buyer doesn’t come through for them that year, at least there will be demand for their coffee from elsewhere.

FT encourages reliance on certification, effectively putting a ceiling on income as well as a floor.

2. The structure of Fair Trade can undermine its aims.

There is a disconnect between the C market and the daily lives of most coffee producers. It is almost cruel that the choices (or whims) of commodity traders in New York can jeopardise the livelihoods of so many of the poorest people on earth. Nevertheless, the majority of coffee is bought and sold in reference to this C price.

Fair Trade tries to deliver a higher price within an inherently unfair system. This leaves it open to many of the flaws of that system. A few examples follow:

• FT coffee generates its own supply and demand. When demand for FT coffee is low, FT-certified cooperatives might sell as little as 20% of their coffee at the increased price, and have no choice but to accept the regular price for the majority of their coffee, despite having paid for certification (Berndt 2007:16, Valkila 2009:2).
• The premium paid for FT coffee is collected by cooperatives to be paid back to farmers. However, the administrative costs of FT certification are deducted from this total and in some cases the farmers receive none of it (Berndt 2007:27).
• Only cooperatives can register as FT-sellers. Individual farmers must be part of such a cooperative to be able to sell their coffee as FT. This excludes a vulnerable section of producers from FT.
• A 10-year study by Beuchelt & Zeller (University of Hohenheim) concluded that amongst a group of Nicaraguan small-holders, those with FT and/or organic certification had on average become poorer than their neighbours who lacked certification, primarily due to the cost of certification and decreased yields in the case of organic (Solomon 2011).

So what do we do?

Hopefully the above has illustrated why we choose not to support FT. Hopefully it has also shown how complex this issue is! Unfortunately, the problem of systemic poverty amongst coffee producers will be a long-term challenge.

We are committed to working with suppliers who share our concern for the welfare of the people we buy coffee from. This means making the supply chain shorter, so that we can be closer to the producer – metaphorically, at least.

As I described above, emphasising quality is the key for us. Our suppliers (and in some cases we ourselves) can work with producers to help improve quality. This of course means that we will pay more for the coffee in subsequent years.

I used to use the term “direct trade” (quite liberally) for our style of coffee sourcing, but out of respect for a bunch of other coffee companies who use that term far more impressively, I now prefer not to. You might call some of ours “relationship coffee”; you could call it being transparent; you could call it “ethical” (like our coffee bags do).

At this point I prefer not to name it because it’s something that will keep changing as we learn more about how to engage more closely with producers and as the specialty coffee industry finds better ways of addressing the problem of poverty.

References:

Feel free to look through some of the following references to learn more about this complex issue.

I want to note here that some of these articles are well-written and academically sound, while others are opinions pieces – some poorly argued – which are of more benefit as a discussion starter than an informative text.

• Berndt, Colleen, Mercatus Policy Series, June 2007, ‘Is Fair Trade in coffee production fair and useful? Evidence from Costa Rica and Guatemala and implications for policy‘.
• Chambers, Andrew, guardian.co.uk, December 2009; ‘Not so fair trade‘.
• Clemens, Andrew, foreignaffairs.com, September 2007, ‘Smart Samaritans‘.
• Collinson, Patrick, guardian.co.uk, November 2010; ‘Fairtrade isn’t failing its farmers‘.
• The Fairtrade Foundation (UK) – Frequently Asked Questions.
• New Agriculturalist, May 2006, ‘How fair is Fairtrade?‘.
• Poulter, Sean, The Daily Mail Online, March 2010, ‘Unfair trade: Ethical food ‘is not lifting Third World farmers out of poverty’‘.
• Rohac, Dalibor, Institute of Economic Affairs, March 2012, ‘Let’s get the facts straight on ‘fairtrade’‘.
• Solomon, Lawrence, Financial Post, May 2011, ‘Fair-trade coffee producers often end up poorer‘.
• tradingeconomics.com, ‘Coffee Price, 1972 – 2012‘.
• Valkila, Joni, Ecological Economics, April 2009, ‘Fair Trade organic coffee production in Nicaragua — Sustainable development or a
  poverty trap?‘.

This month will be a bit of a taster of what’s to come, with fresh beans from Ethiopia’s Jimma region and a sneak peek of the 2012 crop of our Thailand La Mai coffee!

Hawisa, Ethiopia:

This is a washed coffee from the 235 members of the Hawisa cooperative in the Jimma region. Like much of Western Ethiopia, these are OLD coffee trees grown under existing forest. Most likely, they are rarely pruned or fertilised; simply growing wild in their native habitat. The altitude is around 1650m asl.

The total production from the cooperative equates to 150kg of exportable green coffee per member. As a rough estimate, that would be 300-400 trees  or one acre of land per farmer – pretty low even by Ethiopian standards.

We’ll add our cupping notes next week! For now, our supplier suggests that this coffee will be very floral and perfumed in aroma, with a creamy body and some tropical/stone fruit acidity.

A great offering from a lesser known region in Ethiopia!

Thailand La Mai (2012 crop):

It’s exciting to be able to offer coffee from the villages we visited in January (see blog posts).

Once we got home, we were sent around 10 samples from different villages in Northern Thailand. Some of them were real stand-outs!

They will be landing in Melbourne tomorrow (!) so we can expect them in our warehouse in about two weeks (Godspeed, AQIS!).

I can confirm that one of the villages we’re getting coffee from this year won best Thai coffee at a recent Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) meeting! That means we have good taste.

That’s it for May. Next month will be a cracker of a month for new coffees! We are excited.

Tasmanian Barista Championship:

Tasmania has its own Barista Championship! It’ll be held April 14th in Hobart and will be a great opportunity for Tassie’s growing coffee scene to get some solid representation in the national competition in May. And who knows, maybe even the World Barista Championship in Vienna in June!

[If it all sounds a bit absurd that such competitions exist check this out and you'll see it's not even close to the weirdest championship around.]

Some of us will be travelling down to check the competition out, and Stu will be lending a hand in the judging as well. Contact us if you’d like to come along to check it out.

More info can be found here on the Australian Specialty Coffee Association website.

Training Room:

We may have unwisely declared that our training room would be finished by February, but we promise we’re pretty close now. Have a look at our flooring! Soon to be kitted out with benches, machines and grinders.

We will soon be offering a range of barista courses for home enthusiasts as well as cafe workers. Courses will range from introductory (one evening) to advanced (2-3 full days). All of them will be independently assessed by a registered training organisation, so the certificate you’ll get at the end of it is actually worth something!

Our cafes will be able to book their staff in for training facilities at their leisure.

Coffees incoming…

We have some really exciting coffees coming in the next couple of months including a microlot from this guy:
Arnulfo Leguizamo (a Los Naranjos member) won Colombia’s Cup of Excellence competition in 2011 so this will be amazing coffee! There are also some gems from Burundi and Rwanda.

It would be lax of me not to say that this is a great time to join the Coffee Circle! Do so here (if you wish).

That’s about it for news for this month.

50% Brazil Fazenda Laranjal

50% Colombia los Naranjos

It’s a bit of a throwback to 5-10 years ago when espresso blending was the science of “adding interesting flavours to a Brazil base”. On paper this blend obeys that formula, but certainly not for the sake of tradition! This blend is all about using fresh ingredients of impeccable quality.

Laranjal is the epitome of what we want in a natural-process Brazil – it has all the richness and boldness you expect but is utterly clean and sweet.

Los Naranjos is a stunning Colombian – sweet and bright, with a buttery body and some fantastic fruity acidity.

Together they make a really well-rounded and complete blend. Designed for espresso but will certainly work as a brewed coffee, owing to the modest roast level.

This blend will be with us until June 2012.

Its growing regions are at modest altitudes of around 900-1300m asl.

Most of Brazil’s is crop is prepared by “natural” processing, where the cherries are dried whole and the beans are only separated from the fruit once fully dry. If this drying stage doesn’t happen quickly and evenly, the beans take on a dirty and/or musty flavour. Skilfully done natural-processing increases the body and richness of a coffee, yielding buttery, fruit and chocolate notes.

I am very happy to say that this is a stellar example of a natural from Brazil.

Fazenda Laranjal is pretty big at 330 hectares. [For comparison, our current Colombian offering is from 50 producers whose farm size averages 1.5 hectares; our Thai La Mai coffee is produced by smallholders who manage ¼ to ½ hectare plots - and often they are leasing the land they're farming!]

Typically, farms are large in Brazil, and often the coffee is planted in rows to allow for mechanical harvesting. Mechanical harvesters pick a range of almost-ripe to fully-ripe cherries which are mechanically sorted afterwards.

This lot from Fazenda Laranjal was grown at around 1250m asl near Poços de Caldas, a region based around a large volcanic caldera. The variety is Yellow Bourbón, and as mentioned, the cherries were processed using the natural method.

Roast Level:

We’ve recently found that a lighter roast retains more sweetness and yields a delicious creaminess. Owing to the quality of this Laranjal lot, this also brings out lovely acidity and fruitiness which makes it great for brewed coffee too. We take Laranjal to 213°C on our Diedrich IR-12.

We used to roast Brazils a lot darker – to the point of 2nd crack – but we found that this accentuated the astringency and unpleasant nuttiness that some Brazils have. In fact we thought we didn’t like any Brazils until we started roasting them significantly lighter!

Cupping notes:

Super sweet: honey, caramel, malt and biscuits. Hints of cloves and aniseed. Acidity is mainly orange/citric, with a bit of apple and some berry notes. Really creamy and/or buttery body, with a hint of nutty tannins typical of Brazils.

Overall impression:

Great example of natural-processing. This is not a “wow” coffee, per se, but a fantastically clean and sweet bean for espresso, and an interesting brewed coffee too.

Laranjal will feature in our Autumn and Winter seasonal blends, and is available in our shop from March until May.

It’s from the southern region of Huila – well known for producing some of the most exciting Colombian coffees. Surrounding the town of San Agustín there are about 50 coffee-farming families that have formed the Asociación Los Naranjos de San Agustín. They are a quality-focused group, which is why they caught the eye of our supplier. This is what you’d call a relationship coffee – a great example of our supplier working with farmers in improving their livelihoods through producing quality coffee.

Each family harvests and processes their own cherries and these can be sold as microlots during the primary harvest. This particular coffee is from the smaller, 2nd harvest (or mitaca) so it was combined to make one larger lot.

The farms are centred around the town of San Agustín at altitudes of 1350-1900m asl and grow a mixture of varieties. Despite the differences between farms, the coffee is really well-prepared, which speaks to the association’s high standard for quality.

Roast Level:

We prefer a med-light roast (214°C on our Diedrich) which emphasises the juiciness and fruits. For filter we roast as light as we dare and it’s a stunner – like diving head first into a tropical fruit salad.

Cupping Notes:

Sweetness: caramel, choc, licorice, coconut. Acidity: plum, berries, red grape, apple, citrus fruits – mandarine & orange peel.

Overall Impression:

The kind of coffee we’re proud to stock: it’s 100% traceable and 100% delicious!

We’ll be featuring Los Naranjos throughout March on our webshop. It will also be in our next seasonal blend until at least June.

We were very happy to provide coffee for the event, and it’s been a great opportunity to connect with like-minded people passionate about fresh, seasonal products.

Where:

Cimitiere St carpark – click map to enlarge.

When:

9am – 1pm every Saturday. Get there early before things sell out!

More info can be found on the Harvest Launceston website.

Held every year in Sheffield, Tasmania, Steamfest is a seriously fun 3 day event put on by the Redwater Creek Steam & Heritage Society.

We’ll be there again to supply the always thirsty Steamfest crowd! We’ll have some delicious new coffees arriving just in time so we’ll be launching our new Autumn Blend that weekend.

When: Sat 10th to Mon 12th March. Opens 9:30am each morning.

Where: Sheffield, Tasmania. Just over an hour north-west of Launceston

How much: $15 (adult) / $5 (kids) / $30 (family) / $10 (pensioners)

More info can be found on the Redwater Creek website.

Hope to see you there!

They differ from most pour-over or filter coffee makers in that the coffee will remain infusing in the top section until you put it on your cup. This opens the “clever” valve and allows the coffee to drip through.

How to use the Clever Dripper:

You will need:

• Clever Dripper (we sell them here);
• Filter papers;
• 30-35g coffee, ground coarsely;
• 500mL boiled water;
• A small jug.

What to do (for 2-3 cups):

Step 1: insert a filter paper and fill Clever Dripper with boiled water. This rinses the paper and pre-heats the Dripper.

Step 2: drain water and discard, then add ground coffee and 500mL water. Water temperature determines flavour - we measure with this IR device and aim for 85-90C.

Step 3: after 30 seconds, stir again to break up the floating coffee.

Step 4: about 2½ minutes* (after adding water), place the Dripper onto your jug.

Step 5: it should take another minute* for all the coffee to drip through - then pour into your cups and enjoy!

[* = these times depend on how coarsely you grind - if you grind finely, you'll need to start the draw down earlier; if you grind very coarsely, you can afford to start the draw down later. The total brew time should be around 3½-4 minutes, but you can experiment with longer; if your brew turns out bitter/tannic, you might have brewed too long.]

Cleaning up is super simple: just shake out the spent coffee and filter paper and give the Dripper a rinse.

The Clever Dripper gives you complete control over brewing: you can grind very coarsely and infuse for 4-5 minutes, if you like, for a really smooth and interesting brew. Long infusions can help you get good extraction from lighter roasts (ie. when the beans are still fairly hard), for example.

We’re now selling the Clever Dripper on our website if you’re interested in having a go!

Look for us in the Two Hands Coffee cart at stall number 20, next to the main stage.

What is Festivale?

Festivale is a three-day celebration of Tasmania’s great food, wine and beer (and coffee!).

Held in Launceston’s City Park (map).

• Friday- 5:30pm – 10:45pm ($20 entry)
• Saturday- 11am – 10:45pm ($20 entry)
• Sunday- 10am – 4pm ($15 entry)

You can find all the info you need on the Festivale website.