Coffee and Conservation

Caribou Coffee wins Roaster's Choice award

In a previous post, I mentioned that one of my favorite aspects of the recent SCAA conference was tasting the ten finalists in the Roasters Guild 2008 Roasters Choice Tasting Competition. The theme was Single Origin coffees, and 36 members of the Roasters Guild participated in the event by submitting roasted coffee. Voting was open to all conference attendees (nearly 8000!).

The winner: Caribou Coffee's Roastmaster's Reserve: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. When I tasted this coffee (blind) I knew it was an Ethiopian, and I enjoyed the understated berry notes. And although I like Ethiopian coffees, I wouldn't opt to drink one daily, which I considered a requirement for my vote. With so many great artisan roasters participating, many with very special microlots, I couldn't help but be surprised that Caribou took top honors. I think this says a lot about this company. I'm not the only person who thinks Caribou does a fine job and is underappreciated for it. Check out these posts from the Coffeed forum, from both late last year and after the competition. Congrats, Caribou!

This certified organic coffee is currently available at Caribou stores and online.

The full list of the winners is below. I mentioned that #103 was my favorite, my second pick was #111. I knew 103, a Colombian microlot, was a classic from Latin America, but I thought that 111 was also. For a Rwandan, 111 was quite sweet and chocolately. I also love Kenyan coffees, but have to admit that 109, the third place Kenyan from The Roasterie, was one of the most difficult to categorize coffees I've tasted lately, and we tried it over three days. I thought it might be Sumatran, because for me it had some sort of vaguely sour earthy flavor. I wrote on my sheet "What is this?!"  Kingfisher's top pick was #104, the Tanzania (I pegged that origin blind, too!).

1. RC102 – Caribou Coffee – Ethiopian Organic Yirgacheffe
2. RC106 – Sweet Maria’s – Rwanda Gkongoro Nyarusiza
3. RC109 – The Roasterie – Kenya Jambo Estate
4. RC104 – Berres Brothers Coffee Roasters – Tanzania Peaberry – Songea
5. RC105 – Dolce Gourmet Gelateria & Café – Panama – City Roast
6. RC103 – Tony’s Coffees and Teas – Colombia – Tolima Microlot – Gaitania Cyerposo
7. RC108 – Lexington Coffee Roasting Company – Rwanda Bufcafe
8. RC107 – Bear Creek Coffee – Papua New Guinea
9. RC110 – Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea – Ethiopian Sidamo – Organic Fairtrade
10. RC111 – Cuvee Coffee Roasting Company – Rwanda - Bucafe

Meanwhile, in an adjacent room, judges were cupping the entries in the 2008 Roasters Guild Coffee of the Year Competition.

The winner list is after the jump. A Colombian entry won first place, bumping Hacienda La Esmeralda to second place after winning the competition the last three years. I was pleased to see a Domincan Republic coffee in the top ranks. I would provide more links and information about the winners, but the list is so generic that I am unable to get more specifics.

Grounds for Change World Fair Trade promo code

Another roaster is offering a sale in honor of World Fair Trade Day. Grounds for Change is giving 15% off everything on their web site through Sunday, May 11th. In addition to coffee (which is all certified organic and Fair Trade), they have a nice selection of chocolate and tea, as well as coffee supplies. Enter this coupon code during checkout online to receive your discount: WFTD8.

Although this is short notice, if you happen to be in the neighborhood of their Poulsbo, WA roasterie, they are hosting a shade coffee tasting on Saturday, May 10 -- which is also International Migratory Bird Day.

Green Mountain Coffee World Fair Trade Day promo

Saturday, May 10 is World Fair Trade Day. You can save 20% on the 10-ounce bags of four single-origin Fair Trade coffees at Green Mountain Saturday only. The varieties are Sumatran Lake Tawar, Kenyan Highland Cooperatives, Colombian Fair Trade Select, and Mexican Decaf Huatusco Cooperative.

The discount is available for website and phone orders May 10 only; use promo code 7200-2242.

"Best of" the SCAA conference

I have a lot to report on sustainability and certification issues from the SCAA conference, but it will be doled out over the coming weeks. Here, I thought I'd like to give some quick impressions of some of the most notable things we encountered.

Best origin booth: Guatemala. Many origins had booths, most with green or brewed coffee samples and lots of literature. The biggest, most colorful, and most informative was, hands down, Guatemala's. The display really focused on the fact that nearly all of their coffee is shade grown, and preserves biodiversity and birds. This information is duplicated in a terrific book available at the display called The Green Book. Take a look at just a few of the display panels (some photos to follow can be clicked to enlarge).

 

Best tag line: "Don't take coffee from strangers" -- Crop to Cup.  That sums up a piece of advice every consumer should take to heart. Crop to Cup Coffee Company is a small coffee roaster with really direct relationships with farmers; on their web site you get very thorough information. I'll be writing about them in a future post.

Coolest people I finally got to meet: Peter Giuliano and Kim Elena Bullock from Counter Culture Coffee. I've had so many good conversations and learned so much from the folks at CCC, it was a great pleasure to finally meet Peter and Kim in person.

Best coffee I tried: Mystery Coffee #103 from the Roaster's Guild Coffee of the Year competition. Yesterday alone, I tried at least 20 coffees. And I don't mean tasting and spitting out, I mean drinking. I can't say I really recommend this strategy (I ended up both overtired and jittery), but it was interesting! The coffee I liked the best, as far as one I would like to drink daily, was #103 at the coffee of the year competition. Conference attendees got to sample and vote on the top ten finalists. I've seen the top 3 winners, and I will eventually post about the top coffees.

With all this coffee, perhaps this category deserves a couple of subcategories.

Best Coffee I Tasted Made on a Clover: Intelligentsia's Organic Anjilanaka, Bolivia.  There were three Clover coffee brewers at the show, and we tried coffees made on all of them.

Best espresso shot: Finca Vista Hermosa at the Barista Guild's booth. Light roast and crazy citrus zing made this not your usual espresso.

Most interesting thing that I didn't think I'd care about: U.S. Barista Championships. Once you started watching baristas compete, it was kind of addictive. Beats watching a poker championship. This is Belle Batista of Aldo Coffee, the Mid-Atlantic Regional winner. She didn't make the finals (which take place today, finishing up after we have to catch our plane home), but for those of you into such things, the finalists are: Nick Griffith, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea; Pete Licata, PT’s Coffee Roasting Company; Chris Baca, Ritual Coffee Roasters; Heather Perry, Coffee Klatch; Kyle Glanville, Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea; Drew Catlin, Ritual Coffee Roasters.

Best non-coffee product name: Two Leaves and a Bud. I used to be an avid tea drinker.

Best authentic character: Wicha Promyong, Doi Chaang Coffee (which we reviewed here). After posing for the shot, he whipped out a nice business card and spoke perfect English!

There will be more forthcoming on what I learned in the sustainability and agroecology lectures, additional sustainability and other awards, and more. It has been a great experience.

SCAA Sustainability Awards

The Specialty Coffee Association of the Americas (SCAA) presented its annual awards last night. One is the Sustainability Award, which honors individuals, businesses or organizations in the coffee industry that have created innovative projects to expand and promote sustainability.

And the winners are...

Essent Energy Trading and Solidaridad (The Netherlands) -- for their partnership to use coffee husks (compressed into pellets) as biofuel. I wrote about this initiative late last year. At the time I wondered about the energy efficiency of shipping the pellets from Brazil to the Netherlands, where the biofuel is used. At the awards ceremony, it was explained how innovate this idea was to begin with, so the best source for this Dutch company (which originated the idea) was large producers in Brazil. It has been so successful that they did, in fact, state that in the future they hope to be using coffee husk biofuel to produce electricity in Brazil and other places in Latin America.

Another clarification: in the previous post I surmised that by "coffee husk" they meant just the parchment. From the short infomerical shown and the acceptance comments, it appears they mean the whole coffee skin and pulp. They mentioned how piles of coffee residue produces high pH leachate that can contaminate water and soil, and that the rotting piles produce methane, a greenhouse gas. Those facts, in addition to the fact that coffee pulp is not an animal feedstock or human feed source, makes it a really "green" biofuel with a lot of potential. Congrats to Essent and Solidaridad.

Alianza para la Sostenibilidad (APS) / Sogimex SA / Ecom Agroindustrial Corp Ltd. (Honduras) -- for their efforts to increase sustainability efforts among specialty coffee producers in Honduras. The goals was to achieve overall sustainability throughout the coffee chain in Honduras, obtain critical certifications, and offer technical assistance to impact producers in the region. It's been a huge success.

Honorable mentions went to Finca Selva Negra in Nicaragua for their waste water program, and Brazil's Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza for their overall focus on sustainability.

Past winners
2007 -- Poabs Organic/Biodynamic Estates, India; Selva Negra Coffee Estate, Nicaragua; International Paper Company and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters; SOPPEXCCA, Jinotega, Nicaragua

2006 -- Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers; Timothy's World Coffee & Embera-Chami Coffee Community

2005 -- Las Nubes Coffee; Portland Roasting Company; Starbucks

2004 -- IPANEMA Agricola S/A of Minas Gerais, Brazil; Thanksgiving Coffee Company; Dean’s Beans; ForesTrade/PPKGO

Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality winners

My husband and I attended the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Coffee Breakfast this morning, at which the winners of the fifth annual "Cupping for Quality" event were announced. These awards recognizes Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified coffee farmers dedicated to growing top quality beans, while protecting the environment and the rights of workers.

The first year of the competition, eight countries participated submitted 40 coffees to be judged. This year, 90 RA certified farms in 11 countries participated; judging was held last month in New York and Long Beach, CA. Coffee from 94 percent of the participating farms received scores of 80 or above.

The top scoring farms that received scores of 85 or above are listed below. I've provided links or additional information if available.

• Hacienda La Esmeralda (Panama) -- 89.93. This is not the famous geisha Jaramillo Especial coffee which I wrote about here, but I did discuss their sustainability initiatives. Although the sustainability section of their web site has not been substantially updated recently, I have read more about the work of the Peterson's (owners of Hacienda La Esmeralda) and think they are doing a good job.
• COMISAJUL (Cooperativa Mixta San Juancito Limitada) La Montana (Honduras) -- 87.22
• Daterra – Boa Vista (Brazil) -- 86.58.  I wrote about Daterra here.
• Grupo Yariguies (Colombia) -- 86.32. I believe these producers are in Santander province, in the region where the Cerulean Warbler preserve is located. Terrific!
• Aguadas (Caldas, Colombia) -- 86.08
• Victoria (El Salvador) -- 85.98
• Carmen Estate (Panama) -- 85.55. I wrote about Carmen Estate in a review here. This is one of only five farms that have participated in this competition every year so far.
• Coagro Brisas (Colombia) -- 85.50
• Finca Arroyo Negro (Chipas, Mexico) -- 85.46. More info here.
• La Merced (Colombia) -- 85.25
• Finca San Luis (Colombia) -- 85.13
• Santa Rita (Jinotega, Nicaragua) -- 85.00. I think this is the same producer that is also Utz Certified.

After the jump, I've listed the top three scorers (fewer means there were fewer than three farms competing) from each country.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America annual conference

The SCAA's 20th Annual Conference & Exhibition takes place in Minneapolis on May 2-5, and I will be attending along with Coffee & Conservation tasting panel member (also my dashing partner) Kingfisher. I will miss the Sustainability Symposium but will be attending lectures on sustainability and agroecology issues. It will be very interesting for me, as an ecologist, to see how these topics are handled and received by those in the coffee industry. There will also be several receptions where various sustainability awards are handed out, as well as the opportunity to hit the exhibit hall.

The SCAA is making this a "green" conference. They report,

The association’s carbon neutrality program will help offset emissions related to conference travel, lodging and energy consumption. Conference attendees will pay a small tariff [$7 person] to participate in the program, and funds collected from registrants---included in the conference fee---will be donated to the sustainable agroforestry non-profit organization, Trees for the Future, for the purchasing and planting of new trees. SCAA and specialty coffee importer, Sustainable Harvest representatives will provide oversight on funding the project.

There are many other green initiatives at the conference site, including elimination of paper hand-out; locally grown, in-season and organic food (with waste sent to a hog farm for use as animal feed and non-perishable, unopened food products donated to a local homeless shelter; and lots of recycling.

Stay tuned: I have a full schedule, but will try to keep up with posting on sustainability issues from the SCAA annual meeting!

Coffee review: Café Alta Gracia

In a previous post, I gave background information on coffee growing on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. We gave a some of these coffees a try. First, a selection from the Dominican Republic (DR).

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #34.


Café Alta Gracia -- Vermont Coffee Company. Certified organic and Fair Trade.

Finca Alta Gracia is a 25 ha farm located at 1100 m on the slopes of Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the West Indies, 17 km west of Jarabacoa near the town of Los Marranitos. Although the web site notes "volcanic soils," to the best of my knowledge the last volcanic activity in the region was in the Cretaceous period. So although this is technically correct, Pico Duarte doesn't have the types of recent volcanic soils typical of Central America, for instance. As I mentioned in the previous post, Pico Duarte is primarily underlain with granite. These soils are said to contribute to a unique taste.

Finca Alta Gracia was established in 1996 by Julia Alvarez and her husband Bill Eichner. Alvarez, a DR native, is a well known author of novels such as the powerful In the Time of the Butterflies, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and the great little semi-biographical tale about coffee farming, A Cafecito Story. Fittingly, proceeds from this coffee help support literacy efforts -- the farm includes a small literacy center with a resident volunteer teacher. I had read several books by Alvarez before coming across A Cafecito Story. I was intrigued and knew one day I'd have to see if I could track down and try the coffee.

Café Alta Gracia roasted by the Vermont Coffee Company. It is available locally in Vermont or online, with about 16,000 pounds roasted annually. I believe great coffee consists of two components: a well-grown bean and an artisan roaster. Nobody can do much with a bean with poor heritage, grown in poor soil or low elevation without proper care, and sloppily processed. And an unskilled or hasty roaster can kill the taste of a perfectly good bean (Starbucks accomplishes this on a regular basis). So I was a bit unsure of what to expect from a little farm and an unknown (to me) roaster.

The coffee was a pleasant surprise. Beans appeared to be a medium roast, with a light sheen and a few pinpricks of oil. The aroma was summed up as "spicy nuts." In the French press, it was mild, light to medium-bodied, smooth, and sweet with hints of chocolate; one reviewer also noted a bit of licorice. One thing we all noticed was a near-minty zing, especially when slurped. One person said it reminded him of a thin mint cookie, a couple others called it "refreshing." The coffee lost some character brewed, but overall was quite an interesting cup. It garnered a solid 3.5 motmots.

Finca Alta Gracia is now managed by the Dominican Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Research (Instituto Dominicano de Investigaciones Agropecuarias y Forestales  or IDIAF), although Alvarez and Eichner are still involved. IDIAF uses Finca Alta Gracia as a demonstration and research facility to help teach other farmers about organic and sustainable agriculture. This strong commitment to sustainability, literacy, and giving back to the community makes this a unique and important project to support. The coffee makes it a pleasure.

Vietnam planting more coffee

From Vietnam's Thanh Nien News:

[Robusta] Coffee bean prices [recently] reached a 13-year high of ... US$2.50 per kilo... As a result, the 434,000 hectares of coffee plantations in the Central Highlands, which produces 80 percent of Vietnam’s coffee output, is forecast to expand by more than 22,000 hectares this year.

The last peak [US$2.19 per kilo in 1995], also led to a boom in coffee farming in the Central Highlands. But a surplus of coffee sent prices to a record low of...US$0.25 per kilo four years later.

Indeed, this sad story has played out repeatedly over history. High coffee prices motivate farmers to plant more coffee, which takes three to five years to produce beans. Then the resulting glut in supply makes coffee prices plunge again.

Inevitably, not only does a substantial increase in coffee planting have the potential to depress prices, it can often mean the destruction of habitat and damage to the environment. The same article notes that expansion of coffee farming was threatening forests in the area. “Wherever coffee was grown, forests have disappeared,” said a former agricultural engineer.

This is tragic, as Vietnam is one of the most biologically diverse countries in Southeast Asia. The Central Highlands, with many important biodiversity hotspots, timber reserves, and watersheds, account for about 30% of Vietnam's natural forest cover.  Forest cover in Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands went from 90% to less than 50% in the late 1990s, mostly from coffee production [1]. A portion of Dak Lak province is a designated Endemic Bird Area. Despite efforts to preserve land, Vietnam has been losing ground when it comes to protecting biodiversity.

Further, the article stated that local agricultural agencies have encouraged local people to stop expanding the coffee farming area and instead grow other drought-resistant crops, since coffee requires three or four times the volume of water of other crops – and the Central Highlands has experienced many droughts in recent years.

Much of what is being planted is low-quality seeds and seedlings, which will lead to low and poor-quality coffee yields. Vietnam has a chronic problem with quality, with 88% of the coffee rejected on the world market being from Vietnam. In response, the Vietnamese government developed new quality standards, which were set to go into effect in October 2007. The implementation was delayed, however, as the high world prices are expected to "override" quality concerns.

Where does this coffee go? This is overwhelmingly sun-grown robusta coffee; only 2.3% of Vietnam's current production is arabica. This coffee is mainly used for low-quality blends and instant coffee; Nestlé buys 25% of Vietnam's coffee. Other large buyers are Kraft and Sara Lee.

Discover Vietnam's biodiversity through a slide show from American Museum of Natural History. Consider the fate of unique birds found only in restricted ranges of Vietnam's coffee growing regions, like the endangered Collared Laughingthrush (right). Then decide if you really need to save a few minutes by purchasing instant coffee, or a few cents by purchasing cheap supermarket coffee (especially that not marked "100% arabica," which contains this low quality robusta).

I think the choice is obvious.


[1] Thanh Ha, D. and G. Shively. 2008. Coffee boom, coffee bust, and smallholder response in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Review of Development Economics 12:312-326.

Photo of a Vietnam coffee farm by Lanz.

Coffee growing on Hispaniola

The two nations of the island of Hispaniola -- the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti -- tend to be forgotten lands in the minds of U.S. coffee drinkers. Each country has a long history of coffee growing, as well as periods of political and social turmoil. Both are working on improving their coffee quality and thus their market share of specialty coffee. And this is a land of full of unique biodiversity, where sustainable agriculture is critically important to the environment and the people. Let's take a look at our Caribbean neighbors.

Geography
Haiti is the smaller country in the western third of Hispaniola, the DR occupies the eastern two-thirds. There are four major mountain ranges on the island where nearly all coffee is grown. From north to south and west to east, they are:

• Cordillera Septentrional or Northern Range in the DR. Highest peak is 1250 m.
• The Massif du Nord or Northern Range in Haiti continues across the border into the DR, where it is called the Cordillera Central or Sierra del Cibao. The highest peak (also the highest point on the island and in the West Indies) is Pico Duarte in the DR at 3100 m.
• Haiti's Montagnes Noires, Chaîne des Matheux, and Montagnes du Trou d'Eau continue into the DR as Sierra de Neyba or Neiba. The highest peaks are around 2280 m.
• The two main highlands of the mountainous southern peninsula of Haiti are the Massif de la Hotte and the Massif de la Selle or Chaîne de la Selle, which extends into the DR as the Sierra de Bahoruco or Baoruco. In Haiti the highest peak is Pic la Selle at 2680 m (also Haiti's highest point). The high point in the DR is 2300 m. The DR portion of this range includes the island's largest tract of intact pine and broadleaf forest.

Biodiversity
Like many other Caribbean islands, Hispaniola is rich in species found nowhere else on earth. Over 1800 species of vascular plants are endemic, and there are nearly 200 endemic species of reptiles and amphibians. There are 30 species of endemic birds (six are endemic genera) on the island, and seven are threatened.  This includes the critically endangered Ridgway's Hawk, now extirpated from Haiti and precariously hanging on in the DR. The entire island has been designated an Endemic Bird Area by BirdLife International.

In addition, Hispaniola is a critical wintering and stopover site for migrant birds that breed in North America. It was concerns about declining populations of these species (about half of all species that nest in North America) which kicked off the whole shade coffee movement. In particular, Hispaniola is crucial for the vulnerable Bicknell's Thrush; 90% of the population winters there (right, courtesy Environment Canada).

All of the restricted-range bird species on the island are forest birds, as are many of the migrants. About 28% of DR is forested. In the 1970s, the DR began to seriously work on preserving habitat on the island, and deforestation rates have slowed. There are now 88 protected areas in the DR, but they face continued threats from logging, agriculture, and other encroachment.

The situation in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is much more grim. The country suffers from extreme deforestation, and only about 1 to 3% of Haiti's forest remains. The photo below, from NASA, dramatically shows the devastation of Haiti's forests right up to the DR border.

I cannot emphasize enough how desperate the situation is in Haiti: for biodiversity, and for its people. I urge you to take a look at the following resources:

• The Plight of Haiti's Cloud Forest Birds -- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• In Search of Haiti's Birds -- Living Bird magazine (PDF)
• Lambi Fund of Haiti -- supporting sustainability in Haiti

Sustainable agroforestry is important in the DR, and may be one of the only hopes to help stem the environmental crisis in Haiti. Coffee can play a key role.

The Coffee
Three of the four highlands are underlain with limestone; the Cordillera Central is granite-based. These soils are said to give coffees from the island a taste distinctive from that of coffees grown in volcanic soils such as those from Central America; the composition is different, and limestone in particular is not as acidic. Hispaniola doesn't have well-defined dry and rainy seasons, so coffee has a long growing season with multiple harvests. It also ripens slowly, which is often credited with more flavorful beans.

Nearly all of the coffee on the island is typica; the DR also grows small amounts of caturra or other types. It is grown almost exclusively by small holders. In the DR, there are about 60,000 coffee growers, and 80% of them farm coffee on plots that are smaller than 3 ha. In Haiti, coffee is essentially a garden crop.  As such, coffee from the island is almost entirely passive or certified organic.  In the DR, coffee is grown under mixed shade. In Haiti, it is also shade-grown, but the shade is more often provided by fruit and food crops that can be used by the farmer.

DR coffees are washed, or wet processed. In contrast, Haiti's coffees have traditionally been dry processed naturals. In fact, Haitians remove the pulp from completely dried cherries with the aid of a mortar and pestle; this is called café pilé. Haiti is now moving to washed coffees for export (see below).

Historically, DR coffee was consumed domestically. In Haiti, what was exported went mostly to France and Italy. Overall, there were quality problems. Quality issues have been tied mostly to processing and handling. Examples include mixing coffee from different altitudes, too many defects and unripes, and fermentation due to coffee not being dried long enough before being bagged (sometimes in plastic bags in humid conditions).

Specialty coffee revival
DR coffee goes by many names. "Santo Domingo" is common, but coffee may be labeled corresponding with the six official growing regions. Four are within highlands that are part of the Cordillera Central: Cibao, Azua, Ocoa, and Bani. Barahona is in the southwestern portion of the country, near the town of the same name. Juncalito is in Santiago province in the north-central part of the country, and Bani is on the south-central coast. DR coffee can still be hard to find in the U.S. due to a strong domestic and tourist market. But recent efforts by the Dominican Specialty Coffee Association (ADOCAFES) and other organizations has resulted in a huge increase in specialty exports in the last several years.

Haiti has gone a big step further to distinguish its coffee. In order to help struggling farmers, international donors, including USAID, began a major effort to rejuvenate Haiti's coffee industry and help it enter the specialty coffee market with the development of the Haitian Bleu brand, conceived in the mid-1990s. Washing and processing stations were constructed, and training and support services established to help the conversion to high quality washed coffee. Over 25000 farmers in 40 cooperatives came together to form the Fédération Des Associations Caféières Natives, known as just Caféières Natives, or FACN, which is Fair Trade certified. FACN chooses a particular mix of zero-defect beans from microclimates in areas ranging from 800 to 1400 meters to produce a characteristic coffee branded as Haitian Bleu. This coffee is only sold via multi-year contracts to a limited number of exclusive distributors who not allowed to resell the green beans. The Haitian Bleu project initially suffered some growing pains, but since 2001 has shown increased success. For a country with such desperate poverty, this is extremely important.

There will be more about coffees from Hispaniola coming up here on C&C, including reviews.

Sara Lee's "sustainable" coffee

Another one of the Big Four multinational roasters is jumping on the green bandwagon. Sara Lee's foodservice division is introducing its "Good Origin" line in the U.S. This line of six coffees will UTZ Certified (formerly Utz Kapeh). Sara Lee states:

"Sustainability is the goal of protecting, preserving and improving the social, economic and environmental states of coffee producing communities. ... We're partnering with UTZ CERTIFIED coffee, the most credible and comprehensive certification program that supports these sustainable goals."

With this move, Sara Lee says it is showing its commitment to "sustainable quality" by doubling its purchase of sustainable certified coffee to 20,000 tons in 2008.

This represents just a tiny fraction of Sara Lee's coffee purchases
According to the International Coffee Organization, world production for the years 2002-2006 averaged right around 7 million metric tons per year. Not all is exported from producing countries; the export figure is about 5.3 million metric tons. Although exact market share is considered a "trade secret" and hard to come by, Oxfam indicated that Sara Lee buys about 10% of the coffee on the world market. Even using the lower 5.3 million ton figure, the 20,000 tons of certified coffee Sara Lee plans on purchasing will be less than 4% of their total annual procurement.

The statement that UTZ is the most credible and comprehensive certification program is just false.
The most comprehensive and credible program for "protecting, preserving and improving" the environment is the Smithsonian Bird-Friendly certification, which requires organic certification and has other stringent criteria. I wrote an entire post describing how the UTZ environmental criteria are the weakest of all the major certifications.

The most credible and comprehensive certification program aimed at improving social and economic conditions is Fair Trade. The UTZ certification program has no price minimums or guarantees for producers; it has been criticized as "Fair Trade lite" precisely because big buyers are using it as a cheaper way to tap into the ethical consumer market.

On the bright side
This is not to say UTZ certification isn't worthwhile. The program emphasizes recordkeeping and traceability. Although the Good Origin blends have indeterminate names like Terrenos Gemelos and Tres Joyas, consumers will be able to input a source code from the front of a coffee bag and go to the Good Origin web site to identify the origin of the coffee. Sort of. You'll get sent to the one of the UTZ producers pages, which provide general information but not many specifics (especially on growing conditions) for the cooperative or farm.

Nonetheless, that consumers can get even this much information about coffee origins from one of the Big Four is notable. As we learned some time ago, these corporations don't actually know themselves where all their coffee comes from! Because of the huge volumes of coffee they purchase, they have networks of buyers and middlemen; traceability is a nightmare.

Do I prefer that the Big Four buy at least some coffee from some sort of "sustainable" source? Yes. But I do not believe in supporting corporations that do far more harm than good. It's like giving a free pass to a drug dealer because he built a health clinic in his hometown, while pushing dope in front of the local school. And why should I reward a company for making a marginal effort at doing what it should be doing, being an ethical, responsible corporate citizen?

As long as consumers demand and continue to buy cheap, mass produced coffee, the Big Four will continue to obtain it from whomever they can. They'll do the least expensive thing they can -- such as buying a tiny fraction of their coffee under a certification scheme that costs them the least amount of money and effort -- in order not to lose the consumers that have tried to wake up and smell the evils of unsustainable coffee. Don't be fooled.

Coffee growing in Kenya

Kenyan coffees are distinctive in (at least) two ways.  They have a unique, wine-like flavor, and they are produced and marketed under a government-controlled auction system. Samples are available to bidders prior to the weekly auction, and the highest bidder gets the lot. This means quality is rewarded, and the careful consumer can also be rewarded with great coffee.

Most coffee in Kenya is grown on small farms, organized into co-ops. According to the Coffee Board of Kenya, as of 2005 there were 700,000 smallholders organized into nearly 600 co-ops, and nearly 3300 estates of 2 to 20 ha each. This plethora of tiny plots makes it difficult for consumers to pinpoint the source of their Kenyan coffee, which is often only labeled as "AA" -- the highest grade sold at auction. Sometimes it may be labeled with a regional, estate, or co-op name, but finding information on these is nearly impossible for the average consumer. It has only been recently that direct relationships between growers and roasters has been allowed, and the information specialty roasters provide on their producers is a welcome source of crucial information for consumers.

The primary growing regions (included on the map) are those surrounding Mt. Kenya (Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Embu and Meru), Nakuru, Machakos, and Kiambu (mostly estates, includes towns and coffees labeled Ruiru, Thika, Juja and Makuyu).

Biodiversity in coffee areas
Some of these areas coincide with biodiversity hotspots. Mount Kenya is considered an Important Bird Area, and agricultural expansion and intensification is considered an important threat. The Kenya Mountains are also classified as an important Endemic Bird Area, with seven of the nine restricted range species being found on Mt. Kenya.

Forest covers only less than 2% of the land area in Kenya (around 5% counting modified forests), a loss of 80% of its original extent. These montane forests, in addition to being critical for birds and wildlife, are equally important to people: the forests on Mt. Kenya feed rivers that supply 40 to 50% of the country's fresh water, which also produce 70% of its hydroelectric power. Around 8% of Kenya's land is arable, and 4% of that is planted in coffee. Farmers of all types have been using more water for irrigation, creating shortages downstream.

I was frustrated in my attempts to find information on how coffee farming has impacted birds in the country. I was pleased to find a very recent paper on a related topic [1], but was surprised to read "Information on bird communities in Afrotropical agroecosystems is particularly scarce and, to our knowledge, only two studies have been conducted in eastern Africa." I have no direct information, then, on how coffee growing has influenced biodiversity in Kenya. Coffee is obviously an important crop, grown in sensitive areas that are facing numerous pressures.

Environmental sustainability
The coffee varieties grown in Kenya are often Bourbon types with alpha-numerical names, all beginning "SL". This stands for Scott Laboratories, the developer of the strains (SL28 and SL34 are high-quality names you may have heard). Despite the Bourbon heritage, usually a shade grown variety, most Kenyan coffee is grown in sun. The climate in the Kenyan highlands (cooler temperatures, humidity, even rainfall) often makes shade unnecessary. However, many farms did have shade trees, which were removed when coffee prices dropped in the 1980s and 1990s with the hope of increased yields. As we know, sun coffee requires more chemical inputs, and these expenses hampered rather than helped small farmers. Some are now replanting their shade trees. Photos of estates that I have seen, though, appear to still be acres of sun coffee, and look as if they have little or no habitat for native species.

There isn't much certified organic coffee from Kenya. Although many small farmers can't afford chemicals and may be passive organic, much of Kenya's coffee is doused with pesticides [2]. And, given the pooled system, any untreated coffee will be mixed with chemically-grown coffee, and it will be nearly impossible to know what is what. As I've discussed elsewhere, this isn't much of a risk to consumers, but harms the environment and the farmers themselves.

Most estates use pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides (an older but distressing report here). A slide in a presentation by the Coffee Board of Kenya shows the essentials of planting out young coffee trees: top soil, sub soil, manure, and furadan (carbofuran). Yikes!  Coffee rust (Hemileia vastarix) is a common problem, and is treated with copper fungicides; copper builds up in soils after years of treatment. This can create toxic levels in other food crops planted with the coffee [3]. Pesticides have also been found in water supplies in coffee-growing communities [4].

Conclusions
I often feel uncertain considering coffee from Kenya, and my research hasn't clarified too much for me. I certainly recommend avoiding generic "Kenya AA" coffee, and those grown on estates. Look for Kenyan coffee labeled with the name of a cooperative, not just a regional name. Even better, aim for a micro-lot or sub-lot of coffee from a particular cooperative; these will sometimes be labeled with the name of the co-op, and an auction lot number, or the co-op and the "factory" name (the mill or what would be called the beneficio in Spanish). Counter Culture Coffee has offerings such as this, and product descriptions include a link to a Google Map of the source.

With the liberalization of the Kenyan coffee market, more and more specialty roasters are buying small lots directly from farmers, often providing detailed information on the farms. This is a terrific best option. The only single-farm source I've seen is from Terroir Coffee Company -- Mamuto Farm from the Kirinyaga region. It got an incredible -- and well-deserved -- 97 points from Coffee Review. It is one the best coffees I have ever tasted, and there is a link in the description to farm photos.

I'm excited about seeing more direct trade relationships between Kenyan farmers and roasters. It will vastly improve transparency, has the potential for really improving the lives of the farmers, and gives consumers a chance to motivate and encourage the production of coffee grown with fewer chemicals in conditions that favor the return of biodiversity to their land.

New Cerulean Warbler coffee available

You've followed the saga of the flagship shade-coffee bird, the Cerulean Warbler, on these pages. If you need to catch up:

• An introduction to the declining Cerulean Warbler, and its connection to shade coffee on its Colombia wintering grounds.
• Discussion of the American Bird Conservancy's (ABC) Cerulean Warbler campaign. ABC partnered to purchase warbler habitat in Santander, Colombia which included shade coffee farms, and also began promoting a Cerulean Warbler coffee, roasted by Thanksgiving Coffee Company, which was sourced in Antioquia ,another important warbler wintering region. ABC added more land to the original reserve late last year.
• News from a bird conference I attended in February was that a new shipment of coffee from Antioquia would be offered by Thanksgiving in March, the plan was to begin importing coffee from the Santander preserve soon. I just browsed through all the coffees at Thanksgiving, and found no Cerulean Warbler coffee, nor did a search turn it up.  There are no direct links on the ABC site either, but a search there provides this page, which  does link to a page to an order page at Thanksgiving.

Sweet Maria's, North America's best source of green coffee for home roasters, just received a small lot from Antioquia, I believe the same co-op Thanksgiving sources from (although the lot may be a subset of farmers working on the Cerulean Warbler project). Tom gave this coffee a really good review, which is really encouraging. If you are a home roaster, I encourage you to give this coffee a try -- at $5.50/lb. green it's cheaper than Folgers!

What does a great cup of coffee cost?

The biggest obstacle, in my experience, in getting people to switch from crappy grocery store coffee to sustainable coffee is price. Even people who profess to be bird lovers, concerned with the environment, and aware of the issues surrounding sun and technified coffee frequently default to price. This, it seems, is the American way.

Is really great coffee really that expensive?
I recently decided to splurge on some expensive coffee just for myself (while many of the Coffee & Conservation tasting panel is on spring break). I ordered a half-pound bag of the #2 coffee in the 2007 Bolivian Cup of Excellence competition, Juana Mamami Huanca's San Ignacio farm, from Terroir Coffee Company. It was $34.95. That is high-dollar coffee. But based on two tablespoons of coffee per six-ounce cup, it still works out to less than $3 for a cup of fantastic coffee.

Most of the specialty coffee that is reviewed here costs in the range of $9.95 to $14.95 for a 12 or 14-ounce bag. That works out to $0.50 to $0.83 a cup. A pound of coffee from Caribou or Starbucks runs about $13 a pound, or $0.54 a cup. This is at least six times cheaper than a couple of shots of decent scotch or a glass of wine from a $15 bottle, not to mention less than the cost of a cup of (unsustainable) coffee at McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts.

You can do your own quick calculation in the worksheet below. Punch in the price and weight of a bag of coffee, and it will figure the price for a six-ounce cup.

It might be a little less convenient to make coffee at home, but it's obviously economical. In fact, I think this little exercise demonstrates that the excuse that specialty coffee is too expensive is a bit far-fetched. Do the math: Folgers is about $0.25 a cup, or you can enjoy this sweet, fantastic, organic shade-grown coffee for $0.55 a cup. All things considered, drinking the grocery store coffee just doesn't add up.

Photo by Scott Feldstein; thanks for publishing under a Creative Commons license.

Coffee growing in Australia

Coffee in Australia?
Coffee was first grown in Australia over a century ago, without much economic success. The high cost of labor made commercial coffee growing unprofitable until mechanical harvesting became common in the 1980s.  (If you are interested in the early history, here is in-depth coverage.)

Today, coffee is grown mostly in the far eastern part of the country, corresponding to the light green subtropical regions on the map (click to enlarge). Two important areas are the Atherton Tablelands in northern Queensland outside of Cairns, with about 30 large growers on over 700 ha, and in northern New South Wales (NSW) just south of the Queensland border, where there are around 170 growers on 500 ha. If you have some sense from the vague atlas in your head that these areas are not high elevation, you'd be correct. Australian coffee is a rule breaker. Not only is the country outside the tropics, but coffee is typically grown at 200-400 meters, not infrequently lower, and rarely much above 900 meters.

Despite the low elevations, Australia grows arabica almost exclusively. The typica variety is grown, but also catuai, Mundo Novo (hybrid of bourbon and typica), and especially Kenyan varieties more suited to the drier Australian climate such as K7 and SL6. Coffee is processed every which-way: some wet processing, some semi-washed (pulped natural), some dry processed (full natural), and a unique method developed by the Mountain Top Coffee Company called "double pass." This is where a full natural process bean (dried on the tree) is rehydrated before being pulped.

Australia currently produces 200 to 600 tons of coffee annually, half of which is exported, an amount so low it does not even get listed in the International Coffee Organization's production statistics. It's rarely seen in the United States, but there has been considerable investment in the specialty coffee industry in Australia along with increasing market presence.

Sustainability
I mentioned the advent of mechanized harvesting helping the Australian coffee industry turn the corner. Mechanical harvesting reduces or eliminates the need for workers to hand-pick beans, which can account for 50% of labor costs. It also requires coffee to be grown on flat land in rows in a monoculture. Thus, all the mechanized coffee in Australia (which is most of the commercial crop) is grown in full sun (some examples here, here, and here).

Mechanical harvesting also works best when the beans ripen simultaneously rather than over an extended period of time. The Australian climate, with pronounced dry seasons, lends itself to this as well. As in Brazil, coffee is irrigated after a dry period -- sometimes water is deliberately withheld -- in order to induce a bloom.

It's often written that Australian coffee is grown without pesticides, as most of the usual coffee pests are not present Down Under. However, some have been recently introduced (e.g., green scale), and others are a problem as well (brown scale, avocado leaf-rollers, and mealy bugs). Insecticides are in fact used for these insects by some growers. Further, sun coffee usually needs a lot of fertilizer. I have had trouble finding any Australian coffee that is actually certified organic. The Australian Coffee Traders Association even notes, "There are many Australian brands which claim to be 100% organic but the certification is questionable."

Habitat loss in Australian coffee-growing regions
According to the Australian Natural Resource Atlas (ANRA), 30-70% of subregional ecosystems are at risk in the coffee-growing areas of Australia, with higher instances in NSW. The major growing areas have different types of native vegetation. The major Queensland native type in the coffee-growing highlands is eucalyptus woodlands (pdf), and a good deal of it remains. The New South Wales north coast area is slightly different, with eucalyptus open forest (pdf), although far less native vegetation remains in this region. This loss of habitat contributes to the fact that the NSW coffee areas also have many threatened plant and animal species; it is considered one of the richest bioregions for birds in the country. Although traditionally the area with smaller coffee farms, it is the NSW region that is pushing for a major expansion in coffee production.

The map (click to enlarge) shows the change in breeding bird species reported during the last 20 years. The Queensland coffee area shows no significant change, but the NSW area has a significant decrease. The super-cool endemic Crested Tit-Shrike (Falcunculus frontatus, pictured) is considered an indicator species in both areas, as it is found in both characteristic types of eucalyptus forests. The Black-breasted Button-quail (Turnix melanogaster) is an example of an endemic bird that is under severe threat from land-clearing due to agriculture; its range is restricted to coastal and near-coastal regions of southeastern Queensland and north-eastern NSW. 

In contrast with researching how agriculture and coffee might impact biodiversity in some areas of the tropics, there is an abundance of information on habitats and threats in Australia (almost too much data to digest!), although nothing specific to coffee, given the relatively small footprint. You can read biodiversity assessments for the NSW North Coast and the Einasleigh Uplands of Queensland, which cover the important coffee-growing areas in Australia.

Bottom line
Overall, I was not left with a great feeling about compatibility of natural habitats and biodiversity and the coffee industry in Australia. Australian coffee is not common in the U.S., but the one bag we tried -- from a leading Australian brand and a U.S. roaster with a very good reputation -- was nothing special. In fact, nobody liked it. It was flat, and the most frequent adjectives were "ashy," "tobacco," and "coal." Should we be able to taste a wider sampling, we will post some reviews, but I'm really not motivated or inclined to seek them out. There are plenty of great coffees from that part of the world that are grown more harmoniously with native ecosystems.

Kangaroo crossing sign by Casa de Queso; thanks for publishing under a Creative Commons license; Climate map from Wikipedia; bird map from the Australian Natural Resource Atlas; Crested Tit-Shrike from the Australian Museum.