JulieCraves

Coffee news and miscellany

Sustainability at the SCAA expo

Having “green” conferences is all the rage the last few years. I’ve been to a few in my field. Of course, a bunch of ornithologists more or less just listens to research presentations — overall not much in the way of consumables. A trade show, on the other hand, is another story. As it was last year, the recent Specialty Coffee Association of America expo was billed as a “green” conference. Here were the measures the organization announced they were taking to minimize the impact on the environment:

  • Part of the fee went to planting trees in a coffee-growing country to make the conference carbon-neutral.
  • Attendee brochures (40 pages) were not mailed out, saving paper and transportation fuel costs. They were available on the expo web site…many stacks of them. The brochures were perfect bound, which may have made them harder to recycle. I didn’t check to see if they were printed on recycled paper, but I believe it was glossy.
  • Participants were asked to fill out session and conference evaluation forms online.
  • All of the many large vinyl banners inside and out of the expo venue (like the ones shown above) will be made into tote bags which were available for pre-order.
  • Coffee grounds were donated to a worm farm or nursery in the Atlanta area.

The real waste at one of these shows occurs on the expo floor. There were hundreds of vendor booths, and many of them offered coffee (or smoothie or tea) samples — in little disposable paper cups. How many thousands of cups were used for 10 seconds before heading to the landfill? Were any made from recycled paper? This bothered us so much last year that this year we brought our own espresso shot glasses and used them. Saves paper, and the coffee tastes better.

The Counter Culture Coffee booth was the only one we noted that solved the problem by using small ceramic cups (29 cents at IKEA), shown here with barista Lem Butler. Their whole booth was inspiring, and keeping with the company goal of zero waste. The exterior was made of Plyboo — a formaldehyde-free, Forest Council-certified bamboo material, while the frames were lightweight aluminum and the countertop stainless steel (all recyclable). Carpet squares were recyclable FLOR carpet tiles, and LED lighting was used. CCC was also using locally sourced dairy products, and their coffee grounds were headed to a local farm for composting.

While the SCAA can’t really dictate that all vendors have booths this green, it would go a long way if they could discourage the use of disposable cups — such as giving out small glasses to registered attendees. I’ve been to conferences where everyone received a coffee mug, and that’s what people used on the coffee breaks. At SCAA, the multiple coffee break stations should certainly have used ceramic mugs rather than paper cups.

Another way the could have cut down on waste might be in the printing of the four-page color newsprint newsletter published daily at the show. There was some useful content in it, but they were discarded all over the place. Could they have sent a copy to everybody via email and/or made them available for printing at print stations instead? There was no indication that the paper it was printed on was recycled, either.

Everybody at the expo got a swag bag — a  burlap tote that had some literature and a few samples of odds and ends. I saw a lot of the innards, particularly the paper stuff, discarded. A literature table might make more sense and be less wasteful, as people could pick up what they were interested in. The bags themselves were stiff and scratchy. Since they were presumably supposed to look like jute coffee sacks, seems like it would have been a cool idea to recycle real coffee sacks, which are a pain in the butt to get rid of, according to roasters I’ve talked to. Personally, I wasn’t that crazy about the bag. However, one of my cats immediately claimed it, maneuvered it in front of the heat vent, and it’s now one of her favorite places to sit. She loves it.

I’ll be the first to admit I have no experience planning a trade show, but the paper waste alone at this expo made me cringe. I think SCAA could have done a lot more to make the event much greener.

Retail and specialty roasters / Starbucks

The sincerest form of flattery

Last year, Counter Culture Coffee launched its Direct Trade program. They also started rolling out their current line of packaging: brown kraft-like valve bags with a sleeve that has nice origin-appropriate art, a map on one side panel showing the source, tasting notes on the other side, and a good description of the farm or co-op on the back. I believe they won an award at a coffee trade show for this labeling.

This year, Starbucks debuted “seasonal coffees.” These coffees are only available for a limited time, and are “harvested in-season when they are at their peak of flavor.”  I’m not sure what Starbucks is really trying to say, since all coffee is harvested “in season.”  Coffee is at its peak flavor when it is fresh — when the green beans have not been sitting around for ages, and when it is freshly roasted. Maybe these seasonal coffees are not as stale as the Starbucks coffee often found on store shelves. But I digress.

What I really wanted to point out was that the packaging for the new Starbucks seasonal coffee line looks very familiar. A brown (non-valve) bag, with a printed wrap-around-look label with art on the front and tasting notes and a map on the side… You get the picture. If not, here you go:

Coffee awards and competitions

SCAA coffee awards

Two coffee competitions took place at the Specialty Coffee Association of America expo in association with The Roasters Guild: the Roaster’s Choice Tasting Award and the Coffee of the Year.

The ten Roaster’s Choice coffees were available for tasting during the expo and everybody was able to cast a vote for their favorite. We had a lot of fun with this last year. The competition was held in a more convenient location then, so we were able to go back more frequently to taste the coffees. Still, it was worthwhile to taste so many flavors in an array of coffees.

The results were interesting: half the winners Ethiopian, including the top three — two of which were from the same cooperative. Last year the number one coffee was an Ethiopian. The winners are below; I have more info on the top three because they were displayed at the expo. The rest are from a release from the SCAA that only lists the roaster and country of origin (see my comments at the end of the post). Update: I’ve added additional information received in the comments.

1. Equator Estate Coffee & Teas — Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley — roasted by David Pohl.
2. Caffe Pronto — Ethiopia Wondo Worka, Yirgacheffe — roasted by Andy Sprenger (Andy also came in 2nd out of 22 in the first U.S. Cup Tasters Competition, where folks compete to identify coffees in the shortest time in triangulation rounds). This coffee also received a 92 from Coffee Review. Talk about potently floral — wow.
3. Berres Brothers Coffee — Ethiopia Wondo Worka, Yirgacheffe — roasted by John Johnson. This was the only one of the top three that also made my top three. Also distinctly floral, but I like my Ethiopian’s a little more subtle.
4. Flying Goat Coffee — Costa Rica, Cafetin de San Martin micro mill, Terrazu, 2009 crop.
5. Barefoot Coffee Roasters — Ethiopi, Oromiya, Yirgacheffe, Dominion Trading Co. Certified organic. Reviewed at Coffee Review.
6. Tony’s Coffee and Teas — Sulawesi Toraja Peaberry Toarco.
7. Intelligentsia — Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, I presume their Direct Trade Kurimi.
8. Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting — Burundi Kinyovu.
9. Coffeesnobs.com.au — Bolivia Flor de Cafe San Ignacio.
10. Aroma Trading Co. — R&A Javar farms, milled by Pavaraga, Hawaii — roasted by Dan Tang. Exclusive rights on U.S. mainland to Kean Coffee.

Single origin coffees in the Coffee of the Year competition were evaluated by industry cupping professionals in several rounds over the weekend. There were 135 coffees entered. Here are the top ten, with the silly misspellings from the official SCAA press release corrected:

1. Colombia — C.I. Virmax Colombia S.A, Los Naranjos, San Agustin, Huila (88.66).
2. Panama — Hacienda La Esmeralda, Boquete (87.69). After winning first place in 2005-2007, this also came in second to a Colombian last year.
3. Ethiopia — Ninety Plus Coffee, Aricha Micro Selection 14, Yirgacheffe (87.03)
4. Colombia — C.I. Racafe & CIA S.C.A., Santa Maria, Huila (85.78). Racafe came in first place last year.
5. Kenya — Royal Coffee, NY, Gethumbwini Estate, Aberdare Ranges (85.72)
6. Guatemala — El Injerto, S.A., La Libertad, Huehuetenango (85.59). Rainforest Alliance certified; shade is rather low on native diversity, but there is forest reserve on the property as well.
7. Hawaii — Kailiawa Coffee Farm (sponsored by Ka’u Farm and Ranch Company LLC, milled by Pavaraga), District of Ka’u on the Big Island if Hawaii (85.05)
8. Colombia — C.I. Virmax Colombia S.A., La Piramide (Inza, Cauca) (85.00)
9. El Salvador — Exportadora El Volcan S.A. de C.V., Finca Shangrila, Apaneca/Ilamatepec Mountain Range (84.89)
10. Guatemala — San Diego Buena Vista, Acatenango (84.86). Rainforest Alliance certified, came in third out of the Guatemalan coffees in the Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality awards, where it scored 83.75.

Sorry, but I’m disappointed in the Roasters Guild and SCAA for the way they publicized the results of these competitions. It took a week for me to dig up the list of winners for the Roasters Choice awards; they didn’t even send a press released to registered media. As I noted, just a list of the roaster and country of origin. There were no other details on the coffee, nor did they give the numbers they were assigned in the blind tasting, so I can’t even tell you which one I liked the best. The press release for the Coffee of the Year was more prompt, but had several misspellings, which I corrected above. Really, it’s embarrassing for the SCAA not to correctly spell “Yirgacheffe.”

Blends/Multiple / Coffee reviews / Latin America

Coffee review: Arbor Day blend

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #41.

Introduction
The Arbor Day Foundation‘s mission is to “inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees.”  The first tree-planting holiday, dubbed Arbor Day, took place in Nebraska in 1872. The last Friday in April — today — is National Arbor Day in the United States, celebrated with various tree planting activities.

One of the Arbor Day Foundation’s projects is Rain Forest Rescue, which has supported development of a conservation plan and land purchases in forested areas of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Related to that effort, the organization sells Arbor Day Specialty coffee. In addition to bags ranging from ten ounces to five pounds, various samplers and gift boxes and a coffee club of two bags of coffee a month are also available.

Coffees
The regular offerings are the Arbor Day blend (medium roast), an Italian dark roast, and two flavored varieties (hazelnut and a cinnamon hazelnut). The medium roast Arbor Day blend is also available in decaf through the coffee club. There is currently a limited edition Colombian from Mesa de los Santos which I won’t go into here; I wrote about this Smithsonian Bird-Friendly and Rainforest Alliance certified origin in a previous post.

Aside from the limited edition coffee, there is no further information about the the origins of the Arbor Day selections on the web site. However, I was told that Arbor Day sources from Fair Trade co-ops in Mexico depending on availability: ISMAM and Nubes de Oro.

ISMAM (Indigenas de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla) is a cooperative with nearly 2,000 members of Mayan heritage, growing coffee on 9,700 ha of land, mostly on plots of less than 5 ha. It is based in Tapachula, Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border, and all members have received organic certification. Coffee is grown between 800 and 1600 meters (other sources I’ve seen give the altitude at 1,100 meters; the lowest elevations are robusta coffee, not included in this blend), and is the arabica varieties typica and bourbon.

ISMAM-grown coffee is touted as shade grown. One larger ISMAM farm, the 200 ha Finca Belen, is  Smithsonian Bird-Friendly certified. It’s a farm where Smithsonian researchers have done a number of studies on shade coffee and biodiversity. It’s not possible to determine how much, if any, of the Arbor Day coffee comes from this particular farm. Shade management across 2,000 farms will certainly vary.

Nubes de Oro is also a Chiapas cooperative, located near the El Triunfo Biosphere reserve (see this Starbucks review for more info) and headquartered in Mapastepec. There are over 400 members. As with ISMAM, Nubes de Oro grows typica and bourbon, and the altitude ranges from 900 to 1300 meters. This cooperative is also listed as Smithsonian Bird-Friendly certified, although the certification may involve only some of the members.

The Arbor Day coffees are roasted by The Roasterie in Kansas City — a really good specialty roaster, not some big anonymous commercial roaster, which I think is great.

Review
We reviewed the Arbor Day Blend in both regular and decaf. When I received the coffee, the Fair Trade certified label was prominently displayed, but I had to search for the organic seal. Curious.  Anyway, as advertised this was a medium roast, with most beans showing a sheen of oil, and some with blobs of oil.  There was no roast date on the package (which was not a valve bag), but when hot water hit the freshly ground coffee it did have a decent bloom.

In the French press, this coffee was pleasant, but did not have the acidity we may have expected from a Mexican coffee, especially from Chiapas. Some chocolate notes were there, but more people commented on flavors tending toward nutty or earthy. Several people thought it was sharp, slightly bitter, or better with milk.

Brewed, this harshness was gone for the most part, but it was still not as lively as we would have liked. To be fair, this is in all likelihood, given the season, the end of last year’s crop and therefore would be more apt to be a little dull. One taster said that it didn’t knock his socks off (actually, I think he said “my socks stayed on when I tried it.”). But, he said that didn’t mean it was bad — just a decent cup of coffee. It was just what you’d expect from this origin, balanced, not really complex, a good everyday cup.

I don’t drink much decaf, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the decaf version. I thought it was better than the regular — a little smoother, without the sharp notes, even in the French press. It had no “off” taste, but was a little weaker than the regular, even when we experimented with grind and brew times. Had I been served this, I would not have known it was decaf.  Overall, these coffees scored 2.75 motmots.

For those seeking decently-sourced, organic, Fair Trade, and generally shade grown coffee — especially by subscription — I’d say to certainly give the Arbor Day coffees a try. In particular I think the average American coffee drinker, who is used to darker roasts or coffee shop coffees, would be pretty pleased with this.

And on this Arbor Day, consider planting some trees. If you order from the Arbor Day Foundation, you will be directed to select trees that will grow in your region. I implore you to make sure to select species that are native to your area. Arbor Day sells a lot of species that are not native to North America, including a few that are considered invasive in some regions. Using native species is really important to keep ecosystems functioning normally — and it will help the same migratory birds than benefit from your choice of shade grown coffee!