BirdScope is the newsletter for members of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, one of the world's best known bird research, education, and citizen science organizations. This latest issue has a short article on shade coffee. Yours truly is quoted in it. Check it out: Saving the tropics one sip at a time.
The Discovery Channel program "HowStuffWorks" had an episode about coffee. There are short (under 3 or 4 minutes) video clips from the show on their web site. Some I thought were especially good were:
All the clips will be listed to the right of the current clip.
In a previous post I mentioned that I had kept track of all the coffee I had in 2008. That post emphasized the low price ($2.70 a day) of drinking only really good, sustainable, specialty coffee.
Here, I’d like to make some brief comments on a few of the coffees themselves.
As I noted, my 2008 list included 63 different coffees, nearly all single origin coffees, from 22 countries. Most were Latin American, with El Salvador leading the pack; Kenya topped the choices from the rest of the world. I drank coffee from 23 roasters, turning most often to Counter Culture and Terroir Coffee Company.
My three favorite coffees were:
One disappointing coffee stood out: Trader Joe’s Cafe Feminino Peru. I’ve tried these beans from this source before, as they are widely available; my brief review from Grounds for Change was very positive. The Trader Joe’s version, which was supposed to be a medium roast, was very dark and oily, more like a French roast. That shouldn’t be a problem — I liked the Grounds for Change in a dark roast. Yet I found the Trader Joe’s was awful: thin, harsh, and sooty. Trader Joe’s doesn’t use roast dates, and the (lack of) bloom indicated this batch was not particularly fresh. I will be devoting a post to Trader Joe’s coffee in the future.
A few of you may be wondering why, if I drink so many different coffees, so few are reviewed here on Coffee & Conservation (eleven reviews were published in 2008). There are several reasons. First, although I’ll occasionally give just my own opinion on a coffee, fair reviews involve a bunch of people tasting each coffee, often more than once. Sometimes, it’s just hard to corral a panel. Second, as I pointed out in the introduction to how we do reviews, most coffee ratings are lumped in the middle of the 1 to 5 motmot range. The value in the reviews is the background information provided about the origin/region, farm, growing methods, and roaster. This research is time-consuming. Sometimes, I don’t come up with enough solid information to make a good review.
In 2009, reviews will focus on sustainability stars and outstanding coffees, as well as more reviews of the coffee of popular retailers, such as I’ve done with Panera, Einstein Bros, or Tim Hortons. Starbucks and Caribou will also get more attention since they are how many people are introduced to “specialty” coffee. In many ways, these are more difficult to write…the more corporate the company, the less they divulge about their sources.
As always, if you have any suggestions or things you’d like to see, please drop me a line (contact info here).
Coffee bag photo by Biskuit.
At the beginning of 2008, I started keeping track of all the coffee I purchased. Since I drink (and share) a lot of coffee — all specialty coffee and some quite expensive — I was curious how many kinds I went through in a year and what I spent.
After a year of enjoying a wide variety of beans, my final tally really surprised me — especially how little it cost to truly enjoy this great beverage.
The cost of all the coffee I drank in 2008, including shipping charges and the retail price of some coffee that I was given free, was $987.03. Not a small piece of change, but it works out to a piddling $2.70 a day. Every day, that’s a full pot for my husband and I. Two or three times a week I make a French press in the afternoon. Once a month or more, I share coffee at work with a group to do coffee reviews (or just hang out). I give away a half-dozen bags or so in a year. A lot of indulgence for less than $3 a day!
How much indulgence? My list consisted of 63 different coffees — only two were blends, the rest were single origin coffees. I had around a dozen selections more than once. Some I just liked so much I bought them again. Sometimes I tried the same coffee by two different roasters, or the same coffee but different crops. The coffees came from 22 countries and from 23 roasters.
Unfortunately, I kept track by order and not by bag, so I can’t tell you what the cheapest and most expensive coffees were. Most were 12-oz. bags, and I don’t think I paid less than $8 for a bag. I paid over $20 fairly often, with the most expensive about $35. Because I didn’t keep track of each bag, I am also unable to calculate a price per cup using the nifty tool that I provided here earlier this year. I’ve already set up the 2009 spreadsheet to include these variable so I can provide more detail next year.
I think this is insanely cheap for what can be one of life’s most satisfying daily luxuries. If you drink less coffee than we do, have a good roaster nearby and can avoid shipping costs, or splurge less often on really expensive beans, you’ll spend much less. If you still think it’s too expensive to drink only decent, sustainably-grown coffee, then you are probably only drinking it for the kick. Try NoDoz, and you won’t be destroying the environment and impoverishing farmers for your caffeine fix.
Half cup photo by MissBeckles.