Coffee regions

Coffee regions / Corporate coffee

Poor quality Vietnamese beans (that end up in grocery store coffee)

A short article entitled “Quality of Vietnamese coffee poor”appeared recently on a Vietnam news site. It notes that Vietnam is the world’s second largest producer of coffee, but that 89% of its crop is low-quality robusta. And it adds, “The reason is the massive use of inorganic fertilizer, water, insecticide and poor processing technology.”

Where do these beans end up? In your cup, if you buy cheap coffee from one of these large corporations.

Nestlè (Nescafe, Taster’s Choice) buys 20 to 25% of Vietnam’s coffee. Kraft (brands include Chase and Sanborn, General Foods International Coffee, Gevalia, Maxwell House, and Sanka) is another major buyer; at a 2003 shareholder meeting, Kraft Chairperson Louis Camilleri said that the firm buys coffee in Vietnam that does not meet even minimum ICO [International Coffee Organization] standards, the first admission from a major company regarding purchase of sub-quality beans.  At the Folgers web site, Proctor & Gamble admitted to buying Vietnamese coffee: “We purchase our coffee beans from all over the world, including Vietnam. The percentage of beans from any one country varies all the time, depending on availability.” (Note that Folgers is now owned by JM Smucker, but probably uses P&G’s sourcing avenues). Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts (Chock Full o’Nuts, Hills Brothers) also buys coffee from Vietnam and is in a partnership with Kraft in that country.*

Kenneth Davids at Coffee Review sums up the problem with most robustas in today’s market:

Apparently with the support of the World Bank, robustas recently have been planted in very large quantities in Vietnam. These are mass-produced coffees at their most dramatic: stripped from the trees, leaves, unripe, ripe and overripe fruit and all, and dried in deep piles. All of which means the essentially bland, grainy robusta character is topped off with an assortment of off-tastes, mainly musty/mildewed and fermented. These coffees sell for considerably less than all other coffees, including better quality robustas. I am told that production costs for Vietnamese robustas are about 20 cents per pound or less, compared to, for example, production costs of 80 to 90 cents per pound for the excellent “100% Colombia” coffees competing in the supermarket. And now the current episode: Commercial dealers and roasters have learned to steam the often foul-tasting Vietnamese robustas, removing the waxy covering of the bean and muting (but not entirely eliminating) the offensive flavor notes.

To read about the human and environmental toll of coffee in Vietnam, read this article from Tea & Coffee by Mark Pendergrast, author of the outstanding book, Uncommon Grounds. The article includes a history of coffee in Vietnam, and describes how more than a million acres of the Vietnamese highlands were planted in mostly robusta coffee in the late 1990s, land which was abandoned after the drop in coffee prices, “leaving the exposed soils to the torrential rain. Erosion, siltation, land slips, flash floods, and water shortage are the obvious results.”

It’s enough to convince you to seek out sustainable coffee.

Coffee regions

NYT Rwanda coffee article

On Sunday, August 6, the New York Times business section had an excellent article on coffee growing in Rwanda (stable, no registration link).  The article gives background on how financial help from U.S. AID, via the PEARL Project I’ve written about before, has helped bring about a vast improvement in the quality of Rwandan coffee, and brought hope and economic vitality to a country in which nearly a million people were killed by genocide.

The article notes that it is the Rwandan government’s goal to make all coffee produced in the county specialty coffee by 2008.  This means no more cheap, C-grade beans purchased by the big four, higher prices paid for the beans which go directly to the farmers and their communities (lessening the need for exploitation of the environment), and even more attention to sustainable growing methods. The article included interviews with Intelligentsia’s Geoff Watts, Thanksgiving’s Paul Katzeff, Green Mountain’s Lindsey Bolger, and Thousand Hill’s Stephen Coffey.  It also tells a few amazing personal stories.  A very good read, take a look.

Coffee regions

Attention: Nicaragua

The situation and the role of coffee: Nicaraguan coffee made recent news, with a story on how organic coffee is losing its appeal to Nicaraguan coffee farmers. About 10% of the country’s coffee exports are organic, but producers feel there isn’t enough of a price premium to make the lower yields and extra effort (and certification costs) to produce organic coffees worthwhile.  Higher demand and increased volume of organic coffee worldwide has lowered prices, and according to the article, farmers are sometimes only receiving $1.05/lb for organic beans.

Nicaragua has suffered through civil war and natural disasters.  In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the region and displaced many coffee farmers.  Coffee is an extremely important export crop, and 200,000 Nicaraguans depend on the industry.

Birds in coffee-growing regions: Organic and shade coffee are crucial for biodiversity in this country. Many of North America’s breeding birds — such as Blue-winged Warbler, Least Flycatcher, and the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler — winter in Nicaragua.

In addition to migratory birds, coffee-growing areas of Nicaragua are critical to resident birds. They are included in the North Central American Highlands Endemic Bird Area (EBA).  EBAs are designated by BirdLife International as areas which have a high percentage of species with restricted ranges.  This EBA is given urgent conservation priority, and the account states, “The montane forests are especially affected at 1,000-1,800 m by the growing of coffee without shade trees.”

About Nicaraguan coffee: Coffee in Nicaragua is often grown under dense shade.  Coffee is usually wet-milled at the farm. The profile of coffee from this country is best described as very approachable, clean, and with good balance. Kenneth Davids of Coffee Review considers Nicaraguans “subtle, suave, and lyric.”

The C&C tasting panel and I have tried several organic Nicaraguan coffees: from Heine Brothers, Great Lakes Roasting Company, and the Counter Culture Matagalpa Cafe San Ramon listed below.  These coffees are classic coffees, friendly and subtle,  medium-bodied and straight-forward. They are not especially complex, and serve as great all-day coffees that would be excellent introductions to tasty, sustainable coffee for your Folger-swilling friends.

My favorite Nicaraguan is the Counter Culture; note that they also market the Matagalpa San Ramon as one of their shade-grown Sanctuary coffees, available at retail outlets such as Whole Foods. There are delicious hints of chocolate in this coffee, which is especially good in any kind of immersion brewer, such as a french press.  Counter Culture has a strong relationship with growers in this region through the Sister Communities of San Ramon. The farm, Finca Esperanza Verde, has an ecolodge and a butterfly farm, and like the rest of the area, is a great birdwatching destination.  The Counter Culture involvement is a perfect model of relationship coffee.

Coffee regions

Attention: East Timor

I’d like to occasionally profile a coffee-growing country, where the current situation merits special attention from coffee consumers, whose purchase of sustainable coffee from the country can provide extra benefit.  I’ll try to include these items: the current status, why your purchase will help, cultivation and characteristics of coffee in the country, and some links to sustainable coffees.  You can usually expect the C&C tasting panel to follow up with a review of one or more coffees from the country.

I will start with East Timor, half of one of the easternmost coffee-growing islands in Indonesia.

Situation: Once a Portuguese colony, which was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, only a few days after declaring independence. For over 20 years, conflict and clashes gripped the island as the Timorese resisted the Indonesians.  East Timor joined the UN as an independent nation in 2002, but clashes continue, currently involving violence between eastern and western soldiers that is at a crisis stage requiring international intervention. Some background can be found at BBC News.

The role of coffee: East Timor’s economy has been crippled by the ongoing fighting, and its people are among the poorest in the world.  Coffee is one of the most important mainstays of the East Timorese economy.   In 1994, with help from USAID, the Cooperativa Cafe Timor was organized, and is now the largest single-source producer of organically certified coffee in the world. It has 20,000 farm families and employs another 3,000 local people during processing time, about 25% of the population! Starbucks has been a major customer of East Timor coffee; it was used
in their Arabian Mocha Timor blend, which is currently listed as out of stock.  May and June are harvesting time for coffee in East Timor, and the current wave of violence has nearly stopped production, with coffee not making it to the processing mills, many of which are unmanned due to the fighting.

Coffee Review notes: “Buying a Timor coffee at this moment in history means making a small but valuable gesture of support for one of the many peoples of the world caught up in sectarian and political conflict.” Not only does buying specialty coffee from East Timor help the people, it will also help the environment, adding value to biodiverse farmland when so much forest and farmland was napalmed and destroyed in the war.

About East Timor coffee: There are two main growing regions in East Timor, Aifu and the higher altitude Maubesse. The bean grown most often in Timor is a natural hybrid between arabica and canephora (robusta), often called Hibrido Timor or some variation (it is also used to cross with the Caturra variety to make Catimor, which is higher yielding than either parent, but not as good as either one; more on botanical varieties here).

East Timor has some rugged terrain and a very hot climate.  Coffee is always grown under shade, the only way the plants would survive.  Coffee is grown on small plots, in a primitive and nearly wild state. Because the farmers have not been able to afford chemicals, East Timor coffee is organic.

Coffees are wet-processed in the new mills.  However, the 2006 crop is in question due to the current civil unrest described above, and it may be that coffee that comes from East Timor from this season will be in limited supply and dry processed.

Variously described as sweet and nutty, medium-bodied, with a sweet cedar finish, cleaner than Sumatrans, with more acidity than Javas, and generally clean and mild. You can read some reviews of older crops at Coffee Review.

Map image: pbs.org.