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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!

Coffee reviews / Latin America / Retail and specialty roasters / Starbucks

Coffee review: Starbucks Organic Shade Grown Mexico

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

Starbucks Organic Shade Grown Mexicois produced by around 900 small farmers on 3200 ha of land in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas [1]. Many of the farms are near or adjacent to the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, which contains the northernmost cloud forests in the world and is considered as one of the greatest biodiversity sites of North America. El Triunfo totals 119,000 ha, of which 93,458 ha corresponds to a buffer zone and the rest to the core areas. Core areas are primary forest owned by the government. The buffer zone consists of privately owned lands, about 60% of which are forested. The remainder is agricultural, with shade coffee being the dominant crop; up to 70% is rustic shade.

Originally this coffee was to be a temporary offering, but proved so popular that it is on the permanent Starbucks menu.

Background

This coffee-sourcing is part of a partnership with Conservation International (CI) which began in 1998. Originally, this was to be a three-year program with CI providing technical assistance to producers encouraging them to continue eco-friendly growing practices, and Starbucks as a dependable buyer. This partnership has continued with some new wrinkles, including the development of Starbucks C.A.F.E. practices.

This project has not been without controversy. One main gripe has been that the contracts with Starbucks paid above-market prices, but the beans went through the large exporter and processor Agroindustrias de Mexico (AMSA), which took a cut of the price. This doesn’t seem like an unusual arrangement and perhaps the only practical one with between a large buyer and dozens of cooperatives. At some point Starbucks did try to deal directly with producers, but the cooperatives were unable to arrange shipment.

Some of the co-ops withdrew from participation. Various reasons have been given. According to CI’s report to USAID [1], when the world price of coffee rose above the price already agreed to in the contracts, producers reneged and sold to other buyers (a not too-uncommon occurrence). Some felt that, after a long struggle for autonomy, that they were once again beholden to middlemen [2]. CI apparently negotiated many of the initial contracts, and some producers later regretted signing when they found out Starbucks was the end buyer (was that not in the contracts?). There were also objections to quality demands being imposed on them.

Nonetheless, the arrangement with Starbucks did and has increased income for many of the farmers. One co-op mentioned as a participant in a New York Times article was identified by a Fair Trade advocate as being organizationally weak, not well suited to judging the quality of their own beans, and unable to seek out other buyers. If that’s the case, this co-op may not be qualified for Fair Trade certification, and therefore Starbucks might be the best option for them, at least at this time.

While there is a lack of publicly available objective information on the outcomes of the Chiapas coffee project, from what I have read it has had an overall positive net impact. Encouraging and promoting organic and shade-grown coffee is a major goal of El Triunfo conservation efforts. At least for some period of time, cooperatives that withdrew from the CI/Starbucks program had a hard time finding buyers, especially those that would pay high prices and invest in their communities. If Starbucks is purchasing an average of 1.7 million pounds of coffee from this area every year, this is likely a good thing, especially if these producers do not have other options for selling their beans.

Finally, we need to bear in mind that this is a certified organic coffee, but it does not have shade certification by Smithsonian or Rainforest Alliance. As mentioned above, however, the coffee grown in this area, especially in the El Triunfo buffer zone, is traditionally grown in the shade, often diverse shade.

Let’s move on to the coffee
Starbucks Organic Shade Grown Mexico is billed as a medium roast. For a company known to over-do the roasting, I was surprised to see that “medium” was actually “medium.” I think good Mexican coffees are delicate and sweet and should be roasted light, but I suppose medium was a good compromise to cater to the tastes of Starbucks customers. I was also surprised to see that in a French press, this coffee was fresh enough to have a decent bloom.

This coffee was what we expected from a Mexican coffee: pleasant, approachable, smooth, and well-balanced. It was fairly sweet with hints of chocolate; a couple people thought that rather than milk chocolate it was a more bittersweet dark chocolate, perhaps due to the roast. One person tasted cinnamon. Overall, comments were quite positive. A few people with known anti-Starbucks sentiments were grudgingly impressed. This is a decent coffee that most people should find more than acceptable. When the votes were tallied, it came away with a solid 3 motmots.

Because of its size, Starbucks falls victim to its own success. Providing a consistent product at such large volumes inevitably means lower quality, buying through exporters (and thus lower prices for producers) and an inability to truly police the growing methods of thousands of farmers. Still, I can think of few other offerings by any of the big roasters that are as positive for the environment as the Starbucks Organic Shade Grown Mexico. It sure beats Kraft’s 30% Rainforest Alliance certified (and 70% mystery-sourced) Yuban, and tastes better to boot.

[1] Conservation International and Starbucks Coffee Company. 2007. The Conservation Coffee Alliance.  USAID Contract # 596-A-00-04-00039-00, Annual and Final Report 2004-2007.

[2] Gonzalez, A. A. and R. Nigh. 2004. Smallholder participation and certification of organic farm products in Mexico. Journal of Rural Studies 21:449-460.

Caribou Coffee / Coffee reviews / Latin America / Retail and specialty roasters

Coffee review: Caribou Colombia Timaná

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #38.

Pursuant to our backgrounder on Colombia, here’s another review of a Colombian coffee, one which is quite readily available, Caribou Coffee Colombia Timaná.

This is Caribou’s regular Colombian offering. It is Rainforest Alliance certified (100% of the beans), and comes from the the area near the southern town of Timaná in the Huila department (coordinates 1.983,-75.95). It is primarily of the Caturra variety, and grown at 1600 meters.

Caribou sources this coffee from a cooperative called Asociacion de Productores Agricolas de Timaná or ASPROTIMANA. In late 2005 ASPROTIMANA started the process towards Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification, with 26 growers participating. Now all 52 members (with 53 farms averaging about 6 ha) have received RA certification. As I mentioned in the previous post, there are many growing areas in Colombia at high altitude in which clouds provide shade. Growing coffee under additional cover in these areas creates problems with very low yields and sometimes issues with pathogens such as fungi.  Farmers in these areas often preserve adjacent forest plots. This is the case with the ASPROTIMANA growers. Almost 250 ha are in coffee grown in semi-shade (fulfilling RA requirements of 70 trees per ha of a dozen species), with another 35 ha being set aside for conservation.

This was a light roast with a really pleasant aroma; one taster found it “buttery and complex.” This was a very nice middle-of-the-road coffee, and we agree with Caribou when it says that it is “the perfect beginner’s coffee” or “perfect everyday coffee.” I have to say that (in keeping with making coffee like an ordinary person) that I prepared it one day in a French press a bit too strong. It was even better like this: more richly-bodied and robust, another reviewer that day described it as “resonant.” Another was extremely enthusiastic and rushed down the hall, cup in hand, to my office to ask me what he was drinking. We gave this coffee 3.5 motmots.

In 2007, Coffee Review gave it 88 points. It’s also one of the coffees available in several of Caribou’s Roastmaster’s Choice Clubs.

I also tried the Colombia Timaná Reserve, one of Caribou’s Origins Select coffees. It is from the same producers, but only from 6 select growers. This was also very nice coffee, but I honestly could not detect a significant difference from the regular Timaná, although more discerning tasters might very well be able to. Anyway, kudos to Caribou for this tasty, sustainable selection.

Coffee reviews / Latin America

Coffee review: Terroir Coffee El Descanso

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #37.

As noted in the the post with background information on coffee growing in Colombia, finding a notably tasty, really sustainable coffee from Colombia is still not incredibly easy. There are a couple of choices for those concerned with migratory and resident bird habitat preservation. One includes coffees that are often known as “Cerulean Warbler” coffees. Thanksgiving Coffee Company imports and roasts one on behalf of the American Bird Conservancy which was reviewed here (includes background links).

The other option is Mesa de los Santos, a farm that is certified organic, Rainforest Alliance, and Smithsonian Bird-Friendly. We reviewed this coffee from Counter Culture here, but it is one of the most widely available Bird-Friendly coffees on the market. Just Google it and you can get your hands on some pronto.

One roaster doing a great job of sourcing small lot, specialty coffee in Colombia is George Howell’s Terroir Coffee. We recently tried a selection from Terroir, El Descanso. Terroir has run out of the 2007 crop reviewed here, but they will have a new crop available in October 2008.

El Descanso comes from the 8 hectare farm of Jesus Orlando Lopez, at 1700 meters in southwestern Huila. Terroir indicates this is of the caturra variety, although Sweet Maria’s Tom Owen notes (in the pages indicated below) that the farmer is using the castillo variety in his new plantings.

This farm won 12th place in the 2006 Cup of Excellence. At the time, it was indicated that the coffee was sun-grown. However, the Terroir web site notes that El Descanso is being reforested and applying for Rainforest Alliance certification. The bag came with the RA seal on it; I don’t see it specifically listed on the RA site, but there are many producers listed for Huila in a sort of generic form and El Descanso may be included in one of those listings.

In addition to coffee Sr. Orlando Lopez has plots of yuca, sugar cane, and beans, and a couple of pastures. The “rastrojo reserva” is, I believe, set aside for compost or mulch, or may be a fallow field.

The tasters all really enjoyed this coffee, which was obviously a step beyond the ideal Colombian profile. The aroma was distinctive, and our amateur noses couldn’t quite pin it down. Suggestions included honey, fresh baked caramel buns, and yogurt-covered pretzels. Like some of the best and brightest Central American coffees, it had a lovely almost citrus “zing” on the first piping-hot sip. Citrus and honey were again mentioned, as were faint cherry, blackberry, ripe plum or yellow plum (leading to an off-topic discussion of the difficulty in obtaining truly good plums around here). It remained sweet as it cooled, with candy and chocolate notes moving to the forefront.

We really enjoyed this coffee, and felt it was a great example of what the best Colombian coffees have to offer. We gave it 3.5 motmots.

Our next review will be a very nice Colombian that is also Rainforest Alliance certified, always available, and easy to obtain!