Hair of the Goat

The Mandelbrot in the bean.

2007-07-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed from my last couple of posts, I've been having a lot of fun lately with a new USB microscope. With the ability to look at coffee (and other stuff I guess) magnified 200 times you really get the sense that you are interacting with coffee in a wholly new way. Being able to zoom in (and in and into) the center cut of a green coffee bean and view the silverskin as though it were huge sheets of gigantic crystals is really amazing for someone who looks at green coffee all day long.
There is a staggering amount of information contained in a 200X view; figuring out what that information means is a whole other story. I think that gaining new perspectives into something you interact with everyday can remind you of how little we know/understand about coffee (or anything for that matter). It's exciting to re-realize how far we have to go in our understanding of coffee and that we've barely scratched the surface.

I'll be posting new pics from the microscope on my Fickr (check the Microscope Set)

links:
one two three

2007-07-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

175X View of the center cut of a Sumatra Gayo Mtn.

2007-06-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

2007-06-22T21:05:00.001-07:00

Great post from Phil at Onion-Bean

2007-06-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Quoting from a recent post on the great blog Onion-Bean:

"-Most of Peter Giuliano’s stories about sourcing coffee in remote locations of the world go something like this:

-I was cupping many coffees in ______________, and it turned out that all the coffees I liked came from the same place, the village of _____________.

-I asked them to take me there, and we began our long and arduous journey crossing the __________ in a makeshift ___________, and were in real danger of being _________ by the __________.

-All the villagers knew we were coming, so when we got there all the people were in the street to greet us with their hands in the air, cheering and signing while someone wearing a _____________ began the ______________, which is the local custom.

-That night they served roasted ______________ which I ate anyway, and it was delicious. Then they poured me some _____________, which is a fermented ale made from ______________.

-They threw the big party because it was the first time since the ___________ that they now have the ability to sell their crop for good price, and now they can afford to feed their children."

Peter, you rule.

Process

2007-05-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting pictoral guide to the entire coffee process from seed to cup on Finca Hartmann in Panama.

A true cup of excellence.

2007-05-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

We've had a couple of great cuppings here at Wandering Goat over the last few days. While roasting some samples of a few coffees we're looking at bringing in, we decided to throw last year's Colombia second harvest Cup of Excellence winner into the mix (had the sample left over). This was a truly amazing coffee grown by Edith Enciso Yasso. This coffee is a testament to how near-perfect quality can be achieved without enormous resources. Check out the farm stats here.
The dried black cherry (we thought Cherry Coke) was overwhelming. Heavy, syrupy body. There was a depth to the coffee that is hard to pinpoint, sort of a Merlot or Sherry...maybe Port. Sweet, clean, complex, truly beautiful.
All this was made more intense by knowing that this may have been the last remaining green from this particular harvest.
Damn, what a coffee.

2007-05-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

R.I.P.

2006-12-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

Another step away.

2006-12-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems like it never ends. The USDA is slowly doing what it can to dilute the integrity of the Organic movement. This is just another example of the corrosive effect of politics and bureaucracy when it comes to sources of change to the status quo. There were numerous grumblings when the NOP standards began in 2000. Events like this are exactly the kind of thing predicted by longtime supporters of the Organic Food industry. While the NOP standards did create some 'truth in labeling' when it comes to Organics, they also open the door to intrusion and control by business interests who's priority is high yields and profit. These ideas run counter to the spirit of what Organic and sustainable agriculture are all about. The increase in Biodynamic farming and other agricultural approaches such as Rainforest Alliance are in some ways a reaction to the intrusion of government agencies in the Organic industry. But are they enough? What does the future hold for Organic certification? If we don't dig our heels in now, 'organic' may go the way of 'natural'.

Unlocking the sun.

2006-11-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

As part of my regular research into the art and science of coffee roasting, I stumbled onto a transcript of a presentation by Dr. Stanley Segall, professor of bioscience and biotechnology at Drexel University, called Physics and Chemistry of Roasting. The entire presentation was very interesting but there was one portion that really caught my attention.

"In order for a process to continue without having to put heat in, you always have to have more energy in the reactants, the bonds and the molecules that make up that seed, than you have in the products. A typical chemical reaction in which the energy of the products at that level is actually higher than the energy of the reactants is a non-spontaneous reaction. That is the kind of reaction you get when you have to put energy into a process and the process captures and retains part of that energy. In effect, the early part of the roasting process operates that way, but once you hit the point where it goes from endothermic to exothermic, then all of a sudden you have free energy. You are using the energy that the plant laid down when the plant was generating it."

I know that this is basic biophysics but I guess it never really dawned on me in such a way. When the beans enter their exothermic stage around 390F (begin producing their own heat) you are unlocking the energy stored inside the bean that was put there by the sun during the growing process! Damn! That's awesome!

The coffee plant stores a lot of energy while it's growing and the application of heat reaches a point where this energy is released.

"The amount of energy tied up in a single carbon bond can range from 80 kilocalories to 146 kilocalories per molecular bond. If you want to use up eighty kilocalories in terms of exercise, you're going to ride your bicycle for an hour. Millions of these bonds exist in the chemicals of coffee. You can begin to get some idea of how much energy is actually locked up in these bonds. So, we have a tremendously energy ladened product to begin with."

This is another example of how connected coffee is to the environment. The plant's ability to access and store energy (from the sun and nutrients) has a direct affect on our ability as roasters to access that energy and the chemical reactions (producing various flavors) produced by that energy's interaction with our energy (our roaster's heat).

Damn, I love coffee.

2006-10-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm really happy to be be writing this post to report that after an arduous search we have finally located the dairy that will provide milk for our soon-to-open coffee bar. Noris Farms in Scio, Oregon is an organic dairy run by an Austrian-born couple Angela and Franz who pratices 'old world' animal husbandry.
Some of the unique pratices of this farm are their refusal to use artificial insemenation (all cows are bred with bulls). Calves are not immediatly removed from their mother and are raised on real milk not the usual milk substitute. And my favorite pratice is that after the cows milking cycle (about 5 years) the cow is not sold for beef; they are retired to pasture where they live the remainder of their life (about 15 years!) until they die of old age. "You wouldn't sell your grandmother." (actual quote)
This place is awesome. Heather and I went out to the farm to check it out and it was really amazing to see how much they really care about their cows. Supporting farmers who are really trying to do things differently feels great.

links:
one two three

2006-10-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

Trouble in Kenya.

links:
one

On Hold

2006-07-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, Hair of the Goat has been a little behind lately. Some big projects at work such as opening a new organic coffee bar and transitioning into a new roaster have prevented me from posting for a while. This is a temporary situation and hopefully H.O.G. will be back soon.

Time to move on?

2006-06-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess it was just a matter of time. Wal-Mart will soon be selling

Fair-Trade Certified coffee in their stores.

What does the Transfair Label mean?

What does it stand for?

What kind of companies use the Transfair Label?

Over the last few months things have not been looking good for Transfair USA. Well...they haven't been looking good if you run a coffee business affiliated with Transfair that is serious about sustainability and social and economic equity. Complaints have been vocalized and ignored. Some folks have given up all together. Many of us have been holding on as tight as we can to an idea that once seemed like the answer and now is beginning to look like another problem. Is it time to move on?
I'm beginning to really think that Transfair doesn't have a place for those who run their businesses the same way they buy their coffee. If coffee at Wal-Mart carries a Tfair label how can you say that the concept of fair trade is not dilluted? Maybe the best thing coffee roasters can do for farmers is create their own transparent buying system that goes beyond Tfair. What else can we do? Sometimes if you want something done right, you've gotta do it yourself.

HEY!! TRANSFAIR!!!!
FAIR TRADE IS MORE THAN COFFEE PRICES!!!!

Fair Trade Certified is dead. Long live fair trade!

Think while you drink.

2006-06-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

links:
one two three

Feel East Timor

2006-06-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

The recent turmoil in East Timor has really got me thinking about how delicate the coffee chain is. Holding a handfull of green coffee you can almost feel the path the beans have taken. How many hands have touched those same beans?

What is life like for the family that picked the cherries?
The man that pruned the trees?
The woman that sorted at the mill?

Looking at a stack of coffee-filled burlap sacks, you can imagine them piled up in a warehouse far away in a producing country... like East Timor.

What is happening outside that warehouse?

links:
one two

Desmond Dekker 1941-2006

2006-05-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

Soil in Context

2006-05-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading the classic text on Organic farming called (interestingly enough) Organic Farming edited by Ray Wolf from Rodale Press. The thing that has been striking me the most is the dichotomy of views on soil health between commercial and organic faming techniques.
Commercial agriculture looks at farming strictly in terms of nutrient inputs and crop yields by weight. The idea of facilitating a plant's ability to grow in-health so that it will provide a crop in return has been all but forgotten in the 'modern' ag industry. Plants are supplied with the nutrients they require, not from the soil itself but from carefully (sometimes) proportioned application of raw chemical foods added directly to the plants. This method focuses solely on the plant itself and takes little or no account of the health of the soil.
In an average organically farmed acre of land there is 11 tons of living material (worms, fungus, nematodes, bacteria,etc.). An acre of chemically farmed land can have as little as 2 tons. Obviously, commercial agriculture throws off the natural balance of the ecosystem IN the soil.
What does this mean for the operation of the farm? Typically it creates the need for more chemical application in order to compensate for the lack of nutrients being created (no new humus being added). And so the vicious cycle begins. After years, the soil cannot support the crops and more and more chems. must be added to get the yields required to pay, not only for general production costs, but for the expensive fertilizers and pesticides that the farm is now dependent on. Not too sustainable huh?

When you look at crops as units that need 'such and such' amount of nitrogen and 'xyz' amount of whatever chemical, the RELATIONSHIP between the grower and the grown is severed into a onesided project with no communication between the farmer and the flux of the process of growing itself. The result is that the context of farming has disappeared or become a barren shell. The soil shares the same fate. The earth into which a plant is placed becomes nothing better than a plastic pot.
This same mentality, tragically finds its way into the rest of the coffee industry as well. It is often seen in the coffee roasting world. Many coffee roasters see their beans as units to be 'applied' to their roaster (machine). The advent of 'profile roasting' has been a wonderful boost to the craft of roasting. But while providing highly valuable 'navigation' tools, it has also provided an opportunity for some roaster's to believe that they can completely quantify the roasting process. "X bean grown at Y altitude from Z cultivar with 12.34% moisture and whatever density, ALWAYS means drop at this time and cut heat here and here.......... "
Is the relationship gone? If a roaster denies that there is something ineffable, esoteric, even mystical in the craft of roasting coffee have they lost their way?

If soil health is the context in which a plant grows what is the equilvalent context in which a bean is roasted?

Profiling, record keeping, research, logging, charting, graphing, input, output. All of these things can help create the ultimate quality coffee (on the farm or in the roaster) but they must be used to facilitate the relationship-the interaction-the process. The science should serve the craft; the craft should not serve the science.

links:
one two three

Coffee and Worms...mmmmmmmm.

2006-05-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

At the recent SCAA Convention, I was really excited to hear about some progressive organic farming techniques being used by coffee farmers around the world. In a class on Coffee Farming lead by Geoff Watts, David LaRoche, and Peter Baker there was some interesting discussion about the use of different types of composting. Coffee farmers are beginning to build experience using alternatives to pesticides and herbicides. Some of the systems being implemented are the use of various proportion of composted material derived from the coffee plant itself called Bokashi.
Growers are realizing that much of the nutrient needs of a plant can be derived from using various proportions of different by-products of the coffee milling process. Pulp, parchment, leaves, anything that comes from the tree can be added back to the soil to maintain the optimum balance of nutrients. The more energy and research done into looking for non-chemical alternatives to plant maintenence the better the results in the cup.
Besides the obvious benefits to the soil, plants, animals, and people of not using pesticides, growers are realizing that the land will provided most if not all of what is necessary to grow the very highest quality coffee...for free. The discovery of ways to improve cup quality without great expense is truly the cutting edge of 'fair trade'. For a farmer to increase the quality of their green through proper farming, milling, and storage techniques without substantial monetary investment is really a huge step forward toward sustainability. This is what organic agriculture is all about.
One of the most interesting and promising of these methods is the use of worms. Using worms to enhance the health of the soil is not a new idea but it has seen limited use in coffee production. It seems that the benefits of using worms to generate nutrient-rich soil and aerate packed earth is beginning to catch on. Worms are used in the earth itself and also in various types of compost to enhance nutrients and to even create 'worm juice', a highly concentrated compost liquid that is like gold for a coffee plant. This is just another example of some of the exciting advances that are now being embraced and appreciated in producing countries.
Check out this great blog from the Finca Project in Costa Rica where they are actively using worms as a part of their growing operation.

links
one

2006-05-13T01:17:00.000-07:00

On Whole Quality

2006-05-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

I was having a discussion with an Environmental Studies Master's student the other day about how the FT and OG coffee movements have impacted the overall coffee industry. The shocking (for her)truth is that FT/OG and even Specialty Coffee is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to making significant impact on the day to day function of the commercial coffee world. One pont I attempted to make was that quality is hardly on the map for the largest coffee roasters (and consumers). The coffee industry is still very intrenched in the coffee=caffeine mentality. Viewing coffee as some sort of energy input means that the resources put into developing the industry are focused on increased production (plant density, disease resistence, limiting waste, etc.) not increasing quality. When the idea of quality was raised it brought up some interesting issues.
I have seen some discussion in the forums about what quality means in coffee. The obvious first answer is cup quality. There are plenty of roasters and shop owners who will stomp their feet and declare that cup quality should be the only consideration when looking at coffee. Some people don't give a damn what process resulted in the excellent coffee they recieve; they just care about excellent, cup-quality coffee.
I see this 'cup only' mentality as reactionary. These folks are riding the pendulum swing all the way to the other side. 'Cup quality by any means necessary' is as short-sighted as 'production volume by any means necessary'. Neither of these views is sustainable. Are you willing to have a great cup at any cost? I am not.
To me, quality in coffee must consider all of the elements that come together to create a harmony of quality: whole quality. For a coffee to have 'whole quality', the processes themselves must be of the highest quality- agronomic, milling, storage, economic, social, environmental, shipping, roasting, grinding, brewing. It's easy to just focus on the tangible processes, but what about the processes that are more difficult to quantify (or market)? A coffee is more than a material good isn't it?
I hear all the time, people talking about the 'mystical' qualities of a great cup. The certain ineffible, esoteric cup or the godshot. Some folks can attach poetic descriptors that make you think they've had some kind of spiritual transformation (they may have) while cupping. I fully agree that coffee has the ability to exist in this 'spiritual' realm. But if it does, and a coffee is 'beautiful'-'delicate' does the way in which it got to you not matter?
A cup of coffee does not exist in a vacuum. Every cup has a history, a context; the quality of that history IS the quality of that cup, NOT the other way around.
Quality in each of the aspects of the coffee chain carry their own momentum. The drive for quality across the board: whole quality, increases the quality in each of the coffees individual aspects-growing,milling,roasting, etc.
Too much focus on the quality of any single aspect (volume or cup or environmental or social) creates an imbalance that must be compensated for in another area, thereby diminishing that aspect's quality and therefore the whole quality.
Now, none of this discussion is meant, in any way, to downplay the importance of cup quality. Without quality, the highest quality, in the cup we are just spinning our wheels. I see the goal of 'sustainable coffee' as: striving for ultimate quality in the cup...sustainably. All aspects of coffee are interdependent, they all affect each other. This idea is at the center of some of the best coffee around right now. Stumptown, Intelly, COE, CCC, et al. have embraced this idea to one extent or another and the proof is in the cup.
Can you taste whole quality at the cupping table? I can. I can't help it.

The origins of immigrants

2006-05-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Peter Guiliano had a great post the other day on PF.net called "A Cup Without Immigrants". His observations about immigrants in the coffee world got me thinking about all of the various components that must come together for us in the coffee industry to do what we do. Coffee is truly an international substance. From growing to milling to shipping to roasting to brewing, the wealth of knowledge that has been built-up over the years has resulted in an alchemy of wisdom and experience that could not exist if it wern't for the bits and pieces of input from disparate sources.
Obviously the coffee plant itself is an immigrant. Slowly spreading from a small patch of land in the most geneticlly diverse part of the world to take root (literaly)across the globe. And places where the coffee plant cannot grow, it has rooted itself firmly in the stomachs and synapses. The coffee plant has embedded itself so deeply in our psyche that it's hard to imagine life on this planet without it. Recognizing that this one thing with one origin has become enmeshed in our lives (and the lives of most people on Earth), its easy to see how just because a thing (or person) has it's origin in a place far away, it in no way means that it doesn't belong here with us now.

Looking at the concept of origin

2006-04-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

I've been going over the great FT discussion going on at green LA girl and I've been reflecting on the idea of 'origin' as it relates to the coffee industry.

It has been wonderful to see the birth(rebirth?) of coffee focusing on origins. The explosion of interest in drinking coffees from specific places has done wonders for the current ethos of specialty coffee. Drinking a coffee from a certain place that you can point directly at on a map, generates a connection that is difficult to describe but no less real. Through coffee we can truly 'taste the earth' from points all around the planet, each bringing their own unique characteristics and sensory experiences. There aren't many things that we experience day-to-day that can claim that kind of scope. It's pretty damn cool.

The recent (past couple of decades) recognition and celebration of these differences (diversity) of smells, tastes, and feelings has lead to some exciting advances in coffee 'at origin'. Folks like George Howell, Duane Sorensen, and Geoff Watts et al. cannot recieve enough credit here. The forward thinking of these individuals and many others is starting to get a handle on the agronomic and economic connections to the cup. Realizing how much events (environmental, processing, storage, transport,etc.) at origin can affect the cup,I think, is a vital part of the 'decommodification' of coffee that is crucial to the industry's health.

All of this focus on origin has generated new concern for the folks at the other end of the coffee chain. Coffee people are always talking about 'trips to origin' 'single origin shots' and what-not. This kind of talk eventually leads people to thinking about the situation of the PEOPLE at 'origin'. The coffee world is slowly recognizing that the conditions (political, economic, social, environmental) in producing countries has a real, but sometimes difficult to quantify, relation to the coffee produced. This relationship can manifest itself in numerous ways... probably as many ways as there are producers themselves.

While it cannot be denied that social, environmental, and economic factors have played a huge role in turning our attention to 'origin' (OG/FT/SG), quality has also been a major driving force in this focus. The people mentioned above have begun to put energy into relationships at origin because they realize that they can ultimatly end up with a higher quality bean if all aspects of the relationship (econ, env, pol, soc) are nurtured. This quality in the cup is a part of the 'Total Quality' that is the result of the sum of all aspects of the relationship.

So, if this focus on the 'origin' of coffees is about (or at least related to) achieving 'Total Quality' and it is considerate of the multitude of factors that influence the result of the cup; what about the origins of the rest of the products of our industry/businesses? Everything we use has an origin. What is the origin of the sugar in your cafe? the tires on your delivery vehicle? the gas to fire your roaster? the components of your laptop? Every 'part', ingredient, has an origin and what happens at that origin affects your results... and your 'Total Quality'.

Obviously, you can parse every decision and find some 'unsustainable' factor. Nothing is pure and we can never expect there to be some holy COMPLETELY SUSTAINABLE coffee where every link in the chain is without exploit BUT that shouldn't affect our attempt to strive for the best and most (more) sustainable options.

I hope that the current focus on coffee 'origins' will also cause us to begin investigating the origins of all the things we use in our businesses/life and seek ways to improve the 'Total Quality' of what we do as an industry and as individuals.

2006-04-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

Coffee Sustainability=physics?

2006-04-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately about what it means to strive after sustainability in coffee. Obviously there is the economic justice element (i.e. fairtrade etc., producer/origin focus ) but sustainability involves a lot more than just paying farmers a fair amount. Why has the focus on origin overshadowed our efforts toward sustainability in our own shops/roasting plants/homes? Maybe it hasn't but there certainly isn't a lot of noise made regarding running our businesses in sustainble ways.
It seems to me that it's really sexy nowdays to show pictures of smiling farmers and tell stories about all the great things done to improve quality of life in producing countries but what about the producers of all the other products we in the coffee industry consume? Are sugar producers worth less? What about people that work at the chemical plants that produce all the poisonous crap (cleaning products) a lot of us use daily in our businesses?
I think it's easy to focus only on sustainability issues surrounding coffee because it is the focus of our business but does that mean the other stuff is inconsequencial?
I tell my customers and staff all the time that when you insist on OG/FT/SG etc. coffee, your buying power is in such contrast to the traditional model of commercial coffee consumption that you are surely rocking the coffee boat (if only a little). I take great pride in providing a pathway for coffee lovers to choose coffee that makes a positive difference in the lives of ALL the people that touch it.
Those of us willing to make certain sacrafices (more$,less selection,slow to change cert. systems, waning interst?)to purchase and provide these types of coffees need to ask if there are other sacrafices that need to be made to strive for whole-business-sustainability.
It's easy(er) to make sacrafices that you can flaunt (FT/OG etc) but what about things that aren't readily marketable like using only recyclED paper (for printing,brocures,cups,napkins,TP, what else?) We're willing to explore every avenue to improve coffee quality what about overall quality?
It's expensive to do some of these things compared to the easyway (cheap Cash&Carry paperproducts/cheap refined sugar etc.) but great coffee is expensive compared to Folgers. We talk a lot about educating costomers about what it takes to create great sustainable coffee, what about great sustainble businesses?
So what does this have to do with physics? I'm not totally sure but I think...something. I was invited to give a talk on 'Fair Trade' coffee at a local synagogue last week and I spoke about an interesting parallel between Hebraic thought and what 'sustainability' as a business model is about: right relatedness.
My take on Jewish law (speaking as a Gentile) as it has developed from Torah through the Talmud is that adherence to a set of standards of living are meant to keep spiritual beings in balance with the material world. I think this ideas can be applied to many religious and ethical systems but Judaism is a prime example. For right or wrong, these laws (Kashrut or Kosher laws were the context for my being invited to speak) are an attempt to keep people in balance with other people, beings(animals,plants), and objects(stuff,possesions). The goal is to achieve "right relatedness" that is exist in a state where all things are in proper proportion to all other things. This may be a bit oversimplified and wishy-washy but I think it accuratly reflects the thrust of not only Hebrew Law but often laws in general. Whether structure and control (law) is the best way to achieve balance is extremly debatable.
This begs the question, where does the notion of balance/proportion come from? Well, often what is 'right' is determined by those in power for the pourpose of power maintainence. Though this idea of balance/relation may be coopted (all to frequently) its origins are plain enough...nature. Physics.
Physics (Newtonian certainly but also quantum, though it may be beyond our grasp) is the study of relationships. Whether its magnets placing themselves in proper relationship to one another or gravity placing objects in thier place, physics is about forces acting/reacting to create a balance of one sort or another.
Quantum physics as well, is about achieving a balance between implicate and explicate realities (Bohm,Whitehead). In this area we may not be able to measure the relationship as easily but it certainly seems that there is some sort of pattern in the chaos (or it IS the chaos not understood or misunderstood).
This is where I see the energy driving sustainable coffee (and sustainbility in general) for me. Striving for sustainability is striving for that balance, that right relatedness.
Now some people may say, "What about entropy?" "What about destruction?" Well, I see entropy's conclusion as the ultimate balance. If entropy is about smoothing-out differences then so is coffee sustainability. Allowing value to be proportional to all links in the chain. Obviously there is a great amount of subjectivity here, but I see certain paralleles.
So, all of this to say that attempting to acheive sustainability in just one part of the chain may create a greater imbalance (and therefore greater stresses) in other parts. Sustainability isn't sustainable if it is not Whole. There would be no coffee business without coffee but there is more to the coffee business than just coffee.

2006-04-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Where are we?

2006-04-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

It's really been dawning on me lately what little visible presence there is in the online coffee world of sustainability. It seems that because most of the big 'Third Wave' players have embraced sustainability in some form or another that the aggressive analysis of the issues has nearly ceased. In some cases it appears to just be lip service, while other are blazing new paths. Despite the fact that 'fair trade' and 'organic' get a lot of airtime, there seems to be little depth to the discussion of sustainability issues in coffee... especially from the retail perspective.
There are some obvious exceptions to this great void such as the always enlightening wisdom dispensed by Geoff Watts, Mark Inman and Tim Dominick (among others). These folks are always keepin' it real on the boards and have my utmost respect. They really are some of the pioneers in promoting sustainability in the online coffee world(and the real world too). Also there's been some recent discussion about FT issues on green LA girl.
A lot of times, though, discussion around 'sustainability' focuses solely on the grower/buyer relationship. Obviously this is the area where the greatest imbalance (economic,social,political) typically exists, however, what does it mean if you paid a good price to a farmer for a great quality coffee but you serve it in a non-recyclable to-go cup? Or a compostable cup but a non-recylable lid? What about your sugar? Who grew it? How much were they paid? Do you care? Your milk? Your napkins? Are they from old-growth trees? How do you know?
These questions never stop. It seems like a lot of companies only want to ask the hard questions, sometimes. Only when the light has already shined on the issue.
What happens when you ask the tough questions all the time? What kind of business develops? What kind of coffee results? We are just seeing the beginnings.

Here it goes.

2006-04-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

Well you didn't ask for it but here it is.