Part 16 (1/2)

In contrast to Starbucks, Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), under new CEO Larry Blanford, was booming. It sold its cobranded Newman's Own Organic coffee in New England's McDonald's, roasted Jane Goodall's Gombe Reserve beans to help save African chimps, and placed its beans in ExxonMobil's convenience stores. Most important for its bottom line, in 2006 it purchased Keurig Inc., which made single-cup brewing systems for use with K-Cup portion packs. GMCR bought the brand and wholesale operations of Seattle-based Tully's Coffee in 2009 to give it a presence on the West Coast, then the wholesale and roasting operations of Timothy's Coffees, based in Toronto.

GMCR stock soared in 2009 as more home consumers purchased the single-cup brewer, with one model priced below $100. The nitrogen-flushed K-Cup capsules allowed single servings of various origins and flavors of coffee, tea, or cocoa.

The Third Wave Buyers for specialty coffee companies travel the world to source beans. They generally combine an obsession with coffee's taste profile with an adventurous spirit and a big dose of altruism, knowing that their purchases at reasonable prices are vital to the livelihood of the people they meet. Lindsey Bolger of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Peet's s.h.i.+rin Moayyad are typical of the breed. ”Where I source beans, there are many different languages and cultures, but if you speak the language of coffee, you can communicate on a deep core level,” Bolger told me.

Moayyad lived in Papua New Guinea for over a decade. One of the first things she did upon joining Peet's in 2005 was to arrange for the company to donate money to construct a primary school on a New Guinea coffee estate. Since then, she has sourced coffee throughout Central America, Brazil, East Africa, Yemen, and Sumatra.

”When people go to coffee origins such as Guatemala or Nicaragua,” Moayyad said, ”they are impressed with how primitive life is. But that is nothing compared to Papua New Guinea, where people often live in gra.s.s huts without electricity, with animals wandering freely in and out. These remote estates are nowhere near public schools, and the children of tribal laborers were receiving no education before this school was built.”

Then there are what writer Michaele Weissman called ”third wave” coffee people in her book G.o.d in a Cup G.o.d in a Cup.126 She featured younger cutting-edge coffee buyers Geoff Watts of Chicago's Intelligentsia, Duane Sorenson of Stumptown in Portland, Oregon, and Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture in Durham, North Carolina. She featured younger cutting-edge coffee buyers Geoff Watts of Chicago's Intelligentsia, Duane Sorenson of Stumptown in Portland, Oregon, and Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture in Durham, North Carolina.

They are all members of the Roasters Guild, which grew out of Donald Schoenholt's organizing a ”Roastmasters Roundhouse” at the 1995 SCAA Conference. Officially incorporated in 2000, with Schoenholt as president, it was modeled after medieval craftsmen's guilds, and it grew into a vital organization of independent roasters who, at the annual Roasters Retreat in a remarkably noncompet.i.tive atmosphere, share their pa.s.sion for small-batch roasting the finest beans.

The third wavers form a direct relations.h.i.+p with growers, help them improve quality, and pay top dollar for their beans. They do not usually eliminate all middlemen, however. Sustainable Harvest, in Portland, Oregon, Elan Organic, in San Diego, California, and Royal Coffee in Oakland, California, often import such beans. Led by founder and president David Griswold, Sustainable Harvest invests two-thirds of its operating income in helping farmers improve their coffee. Beginning in 2003, in order to promote transparency and communication, Sustainable Harvest brought together roasters, growers, exporters, importers, and even baristas in a producing country for an annual event called Let's Talk Coffee.

No one could be more pa.s.sionate and fanatical about coffee than George Howell, who is old enough to be the third wavers' father. He roasts his Terroir Coffee in Acton, Ma.s.sachusetts, and is constantly pus.h.i.+ng the envelope to achieve high quality. For instance, he wants farmers to s.h.i.+p their green beans in airtight plastic containers instead of the traditional burlap bags that allow off tastes and smells to permeate the beans. He then deep-freezes the green beans to keep them from staling.

Cupping at Origin In 1996, Paul Katzeff of Thanksgiving Coffee asked a group of Nicaraguan farmers, ”How many of you have tasted your own coffee?” No one raised a hand. He subsequently wrote a grant proposal leading to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding for cupping labs at origin. These labs made a huge difference in getting coffee growers to understand why it is vital that they harvest selectively, process carefully, and identify particularly fine trees and growing conditions. Starbucks and illycaffe also dispatched agronomists to help growers improve their coffee and learn to taste it.

Cupping labs and a host of experts, partially funded by USAID, then helped Rwanda establish a reputation for exquisite beans. In the country where Hutus tried to exterminate their Tutsi neighbors in 1994, people from the two tribes now work in harmony to grow and sell coffee.

There have been many other extraordinary outcomes from the cooperation of roasters and growers. Paul Katzeff sells Delicious Peace, coffee grown on a Ugandan cooperative consisting of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Community Coffee of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, convinced the feuding Colombian towns of Toledo and Labateca to work together to produce a great blend high in the Andes.

In 2003 the Coffee Quality Inst.i.tute (CQI), part of the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America (SCAA), partnered with USAID to fund programs such as Coffee Corps, sending volunteer coffee experts to origin as advisers in a kind of specialized, brief Peace Corps. CQI also trains ”Q cuppers” who can certify that particular beans meet a high standard. The designation was intended to raise the bar (and the price) above the C market, though not as high as the Cup of Excellence.

Rock-Star Baristas The dawn of the twenty-first century saw the arrival of global barista contests, beginning in Monte Carlo in 2000. Three years later the Barista Guild was formed to share knowledge and technique. By the time I attended the World Barista Champions.h.i.+p in 2009 in Atlanta, the compet.i.tion had become a spectator sport. The tension was palpable, with judges watching every move. A timer ticked down the seconds on the routine.

Hundreds seated or standing in the audience could see the action displayed on a huge video screen. With a flourish, Isabela Popiolek of Poland successfully finished one part of her routine. She was one of fifty-one contestants from countries as far-flung as Nicaragua, Finland, China, South Africa, and New Zealand.

”Give it up for Isabela's cappuccinos!” the announcer boomed. The judges admired the rosetta adorning the coffee beverage. Then they smelled and tasted, making notes on their pads.

In fifteen minutes, each contestant had to grind specially chosen coffee beans, tamp them expertly into the portafilter, then create four espressos, four cappuccinos, and four ”signature drinks,” a creative effort based on espresso, but including ingredients ranging from chocolate to seaweed in that year's event.

At first I thought that all this hype and tension over making a coffee beverage was rather funny. Yet the more I watched and learned, the more I realized that good baristas really are skilled artists. Not only must they draw the essence of the coffee in less than half a minute, but they must pick the type of beans and grind, steam the milk to a precise texture and heat, then pour it from the proper height and with the right flow to create the latte art. The same is true for a simple espresso-does it flow evenly from both spouts? Is there a rich crema on top? And the signature drink-is it creative, mouthwatering, and unique? Does it augment rather than mask the espres...o...b..se?

Most of the contestants were twenty-something men and women. They took part in a series of compet.i.tions in their home countries to win a spot here. One finalist, Gwilym Davies from the UK, at forty-two the oldest contestant, moved with a.s.surance into his routine. But after he tamped to prepare an espresso for his cappuccinos, he abruptly dumped the portafilter and chose to regrind and reload, losing precious seconds. Then, during his signature drink preparation, the espresso dribbled out too quickly. Again, he dumped and started over. He ran overtime by seventeen seconds.

Davies won the entire champions.h.i.+p anyway, in large part because of his signature drink. Each judge had to pick a favorite from a category such as sweetness (cane sugar, honey, caramel, or mola.s.ses), flavor (toasted almonds, hazelnuts, milk or dark chocolate), texture/mouthfeel (milk, single cream, double cream, b.u.t.ter), and fruit (orange or lime zest, strawberry, cherry).

When Ernesto Illy, the grand old man of scientific espresso expertise, died in 2008, the mantle of world's most pa.s.sionate espresso engineer arguably pa.s.sed to David Schomer, the self-taught Seattle owner of Espresso Vivace. When I met him in 2009, Schomer explained that he had been obsessed with finding a machine that would maintain a steady water temperature for espresso, and he finally achieved it by working with local manufacturer Mark Barnett, whose Synesso Inc. created the Cyncra machine.

”I fell in love with the smell of coffee when I was four,” Schomer explained. ”I was so p.i.s.sed when it didn't taste like it smelled.” His goal was to produce an espresso that did. He wrote Espresso Coffee Professional Techniques: How to Identify and Control Each Factor to Perfect Espresso Coffee Espresso Coffee Professional Techniques: How to Identify and Control Each Factor to Perfect Espresso Coffee, to tell others in exquisite detail just how to do the same.

The Rape of the SCAA In 2009 the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America was still reeling from what founding member Donald Schoenholt called ”the rape of the SCAA.” The organization had grown into a large bureaucracy, overseen by longtime executive director Ted Lingle. On September 19, 2005, Tim Castle called Schoenholt, explaining that Lingle had just discovered that Scott Welker, the recently departed chief financial officer of the SCAA, had embezzled at least $250,000.127 Unless they could come up with that sum within ninety days, the organization would go bankrupt. Unless they could come up with that sum within ninety days, the organization would go bankrupt.

Castle and Schoenholt quickly sought donations. Some gave $100, while Tatsus.h.i.+ Ues.h.i.+ma sent $30,000 from j.a.pan. Most donations were $2,500 or less. By October 5, the required amount had been raised from ninety-three individuals and organizations. Ted Lingle had trusted the thief and had not kept adequate tabs on the accounts. Having already planned to retire, he stepped down in 2006 to head the Coffee Quality Inst.i.tute. Ric Rhinehart then served as the SCAA executive director.

The Battle over Coffee's Soul At the end of chapter 18, I asked whether a consolidating specialty coffee industry might lose its soul in the process of growth, profit-taking, and merger mania. Certainly the embezzlement at the SCAA would appear to indicate a troubled soul for the organization that began as a small, idealistic upstart.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, coffee brands continued to be pa.s.sed like trading cards. In 2004, for instance, the Sara Lee Corporation, frustrated by lackl.u.s.ter profits, sold Chock full o' Nuts, Hills Brothers, Chase & Sanborn, and MJB to Italian coffee company Segafredo Zanetti Group for $82.5 million. Caribou Coffee, begun by newlywed Alaskans in 1990, had been sold to an Atlanta investment firm in 1998, which was later heavily financed by the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain. In 2005 Caribou Coffee completed an IPO and became a publicly traded company.

In 2006 India's Tata Coffee Limited acquired Eight O'Clock Coffee, the old A & P brand, from Gryphon Investors for $220 million. Diedrich Coffee had bought U.S. outlets for Gloria Jean's, Coffee People, and Coffee Plantation in 1999, but its ambitious expansion faltered, and in 2006 it closed most company-owned stores, selling them to Starbucks. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters bought Keurig in 2006, then Tully's and Timothy's in 2009 and, as this book went to press, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was engaged in a bidding war with Peet's over Diedrich Coffee, which made its money primarily from selling single-serving K-cups for Green Mountain's Keurig machines. In 2008 Procter & Gamble spun off Folgers to jam-maker J. M. Smucker Company in a $3 billion all-stock deal.

Even as the specialty coffee industry consolidated, chasing money as much as ideals, many traditional roasters such as Gillies in New York did not pursue major growth strategies, preferring to expand slowly, if at all. Smaller independent roasters kept the flame alive-indeed, the Roasters Guild newsletter was christened The Flame Keeper The Flame Keeper. Chicago-based Intelligencia, Portland-based Stumptown Coffee, and Counter Culture Coffee in North Carolina are prominent examples of smaller roasters that garnered glowing reputations for high-quality coffee. Yet their success will likely lead inexorably to expansion and another round of consolidations.

Still, small independent roasters and retail coffeehouses have continued to pop up around the world. As of 2010, the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America estimated that there were some 24,000 special coffee outlets in the United States (stores, carts, or kiosks that make at least half their revenue from coffee). Many of the coffeehouses, often begun by neophytes, fold within a few years.128 But most new roasters-such as Storyville in Seattle or DoubleShot in Tulsa-have thrived, finding niche markets, taking advantage of the Internet, and stoking the fires that fed coffee's soul-still not lost even amid the merger mania. But most new roasters-such as Storyville in Seattle or DoubleShot in Tulsa-have thrived, finding niche markets, taking advantage of the Internet, and stoking the fires that fed coffee's soul-still not lost even amid the merger mania.

Techno-Coffee Many specialty roasters program computers to duplicate a ”roast profile,” seeking to reproduce a small-batch feel in large (and sometimes small) automated roasters by manipulating the burner, airflow, and drum rotation speed. Utilizing digital technology and easily understood LED screens, brewers from such companies as Bunn-O-Matic and FETCO allow operators the option of controlling water and brew cycle times with pulse brewing and pre-infusion options. In 2009 George Howell Coffee Company introduced the ExtractMoJo, a handheld unit with a software application and a digital refractometer that yields data required to adjust brewing equipment to meet standards in either filter or espresso coffee.

Meanwhile super-automatic espresso machines allow anyone to create respectable beverages simply by loading the machines with roasted coffee beans and milk. At the push of a b.u.t.ton, the machine grinds the beans, tamps the results, pushes hot water through the fine grounds, steams the milk, and all the rest. Starbucks backed off from such total automation, but Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's have embraced it.

The Flattening of the Coffee World Economist Thomas Friedman has written compellingly that the Internet and cell phones are ”flattening” the world's playing field, allowing people to communicate and do business in Third World countries. Even the coffee world has been gradually flattening. Starbucks agronomist Peter Torrebiarte told me late in 2008 that he had just visited a coffee cooperative in Haiti, the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere. ”I drove up a terrible road, got stuck, crossed rivers, and finally got to the coop warehouse for training, and there I found a satellite link to five flat screens and computers. I was blown away. There was one young whiz kid who set it up.”

Those computers were donated by a charity and were still unusual in the coffee world, but there is no question that rural farmers are becoming more savvy not only about cupping, but also about finding information about prices and markets on the Internet or through cell phones. Coyotes Coyotes-the pejorative name given to local opportunists who buy coffee beans at ridiculously low prices-have less success when farmers know what their beans are worth on the New York market or to a particular roaster.129 The Threat of Global Warming Even as the coffee world is flattening in one way, it is climbing higher peaks. Because of climate change, some farmers have begun to move coffee plantings up mountain slopes in Central America. Eventually, that will mean less square footage as the cone narrows, but agronomist Daniel Urena of the Coopedota Coffee Cooperative in Costa Rica told a reporter in 2008 that he was pleased about the trend. ”We can now plant at 2,000 meters (6,562 feet),” Urena said. Normally, seedlings didn't survive above 1,800 meters. The higher the elevation, the higher quality the strictly hard beans would be.

In Peru, farmers weren't so happy. ”The seasons are changing tremendously,” reported Cesar Rivas, president of the national growers' group, in 2008. ”You can no longer say winter is in November, December or March. It falls in other months sometimes. This is generating complete productive disorder.” The usual Peruvian coffee harvest began in April, a half year before most harvesting elsewhere, giving it a seasonal advantage. The Peruvian growers also blamed global warming for the scarcity of rain that year.

Coffee Kids and Other Ways to Help In 1988 coffee retailer Bill Fishbein visited small coffee farmers in Guatemala. Though appalled by their living conditions, he found that ”they were living vibrant lives in poverty, with a sense of community and a spirit that is absent in our own lives.” Fishbein returned to the United States determined to help coffee-farming families, creating Coffee Kids to address one of the primary causes of poverty in those communities: an over-reliance on coffee.

Each year millions of families count on the coffee harvest for their economic survival; for the majority it is not enough. Coffee Kids provides funding to create communities that offer greater economic options, improved access to health care and education, and increased food security. By injecting life into local economies, families can diversify their income and continue farming coffee without total dependence on it.

Fishbein retired from Coffee Kids in 2008, but the organization continued under the guidance of executive director Carolyn Fairman. In 2009, Coffee Kids worked with sixteen organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Peru. Projects included microcredit and savings, organic gardening and small animal production, training center development, scholars.h.i.+ps, and health awareness programs.

Similarly, Vermont-based Grounds for Health set up clinics in coffee-growing regions of Central America to test for and treat cervical cancer, a major problem among women in remote areas. The nonprofit is supported by coffee roasters and consumers. The Gates Foundation, concerned primarily with public health, realized that poor health and poverty were intimately a.s.sociated with coffee. It gave $47 million in 2007 to help East African coffee farmers improve their beans' quality.

The Cafe Femenino Foundation began in 2004 with Peruvian women creating their own coffee blend of that name. The foundation also helps empower women in coffee-growing regions elsewhere, working to improve economic conditions, health, and educational opportunities as well as providing a.s.sistance in times of crisis. In Los Cacaos, Dominican Republic, for instance, Cafe Femenino helped women to diversity the produce on their small farms by adding pa.s.sion fruit crops.

Since women are fundamental to coffee culture both at origin and destination, the International Women's Coffee Alliance was founded in 2003 to promote networking, mentors.h.i.+p, and training. In addition to the United States, the organization has active chapters in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. The IWCA aims to make a difference in the lives of a million women in coffee by 2016.

Cup for Education, created in 2003, specializes in building schools in remote coffee-growing regions of Central and Latin America. The organization also helps fund teachers and provides textbooks, backpacks, notebooks, and pencils. ”How can they improve their coffees if they cannot read, write an agricultural report, study the weather, or understand the fundamentals of the coffee trade?” asks the Cup for Education Web site.

On an individual level, in Bremerton, Was.h.i.+ngton, Eric Harrison, a former Peace Corps volunteer, imports Honduran beans he calls Eco Cafe in order to fund improved water safety programs in Honduras. Airline pilot Trevor Slavick has founded Little Feet Coffee Company (”Coffee with a Kick”) to fund soccer equipment for children on fincas fincas.

Mending the Heart with Organic Gary Talboy of Coffee Bean International pioneered the certification and marketing of organic coffee in the mid-1980s, working with Tom Harding of the Organic Crop Improvement a.s.sociation (OCIA) to certify coffee from Mexican and Guatemalan cooperatives.

Organic coffee now has grown to 5 percent of the specialty market. At first, most organic coffee was pretty bad. It came from poverty-stricken smallholders whose coffee was organic by default, since they could not afford fertilizer or pesticide. They also took little care with proper pruning or processing. Over the years, however, organic coffee improved dramatically, thanks largely to the efforts of people such as San Diego business-woman Karen Cebreros.

In 1989 Cebreros was diagnosed with a rare heart disease and was told that she would eventually need a transplant. Determined to live life to the fullest, she flew to South America to visit her brother-in-law in the remote Peruvian village of Tamborapa. ”There was no running water, no electricity, but the people were so loving and happy and giving,” Cebreros recalled. They grew coffee, for which they received 8 cents a pound.

Cebreros helped the Peruvians to improve their coffee and get it certified as organic. Today, with the premiums from organic coffee sales, Tamborapa has electricity, running water, telephones, bridges, roads, a school, and a laboratory to study coffee quality. ”But they are still loving, happy, and giving,” Cebreros reported. Miraculously, her heart healed itself.

Her company, Elan Organic, acted as a facilitator, working with local growers to improve quality and to help fill out the mountain of paperwork to become certified. In 2008 Elan was purchased by Neumann Kaffee Gruppe. ”When we began, the questionnaires weren't even available in Spanish, let alone indigenous languages,” Cebreros recalled. Many of the growers were illiterate, and they didn't have the survey maps the OCIA and other certification agencies demanded. Nor did they have the hefty application fees, which Elan initially paid. To be certified, coffee must be inspected for three consecutive years to make sure it is chemical-free. The process costs from $5,000 to $30,000.

Still, the effort has paid off for many cooperatives in Latin America, Indonesia, and Africa. Now there are hundreds of certified organic coffees. It is ironic that most truly organic coffees (for example, the majority of Ethiopia's and Indonesia's beans) can't be sold as such, since they aren't certified.

Pesticides pose no threat to consumers, since they are applied to the cherries, which protect the inner seed. Then the heat of the roast drives off any chemical residue. Coffee is, however, one of the most heavily sprayed crops on earth, and most pesticides miss the intended target. For those concerned about the environment and the health of campesino campesino laborers, organic coffee makes sense, and it a.s.sures growers a decent price for their product. laborers, organic coffee makes sense, and it a.s.sures growers a decent price for their product.

Even certified organic coffee can cause terrible water pollution, however. For years, in the wet process, the fermented mucilage floated downstream, where its decomposition robbed the water of oxygen, killed fish and other wildlife, and smelled horrible. Two-thirds of the river pollution in Costa Rica's Central Valley stemmed from coffee wastes until recent years, when stringent national legislation changed beneficio beneficio practices. practices.