Peregrinating Omphaloskepsis

I’m working on a review of an article getting me jazzed entitled “The International Coffee Crisis.” Get psyched, man, get psyched. I’ve read 4 books on coffee in the last two months, which, though less than what I would like, is OK given that I’ve also started a business during that time. I don’t want to lose the research aspect of my life, though, while on break from seminary. I love all things coffee, justice issues, academic theory, and foot notes; this will be my effort to combine them.

Jesus is Risen!

Our roaster is scheduled for pick up in Fallon, Nevada this afternoon and should be here by Monday. WAHOO! In the mean time, we’ve continued roasting, cupping, and pulling shots on our little roaster guy. I took an Ethiopian coffee that we picked up from Sweet Marias a little darker than what I would normally for pour over (drip) coffee; it made perfect espresso.

Thick, creamy, caramel and chocolate with a powerful blueberry finish. Honestly, they were better than any shot I had at any cafe in Denver, CO or Boulder and the best I’ve had on the east coast (NYC and Philly) for many months. Here are some photos of the 7-shot sprominideo (a tiny espresso party). Worth noting that the espresso looks lighter than it was (it was a chocolate-brown color) because of the flash…I need a better camera…or a photographer; also, not all photos are of the same shot/pour:

Evan and Jessica topped the espresso with some sweet, foamy delights:

If you asked 8-year old Ben, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”  I promise, he never would have said, “Own a coffee shop”; “Grow food”; “Travel.”  That’s the direction 26-year old Ben is heading, though.  Digging my hands in loamy soil, pulling a brilliant shot of espresso, drinking water after weeding in the failing afternoon light are intensely satisfying.  So are the many revelations about the food I eat every day, where it comes from, the endless varieties (did you know potatoes come naturally in red, blue, green, and purple!).

Sometimes, though, as I read more into the agro movement, things frustrate me.  For example,

“Evolution is a holistic process…involving a spiritual element which ensures that the whole is more than the sum of its part.”

Part of this quote appeals to me.  “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”  A human matters more than its cells.  If we take this quote further, though, we would say that humanity matters more than the humans that compose it.  The earth matters more than the people, plants, and animals that compose it.

This smacks of a certain philosophy as old and as despicable as written language.  You find it among the Hindus and Greeks, but most recently and prominently you find it in Germany around 1930, 1940: German Idealism.  A combination, at that time, of ancient Greek philosophy, the genius of a guy named Hegel, a scientific postulate called evolution, and the rise of nation-states led to a philosophy that thought the sum is better than the parts.  Salvation would come not to individuals but to the human race when it achieved perfection.  Christ did not come to save you and I from our sins and redeem the created order; he represents the perfected human race.  What matters is humanity not humans.  Of course, the Shoah (holocaust) resulted…

“Nature (Gaia) has evolved innumerable answers to this problem…”  I suspect that the author of this book would say that individual human, plant, and animal life matter less than Gaia.  All of us exist only as a part of Gaia.  Again, it’s hard not to hear a disempowered version of 1930’s Germany.

Since going part time at school, I’ve been keeping up on studies by following 6 wk study plans. Currently, I’m in last week of reading Hebrew. Each week I’ve taken one chapter of Genesis in Hebrew and studied some grammar and vocab on the side.

As I was reading, I came across something that may interest someone out there; it’s mostly an observation that answers a certain view of God in the Pentateuch. At several places in the Hebrew Bible, God does not seem to know everything (e.g., Genesis 3.9). The same sort of rhetorical question appears in Genesis 4.9: “Then God asked Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” When Cain lies, God responds, “The voice of your brother is rising up to me from the ground.” It becomes clear that the Lord knows what Cain has done and the Lord’s questions are rhetorical.

Recently, some scientists reclassified Pluto. It’s no longer our ninth planet; it, along with Eris and Makemake, are called “Dwarf Planets” leaving us with eight “normal” planets. If you’re a six year old taking astronomy soon, this news won’t disturb you. But, for those of us who counted on Pluto being the last planet for an test, this news has been hard to accept.

A recent article in the Boston globe helped ease my pain.  The author describes three types of facts: facts we don’t see change (e.g., the diameter of the earth, the velocity of gravity at sea level) and facts that change constantly (the temperature, the commodity price of coffee).  The number of planets falls in between these; the author calls it a “mesofact.”  Here are some examples he gives:

• The earth’s population: I learned 6 billion in my 2005 college geology class.  It is now just shy of 7 billion.
• The appeal of Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh, along with Newark and Detroit are post-industrial cities.  Since the 1970’s they’ve been places you want to steer clear of.  In 2009, however, Pittsburgh ranked 6th in the US in terms of job growth because Pittsburgh replaced industry with technology.
• The number of elements on the periodic table: in the 1970’s you would have learned there were 91 elements; today you would learn there are 103.
• Cell phone use: in 1970, only 4% of Americans used cell phones; today over 50% use them.

Most important of all, however: dinosaurs.  When I was in school, I learned…well…Jurassic Park came out.  Dinosaurs were cold-blooded, scaly reptiles who only ran fast when humans were peeling out in Jeeps.  Otherwise, they were slow footed, peanut brained lizards.  Today, however, children learn that dinosaurs are warm-blooded and feather-covered (“stripes! with orange tufts!”).

This stuff won’t change your life, but it might make you rethink your education and what it means to know something.

This is pretty awesome. I’ve been so focused on getting our business off the ground that I nearly missed the beginning of Ethiopia’s Direct Specialty Trading Platform. I posted on this already, but in one week the DST will be starting!!! Check it out here!!

A short recap. Ethiopia semi-nationalized their coffee trade in early 2008ish when it established the Ethiopia Coffee Exchange. The ECX took control of all the storage warehouses that gathered up coffee from the farmer’s and the auctions that sold it to foreign buyers. In the old system, akrabis purchased the coffee from farms, processed it, auctioned it and sold it to foreign buyers. Most of the profits, therefore, did not return to the farmers. Rather than purchase the coffee from farmers, akrabis now sell their services. In this new system, akrabis cannot receive more than 20% of the coffees final export price; 80% must go to the farmers.
Unfortunately, by gathering all the coffee up in big warehouses and erasing the name of the farm where the coffee came from, the ECX eliminated direct trade and traceability. Instead of buying Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Amaro Gayo directly from Asnakech Thomas or Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Idido Misty Valley directly from Abdullah Bagersh, you would buy Ethiopia Grade 2 Yirga Cheffe. Only Fair Trade Cooperatives were excluded from this.

The SCAA lobbied hard, and Eleni Gabre-Madhin, the woman responsible for the ECX, has worked with them to start the DST. Now, when a coffee is taken to an ECX warehouse from a farm, it is graded on an international scale (Q-grader/SCAA standards). If it scores above an 80, it is marked as specialty coffee and sent to the Direct Specialty Trading platform. The farm name, region, score, cupping notes, certification, price, paid , AND the buyer’s name are all recorded for BOTH the FARMERS to see and for…well everybody. If you click on the DST Lot#, you can actually find out more about the farmers who sold the coffee, including a map of where the farm is located. AMAZING. I hope it works!! http://www.ecx.com.et/DSTCatalogResults.aspx
…and I wish we were a big enough coffee roastery to order from the DST. Soon, Lord willing.

These were some smashingly good pictures that Jessica Whang took. The latte art, milk, and spro were a combo of Evan, Jessica, and myself with Paul Helms and Rodney G looking on:

I spent the morning researching bagging options. The results are in; and they suck. Simply put, no one has developed an environmentally friendly 1 lb bag for coffee bean retail. There are three basic options:

1. Non-recyclable, non-compostable petroleum based plastic (polypropylene, polyethyline, etc);
2. Non-recyclable, somewhat (1-5 years under ideal conditions) compostable petroleum based plastic (developed by Larry’s Beans and Maverick Enterprises);
3. Non-recyclable, compostable corn based polymer (Polylactic acid (PLA)).

We will likely go with either option 2 or 3 and provide (for local delivery) a tin/ceramic can exchange option, as well. The upside is that if we develop a recyclable bag, we can make our millions and retire to Djibouti. Any material engineers out there who like coffee and $$?

SCAA and the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)
Webinar

• Purpose: advocacy and information
• Providers: SCAA, Peter Giuliano (Counter Culture) and Ric Rhineheart (SCAA Executive Director)
• The short of it: The SCAA has worked with the ECX to increase quality discoverability and traceability.

A Brief Overview of Traditional Ethiopian Coffee Market

While there are some cooperatives and an insignificant, but growing number of larger, commercial farms, small holders (1 hectare sized farms) produce most of Ethiopia’s coffee.

Since the 50s, Akrabis (“collectors”) then buy and collect the harvested coffee and bring them to washing stations, which they typically own or manage, for processing. After washing, the akrabis would bring the coffee to a clue, where the coffee was graded based on appearance (as opposed to taste) and auctioned. Exporters who had a relationship with the central bank and a letter of credit system would then purchase the coffee from the akrabis and sell it to overseas importers.

Factors Unique to Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a high level of domestic consumption. This puts pressure on the export industry; exports might sell more on the domestic market than the export market. Ethiopia, however, is also dependent on coffee exports, which account for 25-30% of Ethiopia’s hard currency foreign exchange revenue. Ethiopia’s combination of high domestic consumption and dependence on foreign exchange is unique.

The Birth and Structure of the ECX

Ethiopia launched the ECX in April of 2008 to increase price and quality stability for export grade grains; they added coffee to the list of commodities in late November 2008.  Of course, all coffee has always gone through the clue and auction, analysis and export system; now it happens through the ECX. That principle has always been there.  Although the ECX is a government entity (the government owns it), the ECX was established as a demutualized corporation with a separation of ownership and management. This is a unique new public/private ownership wit a balance of owner and member interests.  The management board has government representatives and five membership representatives, and membership seats are sold by the government, but privately owned.

The ECX requires that…

• …all coffee not directly traded between a producer and a foreign buyer must be traded on the ECX.
• …coffee be delivered to one of 14 regional ECX operated receiving stations (as opposed to the old two), where coffee is graded using the SCAA cupping model to assess cup quality.
• …farmer retain ownership of the coffee until it is purchased and shipped for export.  Transporters and exporters no longer own the coffees; they provide producers with a service.
• …farmers must receive 85% of the sale price.

Common Misunderstandings

1. The ECX took away some of the exporters licenses. This is true. They did it if they suspected exporters of importing and trading/or trading coffees on the domestic market. Coffee has a critical function for Ethiopia in terms of foreign trade.
2. Fair-Trade, Organic (FTO) will not be available. Ethiopian law says that any producing entity can sell so long as it goes directly to a foreign buyer. Since most fair-trade coffees are sold directly to buyers, they will not go away.
3. Transparency is gone forever. The ECX has taken steps to provide excellent price transparency.  We will discuss this further below.  For now, suffice it so say that all transactions are recorded and made available daily to farmers and regions in real time (by the minute) reflecting the internal market and the NY market.

ECX Accommodations to Specialty Coffee

CEO of the ECX, Eleni Gabre-Madhin, came to the SCAA’s annual Symposium in April, 2009.  She opened up dialogue to express concerns and ideas to address them.  In response to this ongoing dialogue, the ECX has undertaken the following measures:

1. Adopted an industry recognizable grading system (SCAA and Q Grading) for all coffees: The ECX went through CQI and Q grading system exercises to see how close ECX cuppers could calibrate with Q graders. They had a positive correlation in cup quality.  They’ve developed a wide array of contracts based on cup quality and regional production.
2. Arrival Q grading made steps towards transparency and quality: In October, the ECX began a process of where when parchment coffee was delivered to ECX warehouses, it was cupped and graded.  If it scored above 80 by a licensed Q grader, it was recognized as an arrival Q coffee. The ECX then determined with greater specificity where coffees were coming from. They then added two specialty grades (1 and 2, representing coffees that scored 85 or higher).
3. Allow coffees to be purchased directly from a farm or coop by a foreign importer: one can go directly to Ethiopia to work with farmers and millers by entering into a  direct/transparency relationship or one can work through an agent on the DST.  In both cases, there is a small premium.
4. Addition of a direct specialty trade (DST): the ECX created an open outcry trading platform (i.e., not auctioneer, but open buy-sell trading platform where sellers can refuse prices if they are not high enough).  The ECX only introduces coffees that cup above a certain amount and then acts as a warehouse custodian until prices are set by buyers-producers through sampling (tasting) for quality.   The ECX also introduces consultants who create “transparency contracts” so all participants in chain can see what prices were paid at every step from farm to import. Thus, farmers can see how money is spent throughout the chain (from purchase price including insurance and transp and logistics).

This latter provision is especially important for specialty coffee.  It guarantees higher income for producers since all transactions are recorded, producers see the receipts, and the ECX requires that they receive 85% of the sale price.   It also preserves lot traceability.   The ECX takes responsibility for preserving identity of coffee by origin, farm, and grade and  guarantees the final product.

ECX will hold its direct, specialty trade bidding session on the 28th of January. The catalogue will be available on their website.

Questions & Answers

[The Questions were usually not read; the Answers and Questions are marked by Q&A]

Q: Foreign buyers want washing station specific coffees. Many can name specific washing stations in this coop or that Yirga Cheffe station.

A: Any coop or farmer can have their coffee milled or dry processed and sold directly to you or through the direct trade, specialty platform. Akrabis cannot sell coffee that loses its farm ownership; akrabis are now service providers.  The Farmer/coop retains ownership and the akrabis provides service at a fixed price to facilitate process. That is the optimal system, where the transaction is between farmer/coop and importer, eliminating costly (and in many countries, abusive) middlemen.

Q: What quality incentive is there?

A: The DST platform offers great incentive to produce quality. If quality is evaluated at the ECX buying facility and it cups high enough to get on the DST platform, coffees will naturally find their price (price discovery mechanism). Higher quality coffees will fetch higher prices so long as market is there for high quality coffees.  They’ve seen it happen just through ECX trading floor.

Q: Do buyers know if coffee went through ECX or not?

A: If it was bought through an exporter, it probably came through the ECX. Only coops and unions have been selling direct. This year it will be the same except for the addition of the DTS system. Buyers: ask importers what the ECX grade was for quality and origin.

Q: How can I buy direct?

A: FTO and unions. DTS. Even ECX. ECX is not a true commodity system. It instead offers many benefits to producers, akrabis, and transparency. Many have bought good coffees with high transparency.

Q: How do we know growers are getting paid a fair amount?

A: Produces are guaranteed 85% of the sale price. The grower is the producer, not the akrabi.

Q: Does the importer/roaster have input in which exporter/service provider they use?

A: If you have identified a party/entity you like, you can encourage them to make their services available. You cannot mandate, but you can encourage.

Q: Does the Coop or producer set a minimum price?

A: The selling party may elect to not accept any price. If not high enough, they can choose not to transact.

Q: What incentive is there for akrabis to provide good service if there is a fixed price for them?

A: Service provider dehulls and separates, but most quality is happening prior to service provider.  They can also have a separate billing for milling, contract, logistics, insurance, etc, so long as they are transparent. Moreover, 15% is a percent, so service providers get more if coffee sells for more. Incentive is there for quality.

Q: Will other African nations follow Ethiopia in creating entities similar to the ECX?

A: There is no strong indication that any other African nations will follow this model. Ethiopia has that high level of domestic consumption and high dependence on coffee for foreign exchange, which demanded a different solution.

…Wahoo! Today is my first day out of school as a coffee roaster.  I kicked it off with a roasting session from 6.30a – 10.30a and will finish the work day packaging and shipping some of these coffees.  Here are two write-ups for my favorite two of the five types I roasted this morning:

1.25.2010
Costa Rica Tarrazu – Montes de Oro

Emilio and Laura Gamboa and their family grew this coffee on their finca (farm) called Carrizal in the Tarazzu region of Costa Rica near San Pablo  de León Cortés and processed it in their micro-mill called Montes de Oro.

We took this coffee to a City+ roast level (16 minutes).  This “lighter” roast highlights the “miel” or “yellow honey” processing method.  In this method, the coffee cherry is “pulped” off, but the gooey layer underneath (called mucilage) is left and dries on the coffee bean.  It creates a sweeter, cleaner, less acidic cup with a fuller body than either wet and dry processing methods.

Roast level: City+
Season: July 2009
Process: Miel (pulp natural)
Altitude: 1650-1700m
Varietal: Caturra
Intensity: Medium
Tasting Notes: Stone fruit, peach and apple notes, buttery body

Ethiopia Moplaco Yirgacheffe

The United Nations ranks Ethiopia 170 out 177 countries on the UN Human Development Index marking them one of the poorest nations in the world.  Because Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, also earns one-third of its export income from coffee sales, the government has taken steps to increase their coffee industries profitability.  Thus, in late 2008/early 2009, Ethiopia nationalized the collection, storage, and selling of green coffee exports through the Ethiopian Coffee Exchange (ECX).  Unfortunately, the ECX requires that all coffees from the country go anonymously into a pool.  Although different regions are kept separate (such as Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Limu, Harrar), we cannot trace the coffee we’re offering back to source.  This means we cannot guarantee the sustainability of its growing conditions. Nevertheless, this is one of the best Ethiopians we’ve tasted.  The slightest variation in roasting creates a different tasting cup, but every cup has been fantastic!

Roast Level: City to City+
Season: Late August 2009
Process: Wet-processed
Altitude: Unknown
Varietal: Heirloom Ethiopia Cultivar
Intensity: Medium-Bold Intensity
Tasting Notes: Sweet fruits and tea, silky, buttery body