Coffee prices have slumped over the past year but we still feel the pinch for our caffeine fix. That is to say, the prices that farmers receive for their product; prices at the supermarket have not. The Brazilian government is to aid coffee producers. Starbuck’s is not going to help the latte drinker.

The Conundrum

The conundrum is how to balance the amount a farmer receives for green beans and what you might pay for a latte, and who gets what chunk of the disparity. As the commodity price of beans fluctuates (coffee being the second most widely traded commodity in the world, after oil), there is a lag for retail. A year and a half ago, the commodity market was off the hook with the price of green beans at a 34 year high, spurring many retailers to increase prices by 10% or more (Note: Starbuck’s, Dunkin’ Donuts). Now, the C-market has slumped. But many green brokers had locked in prices for beans relative to higher C-market pricing. Roasters and retailers are still paying according to somewhat higher green broker pricing. Meanwhile, the farmer is receiving less. And the consumer is still paying what we have been paying the past year or so.

The Game

Brazil is increasing its minimum to pay farmers by 17%. Starbuck’s is now cutting pricing again, but only on retail bags. Cafe pricing will remain high. It’s quite a game to balance what profits you can earn, what pricing allows you to carve out a piece of the pie from your competitors, and what is the right thing to do. Plus, we can reflect on what the farmers may earn and what impact we may have on that, understanding the many relationships exist between the worker, the plantation owner, the cooperative, the exporter, importer, roaster and finally the retailer.

Maleku of Costa Rica, photo George Meek.
Miguel Angel, aka El Espiritu Guerrero, in the center.

I just returned from  Costa Rica; my family returns tomorrow after the Dia Uno celebration. Yes, coffee was involved; we saw a roastery, coffee plantations, taste testing, etc. However, the purpose of the trip was far different than coffee. It had everything to do with the rights of Indigenous and a Peace Proclamation with Mother Earth.

We, as Holistic Effect, met with the Gaia Foundation and some representatives of the International Human Rights Consortium, 2 of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, a Mayan Shaman, an Aztec Shaman, Mama Grande of the Miskita of Nicaragua/Honduras and leaders of all 8 Indigenous tribes of Costa Rica. Four days later, we had drafted a resolution for the United Nations, that wove together various UN declarations, treaties, and proclamations into one document that acknowledged rights for Indigenous and has Costa Rica to be the first “carbon neutral” nation by the year 2021. Today Laurie and Grace (my wife and daughter) are part of the procession of all of these people through downtown San Jose to the President’s house, where The President is hosting them in her garden to sign the Proclama de la Paz with Mother Earth and this UN resolution that will then be passed on to the UN.

What was particularly notable was that leaders of the Indigenous groups of Costa Rica commented that we were the only foreign people who have come to help them as a group, and that their own government has not helped in any substantive manner. Here are marginalized peoples who are losing their culture, land, way of life and rights granted to them as people, and also by the UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples. Now, we will work to document the events to create a collective story of the Indigenous, and to map out next steps (working with people of Ghana, Ecuador and other places).

Today is the first day following the end of the Mayan Calendar. El Dia Uno.

Photo courtesy of Clayton De Laney

Most days of the week smoke can be seen and tasted coming from the BV Roastery. Don’t worry, nothing’s on fire, that’s not what I was getting at. Joel, Chris, and Ed can be found most days roasting serious amounts of coffee beans in the back, while a medley of the Grateful Dead, some electronica-esque and most types in between come pouring out of the speakers. Everyone else’s heads bob just a little while they’re doing their own work even if it’s not their particular cup of tea (pun intended). Suddenly ‘we whistle while we work’ just popped in to my head.

Here at the Roastery amidst this quaint town, an eclectic group of individuals help run this stellar coffee shop. I’ve had the privilege to join these folks for the past couple months and effectively get a serious crash course in all that is coffee. The customers, more like friends, move through here in a peaceful chaos sometimes just for a simple morning cup of joe.

One of the first things I learned here was ‘it ain’t easy’. Well, let me put it this way, it’s a steep learning curve for someone like myself who’s only coffee experience is plowing throw pots in the middle of the night while writing science papers in college. Another thing I learned is that you actually can drink too much coffee and espresso in a single day. “But it tastes so dang good!” is my usual excuse. And now that it’s nearing winter I find myself obligated to drink warm beverages throughout the day. (My friend Michael would be proud of me for that statement) I’m still making my way up the learning curve as far as coffee and coffee related things go, but it’s been a fun climb so far.

Since this is my first blog for the Roastery, and there have only been a few that we’ve produced in the last few months, I thought I’d just start by giving an update on things we’ve been doing, not that you don’t already know almost every move we make from Facebook. But I digress. We’ve got a nice stash of bakers that have been cooking up a storm. Things from the ever-present breakfast burrito to guilty pleasure gluten free scones, muffins, and biscotti. The bagel scene is catching on quickly: jalapeño cheddar, garlic, and everything bagels can be seen in the basket most mornings, but usually don’t last long. Theo chocolate bars line the shelves along with mate gourds and now a whole array of trinkets from 10,000 Villages. The pastries, I’ll admit, are above all the hardest to steer clear from.

Above all else, we have a few new giant bags of coffee beans that we’ve started roasting, one of them being the Ugandan that is quickly making its way in to our main stream of coffees. Another, even newer coffee is the Kenya AA (don’t ask me what the initials stand for, just ask Joel). Both of these boast lots of flavor without being too dark of a roast. We’re currently dialing in this new Fruity Bali coffee that’s got great flavor. Plus, a bonus of this particular coffee is sticking your face in the pre-roasted beans and getting the stifling aromas of apples and other such sweet fruits.

Apart from looking like we’re working to the bone all the time, we do have a little fun as well attempting our latte and cappuccino art. I was a part of a collaborative cappuccino owl that is currently amongst my favorites so far, with Joel’s Phoenix and potentially accidental, but impressive nonetheless, lizard.

For those of you who live in the greater BV area and join us regularly, we hope you keep coming back to see us. And for those who have passed through, ordered online, or maybe even just stumbled upon us, I hope this little snippet of enlightenment on our roastery has tempted your coffee tooth in to stopping by one way or another.

With that said, one area we have been recently been able to focus on with a change of passionate staff and focusing our direction is our baked goods. There have been some subtle changes in our bakery over the past couple of weeks. Namely, we’ve found Organic sources for all of our flours, sugars, several spices, potatoes, buttermilk, better organic gluten-free flour, and organic Fair Trade chocolate for baking. We also now have cage-free vegetarian eggs. Abattoir regulations make it difficult to find local meat supplies, but following the footsteps of our neighbors the Eddyline brewpub, we have some leads. As they say, poco a poco.

Organic? One article I read this morning lays out a rather simplistic argument about buying organic or conventional produce, bringing the argument to your body or your pocketbook. It tends to cost more (except for our coffees, most of which are the same price as conventionals). Yet are the health benefits worth that extra cost to you? This article begins the debate at the line in the grocery store and briefly addresses residual pesticides. There is no mention of practices or effects in situ, with GMO, monocultures, et cetera. It’s rather disappointing thinking about the myopic study this article is based on, or at least the authors presentation of the study.

In any case, our informal study says that we are happy to be transitioning the food in our cafe.

Holding a coffee leaf infected with rust fungus - from Bloomberg News

Just as we are slowly climbing out of last year’s extreme pinch in coffee prices, some potentially unhappy news comes out of Colombia. Apparently, a rust is infecting many coffee plants and causing some supply worries. Will this keep commodity prices, and the price for a cup of our favorite morning drink high, or will this just be a blip in the global ebb and flow of coffee production? We shall find out as new crops come in and we see how Brazilian and Vietnamese production affects the market. Here is a bit of news from Dow and the WSJ.

NARIÑO, Colombia—On the steep and verdant slopes here, an orange-colored fungus is laying waste to hundreds of thousands of acres of coffee. The infestation, and efforts to eradicate it, raises the specter of higher coffee futures—and more expensive cups of espresso—for months to come.

The fungus is known as roya, the Spanish word for “coffee rust.” It grows on the leaves of a coffee plant and chokes off nutrients to the beans. Encouraged by years of torrential rains, roya has spread throughout Colombia, forcing farmers to pull out their plants and replace them with fungus-resistant seedlings.

Juan María Cañar, a 64-year-old farmer in the Nariño region in southwest Colombia, said he was forced to replant much of his acreage. He usually produces 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) of coffee beans. “This season, I’ll have about half that,” he said.

The fungus has ruined what was supposed to be a good year for Colombia, the world’s second-largest producer of high-quality arabica coffee, the mild-flavored, hand-picked beans for which coffee traders usually pay a premium. As much as 10% of the country’s coffee-growing region, or about 300,000 acres, were replanted this year in a bid to get rid of the scourge. New plants typically take as long as three years before they produce their beans. This is likely to restrict supplies, sending prices higher.
Investors have been paying scant attention to the potential crisis. Futures for arabica coffee, the variety most commonly brewed in the world, have been falling along with other commodities, amid gloomy headlines out of Europe. However, the declines are smaller than those for other exotic agricultural commodities. Coffee prices have fallen 7.4% this year, while cotton has dropped 40%, and cocoa is down 28%. On Tuesday, coffee for March delivery settled 1.5% higher, at $2.2280 per pound.

“It’s not selling off quite like the others are,” said Kona Haque, a commodities analyst at Macquarie Bank. “Coffee is holding its ground.”
Analysts say the warning signs flashing in the coffee market will soon become more visible through the uncertainty caused by Europe’s debt crisis. “The fundamental picture is taking a back seat because everyone is worried about Europe,” said Marcio Bernardo, an analyst at brokerage Newedge. The problems in Colombia come as global coffee supplies already are strained. The last crop out of Brazil, the supplier of more than one-third of the world’s coffee, was a relatively small one. Additionally, Central America was hit by heavy rains at the start of its harvest in October, which are expected to clip production in El Salvador and Guatemala.

World output of arabica coffee will shrink 4.3% to 79.6 million bags in the current crop year, which began in October, according to the London-based International Coffee Organization. The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, or Fedecafe, isn’t giving a firm forecast for next year’s crop, saying estimates are hard to make given the large amount of rain that came down this winter. For the past three seasons, the quasigovernmental organization set lofty production goals but came up short. The fact that they are demurring this year is telling, says Jack Scoville, a broker at Price Futures Group.

“They’re trying to be very cautious as to what they say,” Mr. Scoville said. Analysts say that in the best-case scenario, Colombia’s output in 2012 could be comparable to this year’s, which Fedecafe expects to total around eight million bags, each weighing 60 kilograms. In a good year, Colombia produces about 11 million bags. Meanwhile, demand for coffee is growing. Consumption has risen 2.5% every year on average over the past decade, the ICO said, citing the growth of niche markets and new consumers in emerging markets.

Problems in the euro zone could pinch global demand as the European Union has the highest coffee consumption per capita in the world. Another factor that could mitigate Colombia’s production problems is Brazil, which is forecast to harvest a big crop next year. Last week, Brazil’s National Coffee Council said the country will produce as much as 52 million bags, a 18% increase over last year. The council’s forecast is conservative compared with private estimates that are closer to 60 million bags. However, Brazil’s harvest doesn’t begin until May. Until then, the market must grapple with another possible shortfall from Colombia.

Delving into Chocolate

We’re tasting some chocolate today at the Roastery (the staff do not know it yet). These notes are from Tifa Chocolate and give us a good guide to our day. We’re exploring some different brands of chocolate to carry in the cafe, influenced by the Fair Trade movement and images in the Dark Side of Chocolate, and historical context of chocolate, as depicted in the book the Emperors of Chocolate. All in all, it’s fun to expand our palates, and take lessons herein  back to the exploration of coffee. From Tifa Chocolate…

Protocol for Tasting Chocolate

To Begin With

Chocolate tasting should be about the experience and not solely about the consumption of chocolate. It should engage all the senses (sight, sound, smell, feel and finally taste) and can be appreciated by almost any person regardless of age, social standing or gender. It does not take extensive knowledge to develop an appreciation for the many fine and varied chocolates available today but for those who are curious, there is a never-ending spring of information available to better enable you to appreciate the history, science and art that is chocolate.

Please understand that there is no right or wrong when it comes to chocolate — there is just your opinion and preference based on your individual taste and predisposition. What you will ultimately want to develop as you go through the chocolate tasting process is a fuller awareness of the spectrum of, and differences between, the multitude of quality chocolates available to you in today’s marketplace. Many people, particularly Americans, are of the opinion that chocolate is a pleasant but somewhat homogenous product. This perception is changing as consumers become increasingly familiar with the products offered in the world market place. The reality is that chocolate, like wine, covers the spectrum of flavors with each having a unique personality. Regardless of your personal level of exposure to chocolate, we hope you will enjoy most of the selections provided but more importantly that you experience them all and broaden your familiarity with some of the more prominent chocolate makers represented by these selections.

NOTE -You may want to have the following available for your adventure:

• First, something to “reset” your taste buds between samplings. Unsalted crackers, ladyfingers, angel food cake, watermelon, strawberries and fruit sorbets and sherbets all make excellent palate cleansers. Pick something that you enjoy and then just a nibble or taste will do the job each time.
• Second, you may want a beverage of some kind. Your choice might be as simple as sparkling or purified water or you may want to pair the chocolate tasting with wine selections (see Pairing Chocolate with Wine.) Again, let your personal taste be your guide.
• Remember to leave the chocolate kit at room temperature prior to tasting. The more subtle flavors will otherwise be muted.

Time to Taste Chocolate

Once everyone participating is comfortable:

First Step:

Observe the Color: After unwrapping the first chocolate sample take a moment to note the texture and color. The color range of chocolate can be from the deepest brown to an auburn tint. Any well-tempered chocolate will have a high shine and dark chocolate will have a greater sheen than milk chocolate. All chocolate should be free of “bloom” (white splotches caused by the separation of cocoa butter crystals.) A good quality white chocolate will be a deep yellow color due to the high cocoa butter content.

Second Step:

Listen to the Sound: Break the chocolate into roughly dime size pieces, watching as it breaks. Chocolate with high cacao content will break cleanly and with a distinct crisp sound. Chocolate of lower quality (with a lower cacao content) tends to be soft and will not crisply break.

Third Step:

Feel: Hold the piece of chocolate between your fingers and note that the chocolate will begin to melt within a few seconds. Chocolate that has the proper cocoa butter content will melt at or near body temperature.

Fourth Step:

Inhale the Aroma: Take a brief moment to close your eyes and smell the chocolate. As you know, appreciation of many things in life such as baking cookies, good wine, a fine cigar is enhanced by the scent. In fact 75% of what we perceive as taste is actually derived from our olfactory perceptions. Considering the aroma just prior to tasting will allow your brain to more accurately identify the subtle qualities of the chocolate (when you smell you are actually inhaling particles.) There are over 600 natural aromas associated with chocolate. Taking a moment to appreciate the smell will, in effect, get your taste buds prepared for the experience to come.

Fifth Step:

Tasting the Chocolate: Here is the part you have been waiting for!

How: Place a small amount of chocolate (about the size of a dime) in the middle of your tongue. Close your mouth and wait for the chocolate to begin melting. Now lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth and swirl the chocolate all around. It may be difficult, but resist chewing until the chocolate melts. You will have a chance to observe the following sensations:

What to look for:

• As soon as the chocolate begins melting on your tongue you will get the early “notes” of flavor. These “notes” are the blending of all the different compounds in the chocolate (some “notes” can be described as fruity, buttery, nutty, vanilla highlights, clean, etc.). Your first impression should not be that of sugary sweetness but rather a nice balance between sweet and bitter. Any flavoring added to the chocolate should be subtle and not artificial tasting.
• Observe the texture of the chocolate (i.e. Is it smooth or gritty?)
• The “finish” as it is referred to in wine tasting, is actually the aftertaste you will experience. A good chocolate should have a pleasant finish with no hint of a chemical element.
• Consider your overall impression of that particular chocolate immediately after tasting. It is a good idea to note your impressions in writing as you go along so you can recall which you had a particular affinity for. (It can be frustrating when you remember you really enjoyed a particular chocolate but can not recall which it was.) Remember that during your tasting experience you will encounter a variety of distinctive tastes. Some you will like (hopefully most); others you may not enjoy as much (or at all.) Try very hard to keep an open mind as you taste each. Even if you dislike a particular selection you will have gained an awareness of that particular offering; something you did not have before the tasting. Remember the overriding purpose of chocolate tasting is to expand your exposure; the idea is to explore, thereby defining your personal preferences.
• Finally, discuss your impressions and opinions with others in the group. The range of reactions to one chocolate can be very surprising.

A Side note about taste:

Your tongue has thousands of tiny taste buds that allow you to recognize the four basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Taste buds located near the front of your tongue are for salty and sweet; those for sour line the sides of your tongue; the bitter are found at the very back of the tongue. Surprisingly, the center area on the top of the tongue has very few taste buds. The reason you move the chocolate around in your mouth is to hit each of these areas. Taste experience also depends on age, gender and genetic make-up based on recent research.

Sixth Step:

Prepare for the Next Selection: Cleanse your palate by eating a small amount of sorbet, cracker and/or taking a sip of water while you take a moment to discuss the last selection tasted. You may be surprised at the strong preference a person may have for one chocolate over another even though both have similar cacao content. Many times the geographical region the cacao was grown in will give that bean a very different flavor from another bean. Just like coffee beans, the soil and surrounding crops can result in differences in beans produced by similar trees.

Understanding the Differences between Chocolates

Cacao content: Manufacturers identify cacao content as a percentage. This percentage represents the amount of cacao solids used in the production of that chocolate. The higher the percentage of cacao, the darker the chocolate and conversely, the lower the number, the sweeter the chocolate. The percentage can range from a very dark chocolate at 85% down to 35% for a milk chocolate. It is interesting to note that there is no chocolate in “white chocolate” — only the cocoa butter (natural fat from the cocoa bean) is used in the manufacture of white chocolate. Some manufactures will leave “nibs” of chocolate in the finished product giving it something of a rougher mouth feel. American tastes have historically run to the lower percentage milk chocolates while Europeans have shown an inclination towards darker chocolate. Studies suggest this difference in preferences may be changing today as more and more Americans are becoming familiar with the higher cacao products.

Flavorings:

There is an endless number of flavorings that can be added to chocolate during the manufacturing process. A few of these include orange, ginger, almond, vanilla, coffee, green tea, chili or pepper. Filled chocolates are different from flavored chocolates. Flavored chocolates have the flavorings added directly to the chocolate during the manufacturing process, as opposed to a flavored filling (e.g. ganache, fondant, etc.) However, to experience the natural flavor of the chocolate itself (separate from the additives and fillings,) you should start with pure chocolate bars. The ingredients in these will be limited to cacao, cocoa butter, sugar, milk products and natural flavorings.

Photo courtesy of our architect, Craig Brown

After a long hiatus on our blog site, I can announce that we have opened our new cafe space, and revamped roasting facility. We have been working since June 1 to build onto the corner of Colorado and East Main in downtown Buena Vista, the first building on Main since 1979. Three weeks into the opening, I can visit the computer and post a couple photos and a link to South Main’s article from opening day, and start blogging once again. Thank you to everyone who visited this summer and endured construction noise, lack of cookies from our baking space, and general periodic uproar. How grateful we are to be open and fully operational once again.

Photo courtesy of Craig Brown

The old corner of E Main, including the original roastery building

Day1: Excavation work for the Roastery, including bakery space

We at the Buena Vista Roastery and Bongo Billy’s have long awaited the day when we can house all of our beans, cocoas, equipment, baking, et cetera in one spot. Spread out in 5 spaces through the town of Buena Vista, we have maximized our efficiencies, but only within the context we have had. Now, at long last, we have broken ground on an expanded space, which will bring us into one building. This is right on East Main Street in downtown Buena Vista.

Read on to understand some of the process we used to get us here, using Holistic Management as a guide to this decision:

We operate using Holistic Management, as introduced by Allan Savory,  as a guide for our business operations. This includes forming policy, guiding spending decisions, optimizing processes, and most of what we do.  By understanding the different and distinct enterprises within the business, we identified that growing our retail was the largest potential marginal reaction to contributing to a thriving and vibrant community, showcasing our coffee – both the barista skills and high quality of our roasts, and influencing our bottom line. We embarked three years ago to effectively and significantly alter our retail. Now, we are one of four hub businesses on the corner of Colorado and Main and help to bring energy to downtown. Alongside of Mother’s Bistro/Daughters, Colorado Kayak Supply and the Asian Palate, downtown is starting to gain energy and is not just a pass through on the way to the River Park and South Main.

Retail was the weak link in the business. We can now buttress that enterprise. True, the building is not up, we have not moved in, new processes and procedures are not in place. Yet, this link in our Chain of Production from resource conversion to bringing in dollars and fulfilling our purpose is no longer the weakest part of the business – the part that will fail us if we do not pay attention. It is time to focus once again on our wholesale side of things, for cafes, or for hotels and restaurants: the next step. Mentally separating into enterprises for planning and spending money, while functioning as a whole entity allows us to be sure that each dollar spent and each minute of time goes to the best and highest use. Our returns are not just financial, but involve community, environment, staff satisfaction, customer experience, and a host of other very valuable contributions. Please contact us to learn more about how we use Holistic Management within our business.

Cupping is most effective when several coffees are tasted side by side. Doing this allows you to taste the differences between coffees and between regions of coffees. Cupping coffee is said to be the best way to taste coffee because it draws out all of the flavors of the coffee.

The Process:

It is important when you are cupping coffee that the process is exact and the same for each tasting. At the Roastery, we usually cup several coffees at a time by grinding 11 grams of coffee and brewing it in a cup with six ounces of water. There are three stages during the cupping that we give a description of the coffee: when the coffee is dry and wet, and when we taste the coffee.

Photo by Matt Biddulph

1. First, we grind the coffee into the glass, smell the dry grounds of each coffee, and describe them using words like: sweet, earthy, nutty, bright, acidic, citrus, or chocolate.
2. The next step is to fill up the glass with six ounces of hot water and let it brew for about four minutes. After four minutes, we “break the crust” (or stop the brewing) by taking a spoon and pushing the grounds away to get the wet aroma. We each smell the coffee in the “wet” stage. The differences from dry to wet are sometimes drastic. Oftentimes, a coffee will smell citrusy when dry, but will smell more sweet when wet.
3. The final step is to scoop the coffee grounds out with a spoon. Then, using your spoon, take a loud slurp of the coffee, spreading it to the back of your tongue for the true taste.

New Coffees at the Roastery

At the Buena Vista Roastery, cupping is a part of our weekly routine. This past Friday, we did a cupping of Organic Uganda and Organic Java, two of our newest coffees that we offer.

• Organic Uganda, my new favorite coffee, has a rich, dark chocolate, sweet taste, with a full body, and a dark, smooth finish. Yum! When we smelled the coffee in the dry and wet stages, it smelled more nutty than it tasted when brewed.
• A very different coffee is the Organic Java that has a chocolate and earthy smell when dry, but has a bright and earthy taste with a little sweetness.

So next time you see us behind the counter at the BV Roastery sniffing and slurping coffees, you’ll know what we’re up to. And feel free to stop by and join us for a coffee cupping!