STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 25 Basic attributes not appearing on the SCA Cupping Form include certifications and coffee grades, such as a Double-A in Kenya or a Supremo in Colombia. On the stage, Giuliano said, "Next, we will hear three people talk about their coffee in stories illustrating three different attributes. We are looking for the biographies of these coffees because we know that gets layered on top of the flavor." The first presentation introduced a light and dark blend made by two producers, Edgar Heladio Ossa and Pedro Alfonso Trujillo Londoño, both own farms in Huila, Colombia. The audience learned that the farms are planted in Colombia, Caturra, and Om- bligon. The grower explained that he has no ICO number because the coffee is not exported in bulk. Wet milling is done on the farm. He said the coffee is washed with a slightly long fermentation of 36 hours in open tanks and dried for 20 days in shaded beds. It is not certified through the Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Certified Regenerative, or 4C organizations. Yet it sells for 2.2 million pesos per carga (125 kilos) or 17,600 per kilo, about 200 more per kilo than the living wage calculated for that region. Boy and Bear, a coffee roaster sells the whole bean coffee for $30 a pound. Giuliano accurately predicted that after hearing details about the process, the audi- ence's perception of the quality and intrinsic value of the coffee would be enhanced. Giuliano told the crowd that there was a big space at the bottom of the form to record other extrinsic attributes that might be important in the marketplace. Next up was Marcelo Cocco Urtado, a fourth-generation coffee grower and agri- culture engineer with a master's in environment and environmental technology. He introduced himself as an arborist from the Cerrado Mineiro region in Brazil. Urtado purchased the farm in 2016 and employed many innovative techniques such as raised African drying beds, flowering synchronization, and "a post-harvest structure for de- livering the best and most unique coffee." The farm is Rainforest and UTZ-certified and utilizes biological fertilization. In pursuing sustainable operation, he described his steps to "achieve greater resilience and balance. Biodiversity is the key to achieving this equilibrium." That extends to gender empowerment. "We believe in the power of the men and women to run the farm together, and we share our knowledge with more than 2000 student farmers. The farm, Fazenda Tres Meninas, is named as a tribute to the women of the family, including my wife and daughters." Listening to his passion and commitment improved my perception of coffee, which resulted in a fine SCA score. One of SCA's initiatives is an Affective Assessment on a scale of 1-9, recording personal (hedonic) impressions of quality. SCA is working on a professional standard for ratification by the SCA's Standards Development Panel. The story told by Thaleon Tremain, CEO and co-founder of the 240,000 member Pachamama Coffee Cooperative is well known. He was excited before the presenta- tion because the Pachamama Cooperative, with farms in Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Mexico, has perhaps the most compelling story of the day. The farmer-owned cooperative is now 20 years old and operates a US roastery that pays top prices for some of the best coffee in the world. He acknowledged Pachamama directors Carlos Reynoso and Vladimir Vivanco. "Carlos is the general manager re- sponsible for the coffee you cupped today," he said. Tremain explained that much of the value in coffee is difficult for growers to cap- ture, and "there's really a great deal of value in coffee, as you move away from the commodity," he said. "So coffee has a commodity price, very little value. But as we add value and get to the end, there's a huge amount of symbolic brand value," he said. "Our 10-ounce packages of coffee retail for $19 in our cafes. That's $1.90 retail price per ounce. A lot of that has to do with the roasting and the café, the branding, the barista. At wholesale, we are able to capture more than $60 for every pound of coffee we sell – that's at the extreme end. We can capture $30 a pound on the average B2B wholesale order, averaging $9 per pound this year. Roasted coffee brings $20 per pound." "So that's why this conversation is so important today. It is my personal belief that the challenge facing our industry is the fact that producers, importers, and even a lot of roasters are effectively dealing in a commodity, and to really add value, you have got to get beyond the commodity and create a stable business," he said. Peter Giuliano, executive director at the Coffee Science Foundation, explained how recording additional information about a coffee's back story adds more perceived value to the coffee. Thaleon Tremain, a globally respected authority on sustainable coffee, discussed the importance of moving coffee away from a commodity. Connecting the coffee to the land it comes from and the people who grow it increases the value.

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