Specialty coffee…direct trade…fair trade…ethical…relationship. What does it all mean? So many roasters tout that they scour the earth in search of the best coffee sourcing it, roasting it and offering it to you. While that sounds amazing, in my experience, there are many well meaning folks who say they are doing this but actually aren’t.
Having worked at a few roasters over the last five years and now getting to rub shoulders with even more roasters through Pomelo Coffee Consulting, I’ve been privy to the inner workings of some roasters you’ve heard of and some that you likely haven’t. Now, this is not true of every roaster and certainly not of every roaster I worked with but ironically the ones who were most noisy about their coffee being “the best”, the most “equitable”, “the most direct” were actually the least. For the most part, folks who tout their coffee as “relationship” or “direct trade” often mean they have a relationship with an importer who offered some information about the coffee to the roaster, i.e. a picture of the producer with a list of information about the coffee. There is a distinction that needs to be made here around what this means. This actually means that the coffee is traceable rather than the roaster or importer having a relationship with the producers. Both are certainly fine, however the important piece here is that folks need to be honest within their marketing materials and how they are speaking about it.
For Benchmark, they are relationship based coffee traders…i.e. they are an importer however they have a direct and close relationship with the folks at the estate level in PNG. Thus, it is traceable. That being said, Benchmark takes an additional step by taking an interest in the wellbeing of the folks at the farm level. Additionally, Benchmark allows roasters who purchase their coffee to journey to origin to meet and begin to create their own directe relationship with the folks who are cultivating, harvesting and processing the coffee they are purchasing. Because of their involvement at the farm level Benchmark’s coffee moves from simply being a traceable coffee to a traceable and a relationship coffee.
To be sure, purchasing coffee from an importer that does not allow for this kind of relationship is 100% fine, especially when you are a small roaster. It’s pretty much the only option you have as it takes years to create strong, meaningful and healthy relationships with producers. So do not read me throwing shade toward folks who purchase coffee without having a deep relationship with a producer but rather read me stating that roasters need honesty around how they are speaking and marketing the coffees they are selling in consuming countries.
So what is a relationship? It’s a great question and one that necessitates an entire blog written to describe it. Let me start by defining what I don’t think relationship coffee is. Relationship isn’t purchasing coffee from an importer who has no interest in improving the coffee or the lives of those who produced and harvested the coffee coming out of the country that they purchase it from. Relationship is not simply knowing who cultivated the coffee, it’s not knowing the coordinates of the farm, it’s certainly not just having a high quality picture of the producer and their farm. By now, you can probably sense the cynicism in my words, but it’s because I believe that deep meaningful relationships can significantly improve coffee quality over time.
To describe how relationships can improve coffee quality, I want to tell you a story. Five years ago, I was working for a roaster in Chicago. This cafe was, in large part, the reason I’m still involved in specialty coffee today but it wasn’t because the coffee was the best. It was because one of the three coffees we offered was from a little place that I had only heard of once or twice before…Papua New Guinea, and it was a relationship coffee. To be honest, I really couldn’t have told you where PNG was on a map and I didn’t really understand how that particular geographic location would affect the flavor profile of this coffee, but it was a relationship coffee and that sounded different to me.
I remember the first time I had the PNG peaberry. I remember the notes of earthy dark chocolate and perhaps some red fruits and that’s about it. A few weeks later, I was brewing a pour over for a guest at this cafe, and in walks Vikram, the owner of Benchmark Coffee Traders. He graciously watched me brew his pour over and we got to talking about the coffee and then he mentioned that he was the importer of the coffee I was brewing. That sounded like an interesting job but I had no real concept of what an importer was.
Fast forward a year, and I’m working in another cafe in Chicago and we had a PNG from Benchmark as well. I then started to put the pieces together that this was the same coffee that I had a year before, but something was different about it. It was sweeter and there was more clarity to the coffee. I had no idea how to evaluate or score a coffee at the time, but one thing was certain, it was significantly better than the year prior. Again, I didn’t think anything of it but just put it in the back of my memory.
The following year we bought the same coffee and I remember thinking…”this is better than I remember last year’s crop of the same coffee”. At this point I was learning to evaluate and score coffees but again just put that in the back of my mind.
Fast forward another year, and I can say with certainty that the coffee has improved easily 3-4 points in the last 5 years. While weather, picking, and other environmental factors can positively and negatively affect the flavor profile of a coffee, that sort of change is typically only a point or two. The kind of improvement that I’ve tasted in the coffees that Benchmark is importing is indicative of their relationship with those in PNG.
So how can relationships increase the quality and flavor profile of a coffee? It’s not just good intentions and it’s not just trying harder. I believe there are 3 keys to real relationship coffee and they are:
- Equilibrium of Power
- Mutual Trust
- Action
Equilibrium of Power
Any relationship worth having is one where there is giving and receiving, to be sure. Where things get really compelling is where there is equilibrium of power. Meaning, no one party holds all the cards to success but rather they are held together. When both parties are crucial to the other’s success and each understands that the relationship they have with one another helps them succeed in a way they wouldn’t be able to without the other…this is equilibrium of power.
Benchmark models this in the way that they purchase coffee from in PNG every year. Sure, there are cheaper coffees out there that Benchmark could buy and sell for better margins but that’s a shortsighted perspective and ultimately isn’t sustainable. Rather, Benchmark is committed to purchasing the same coffee every year and as they grow they are able to commit to more and more coffee from the farms they already purchase from.
The producers model this in that they are loyal to Benchmark and are committed to fulfilling their needs each year. When the market is high, you bet they likely could receive more for their coffee but again, that is nearsighted because when the market is low, Benchmark is still there for them paying a fair price for their coffee.
Mutual Trust
Without mutual trust between the importer and the producer, the producer will likely be unwilling to receive feedback and or recommendations on how they might improve their coffee growing or processing.
Again, it goes both ways. For the importer, they must trust the producer that they are going to maintain the quality of production that they agreed to. This becomes especially important as the contracts increase in size. For instance, you might be really good at making 12 cookies at a time but let’s say you try to make 112, consistency and quality will likely become more difficult at scale. The same is true with coffee, it’s much easier to produce 1lb of high quality coffee that is consistent rather than 1,000lbs. So there must be trust that the producer is not going to cut any corners in their process.
For the producer, they must trust that the importer is relaying real feedback from roasters that can help them at the farm level. They must trust that the importer isn’t making recommendations that could financially jeopardize them. Most importantly, the producer must trust the importer to honor the contracts and commitments they have made to them.
Action
It’s not enough to have equilibrium of power and have trust if it also isn’t paired with action on both parties. For the importer, this means that they are continually cupping their coffee and sending feedback on how the coffee is aging, how the coffee changed over the weeks and months and then sending that feedback to the producer. Another item that requires action on the part of the importer is to improve the lives and livelihood of the folks who are working at the farm level. In my opinion, one of the core reasons the people at the farm level are even willing to take risks to change and improve their processes is from the action that Benchmark takes to care for the people at the farm level.
The kind of action that the producers are taking at the farm level is that of an iterative approach to their process. They receive feedback and are continually innovating to improve their process in country to increase the quality and cup score to eventually increase the dollar amount that they can receive for the coffee.
Over the last 5 years, I have personally seen the coffee that Benchmark Coffee Traders is bringing into the states, improve significantly and the only thing I can attribute this to is their deep relationship with the folks who are producing the coffee in country as well as the deep relationships they have formed with roasters in the states. This is what specialty coffee is all about. Creating sustainable supply circles that produce mutual benefit throughout the circle.
So what is it that improves coffee quality? Equilibrium of power, mutual trust and action! The onus of responsibility is on both parties. Improving coffee quality requires the same sort of things that any real, meaningful, relationship is made of…a real relationship.
To better coffee and deeper relationships.
By Luke Waite of Pomelo Coffee Consulting