Unlike most members of the U.S. specialty coffee industry, Lisa Steere has picked coffee. She has spent time in the hot Costa Rican sun bending and stretching to reach ripe coffee cherries and pluck them from their branches. She's put them in a basket that hung over her abdomen, held by a strap wrapped around her back. She even turned in a full basket for which she was paid about 350 colones ($1.40 US).
Even though Steere, vice president of marketing for Gloria Jean's Coffees, only spent three days on coffee farms in the Tres Rios region of Costa Rica, she came away with a completely new respect for coffee growers and their skills. "I had no idea of the time and care and science that goes into growing and harvesting specialty coffee," explains Steere. "This is not like the big Robusta farms with the big mechanical pickers. This is a very different experience. Each bean is treated so carefully. The harvesters don't waste any."
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Many specialty coffee retailers have visited the beaches of Puerto Vallarta or Cancun and believe they have enjoyed everything Latin America has to offer. But coffee doesn't grow in Cancun. It grows in Veracruz, Oaxaca, Nayarit, and Chiapas--and that's just in Mexico. It also grows in dozens of other countries throughout the world, all of which offer unique travel experiences that can be personally and professionally valuable. Origin travel should be an essential part of all retailers' coffee education because it gives them a complete look at the product they love so well. It also provides insights on issues that could impact retailers in the future, such as organic and sustainable farming and the effects of market fluctuations on farmers. Perhaps most importantly, origin travel demonstrates that those who produce coffee get paid the least. |
This is what coffee farmers will tell you, and retailers will never truly understand it unless they visit one of the 59 countries that grow coffee. "Anyone who thought $8 or $9 a pound was expensive to sell coffee, go pickin'," says Alton McEwen, president of Gloria Jean's Coffees, which took a group of franchisees to Costa Rica in the beginning of 1997. "Fall down the hill a few times with the bugs and heat and see how it feels at that price."
| Paul Schultz, the roaster for Huxdotter Specialty Coffees, traveled to the Malinal coffee cooperative in the Nayarit district of Mexico in March with Huxdotter owner Terrianne Hux and other roaster/retailers. They spent only a single day on the farms, yet came away with a dramatically new perspective on the coffee they roast. "Every bean is touched by the hand of somebody down there," he says. "When you finally get down there you realize it's like picking blueberries. To get the coffee, there's an incredible amount of work you have to put in." |  |
"It's impossible to, as a consumer, enjoy a cup of coffee or to look at any cup of coffee, marginal or gourmet, in the same way after you've been there," says Doug Mitchell, owner of Café Away, which coordinates trips to coffee-producing nations. "Here's a product we enjoy and tend to take for granted, yet it's so incredibly personal."
Most growing countries are fascinating for both coffee professionals and general travelers. Guatemala, for instance, features the beautiful Spanish colonial city of Antigua, which serves as a great base for travel throughout the rest of the country. Antigua is very touristy--in the Guatemalan sense of the word--but still features much of the gorgeous Mayan culture that Guatemala is known for.
Unlike Cancun, however, a visitor can get a hotel room in Antigua for less than $10 a day if they're willing to sacrifice a little comfort, and in the $30 to $40 range for very nice accommodations. Nestled amid three volcanoes (Agua, Fuego and Acatenango), Antigua features some of the most interesting coffees in the world, and many of the farms are located within five minutes of town. Other regions of Guatemala--such as Cobán, Huehuetenango and Fraijanes--are also worth visiting.
A typical tour of a coffee-producing nation might go something like this, as directed by Kimberly Easson, president of the coffee travel company JavaVentures. Fly into, say, San José in Costa Rica. First, Easson will take you to farms near the Poás Volcano, which is a heavily volcanic growing area. There you will learn about the agronomic aspects of coffee farming. What are the soils like? How does rainfall and sunshine affect the coffee plants? What are the advantages and disadvantages of organic farming?
Next she will take you to a wet mill, where you learn about the processing procedures that ensure your coffee will be of the highest quality. On Day Two, Easson will take you to the Tres Rios and Tarrazu regions, where you'll discuss the differences in flavor between regional coffees. You'll look at mills and farms in both places. You'll also tour a coffee bag-making factory, where you can see bags being woven and the logos being imprinted.
On the third day, you'll visit Costa Rica's third-largest cooperative in Naranjo. While many of the earlier farms you visit will be medium-sized or larger, this cooperative consists of 2300 small farmers. You'll see how a small farmer operates versus a large plantation owner. Afterward, you will do a cupping of all the different farms you visited, giving you a taste of the differences between regions. Finally, you'll tour Café Britt, a Costa Rican roasting plant that welcomes 40,000 to 50,000 visitors every year. This tour segues into a big party and farewell ceremony. Visitors have the option of adding extra days to the tour, including a visit to a solar dryer. And, of course, people may stay to enjoy the other wonderful attractions of Costa Rica, such as the plentiful beaches, river-rafting trips and nature hikes.
Why all the attention to coffee's roots? "It helps [coffee professionals] talk with their customers more intelligently," Easson explains. "[It helps them] sell the product, understand why a particular product might be more or less expensive, or what different tastes come from different regions. The y can actually see that a particular region has certain growing conditions, harvesting techniques and quality control, and it all adds up to a particular quality and characteristic in the coffee."
"It's part of their homework, if you will," says Café Away's Mitchell. Guatemala and Costa Rica are good destinations for people's first coffee tour, along with Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Jamaica, Hawaii and Panama. All are relatively close--a flight from Los Angeles or Miami won't be too long or expensive--and all grow at least some specialty coffees. Hawaii is nice because a retailer can easily combine scholarship with snorkeling, although Hawaii won't give retailers nearly the cultural education that a country like Guatemala or Nicaragua will.
More advanced coffee trips would include South American countries--Colombia, Peru, maybe Brazil if you want to see coffee grown by volume rather than quality. Africa and Indonesia both offer fascinating cultural and educational experiences. Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen are among the most fascinating coffee countries--Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee--while Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (also known as Celebes) promise some of the richest coffee experiences, and richest coffees, in the world. Retailers interested in teas of the world would benefit from a trip to India or Sri Lanka.
Café Away organizes trips for a variety of groups, including trade associations like the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and the American Premium Tea Institute (APTI), and a few producer organizations from growing countries. "The primary purpose is to provide a vehicle through which to encourage travel--for business reasons primarily, but also for fun," says Mitchell. "[We help] get the people in the business better acquainted with the source."
"The secondary purpose is the opportunity to enjoy geographic and cultural differences, because coffee and tea around the world is grown almost exclusively in some of the most wonderful destinations one could wish to enjoy."
Café Away also customizes tours for clients, although it will be moving away from customization in the future. At this point, an organization can sponsor a trip for coffee and tea retailers, and Café Away will use its contacts in producing countries to arrange an itinerary. One trip coming up in the near future is the Coffee StudyTour and Seminar, held in Brazil from July 5-12, 1998, and sponsored by the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA).
Easson's JavaVentures offers trips to Hawaii, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, and possibly Brazil. Her trips run from relatively brief (three days in Costa Rica) to more time intensive (she ran a 13-day tour in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua in January 1998). A longer tour that encompasses several countries--which isn't too taxing in compact yet bumpy Central America--offers retailers the chance to really learn about the industry from farmers of many different backgrounds. There's no denying that coffee farming in Costa Rica is a far cry from farming in Nicaragua.
Global Exchange teamed up with Equal Exchange to run two Fair Trade Consumer Education Tours in Chiapas, Mexico, held late in 1997. These trips, while still focusing on coffee production, put more emphasis on the political and social situation in coffee-growing areas. The tours include not only tours of coffee farms, but also visits to cooperatives of women weavers and potters, updates on the current human rights situation in Chiapas, and a brief home stay with coffee farmers. The Fair Trade Tours are intended for both retailers and consumers with a passion for coffee, but they also highlight another reason for coffee travel: The coffee industry is not immune from the political turmoil of many Latin American countries, and this aspect of the business is worthy of study.
Trips such as these also give retailers a better understanding of the world coffee market, and how price fluctuations benefit or hurt farmers. Global Exchange, Café Away and JavaVentures all focus on such aspects to some degree because all recognize their importance. Retailers and roasters will learn that a 15 cent price increase or decrease per pound of coffee affects much more than their monthly bottom lines. And they can discover the economic and environmental impacts that coffee has had on producing countries through the years. Take Nicaragua, for instance, which went through very tough times in the 1980's. After years of government control, Nicaraguan coffee farmers are slowly moving toward privatization (the current president of Nicaragua is a former coffee farmer), and in the process they're trying to lift the country's sagging economy on their shoulders. Much of the coffee that Nicaraguans are growing is gourmet, and the growers hope their coffees will eventually command premium prices. Cristobal Coffee Importers is the exclusive U.S. importer of Malinal Estate Coffees, located in the Nayarit region of Western Mexico. In February 1998, Cristobal took several roaster/retailers down to Malinal for a coffee tour. It took around four days to get there and back and the visitors only spent a day on the actual farm. Nevertheless, a day was all it took to amaze Huxdotter Coffee's Schultz.
"It just intensified my love of the business," says Schultz. "It was very, very overwhelming." He saw a coffee plant up close for the first time, learned how farmers can tell by feel if a cherry is finished fermenting, and watched as the sun set in the horizon behind farmers and their burros descending the hillside. Schultz and his co-travelers also discussed roasting and cupping techniques with the farmers--meaning the gringos were not the only ones who learned something during the trip. Schultz even left behind a French press for the Malinal farmers.
Cristobal co-owner Devorah Zeitlin says the lessons learned at Malinal will help all retailers. "I think the enthusiasm with which you can come back and sell your coffee--knowing where it came from, having helped the people--gives a sense of real confidence and intimacy with the product," she says.
So the next time you're thinking about making a quick getaway to someplace warm and sunny, consider this: The price of a three-day trip to Guatemala is comparable to a three-day stay in Puerto Vallarta. And the insights you gain while visiting coffee's roots will greatly benefit your business, your enthusiasm and yourself. Buen Viaje!
Reprinted with permission from Fresh Cup Magazine, "the Voice of the Specialty Beverage Industry." Annual subscription is $35 for 12 issues. To subscribe, call 503-236-2587, or visit the Fresh Cup website at www.freshcup.com.