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Home  Articles Snobs Vs. Altruists and the Coffee Price Crisis
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Snobs Vs. Altruists and the Coffee Price Crisis |
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Monday, 01 August 2005 |
by Kenneth Davids
Most readers of major newspapers know that a glut of cheap, poor
quality coffee of the robusta species has triggered a worldwide coffee
surplus, driving prices down to unprecedented low levels and plunging
parts of the world dependent on coffee growing into economic and social
crisis. Farm workers and peasant growers are being forced off the land
where they have lived for generations into the all-too-familiar urban
nightmare of shacks on barren hillsides, gum-selling, petty crime and
prostitution.
I raise this issue in relationship to the June Coffee Review story, Pursuing Coffee Quality
at the Supermarket, first to suggest that fine coffee is intrinsically
underpriced relative to other specialty beverages. Given that a pound
of coffee beans will brew nearly the liquid equivalent of an entire
case of wine, paying eleven dollars per pound for a fine, top-rated
coffee such as the Bucks County Guatemala is equivalent to paying less
than a dollar for a bottle of top-rated wine, which could cost $50 to
$100. With the exception of the rather pricy Martinez Kenya, all of the
coffees rated over 86 in Pursuing Coffee Quality at the Supermarket are
bargains in the context of prices demanded for other specialty
beverages like wine, scotch whiskey, or fine Chinese tea.
The
Fair-Trade Solution and the Snob Solution
Secondly, two of the solutions regularly proposed to the
suffering incurred by plunging coffee prices are revealingly
represented in Pursuing Coffee Quality at the Supermarket. The first is
the fair-trade solution, a conscience-based approach that involves
collecting a small toll from participating growers and roasters to use
in publicizing the impact of the price crisis and persuading concerned
coffee drinkers to pay modestly higher prices for coffees that are
certified fair-trade, meaning coffees purchased at a "fair" price from
qualifying cooperatives of small-holding growers. The second we might
call the specialty beverage or snob solution, which involves persuading
consumers who care about pleasure and prestige to pay more for coffees
that taste better in the cup, or at least come with a reputation for
tasting better in the cup. By rewarding quality with higher prices, and
by generally raising the prestige of coffee as a beverage, the snob
solution rewards the most committed coffee growers with higher prices
and recognition over the long term.
Both the fair-trade and the coffee snob solutions can be seen at
work among the coffees reported on in Pursuing Coffee Quality at the
Supermarket. Represented are two fair-trade coffees from Bucks County
Coffee, the highest rated Guatemala and the decent but
middle-of-the-pack Sumatra. Also appearing are three highly rated
coffees from Kenya, a favorite origin among coffee insiders and
aficionados. Hawaii Kona and Jamaica Blue Mountain may be better known
than Kenya among casual coffee drinkers, but among those who genuinely
know coffee and buy for quality as well as name, Kenya is much more
respected. Hence the relatively high prices commanded by the three
Kenyas in the review, higher, in fact, than either of the reviewed
fair-trade coffees. False Alternatives?
Coffee professionals often pit these two solutions to the coffee
price crisis against one another, the coffee snob side claiming that
fair-trade coffees are a sort of socialist solution that eliminates
market incentives for quality, while some fair-trade adherents
implicitly knock the coffee snobs as obsessives who care more about
aroma and mouthfeel than they do about human beings. What I find
interesting about the results of the Pursuing Coffee Quality at the
Supermarket cupping is how they suggest that these two solutions are
not as contradictory as they seem at first. In terms of quality, the
fair-trade Guatemala from Bucks County turns out to be every bit as
distinguished in the cup as the three Kenyas. On the other hand, all of
the finest Kenyas are produced by cooperatives of small holding growers
working through an auction system, so it can be argued that an extra
dollar spent for a good Kenya, regardless of the reason for that
expenditure, is every bit as well-spent in social terms as a dollar
spent on a fair-traded coffee.
Thus we are left with the implication that those who put out an
extra dollar for reasons of pleasure or snobbery often are helping
coffee farmers as much as those who pay more for reasons of concern,
while those who buy fair-trade for social reasons are increasingly
getting quality in the cup as well as the satisfaction of helping
others.The Real Enemy
If the results of the Pursuing Coffee Quality at the Supermarket
review is any indication, the real enemy to both the well being of
coffee growers and the well being of our palates are coffees that are
both dirt-cheap and taste like dirt, in other words, those coffees that
fill the cheapest cans on the supermarket shelves with bad robustas or
bottom-of-the-barrel arabicas.
Ken Davids is a coffee expert, author, and co-founder of the Coffee Review, the world's leading coffee buying guide. His books include: "Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing & Enjoying," "Espresso: Ultimate Coffee" and "Home Coffee Roasting."
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