December 2019 Coffee Almanac | Fresh Cup Magazine

6 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

Coffee Almanac

D EC E M B E R 2 0 1 9 | VO L . 2 8 . N O. 1 2 | F R E S H C U P M AG A Z I N E

Departments

12

NEW TO THE FRESH CUP TEAM The Filter

By Fresh Cup Staff

14

SUNGHEE TARK, BEAN VOYAGE

18

SOUTHDOWN COFFEE

Do You Know?

Café Crossroads

By Caitlin Peterkin

By Rachel Northrop

24

62

Origin

The Last Plastic Straw

By Caitlin Peterkin

By Robin Roenker

B CORP

PERU

Features

30

40

Cafés with a Cause As the season of good cheer approaches, we’re spotlighting cafés that are not only serving up excellent drinks, but also giving back to their communities.

By Kaitlin Throgmorton

A New Wave of Thermal Products is Heating Up the Market Keeping our drinks warm from point A to point B can be tough, but thermal products are continuously evolving to change that sentiment.

By Janae Easlon

44

Green Coffee Contracting How to plan your purchase.

By Rachel Northrop

48

54

A sustained low in the Commodity Market Price of coffee.

Business leaders share how their own struggles pushed them to take action and create organizations that would provide help for hospitality employees.

Understanding the Cost Crisis

By Michael Ryan

Working on the Frontline, Part Two

By Anastasia Prikhodko

EDITOR’S LETTER, PAGE 9 | CONTRIBUTORS, PAGE 10 COUNTER INTELLIGENCE, PAGE 58 | CALENDAR, PAGE 60 | AD INDEX, PAGE 66 On the Cover: Illustration by Cynthia Meadors 8 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

Fresh Cup Magazine FRESH CUP PUBLISHING Publisher and President JAN WEIGEL jan@freshcup.com

EDITOR’S LETTER

EDITORIAL Editor CAITLIN PETERKIN editor@freshcup.com Associate Editor JANAE EASLON janae@freshcup.com ART Art Director CYNTHIA MEADORS cynthia@freshcup.com ADVERTISING Sales Account Director CORINNE HINDES corinne@freshcup.com Ad Coordinator DIANE HOWARD adtraffic@freshcup.com ACCOUNTING Accounting Manager DIANE HOWARD diane@freshcup.com FRESH CUP FOUNDER WARD BARBEE 1938-2006 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD DAVID GRISWOLD Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers

CHUCK JONES Jones Coffee Roasters

PHILLIP DI BELLA Di Bella Group

BRUCE MILLETTO Bellissimo Coffee Advisors

ANUPA MUELLER Eco-Prima

BRAD PRICE Phillips Syrups & Sauces

BRUCE RICHARDSON Elmwood Inn Fine Teas

MANISH SHAH Maya Tea Co.

LARRY WINKLER Torani

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W

hat a year it’s been.

Personally, it’s been filled with unbelievable opportunities—visiting a coffee farm for the first time, traveling to Italy—but also loss—loss of a loved one, loss of a sense of purpose, loss of hope. Some months haven’t been easy, and, to be honest, I’ve struggled to maintain a positive outlook for my own wellbeing, and even, at times, the state of the industry.

But then I read stories about how coffee has offered hope and purpose to someone society had previously left behind (p. 30), or about business leaders providing resources and help to struggling hospitality workers (p. 54). I interview someone about the intersectional work they are doing to support marginalized smallholder producers (p. 14), or learn how companies are adapting to customer needs and interests in innovative ways (p. 40), and I’m reminded about the power our industry—and the movers and shakers within it—holds to evolve, overcome, thrive, and inspire.

These last 11 months, we’ve brought you not only reviews of cutting-edge products, insights into beverage trends, and profiles of up-and-coming cafés, but also articles analyzing the deeper issues we are all facing, from income inequality and the cost price crisis to mental health and climate change.

As the industry continues to grapple with these and more matters that affect each and every one of us, it’s important to champion those who are putting in the work to ensure that the future of specialty coffee is in good hands.

In this year’s Coffee Almanac, I am honored to bring to you stories of cafés, nonprofits, producers, and many more industry leaders creating solutions, exemplifying customer service, promoting sustainability, and demonstrating their belief in the power of coffee.

As we close 2019, I want to extend my gratitude to you, our readers, for supporting us in our mission of delivering high-quality, comprehensive reporting on coffee and tea—I look forward to continue doing so in 2020.

FRESH CUP OFFICES 5520 SW Macadam Ave, Suite 220, Portland, OR 97239 PHONE: 503/236-2587 | FAX: 503/236-3165 FRESH CUP PROUDLY SPONSORS NONPROFITS

CAITLIN PETERKIN, EDITOR

editor@freshcup.com F RES HCU P.COM

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 9

CONTRIBUTORS

Based in Miami, Florida, Rachel Northrop is content manager for Ally Coffee and the author of When Coffee Speaks: Stories From and Of Latin American Coffeepeople. In this issue, she covers a café balancing commitment to customers and craft (p. 18), as well as insight into purchasing green coffee (p. 44).

Anastasia Prikhodko is a freelance journalist based in Sydney, Australia.

Previously, she spent two years abroad living in Amsterdam and enjoying the coffee scene across Europe, Russia, and Korea. She writes mainly about coffee, the travel trade sector, social issues, gender, and, at times, dabbles in a bit of sports writing. For this issue, she talks with hospitality and coffee professionals around the world about mental health and wellness in the industry (p. 54).

10 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

Lexington, Kentuckybased freelance writer Robin Roenker has extensive experience reporting on business trends, from cybersecurity to real estate, personal finance, and green living. For Fresh Cup, she covers sustainable and eco-friendly trends in cafés and the coffee industry in her regular column, The Last Plastic Straw, on p. 62.

Michael Ryan is the Director of Coffee and Green Buyer at Dapper & Wise Roasters. During his 10 years in the coffee industry, Ryan has held every job that touches coffee, from serving to sourcing.

He is also the joint founder of Threadbare Coffee Company, a consulting business that helps people in all parts of the supply chain, from producers to baristas, tailor the timeless principles of business and coffee to their current context. Read his piece discussing the coffee price crisis on p. 48.

Kaitlin Throgmorton lives in Seattle, Washington, and writes about coffee, travel, and books.

For this issue, she highlights cafés and coffee organizations around the country dedicated to making a difference (p. 30).

THE FILTER Fresh Cup Announces New Associate Editor & Sales Account Director

F

resh Cup Magazine welcomes Janae Easlon as its new associate editor and Corinne Hindes as sales account director.

After spending a year covering arts and culture in the Portland metro area at a community newspaper, Janae Easlon joins the Fresh Cup team as its new associate editor.

Growing up in a small logging town near the Oregon Coast, Janae went on to study Journalism at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Traveling abroad after graduation, Janae returned two years ago to the Pacific Northwest, which she considers her first love, to freelance for publications including The Daily Astorian. When she isn’t typing away or walking her dog Herb, Janae loves to garden, take photos, see live music,

12 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

JANAE EASLON (left) and CORINNE HINDES (right).

read up on zero-waste practices, thrift, watch old Hollywood films, and be a tourist in her own city. She is elated to come on board to the Fresh Cup team and discover more about the specialty coffee and tea industry.

Since studying at Portland State University, Corinne Hindes comes to Fresh Cup as its new sales account director.

Corinne grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and, at the age of 11, started the nonprofit Warm Winters, which works with youth across the U.S., Canada, and Australia to deliver warm clothing and toiletries to homeless communities. After retiring her organization to her volunteer network, Corinne set out to continue her passion for networking and growth in sales.

She spends her free time playing music and ski racing at Mt. Hood, and loves snuggling in with a hot cup of tea and her cat Lyra on a rainy day. She is very excited to be joining the Fresh Cup team and can’t wait to further her passion for connection and love for specialty coffee and tea. FC

DO YOU KNOW? Sunghee Tark, Bean Voyage

By Caitlin Peterkin

S

ince launching Bean Voyage in 2016, Sunghee Tark has made it her mission to empower women coffee producers in Costa Rica.

Along with cofounder Abhinav Khanal and a hard-working team of entrepreneurs, economists, sociologists, activists, and coffee professionals, Tark works to train, educate, support, and fundraise for smallholder women producers to change the status quo.

It’s been a busy couple of years for Bean Voyage. Most recently, they implemented their Care Fellowship program, working with youth in Costa Rican coffee farming communities to equip them with leadership skills and project management tools so they can lead their communities toward a sustainable future.

Tark herself understands the importance of fellowships created to foster leadership in one’s community: This summer, she was named a recipient of the Specialty Coffee Association’s 2019– 2021 Leadership Equity and Diversity (LEAD) Scholarship Program, aimed at increasing diversity of leadership within the global coffee community by enabling access to professional development resources to people from underrepresented or marginalized communities.

Speaking to Fresh Cup from Costa Rica, Tark shared the story behind Bean Voyage, what’s next for her and the organization, and what it means to have one’s work recognized by your community.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Tell me about how Bean Voyage got started, and what you’ve been up to lately.

We registered ourselves in 2016.

Back then we didn’t do the training right away—we started with a very different model of creating what we

14 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

thought could be an Etsy of coffee back then. [Laughs.] We were roasting everything in origin and our ambition was to connect the farmer-roasted coffee with consumers around the world, but obviously there were a lot of logistical challenges with that. Also we realized that smallholder producers, especially women, were not able to produce highquality coffee because they were not attending any of the workshops. They were not able to access the information that a lot of other people in the industry have. That’s when we started implementing the educational component. We did our pilot in November 2017 with 16 women, on cupping and roasting, and the sensory part. That was something that people were really, really interested in learning about because they’ve never actually cupped their own coffee before. That opened our eyes to the area of education and the importance of it.

Last year we did a full-on training of like three months, 80 hours, covering topics from women empowerment to financial literacy, vermicomposting, processing, roasting, and cupping. So it was a lot more complete and holistic.

This year, we are expanding that even more, and we’re adding a lot more detailed courses….It’s a lot of community work that is required before we can fully take on some of the more technical stuff.

How did you and Abhinav meet, and why was it in Costa Rica that you decided to launch this project?

We were best friends since our first year [at Earlham College] in Richmond, Indiana. We worked on different projects together since our first year...one of the projects that we worked on was with an organization that focused on sustainable

development [that was] going around universities in the Midwest to train students on the idea of sustainable development. One of our close friends who was also part of the initiative, Nicol, is from Costa Rica, and [had an] idea to build a sustainable community center in [her hometown] in Pérez Zeledón....Given the nature of the state, which is super agricultural but also quite far from the central San Jose, they don’t necessarily get a lot of support from the government....Her idea was to raise funding to build a community center, which can serve as a platform for people to come together and do different fundraising activities to maintain roads or schools. We fundraised for a little bit over a semester, and we raised enough funding to build the center, and pay for our trip to come meet the association that was going to look after the building.

As we were coming here for a month, we decided to organize workshops with groups in the region—a youth association was one of them, but also the women’s association because they were the one that was going to look after the building. We came in December 2014, and that’s when we learned about their stories. Through our conversations every day we started learning about what it meant to be a coffee producer, what it meant to live in a coffee farming community. And given that it was December, which is the busiest coffee harvest season for the region, we were just seeing every single thing firsthand.

That was my first time seeing coffee in fruit form! I didn’t know there were so many phases, from growing the plant all the way to when you’re holding your cup of coffee.

They were telling us the challenges that they were facing as women and also the prices that they’re getting paid were not really fair, it wasn’t enough

PHOTO BY HWASONG KANG

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DO YOU KNOW?

for them to run their farm successfully.

Uniquely for the Pérez Zeledón region, a lot of farms are led by women because men migrate to the U.S. So they are leaders, not necessarily by choice, but because of the economic situation. We were hearing these women’s stories, and me having studied economic development and being really interested in gender, [I got] really interested in learning more about this phenomenon….Abhi and I talked a lot about it because he studied political science, but he also had a lot of interest in sustainable development. We went to Spain right after that to study abroad, but during the six months we were constantly talking about what we saw in Costa Rica. That’s what led us to start [thinking] more seriously about educating ourselves on coffee. And when we went back to uni for our last year we took classes on roasting, cupping, and meeting with different industry professionals to understand their story, map-

16 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

ping out the supply chain as a whole.

Still there were a lot of gaps, and we applied for a grant then to come back to Costa Rica after our graduation in May 2016. That was the time that we registered our company, the domain of our website and everything, with the goal to start sharing the stories.

That was the beginning and that’s the reason why we ended up in Costa Rica.

Just one project that we did—and we just kept coming back.

In the years since you’ve started, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry?

I think from the short span of time that I’ve spent, I’m already seeing a lot more voices—a lot more diverse voices—making its way to the center of the conversation that we are having as an industry. That’s I think something that [is] maybe thanks to Instagram and other social media that people are

able to access without having to pay for it or without having to have the powers to access that medium. I’m seeing a lot more diversity in voices and faces.

I also feel like I can finally claim a spot in the industry. I have been very, very intimidated by the whole industry for quite some time until very recently. I often would say I’m not necessarily a coffee professional, I’m more of a development economist…

Cupping was something that I was very intimidated by for the longest time! And I still am, because I’ve never really gone to a professional training for cupping. I don’t work as a barista, I don’t work as a cupping professional on a daily basis, I’ve worked more on the educational aspect. But then I still consider myself as a coffee professional. I think there was one way that we could look at coffee professionals, and if you didn’t fit into that profile, you couldn’t actually pick your way in. But I think now, definitely the industry’s

PHOTO BY MARIA FERNANDA CARRILLO

changing there. I see a lot more people from different backgrounds joining in the conversation, which I think is really, really important.

How did you feel when you found out you were an SCA LEAD Scholar? What does it mean to you earning this scholarship?

I got the notification at midnight, when I was going to sleep. They had announced that we were going to send the results [the week before]. And then I didn’t hear from them, so I was like, okay, I probably didn’t get it, maybe the people who got the scholarship got notified [first]. I was about to fall asleep and I got a phone notification…I read it and I remember just being like, ‘Oh my god!’ I didn’t have any words. I called Abhi right away because I knew that he would have been as happy as I was.

The first thing I thought was, ‘Wow!’ I’m finally able to enter the

PHOTO BY MARLIES GABRIELE PRINZL

specialty coffee industry. It’s been my dream to be able to feel like I’m part of the industry, and I’ve had quite a bit of struggle. Every time I went to the Expo I’d be like, ‘Okay, I don’t really belong here, do I.’ I think that it’s recognition that our work is important for the industry as well…finally, we are getting recognition from an association in our industry that we’ve been really wanting to be a part of and feel like we belong in, and we can finally claim our space in the wider industry.

I have no words how grateful I am because it also means that I’ll be able to actually improve my sensory skills… and be part of the wider conversation.

What do you hope to get from being a LEAD Scholar?

Personally, I really want to refine my sensory skills...but also for the work of Bean Voyage, I think the biggest thing that I want to do is really share the stories of the smallholder produc-

ers and highlight the intersectional problem that exists: the intersectionality of gender and class. I’ve seen a lot of work being done with women, claiming women empowerment, but oftentimes I’ve also seen that worsening the class inequality that exists.

Not every woman, not every marginalized person comes with the same story. So I want to also share and highlight the stories that we’ve been able to learn from, the producers that we work with, the unique challenges that they face because they don’t own more than three hectares of coffee farm—what does that mean for smallholder producers in general, but what does that also mean as a woman? I think that’s something that I really want to share more about and highlight….That’s [been] the mission, the moment that we started Bean Voyage. FC Learn more about Tark and Bean Voyage at www.beanvoyage.com.

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CAFÉ CROSSROADS Southdown Coffee

By Rachel Northrop

n to t. ng S ti all un W H -B 0 21

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C o St n n le e G Gl 9 14

v ay A B ey er r st ud Oy 9 A 4 e.

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outhdown Coffee strikes the perfect balance between commitment to customers and commitment to the craft. The Huntington, New York, roaster retailer opened in 2014 and, earlier this summer, built out its third café location on Long Island.

The name is derived from its neighborhood: the south end of downtown.

The first Huntington location is down the street from Southdown Pizza, Southdown Market, Southdown Deli, and Southdown Laundry, so founder

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Mark Boccard thought, “Let’s just run with the theme.”

Satisfying Specialty “I was 30 years old [when we opened Southdown] and really wanted to bring great coffee to my hometown, where I knew we had some underserved customers in waiting,” says Boccard.

Southdown was just what soon-tobe regular customers like Bill Gordon were hoping for.

Living in New York City had provided Gordon plenty of specialty

LON G ISLAND, NEW YORK

coffee options. Moving to the suburbs, he wondered, “Can I find a local coffee shop dedicated to quality?”

Turns out, he could.

“From the beautiful floorboards, to baristas that know their stuff, to a seasonal menu of single-origin coffees roasted in-house, Southdown checks all the boxes for what I consider an excellent coffee shop,” says Gordon.

Southdown is very much a specialty roaster retailer: Boccard travels to origin to source and the staff expertly dials in espresso shots every shift.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOUTHDOWN COFFEE

MARK BOCCARD outside the Oyster Bay location.

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CAFÉ CROSSROADS

The staff considers themselves specialty professionals, too, delivering top-notch drinks and service, even under pressure. Head roaster Christina Chin describes how “ample preparation—drip preps, a full hopper, a stocked fridge—helps us maintain quality when we’re hit with big rushes. We never compromise drink preparation. If there’s a wait for customers to receive their drinks, we engage them to show that their delicious beverage comes with a side of warm hospitality.”

The quality of Southdown’s roasted coffee also holds up against specialty’s highest standards.

SOUTHDOWN strives for clarity and balance with each roast.

“Winning a 2018 U.S. Roasting Championship title was a career highlight,” says Boccard. “Competition drove me to grow as a person and as a roaster. I was also struck by the excitement of our customers and

20 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTHDOWN COFFEE

how much pride they took in having our little corner of the country take home the third-place finish.”

While stacking up against any roaster in the nation, Southdown is still very much the local coffee shop Gordon was looking for—one where customers love to spend their time as much as drink award-winning coffee.

Satisfying the Customer Happy customers take their cues from happy staff.

“Our regular customers appreciate our consistency, quality, and our crew,” says Chin. “Our coffee is always freshly roasted, brewed, and served by folks who take pride in the cup they’re putting on the counter.”

The menu highlights conventional items familiar in any coffee shop, with specialty items in a separate area.

“We are able to gently introduce new concepts like brewing methods, tasting notes, and producer facts that some customers may not be familiar with,” explains Chin, by having those concepts on hand but not disrupting the ease of ordering a regular coffee.

“We’re not a shop where everyone is on their phone or hiding behind a laptop with earphones,” she says. “Mark’s family has been part of the local community for generations and our staff consists of people who were also raised in the area.”

Like most specialty pros, Boccard and his team enjoy trying new coffees and exploring every possible range of tastes, but he has come to realize that not everyone shares that urge.

“I try to open people up to new possibilities for coffee, but there’s also a certain comfort in giving people what they want and not having them start their day with an experience that makes them feel alienated or somehow assaulted for their lack of curiosity about coffee,” he says. “In my experience, being a curious taster is more a factor of destiny or aptitude than successful marketing by coffee companies. I’ve noticed over the years that as our roasting and

preparation improves, we’re able to feature multiple tiers of quality and have a more satisfying product all around.”

As Gordon says, “The foundation of specialty coffee is people and the relationships built from farm to roaster to barista to consumer,” and those relationships and the ability to meet customers where they are while still inviting them to discover something new is invaluable.

Building a Local Chain The floorboards Gordon mentioned contribute to the inviting, comfortable atmosphere that keeps customers

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CAFÉ CROSSROADS

BUILDOUT (top left) at the Glen Cove location (bottom right)

coming back. Building out a space to serve the needs of both customers and staff takes practice.

“Our first place was built out on a shoestring in a strip mall, and our second was also on a shoestring, but with a beautiful old building to work with,” says Boccard. “Each has been a learning experience, and with our new space in Glen Cove, I feel like we’re getting it just right. It’s more of a flagship space with lots of carefully considered elements.”

One benefit of scaling up is people on the team have more focused job roles.

“There’s a certain amount of nostalgia that we all have for our local, neighborhood cafés, but I always imagined that we would need to become

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MARK BOCCARD holds his trophy from this year’s National Roaster Championship.

a small chain to execute the coffee program I want as a green buyer,” says Boccard. The new space also marks Southdown’s launch of its wholesale program, something they’ve eased into through organic growth. The third location is also the roastery, with space for production and quality control.

The area is eager to have Southdown blossom into a local chain because the coffee company is not afraid to have light-roasted direct trade single origins on the menu next to a frozen coffee-milk-sugar blended drink, the popularly demanded Granita, and hearty food options. In fact, this range of offerings presented in a cozy yet streamlined atmosphere is what makes

Southdown’s shops beloved destinations. Southdown strikes the balance between specialty standout and local go-to precisely because it does many things well. Customers appreciate this level of expertise and inclusivity; Southdown Coffee is a place where any patron off the street can walk in appreciate the value of ethically sourced, artisan-roasted coffee while still shamelessly enjoying breakfast tacos.

“From pour-overs and EK-Shots to The Granita, Mark and his fantastic staff have crafted Southdown Coffee to stand among the best in the coffee industry,” says Gordon. “Go for the great coffee, stay for The Famous—the best egg sandwich on the island.” FC

TOP RIGHT PHOTO BY CHRISTINA CHIN, ALL OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOUTHDOWN COFFEE

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ORIGIN Peru

By Caitlin Peterkin

I

n early August, I traveled to southern Peru, along with industry professionals from South Korea, China, and Taiwan, on a coffee buying mission organized by PROMPERÚ, the country’s export and tourism commission.

Over three days, we visited farms and cooperatives throughout the La Convención Province, cupped coffees from the recent harvest, and met with producers for purchasing negotiations.

In the years since the coffee leaf rust outbreak, Peru has fought hard to become a major player on the global coffee market. The quality in taste, more sustainable practices, dedication to educating consumers, and renewed passion demonstrated on this trip are indicative of more great things to come from this producing country.

ABOVE: After breakfast in Cusco the first day, we left the city and took the train to MACHU PICCHU, where a guide walked us through the ancient ruins and told us history of the Incan Empire. BELOW: On day two, the first farm we visited was the Nueva Alianza family farm in the Santa Teresa district. We met with producer DWIGHT AGUILAR MASÍAS, winner of the 2018 Peru Cup of Excellence.

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CAC HUADQUINA: After the Nueva Alianza farm, we continued through Santa Teresa to La Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Huadquiña, celebrating its 55th anniversary this year.

The co-op is dedicated to organic and fair trade, and focuses on educating producers about sustainable harvesting practices.

Greeted by Huadquiña president DON URBANO FARFÁN and several producers, we toured the facility before cupping different coffees produced at the co-op.

ABOVE: At the Nueva Alianza farm, which spans 10,000 square meters, they also grow other crops, including lettuce, bananas, and corn, to maintain a more sustainable and diverse agronomy.

BELOW: Masías won the 2018 COE with his gesha variety, which scored 91.08 points. He has over 2,000 gesha plants on the farm, and experiments with fermentation and honey processes to produce the best taste he can get. Touring the farm, he showed us the wet mill, drying beds, and bottles of fermented beans.

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ORIGIN

AICASA: Following the stops in Santa Teresa, we made our way to Quillabamba to visit AICASA, a family-owned company that has been exporting Peruvian coffee for more than 50 years.

Fostering strong relationships with growers, AICASA also supports organic and sustainable farming practices to continue improving the quality of Peruvian coffee. Regional manager MILUZKA ARRIOLA showed us the production facility before taking us to their café, where we were treated to an iced concoction of coffee, lemon, and AICASA’s sumac misky (honey). At the café, Arriola explained how AICASA has been dedicated to educating consumers about specialty coffee to bridge the generational gap and encourage more Peruvians to learn about the importance of high-quality, sustainable coffee.

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COCLA: The final stop on day two was Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras (COCLA) in Quillabamba, where we met with general manager Vladimir Vivanco Delgado, who explained how the co-op has fought to recover since the coffee leaf rust outbreak and financial troubles. After learning about the steps COCLA has taken to bounce back, including more administrative transparency and encouraging better farming practices, we performed the last cuppings of the day, sampling 10 coffees from COCLA producers.

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ORIGIN

BUSINESS MEETINGS: As this trip was primarily geared toward coffee buyers, the morning of the third day found buyers meeting with Peruvian producers, some of whom we had met the day before or were members of the cooperatives. Over several hours, the buyers and producers learned more about each other’s businesses and coffee needs and partook in heavy negotiations.

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CAC MARANURA: After the meetings wrapped up, we headed to the last co-op visit on this leg of the trip, Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Maranura, where facility operators took us around the site and we saw workers packaging green coffee beans for shipments. The group then headed back onto the bus for the long road over the Andes into Cusco. FC

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HUMPHREYS STREET employs high school students, providing them with job skills and mentorship through Harvest Hands CDC, a nonprofit in Nashville.

30 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

PHOTO COURTESY OF HUMPHREYS STREET

A

s we wrap up a year that hasn’t always been filled with good news—both within the coffee world and outside of it—and as the season of good cheer approaches, we’re spotlighting cafés that are not only serving up excellent drinks, but also giving back to their communities. Whether it’s through job training, fundraising, or other community activities, these cafés are making a difference, one cup at a time.

Tasty Coffee, Transferable Skills Ten years ago in Seattle, many people were experiencing homelessness, and while multiple organizations provided food and shelter, not enough offered opportunities for those seeking longterm, gainful employment. To fill that need, Street Bean Coffee Roasters was founded in 2009. At the time, espresso carts were in full swing, and Starbucks was expanding rapidly. Offering “coffee training in a city that was coffeecentric” was a “perfect fit,” says Sean McDonald, director of operations for Street Bean.

Today, Street Bean continues to help young people experiencing homelessness by offering them four-month coffee apprenticeships. During initial training, apprentices receive coffee education, including a history of coffee, overview of farm-to-cup coffee production, and an introduction to brewing methods.

Before working in a storefront, apprentices also acquire hands-on training in how to use an espresso machine, make a pour-over, and handle cash registers.

Once trainees are comfortable with the hard skills, they begin working behind the bar, first on slow shifts and then transitioning to busier ones.

Because Street Bean also roasts coffee, interested apprentices may be offered a secondary apprenticeship in roasting.

But not all apprentices stay in coffee.

“Coffee really transfers to a lot of industries,” says McDonald. “That fast-paced, customer-facing orientation to be a barista is applicable to a lot of other industries.”

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CAFÉS WITH A CAUSE

BIG HOUSE BEANS: In 2014, cofounder John Krause (above left) decided to build a sustainable business model to empower others who, like him, fight to fit the mold.

Street Bean counsels apprentices about their career, working with a variety of partners who can connect them to jobs—in coffee or elsewhere.

From Rap Sheet to Cover Page, Through Coffee Similarly to Street Bean, Big House Beans offers coffee job training. Cofounder John Krause has overcome a difficult background: his father died

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when he was young, and his mother was mostly absent. He went to prison for the first time when he was 14 years old. For 17 years, he was stuck in a cycle of drug and alcohol addiction. But in 2010, he got out of prison for the last time.

“I was doing everything differently than I had done it before,” he explains.

He started to become “borderline obsessed” with coffee, roasting with

his mentor and pastor just for fun. But slowly, he wondered if he could turn his coffee passion into a business.

At the time, he had a different, noncoffee business, and he shied away from talking about his addiction, or his time in prison. But then he realized, “If I was courageous enough to tell my story in a way that did not glorify my past, I could probably help somebody.”

Before starting his own business, Krause had applied to more than 30 businesses, and no one would hire him. “[I] wanted to be in a position to create jobs for other people who’d struggled the way I struggled,” he says.

When Krause first opened the coffee roastery, the operation was small. From the beginning, he says they have stuck to a “quality over quantity” approach, in coffee purchasing practices, in coffee production, and in helping people.

In recent years, Big House has been expanding on all those fronts: They recently won multiple Golden Bean awards, recognizing the quality of their coffee, and in January, they’ll open three new cafés, adding to their existing location in Brentwood, California.

“If I open more cafés, I can create more jobs,” says Krause. “It’s very liberating to build relationships based on who I am today...If someone teaches you how to make coffee, roast coffee, it opens a new door and gives a sense of purpose. So now I can use coffee as my cover page, not just my rap sheet.”

Jason Zheng, who also works at Big House, adds: “A cup of coffee can represent that purpose, a start to a new day—it doesn’t matter what happened yesterday. You can attack a new day through a cup of coffee.”

Good Product, Good Mission At Humphreys Street, underserved and under-resourced high school students are provided with job skills and mentorship. While Humphreys Street is part of a faith-based nonprofit called Harvest Hands CDC in Nashville, Tennessee, they’re serious about their coffee, too.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BIG HOUSE BEANS

CAFÉS WITH A CAUSE

“We want [customers] to know they’re taking part in something good in the community, but if you’re not putting out a good product, you’re not going to have a sustainable thing,” says Ruben Torres, head roaster and production manager.

High school students at Humphreys work with customers at the bar, as well as in the technical side of coffee in roasting and production. Baristas, meanwhile, act as mentors to the students, teaching coffee skills and life skills. While working at Humphreys Street, students also have access to a variety of resources, such as college tours and financial literacy classes.

MAKING THAT CHANGE: One hundred percent of profits at Humphreys Street are reinvested into programs and scholarships that support the students and staff.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF HUMPHREYS STREET

LIKE A LATTE: The staff at Humphreys Street make some gorgeous drinks.

Torres explains that they take a holistic approach, both to their mission, and to the coffee.

“Accommodate people that want to come in because of the mission but also because of great coffee,” he says.

More Than a Coffee Shop, But Also “Just” a Coffee Shop Like Humphreys Street, Sip of Hope Coffee Bar grew out of a larger organization. Having lost too many loved ones to suicide, Jonny Boucher founded a proactive suicide prevention and mental health education nonprofit, Hope for the Day, in 2011.

In 2014, Hope for the Day began collaborating with Chicago’s Dark Matter to create a bag of coffee called “Sip of Hope” that also had mental health resources listed on it. The coffee was selling well, and people loved “having a conversation around a cup of coffee.” Plus, Hope for the Day was look-

ing for a brick-and-mortar space to share their mental health message with the community. Eventually, Boucher started looking for a space to open a café.

A joint venture of Hope for the Day and Dark Matter, the coffee bar aims to be a safe space, where mental health conversations can get started.

“Inside, there’s no stigma,” says Boucher.

In addition to their signature slogan, “It’s ok not to be ok,” customers are greeted with a mental health education and resource wall. On average, they distribute two resources per drink served. Once a month, they create a live podcast, Conversations Café, from the coffee shop, where they bring communities together to talk about mental health—most recently, first responders. They also offer free mental health classes at the library across the street from the coffee bar.

“People show up because they feel a sense of solidarity,” says Boucher. “So

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CAFÉS WITH A CAUSE

much more than just a coffee shop, but it’s also just a coffee shop.”

[Read more about Sip of Hope on p. 54, in “Working on the Frontline, Part 2.”]

SIP OF HOPE: Signs at Sip of Hope affirm its goal of creating a safe space.

Love, Justice, Coffee Using a slightly different model, The Roosevelt Coffeehouse in Columbus, Ohio, uses its profits to fight the injustices of hunger, unclean water, and human trafficking. Open since 2015, they’ve given away more than $100,000 in that time.

“Everyone should agree that people should be free, need food, and shouldn’t die of a water-borne disease,” says Kenny Sipes, founder of The Roosevelt and executive director of the nonprofit behind it,

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SIP OF HOPE

Redeeming Injustice. They have five core values: love, justice, coffee, humility, and optimism.

“We want people to walk in and feel valued more than ourselves, that they’re more than a customer,” adds Sipes.

THE ROOSEVELT COFFEEHOUSE fights injustices like unclean water, hunger, and human trafficking.

When The Roosevelt first opened, Sipes understood that nonprofit social enterprises aren’t always associated with great coffee. Originally, they were using

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ROOSEVELT COFFEEHOUSE

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CAFÉS WITH A CAUSE

THE ROOSEVELT COFFEEHOUSE

STREET BEAN COFFEE ROASTERS

HUMPHREYS STREET

Stumptown, and a local roaster called One Line—“But we were really interested in having coffee clout,” says Sipes. He attended a Counter Culture Lab in Chicago, invested in a Modbar, and in 2018, launched Roosevelt Coffee Roasters.

Roosevelt baristas are attracted to both the coffee and the cause.

“When you work at The Roosevelt,” says Sipes, “you’re part of the whole mission, and your commitment to quality.”

whether can afford it, says Sipes. “One reason we became a nonprofit, we are so accountable,” he adds.

McDonald agrees, but cautions that maintaining status as a 501(c)(3) requires planning, too. “You have to do a lot of work on the back-end, to really warrant that certification,” he says.

Especially when it comes to job training in cafés, building partnerships is crucial.

“Work with some organizations in the community that will be a buffer, and help you vet candidates,” says Krause.

Relationship building, says Smith, “allows you to connect people to resources that you may not be the best fit for.”

Balancing Act How do you run a great café—and do justice to a great cause, too?

Alongside the cafés and nonprofits featured in this piece, nonprofit expert Amber Smith offers up her best advice for those want to make a difference in their community. Smith cofounded her nonprofit, Activate Good, in 2005 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the organization works with 500 nonprofits as a “force multiplier” to recruit and empower volunteers for the causes they care about—currently around 12,000 volunteers a year.

Plan well.

Planning is essential to success.

“Go in with a plan, and a vision for one year, three years, and five years,” says Smith.

Maybe you want to give a quarter of every dollar back to the community, but if you don’t plan, you won’t know

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Be passionate.

“Whatever you’re passionate about, let that be what drives you,” says Sipes.

It has to be a “natural extension,” says Zheng. Much like coffee, the best community work comes from people who truly have a passion for it.

Build relationships.

This is where cafés can really shine, says Smith.

“Coffee shops are the perfect vehicle to [build relationships], because it’s where everyone wants to meet anyway,” she says. Building relationships and finding partners makes causes sustainable—it funds them, finds people to volunteer and work for them, and increases impact.

Building relationships is also a perfect place for cafés to start, even before they consider whether they should become nonprofits or take on larger missions.

“Be hyper-connected to your local community, and see what the needs of the people around you are first, and then expand from there,” says McDonald.

Tell your story.

Smith cautions that while it’s easy to share numbers, or say you’re raising a certain amount of money, what people care about is the “human element.”

Regular storytelling is how you demonstrate transformation, and bring more partners on board.

Know your end game.

Understanding what you’re trying to achieve—whether it’s raising money, meeting day-to-day needs in the community, or effecting systemic change—affects everything from your planning, to your storytelling, to how you measure your progress, says Smith.

Ultimately, “it’s profoundly beautiful what you can do when you think differently, just know that you can’t do it alone,” says Boucher. “We can create solutions to the problems that impact our communities, whether it’s locally, nationally, or internationally.” FC

PHOTOS FROM LEFT: COURTESY OF THE ROOSEVELT COFFEEHOUSE, INSTAGRAM @STREETBEANCOFFEEROASTERS, COURTESY OF HUMPHREYS STREET

CARTER EVERYWHERE MUG from Fellow.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF FELLOW

K

eeping our drinks warm from point A to point B can be tough, but thermal products are continuously evolving to change that sentiment.

Meanwhile, repair culture is growing, and with the push for quality goods, consumers are looking for ways to buy with the long term in mind and construct zero-waste practices to add to their day-to-day lives.

Thermal products are looking sleeker, simplistic—less bells and whistles, more functionality. Technology and design are working hand in hand so products become more reliable across several brands.

That mug you use on your commute or the carafe sitting on your kitchen counter are no exception. Here, we highlight several companies paving the way for better-quality goods, while also maintaining a sharp image by following today’s design trends.

Appealing to the Masses & Senses Many companies gravitate to double-wall vacuum insulation for thermal products. This is what ensures hot drinks stay hot, and cold drinks stay cool.

San Francisco-based Fellow recently introduced its Carter Everywhere Mug, which takes on thermal products with taste and smell in mind, not just temperature.

“Our goal with Carter was to take the Saturday morning coffee mug and rebuild it to move seamlessly into a reusable to-go vessel,” says Fellow founder, Jake Miller. “We noticed that the other current available travel mugs made design decisions that compromised the drinking experience, specifically related to specialty coffee. The senses—taste, smell, and touch—were ignored, while durability and extreme heat retention were prioritized. Why not both? Out came Carter, a travel mug finally worthy of the coffee inside.”

The Carter Mug product description says it can keep a drink hot up to 12 hours, and cold up to 24 hours, with its

BREW directly into the Carter Everywhere Mug using a pour-over dripper—like this one (right) from Stagg that has a vacuum-insulated body—for a seamless cup of hot coffee on the go.

heat-lock, leak-proof seal. But beyond the temperature, Fellow wants consumers to notice how insulation can change a drink’s taste.

“Most products use stainless steel to pull this off, which can lead to smell and taste, compromising the beverages that come after,” says Miller. “We’ve fixed this by adding a true taste ceramic coating inside, which keeps away lingering odors, oils, and ‘old penny’ tasting notes.”

Drinking from the Carter Mug means using the thin lip of the cup, separating itself from other to-go vessels that opt for a lid to sip from. Other features of the cup include being dishwasher safe and having brew-to-go capabilities, meaning it can be placed directly beneath most brewing devices.

“We have seen the tech and design world consider more and more how consumers experience products,” says Miller. “This is always where we start when designing something new at Fellow. There are so many options out there when it comes to travel mugs or coffee products in general, so we’re always pushing to elevate the user’s experience by fixing common issues with products that are already out there.

Everything about Carter was intuitively

designed (and redesigned) to keep the user at the forefront.”

Function is Key Seattle’s MiiR aspires for its users to feel at ease, whether they are typing away at their desks or relaxing outdoors.

MiiR product design ethos, according to CEO and founder Bryan Papé, can be taken from a quote by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

The company’s flagship product, the 12-ounce Camp Cup, is vacuum insulated, which Papé says MiiR is proud to partake in the technology behind it. Known for its sleek, thin handle, it wasn’t long after the Camp Cup released that fast followers mimicked the design.

“People want something that is easy to clean and not too complicated for everyday use, and that combination has made us have success,” says Papé. “[The Camp Cup] marries what worked in the past and bring the refreshed look. It is comfortable.”

The Camp Cup is stainless steel, allowing for zero metal aftertastes. It is also popular because its appearance is

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A NEW WAVE OF THERMAL PRODUCTS IS HEATING UP THE MARKET

W&P IT GOOD: The Porter Mug is made from a durable, high-quality ceramic.

nostalgic, says Papé, and doesn’t lose functionality with its design.

“Everything we design is done inhouse,” he continues. “We do everything down to studying how people hold things—from ergonomics and structures and how things interact with your hands. We strip it down to make things as simple as possible.”

Focusing on the Joy of Drinking Like thermal technology, eye-catching design can also be a major priority for customers when purchasing.

W&P Design, headquartered in Brooklyn, is a company with a mission to reduce the use of single-use plastic, and its line of products all stick to a cohesive, simplistic look.

W&P’s Porter Mug, available in 12 and 16 ounces, is a response to customers looking for a conversation starter, says W&P president Ryan Kelly.

“Making eco-friendly choices doesn’t require sacrificing aesthetics or functionality,” he says. “We noticed consumers carrying their morning coffee in bulky, less-than-functional to-go mugs, or buying coffee daily and throwing away their single-use cups. We set out to empower individuals to eliminate

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single-use materials by having one hero mug that they can use every day—and everywhere—without having to sacrifice quality, function, or aesthetics. The Porter Mug is thoughtfully crafted with durable ceramic and wrapped in protective silicone, designed to seamlessly integrate into your everyday life.”

The Porter Mug’s features includes being microwave-safe, BPA-free, and comes in five different matte colors.

The product is meant for stylish drinking on-the-go, and less about keeping a longtime temperature, says Kelly. It is made from a durable, high-quality ceramic wrapped in a protective matte silicone grip.

“The materials make for the perfect on-the-go or deskside drinking experience,” says Kelly. “We don’t make claims to heat or cold maintenance or duration as we didn’t want to sacrifice the design of our product by incorporating stainless steel or bulking elements. Our product focuses on the joy of drinking and the aesthetics of a beautiful object rather than focusing on technological features at the expense of design.”

Ember Burning Ember is “the world’s first temperature control mug.”

The company, based in Westlake Village, California, near Los Angeles, patented its technology after its founding in 2010.

“As an obsessive coffee lover, there’s nothing I appreciate more than enjoying an amazing cup of coffee at the perfect drinking temperature,” states Clay Alexander, Ember founder and CEO, on the company’s website. “Simply put, temperature affects taste, and we want people to discover that connection.”

How does Ember do that? For starters, its travel mugs allow the consumer to adjust the temperature of their drink, ranging from 120 degrees Fahrenheit to 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Depending on the model, coffee can stay at the chosen temperature for up to three hours.

Made with long-lasting batteries, Ember products can also be controlled with your smartphone, steering the future in what thermal products can be past looks.

Design in Bloom Ratio Coffee, in Portland, Oregon, emulates the future of what pour-over coffee can be with its model, the Ratio 8.

Mark Hellweg, the owner and CEO of Ratio Coffee, designed the machine

PHOTOS COURTESY OF W&P DESIGN

THE CORRECT RATIO: This sleekly designed brewer comes with a thermal stainless steel carafe.

with his ideal cup of coffee in mind, he says. The machine has three minimalistic settings—bloom, brew, and ready, allowing a very small interaction with the product. Created to simulate a traditional barista-style pour-over, the Ratio 8 meters the water flow during both the bloom and brew phases. As for what thermal technology keeps the cup warm, Hellweg says Ratio subscribes to the traditional two-walled vacuum insulation like Fellow and MiiR. The Ratio 8’s original design features clean looks with glass and wood paneling. It is also offered with a 40-ounce thermal carafe option, an alternative for coffee drinkers who don’t drink their coffee right away and want their coffee to stay hotter for longer.

Being the primary product at Ratio Coffee for seven years, the company is now looking at its next venture, Ratio 6, set to release by the end of 2019.

After the Eight released, the customer feedback rolled in, and Ratio Coffee began to notice what they could do for future customers with their next product. For pour-over lovers, the Eight makes sense, but for customers who want to extend hot coffee’s drinking

PHOTO COURTESY OF RATIO COFFEE

time or potentially add milk to it, a new product design came to Hellweg’s mind.

The Six will have a heat shield that wraps around the showerhead, making the coffee almost 200 degrees when brewed. It is stainless steel, not glass, and will have a hot plate.

“If you are looking for hot coffee,” says Hellweg, “the Six is going to be the better choice for that.”

Ratio Coffee hopes for people to invest in a machine that will last a long time to minimize waste, says Hellweg.

Each Ratio Coffee machine, besides some parts of the Six, is hand-assembled in Portland, promises a five-year warranty, and parts are replaceable and can be sent into the company’s warehouse for repair. The coffee maker world is slow to replaceable parts, Hellweg says, and he is happy his company is working to change that.

“There are a billion of thermal products on places like Amazon,” says Hellweg. “It is hard to stand out. When we looked at the category and said ‘What do we want to do?’ on the Eight, the biggest thing we wanted was to bring the best quality to its thermal carafe. That is why we went with our materials like stainless

steel. It is overkill—you don’t need that much structural strength or rigidity in a thermal carafe. But I am really drawn to materials that get better over time, and items when you see them, you just want to touch them. The Eight thermal carafe has that. The Six is more for heat retention, but it does have a design-forward look as well.”

Hellweg spent time in the espresso machine world before taking off to start Ratio 8 and noticed before he left how “stunning” certain materials could be.

What design really inspired the Six? “I have always loved German cars,” says Hellweg. “My family has a history of importing German auto parts, so I have always gravitated to it. The Six’s moodboard was heavily inspired by motion. We are trying to iterate the Ratio design language and continue to produce new models.”

And as Ratio Coffee looks to the future, it wants to continue to create what customers want to see in their homes as they experience coffee, says Hellweg.

“I’m happy with what we have done,” he says, “and I have a lot of hopes for meeting in the middle with people for all their different needs.” FC

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CROP TO CUP COFFEE IMPORTERS: Washing canal in Rwanda.

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PHOTO BY DAN SHAFER

T

here are many ways to approach green coffee contracting, approaches that differ greatly between roasters of different sizes and with different levels of establishment. The more that all parties understand their options and obligations, the more the contracting process can work smoothly to deliver the best coffees for each roaster’s customers and business model.

Consider Origin Variables Francisco Tamayo, a coffee producer and exporter in Silvania, Cundinamarca, Colombia, owns and manages La Primavera organic farm and Proservicol milling and export operations. He suggests several things for roasters to keep in mind when evaluating samples from origin and planning their green coffee contracts.

“The climate is a fundamental factor that impacts the nutrition of the plant and the concentration of the harvest,” he says. “Even with excellent post-harvest processing, there will be variations in the cup profile and the quantity of coffee produced year to year.”

When planning green purchases, be sure to understand the language used to identify samples. Offer samples are representative of coffee available for sale.

“In many cases the offer sample is consistent with the coffee that [arrives at] the warehouse,” says Tamayo, “but there can be occasions when , after the milling, packing, and shipment, the resulting sample can vary a little, including being better than the offer.”

Producers and exporters provide offer and pre-shipment samples as indicators of available and actual coffee qualities, but during coffee’s overland and overseas journey, variations are inevitable.

These variations, however, do not constitute defects. Coffee, like all agricultural products, is variable, and part of the sample evaluation process is accounting for this slight variability when planning a menu or building a blend.

“Paying producers well is the best form to guarantee that quality contin-

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROSERVICOL

ues to be so,” says Tamayo. “Feedback is also important, whether it’s offering congratulations to motivate future work or a suggestion to do things better. Roasters and cafés have firsthand access to information about consumer preferences and sharing that with the producer helps to make the value chain more efficient.”

Contracting coffee is cyclical; green coffee purchases from one harvest inform decisions made the following year.

Information from roasters and retailers is integral to producers’ decision-making process on the farm to produce coffee that consumers are eager to drink.

“The recognition of the producer by the rest of the chain dignifies the labor of the farmer and motivates him or her to continue doing the work with passion,” reflects Tamayo.

Contracting green coffee is a commitment, and commitments require communication. The more that roasters are clear about their expectations, the more producers and exporters can deliver on those expectations. Tamayo points out, however, that roasters should have realistic expectations about what is possible in the context of a given farm or producer association.

“The farm climate and age of the trees cause variations in the quantity of coffee produced and notes in the cup [from harvest to harvest],” he says. “Nevertheless, when a farm commits to deliver coffee and receives a good payment for it, they usually reinvest part of the income in the fields or infrastructure, leading to a better product that is more adapted to the client. This opens spaces to get to know the producer and to strengthen commercial ties and friendship, leading to the possibility to experiment with varieties and processes.”

LA PRIMAVERA organic farm and PROSERVICOL milling and export operations

Know Your Options, Know the Terms Roasters will deal most closely with importers when contracting green coffee, even in cases where the earliest negotiations happen with producers. This is because importers are the owners of coffee when it lands in a

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GREEN COFFEE CONTRACTING

warehouse and the facilitators of all the transitions coffee makes between the farm and the roastery. Importers are also the best resource for understanding the myriad options available for green coffee contracting.

Ben Heins, a senior trader with Crop to Cup Coffee Importers in Brooklyn, New York, recommends bearing in mind the following when contracting green coffee: “Keep a calendar to remind you when you should be booking each position. Use importers where they’re best. The key to effective contracting is having a plan; know your timing and volume needs and have clear goals for every coffee or slot on the menu.”

Coffee contracts are tools for roasters to secure inventory without outright payment for their full commitment.

intentional, it may use forward contracting to work with an importer on a custom import, like an off-menu item.”

It is important to remember that spot inventories represent risk for the importer and are priced accordingly.

Spot coffees have essentially been prevetted for roasters by importers, based on their in-house quality standards.

“Because spot coffees represent risk to the importer, positions are generally small and can sell out quickly,” says Heins. “Spots are great because they’re available immediately and samples will represent the exact quality of the lot.

Spot shopping is best suited for filling small- to medium-sized, quality-focused, or time-sensitive bookings. It is not the cheapest way to buy, however, nor does it necessarily allow the best access to a producing country’s harvest.

CROP TO CUP COFFEE IMPORTERS: Drying beds in Rwanda.

Importers make this possible by providing financing to roasters; they pay producers and exporters and own the coffee until roasters request to receive it at their facility.

The most important green coffee contract distinction is between spot and forward contracts, which Heins explains in a more digestible manner: Selecting spot offers is like “shopping domestically from what is available in North American or European or Asian warehouses, like the buffet at a restaurant [of food that has already been prepared]. Forward contracting means shopping offers that are in transit from the producing country, like items on a menu. If a green program is extremely

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It’s also very dynamic—here today, gone tomorrow—and will not look the same next buying season.”

Heins advises that spot buyers get to know what an importer does best to “save time on the cupping table. There are over 200 shops on Cropster Hub representing thousands of offers; cupping everything is impossible! Get in tune with harvest arrival timelines and shop coffee during peak arrival season.

If you won’t need the coffee until later in the year, you can build the delivery period to accommodate.”

Forward contracting is available for both coffees that are on their way to becoming spot or coffees that an importer sources based on a roaster’s

specifications, those “off-menu” items Heins describes. One benefit to forward contracting is that it guarantees inventory that might otherwise sell out as soon as it hits the spot market or might never make it to a spot position at all.

“Just as there’s a race to contract the best spot coffees available, there’s a similar game being played one step before a coffee lands,” says Heins.

“When an importer books a lot, they can share scores and notes and offer forward contracts to reserve a position for a roaster. There’s often a cost savings as well as preferential selection for booking forward. For roasters with consistent needs and solid relationships with their importers or suppliers, forward booking will get them to the front of the line.”

Forward contracts start to make the most sense when roasters’ volumes are around 50 to 100 bags per position.

The spot market does not always offer much selection for positions that large, so forward contracts guarantee the quantities and qualities needed. Forward or spot, contracts are contracts and represent commitments on behalf of both parties. It is crucial to read and discuss any sample approval, rejection, or replacement terms of the contract so that everyone knows how to proceed in the event of something unexpected.

“While uncommon, forward booking comes with the risk of a coffee not arriving as expected, or coffees being delayed, which is more common,” says Heins.

“When forward booking, allow extra time in your program to accommodate delays, and know that if the forward booking fails, you’ll have to cover the position in the spot market. Overcommunicate; in many forward booking instances a trader is handpicking offers for you. The more calibrated the roaster and importer are, the better served the roaster will be by the importer.”

Strategies for Success Andrew Richter is the roaster and green buyer for Gotham Coffee in New York City. When planning Gotham’s green coffee purchases, Richter

PHOTO BY DAN SHAFER

considers many factors when sourcing both for Gotham’s filter blend and their single-origin program.

“When making bulk purchases that we intend to carry over several months, freshness is our primary consideration.

Coffee is harvested at different times of the year around the world, and we’ve intentionally structured our purchase schedule around specific alternating harvests,” says Richter. “We switch sources anywhere from two to four times a year in order to avoid degradation of flavor.”

Pursuing freshness means following the harvest and making contract adjustments year to year to account for the agricultural variability Tamayo mentioned. Next, Richter looks for “quality processing and sorting. Most large lots of green coffee are assembled from multiple farms, or from variegated lots on a single farm, and milling them for uniformity is a huge factor in final quality.”

Coffee contracting means thinking about how a coffee will roast, not just how delicious the sample tastes.

“Our standards for bag to bag consistency, uniformity of density, bean size, and moisture are stringent. Higherquality processing almost always entails higher cup quality, ease of roasting, and greater product consistency,” says Richter. “While not always the case, it’s also a good indicator that a given coffee will age favorably over its life span in our inventory.”

Gotham’s green coffee contracting and planning have evolved over time as the roaster-retailer has grown and expanded its wholesale program.

“It’s taken a few years to home in on the purchasing schedule we’re using now,” says Richter. “We were disappointed many times by premature aging and surprise defects that were not always indicated in pre-shipment samples. We decided to focus on developing long-standing relationships with a few producers and importers.”

Building supplier relationships takes trial and error, trust, and time. By providing the feedback Tamayo mentioned

PHOTOS BY CHRIS CALKINS

GOTHAM COFFEE structures its coffee program based on harvest times at origin.

and maintaining the kind of over-communication Heins recommends, these relationships can become very fruitful for all involved.

“Not only can we ensure recurring quality, but we can better support producers by purchasing year after year,” says Richter. “Once we’re comfortable with their processing quality, we try to purchase across as many levels of cup quality as we can find an application for. Not every lot can be 86+, and by purchasing different grades of coffee

from the same place we hope to support the infrastructure farmers need to produce high quality coffee.”

Successful green coffee contracting and purchase planning is rooted in clear expression of clear goals. It involves much number crunching and puzzle solving, but the more prep work that goes into understanding the types of contracts that exist and the coffees available through each, the more that everyone from the farm to the café can share successes together. FC

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PHOTO BY CAITLIN PETERKIN

F

or so many of us, coffee is a daily indulgence; it has been called “the last affordable luxury,” and is often thought of as the fuel of both our productivity and our relationships. Many view coffee as indispensable, and mottos like “Instant human: just add coffee” and “But first, coffee” capture our appreciation—nay, obsession—with the bewitching brew.

For all we love about coffee, there is a growing awareness of an age-old undercurrent: a deceptive riptide that many are calling the “Cost Crisis,” whose forces are being felt more acutely during this sustained low in the Commodity Market Price of coffee.

sary to produce coffee (fuel, electricity, machinery, steel, labor, real estate, agro-chemicals etc.) have all gone up, and because the price of coffee has not kept pace, the producer is often being backed into a fiscal corner.

high opportunity cost to grow coffee instead. That being said, estimating all the factors in the cost of production is per pound/kilo can help the producer ask a price above that so they can continue growing coffee.

What is the Cost Crisis?

If you’re familiar at all with this conversation, you’ll likely feel that what follows is overly reductive. You would be right in saying so. In an effort to discuss this affair in its whole, convoluted nature, many well-meaning people have been carried off by this slipstream of good intentions and left their listeners to be crushed by waves of guilt and rage with nary a proactive solution in sight.

It’s understandable; probably the most accurate thing that can be said about the Cost Crisis is, “It’s complicated.” Very true, but unfortunately not helpful.

As is often the case, we need both ends of the spectrum. We will do well to aim to appreciate this situation in all its intricacy, all the while searching for straightforward, actionable suggestions that can be executed by the average person. Toward that end, let’s outline the elements most agree are leading factors in this.

Factor 1: The Price of Coffee Doesn’t Go Up When compared to other products from around the world, this reality becomes startlingly clear. Although prices for almost every other commodity in the world have trended upwards over time, coffee has not. The C market price for coffee is not at an all-time low, rather, on average, it is flatlining. This means that all the resources neces-

PHOTO BY CHRIS RYAN

PRODUCERS in Honduras wait to weigh the day’s harvest.

Factor 2: There Are Producers Getting Paid Less the Cost of Production As the world moves towards an increasingly global economy, there is a growing awareness that some producers are unable to cover their production costs, leaving them at a financial deficit year after year. Often called “cost of production,” it is an elementary metric for adding up all it takes to produce a pound/kilo of coffee.

It is important to mention here that this is not a magic number that will solve all our problems. The amount varies widely based on an innumerable list of variables including, but not limited to, country, farm size, yield, labor, cost of goods, etc. Furthermore, accounting for the opportunity cost of growing coffee is incredibly complicated. A producer who could triple their income if they grew another crop is paying a

However, many small business owners do not go to such lengths to track their numbers in greater detail, and the producers with whom we have discussed this idea were nonplussed by the prospect of all the work it would entail.

This is where this undercurrent makes the waters even murkier: How can we be sure a producer is being paid fairly if they do not and will not track their cost of production? That’s is the rub—and it is where many people, at least for a time, get stuck.

Factor 3: The Next Generation Has Options The final factor, at least in terms of what most people agree on, is the options available to the young people in coffee-producing countries. The romantic notion of an octogenarian farmer in Colombia cultivating coffee out of pure love for the brew is not

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 49

UNDERSTANDING THE COST CRISIS

wholly false, but it is incomplete. Many producers have carried the family farm on their shoulders for no other reason than that they felt they had to do so, or had no other options.

Not so with this next generation.

In speaking with producers in Guatemala, Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Colombia, a common concern is the lack of interest for coffee production by the younger generation. Peter Mbature from Kamavindi Coffee in Nyeri, Kenya, for example, came back to the farm after university specifically because he saw a vacuum left by young people choosing other paths.

SORTING COFFEE CHERRIES in Colombia.

With the advent of smartphones, the ubiquity of WiFi, and the widespread appeal of social media, these young people see the world in a way their forebears could not. Across the world, the average age of producers is going up, leading to widespread anxiety as to who will carry on the work once the current generation retires.

The conversation of generational diversity is more nuanced, but the Cost Crisis plays a role in this movement.

Imagine seeing one’s parents and grandparents, even great-grandparents, scrape and struggle to produce a harvest of coffee year after year, only to sell it at a loss each time. Add to this the portal that is our smartphones, through which we can see how the rest of the world is living their life, and it requires little imagination to understand why the next generation doesn’t want to follow the family footsteps and grow coffee. In

50 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

PHOTO BY CORY ELDRIDGE

a twist of poetic irony, many young people move into the city to work in the knowledge economy and end up drinking more coffee instead of producing it. And who can blame them? Dire as the situation may seem, do we really want coffee production to continue simply because the people who grow it have no other viable options? Of course not. If coffee is to continue to be available as the fuel of our relationships, even our lives, it naturally must be a financially feasible career choice.

WATERING young coffee plants in El Salvador.

The Way Forward: Ask Even Better Questions If you haven’t been carried under by the riptide or succumbed to the crashing waves of complexity, good on you. There is a way forward, full of down-to-earth, practical solutions. The best way to unearth those specific answers is by asking even better questions of the people you work with and buy coffee from, so let’s take a look at those.

Questions to Avoid In approaching this subject for the first time, I unintentionally started asking all the wrong questions.

Although my elementary school teachers assured me there is no such thing as a stupid question, when dealing with cross-cultural financial matters there are some that are better than others. In asking better questions, we get better, more helpful answers. In general, we would encourage asking these questions

PHOTO BY DAN LEIF

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 51

UNDERSTANDING THE COST CRISIS

DRYING PATIO in El Salvador.

of the person responsible for buying coffee and not baristas or shop managers. They are likely already over-busy trying to serve their guests, and may not know enough to answer the question in detail with their remaining mental bandwidth.

1. Question to Avoid: How Much Was the Producer Paid?

This was the first question I asked, and I quickly realized its shortcomings. For starters, in many cultures this question is considered extremely rude.

You can ask yourself the same question: would you like to publish your wage online for the world to see? Even if you are comfortable with that level of transparency, the fact remains that the number is meaningless out of context.

Without more information, knowing this number can be detrimental; it can lead a person to think they know something they do not: whether or not the producer was paid fairly.

Ask Instead: What does your purchasing model and supply chain look like?

52 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

Without getting into the weeds too much, the most common framework for purchasing usually looks like this: Producer: The person or people who grew the coffee.

Exporter: The person/company who stored the coffee in-country and prepared it for export.

Importer: The person/company responsible for the transportation of the coffee to the country in which it will be roasted and, most likely, consumed.

Roaster: The person/company who roasts and packages the coffee.

How aware a person is of the players in their purchasing model is a great indicator of how savvy they will be as to where the money is going. If they can’t answer this question, they likely don’t have a solid sense of the distribution of funds.

2. Question to Avoid: What is the FOB Price?

Like the first question, this information can lead to assumed expertise when in reality the FOB (free on

board) price is not necessarily connected to how much the producer was paid. And, again, out of context it means less than nothing.

This has become even more important to address given the recent fashion to publish FOB prices online and claim it proves transparency. In a way it does, but not in the way most people think, and certainly not as a point of comparison with the C market price. The two are not connected and inferring they are can be misleading.

Ask Instead: What discussions have you had as a team and/or with the people in your supply chain about Cost of Production?

This helps establish if this topic is even on their radar. If they are not, please do not belittle them. It was not that long ago that we had no sense of the havoc this undercurrent was wreaking and a harsh word from a customer or client would have stunted our growth. Be gracious; you may be the first person to ask them this question. They might have a general answer like, “We work with importers we trust

PHOTO BY DAN LEIF

CUPPING COFFEES on a farm in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil.

to ensure a fair price is being paid,” or an incredibly specific stance such as, “We no longer sign contracts with C market differentials and instead focus on fixed pricing and annual incremental increases to keep pace with other commodities and inflation.” These are both valid answers; it’s important to recognize that.

3. Question to Avoid: Was the Producer Paid More than Cost of Production?

As mentioned earlier, many small businesses do not have a pulse on their financials to the degree that would enable them to answer this question. The time and energy it would take them to track all their costs is a big ask. If you broach this matter, do so gently and possibly through a translator who is a native in the country of interest. A sensitive question asked too bluntly has burnt more bridges than you may realize.

Ask Instead: What are your thoughts on the reality that some producers are being paid less than it cost them

PHOTO BY DAN LEIF

to grow their coffee? What do you do to ensure this isn’t true of any of the people you purchase coffee from?

IF YOU WANT TO DO A DEEP DIVE INTO THIS ISSUE, A FEW RECOMMENDED RESOURCES ARE: Red Fox Coffee Merchants Paying for Coffee – It’s Complicated redfoxcoffeemerchants.com Dapper & Wise Roasters Cost of Production: A Conversation About the Future of Specialty Coffee dapperandwise.com Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World

by Mark Pendergrast

If they are thinking about these issues, ask them what they see as the way forward. In labyrinthian discourse such as this, all of us is better than any one of us. We need a lot of creative ideas on the table. It’s about finding the right solution, not promoting our own.

We can move forward together, humbly and gently, but forward, nonetheless.

We do not have all the answers; we may not even know the best questions to ask.

However, bear in mind that no person who ever accomplished anything noteworthy had all they needed when they set out. Begin this dialogue with people you trust and they will help hone the questions you need to ask without berating you or becoming offended. Lead with our heart on your sleeve, let them know upfront your desire is to better understand the world of coffee and explore ways to make sure your choices are part of the solution, not part of the problem.

If we can think win-win, listen more than we talk, and work together, we can find a way to keep enjoying coffee as well as the work and relationships it fuels for years to come. FC

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 53

When it comes to ensuring a healthy culture, coffee businesses not only need an example of what to strive for— they also need resources and a willing leader who will listen and act.

After going through their own struggles and hardships, a number of coffee professionals decided to take charge.

Their goal is to change the industry to make it healthier, fairer, and one that provides support for those in need.

54 ] DECEMBER 2019 Âť The Coffee Almanac

R

J Joseph, lab technician and content strategist at Red Fox Coffee Merchants, is also the cofounder of Queer Coffee Events (QC), an organization that supports and organizes events for the queer coffee community. She suggests that a positive café environment provides regular shift changes, cycles people to back-of-house work when needed and possible, and promotes physical ergonomics, among other practices.

“There’s a lot you can do once you identify the issues, talk to workers, and think outside the box, but the nature of

“The more people that get involved in [the business],” she says, “I think only then we’ll start to see more concrete solutions.”

After losing family members and a boss to suicide, Jonny Boucher decided to do something about it. In 2011, he founded Hope for the Day, a charity dedicated to suicide education and prevention. It was also this venture that gave Boucher the idea for Sip of Hope.

“Hope for the Day is a lifestyle brand…that focuses on breaking the

And in May of last year, he opened the doors to Sip of Hope Coffee Bar in Chicago’s Logan Square. But Boucher wanted to provide something more than serving great coffee—he wanted to break down the stigma surrounding mental health.

Additionally, one of the most significant challenges for people in the hospitality industry is the lack of access to services or even basic benefits—and that’s where Sip of Hope comes in.

“All Sip of Hope is, is a coffee shop, but it’s a coffee shop that has resources,

the work is still difficult when mental health issues enter the picture,” she says.

Talor Browne, founder of doughnut and specialty coffee shop Talormade, based in Norway, adds that the way things will change—and the way that change is done—is through valuing different people’s perspectives and experiences.

silence, raising invisibility for researchers, and really being proactive about suicide prevention and mental health because as a society we are very reactive to it,” he says.

Following Boucher’s conversation with Dark Matter Coffee founder Jesse Diaz in 2013, the Sip of Hope blend under the Dark Matter brand was created.

a coffee shop that is a stepping stone to education and community,” he says.

“It’s also a platform where we can talk about these things without [ultimately] stigmatizing us, or further pushing us away from the conversation.

“Our whole motto is meeting people where they’re at and not where we expect them to be,” he adds.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIP OF HOPE

Educate & Prevent

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WORKING ON THE FRONTLINE, PART TWO

SWEAT IT OUT: Tim Etherington-Judge running along the Thames in London.

Sip of Hope works with coffee companies and coffee shops to say to businesses, “Hey, can you raise the visibility of resources to employees because it shouldn’t be a response out of one of your employees being in crisis,” explains Boucher. “You as a company or a coffee shop should give a shit about mental health.”

Sip of Hope is not just for those who need help; it is for anyone who has been through a dark period. It’s also for clinicians, first responders, and people in the community who are fighting the same fight as Boucher.

“Especially educators because we know the more that we talk about it, the more that we realize we’re not f***ed up, we’re not crazy, we’re not insane,” he says. “We’re all human beings. Go and see this thing called life, and if we need to ask for help, it starts with us.”

Providers Healthy Hospo, a nonprofit providing mental health resources, education, and advice, was born from

56 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

Tim Etherington-Judge going through a difficult period in his life.

“The way I like to put it is these other organizations exist to help you when you fall off the edge of the cliff, and they’re very much needed,” he says.

“And Healthy Hospo is standing at the top of the cliff trying to stop people falling off. We have this mantra that simplifies everything, which goes, ‘Sleep, eat, sweat, connect, repeat.’”

After sharing on Facebook about his struggles with mental health and his job at the time, Etherington-Judge instantly received messages of love and support from family and friends. But he also got messages from people telling their stories, struggles, and difficulties. Through blogging about his lows, Etherington-Judge decided something had to be done.

“I sat down and thought, ‘Right, I know I need to do something, but don’t really know what. I’m not a health professional. I’m just a guy from the hospitality industry,’” he explains. Yet with his blog gaining traction, the idea was

already well on its way to flourishing.

Healthy Hospo officially launched January 15, 2018. Etherington-Judge says that first year was all about talking to people and saying, “This is the problem. Would you be interested in lending your nutrition expertise or your sleep expertise or your fitness expertise?”

He adds that Healthy Hospo aims to inspire people to take back control of their own health.

“You only have one life, and it’s for living and having fun and really enjoying yourself. No one likes being sick,” he says.

Be Mindful Meditation and stress relief teacher Merlinda Kammerling founded Me, Myself in Mind to provide the industry with education classes on the physiological aspects of stress.

“Nobody knows it’s actually a mind and body connection,” she explains.

“People just think that stress is pathetic and everyone should get on with it. But it’s not.”

PHOTO BY RALF HAUSER

ME, MYSELF IN MIND founder Merlinda Kammerling.

London-based Me, Myself in Mind offers an introductory, 90-minute stress reduction class, as well as others that educate people about stress.

Kammerling says some people misunderstand mindfulness, confusing it with meditation, which leads them to shut down any opportunity to practice. But people can be mindful in many other ways, including being grateful, kind to yourself, and listening to yourself. It is also about breathing, she says, adding, “Breathing is such a massive part of deactivating your fight or flight.”

A few years back, Kammerling was suffering from depression after the death of her father and other people close to her, and abuse.

“It all came to a head when I was 25,” she says. “I was suicidal. I remember the day I tried to take my own life. I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m just going to go home and bake and really think about what I’m about to do’….It sounds ridiculous, but it honestly saved my life.”

Kammerling has always cooked, but never associated any mental healing with it. Yet in a few months, this newfound passion led to a fulltime job

PHOTO BY ALBERT PALEN

as a pastry chef and baker—and a new purpose in life.

But after a while, the work and the environment felt like a “double-edged sword.”

And although she felt fortunate to be in an industry she was passionate about, the hours and the pressure were becoming too much.

“Staff have support and welfare in banking and other industries,” she says. “But in hospitality you barely have anything.”

RESOURCES Healthy Hospo www.healthyhospo.com Me, Myself in Mind www.memyselfinmind.com Sip of Hope www.sipofhope.com Crisis Text Line 24/7 support: Text HOME to 741741 (U.S.), 686868 (Canada), 85258 (U.K.) Find more resources at www.freshcup.com/resources.

That’s when she decided to help the industry improve itself. Me, Myself in Mind provides resources for business owners and teaches employers how to deal with stressful situations.

“Employers should be aware that addiction is happening and tiredness is happening, and it’s affecting everything. No one has any time to themselves or any good sleep,” says Kammerling. “At the end of the day we understand life is tough, and some days we need more than just a cup of coffee to get us through.”

With a culture of how hospitality operates and what is expected already in place, it can be a struggle to find an environment that differs from tradition. But if it’s toxic and your mental health is suffering because of work, try to seek out a new opportunity.

“I honestly think that’s the main thing,” says Browne. “There are greener pastures but also empathy—empathy from employers; empathy from employees for their bosses because their bosses are people too; empathy for customers; empathy for your fellow staff.”

But ultimately, she says, “the first priority is you.” FC

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 57

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58 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

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FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 59

TRADE SHOW & EVENTS CALENDAR DECEMBER 7-8

DECEMBER 14-15

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60 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

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FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 61

THE LAST PLASTIC STRAW Purpose-Driven Success Certified B Corporations solidify their commitment to sustainability and social responsibility

By Robin Roenker

PEACE COFFEE’S B CORP CERTIFICATION shows the efforts made with transparency in sourcing and purchasing coffee, building employee benefits, and delivery of beans by bicycle (above) to minimize environmental impact.

62 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

T

he team at Minneapolis-based Peace Coffee had always made roasting and selling certified organic and fair trade coffees fundamental to their mission. But when it came time to look for ways to further their commitment to “the highest social and ethical standards,” they knew pursuing Certified B Corporation status was

the next logical step, says Anne Costello, the company’s director of coffee.

With more than 3,100 companies certified across 150 industries and 71 countries, the B Corporation designation has become a recognized international standard for evaluating companies’ social and environmental performance.

Since its launch in 2007 by B Lab—a nonprofit with headquarters in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, that, in its own words, “serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good”— the initiative’s distinctive Certified B Corporation, or B Corp, logo has become a trusted, go-to means for companies to quickly convey their commitment to balancing profit with a purpose.

A Holistic Approach While other certification programs may focus solely on a business’s sourcing strategies or environmental impact, the B Corp certification process assesses all aspects of a company’s logistical operations, including its relationships with employees, the environment, and the broader community.

“You cannot succeed in B Corp unless your mission takes a holistic approach to doing good,” says Costello.

“So, it’s not just that you have awesome supply chain practices. You also have to look at your employee benefits, training, and engagement.”

B Corp certification carries such stature because it signifies that a business “is not just mission-oriented, but that [its] mission to do good is really broad,” adds Costello.

Ben Anderson, executive director for B Lab U.S./Canada, agrees: “The thing that differentiates B Corp from other certifications is that it is holistic and measures across [a company’s] business, social, environmental, worker governance, and customer practices,” he says.

Still, Anderson is quick to note that B Corp certification operates in tandem with other industry certification programs and that, moreover, those other certifications often play a central role in helping companies meet the standards for becoming B Corp certified.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PEACE COFFEE

“We would be the first to acknowledge that our certification rests on the shoulders of other certifiers, which in the coffee and tea industry would include fair trade, organic, or non-GMO,” he says. “All of those certifications are critical to go deep into the practices of the company. Our approach is to roll those up into other holistic measures that we implement. . . . What B Corp certification does is help bring a company’s intentions into practice and policy.”

The Certification Process Companies who wish to begin the B Corp certification process can research requirements at BCorporation.net/ Certification. The first step to becoming B Corp certified is to complete the free, online B Impact Assessment (BIA) at BImpactAssessment.net. Companies must score at least an 80 (out of a possible score of 200) on the assessment to become certified, and they must complete the process for recertification every three years.

BIA scores are verified via supporting documentation, such as utility usage records, payroll information, and more, that companies are required to submit, as well as through follow-up phone calls with B Lab representatives. (B Lab offers multiple versions of the BIA, allowing businesses to complete an online questionnaire that’s tailored to their size and industry sector.)

Though it may sound intimidating at first, the scale for earning points is readily available online, once a company begins the BIA process.

“Within the assessment, there’s a resource center that helps you determine how to accomplish that goal [of reaching 80 points],” says Anderson. “So, if a company is at 65 points and they need to get to 80, they could see, ‘Oh, we could raise our lowest-paid employee to a living wage, or we could offer paid volunteer time.’ All the scoring is totally transparent, so as a company, you can kind of make a list of ‘Here’s how we can improve, and here’s where our next 15 points could come from.’”

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 63

THE LAST PLASTIC STRAW

While the B Lab website estimates that completing the BIA online might take as little as one to three hours to get a rough baseline score, Costello recommends allocating several months for information gathering.

“No one person on staff is likely to hold the answers to all the questions on the assessment, because it is so intensive,” says Costello. “Each time we’ve been through the assessment, it’s taken probably two to three months to complete.”

The BIA includes “hundreds of questions and requires a lot of documentation,” says Devorah Freudiger, director of coffee culture at California-based Equator Coffees, which has been B Corp certified since 2011.

BIA questions “entail everything from your policy around impact work— Is your company structured to benefit the community? Is the organization designed to give back?—to how you treat your employees—Do they have paid time to do volunteer work? What are your maternity and paternity leave policies? Is there compensation parity?” explains Alfonso Carmona, chief marketing officer at Sustainable Harvest, a specialty-grade coffee importer based in Portland, Oregon, which has been a Certified B Corp since 2008.

But while the certification process can be intensive, Freudiger says it’s well worth the effort, stating that maintaining B Corp certification offers “a way to really quantify our impact and to hold ourselves accountable.”

Further, having a publicly available baseline score on the BIA—and a goal of improving it when it comes time to recertify—helps everyone at Equator stay on the same page in their decision-making.

“It helps us all move with the same intention, making choices that are environmentally, socially, and economically responsible,” says Freudiger.

Built-In Partnerships

Another advantage of becoming B Corp certified: membership in the growing, worldwide B Corp com-

64 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

munity and the ready-made network of like-minded, mission-oriented partners it provides.

When Equator recently needed to source vendors for reusable tumblers to sell in its cafés, it turned to MiiR, a fellow B Corp.

“Rather than research a supply chain going back to China [from another vendor], we were able to partner with MiiR, another B Corp and say, ‘We trust this supply line and know it’s going to be best in class,’” says Freudiger.

SUSTAINABLE HARVEST COFFEE IMPORTERS’ Alfonso Carmona (left) in Colombia.

LEARN MORE ABOUT B CORPS Curious who has earned Certified B Corp status? Explore certified companies online at BCORPORATION.NET/ DIRECTORY, where you can read about companies’ mission, impact scores, date of certification, and more.

Early next year, Equator Coffees will team with importing partner Sustainable Harvest to unveil a limited-edition collection of coffee from Daterra, a Certified B Corp coffee farm in Brazil.

“It will be a fully B Corp certified supply chain, from producer to point-ofsale,” says Sustainable Harvest’s Carmona. “It’s really exciting to have partners at every level committed to sustainability.”

To mark the partnership, Equator is planning a special, month-long rollout of eight Daterra coffees in February. Throughout the month, staff there will be equipped with marketing

materials and prepared messaging points to answer customers’ questions about what B Corps are and what certification means. Equator also plans to release videos from its visit to Daterra’s farm on social media and in an email campaign.

“By partnering with other B Corps and having them talk about the partnership, too, I’m hoping we can sort of amplify our voices a little bit,” says Ashley Kasten, brand marketing manager for Equator Coffees.

“We realized we could use the partnership to build even more awareness about B Corp certification and its benefits,” adds Ted Stachura, Equator’s director of coffee.

For its part, Daterra is proud to have found in B Corp certification another means of quantifying the company’s commitment to growing coffee as sustainably as possible. Daterra was first B Corp certified in 2016 and has been honored as one of B Labs’ “Best of the World Honorees” for the Environment, an honor given to B Corps scoring in the top 10 percent on the BIA in a given sector, for the past three years running.

“When I learned about B Corp certification, I thought, this is the answer we’ve been looking for. We already were Rainforest Alliance Certified and felt we needed to do more. I knew immediately [becoming a B Corp] was what we needed to do,” says Isabela Paschoal, Daterra’s sustainability director, whose father originally established the farm with environmental sustainability as its driving mission. “We want to use B Corp certification to be part of the movement to develop a better world.”

For companies still considering whether or not to pursue B Corp certification, B Lab’s Anderson says there’s never been a better time than now.

As more and more businesses across the globe are joining in the B Corp movement, the initiative has finally “reached a critical mass,” he says. “It has evolved from something small and niche to something that can help all businesses globally advance toward a more shared and durable prosperity.” FC

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSTAINABLE HARVEST COFFEE IMPORTERS

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE [ 65

ADVERTISER INDEX

To view our advertiser list and visit the websites listed below, go to freshcup.com/resources/fresh-cup-advertisers

ADVERTISER

CONTACT

ONLINE

Barista Pro Shop

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Brewista

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27

Café Femenino Foundation

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13

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The Chai Co.

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Divinitea

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Dr Bean’s Coffee Roasters

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E’s World Coffee

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Eco-Prima Tea

877.ECO.Teas (326.8327)

ecoprimatea.com

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Elmhurst

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Ghirardelli Chocolate

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Gosh That’s Good! Brand

888.848.GOSH (4674)

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Java Jacket

800.208.4128

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JBC Coffee Roasters

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KeepCup

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Malabar Gold Espresso

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Monin Gourmet Flavorings

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Omega Pacific Insurance

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Pacific Foods

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33

Reve Coffee Roasters

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Roast

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SelbySoft

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SerendipiTea

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StixToGo

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TeaSource

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Toddy

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coldbrewcupping.com

WaterWise

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29

Your Brand Cafe

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yourbrandcafe.com

20

Zojirushi America

800.264.6270

zojirushi.com

66 ] DECEMBER 2019 » The Coffee Almanac

customcupsleeves.com

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