Fresh Cup Magazine | June 2018

COLORADO ROASTERS FUNDRAISE FOR FARMERS | UNITED “STATES” OF TEA | PAY TRANSPARENCY | CAFÉ FEMENINO

#TRENDING

Floral Flavors PAGE 18

June 2018 » freshcup.com

The crop-to-cup journey of South Africa’s red herbal espresso. Page 36 T H E M AG A Z I N E F O R S P E C I A LT Y CO F F E E & T E A P RO F E S S I O N A L S S I N C E 1 9 9 2 FRESH CUP MAGAZINE | 1

FEATURES JUNE 2018 | VOL. 27, NO. 6 | FRESH CUP MAGAZINE

36

46

Meet rooibos farmers and the owners of Red Espresso, the South African company that’s transformed a native plant into a hot commodity on the global coffee scene.

The state of tea is rising. A new generation of tea lovers is turning on to green, black, and every other shade of tea—and when it comes to brewing, convenience is out and craft is in.

BY NICK DALL/PHOTOS BY ERIC NATHAN

BY RACHEL NORTHROP

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58

This useful café tool can help you set pay expectations, increase productivity, and reduce conflict.

Learn how this non-profit foundation is helping women and their families in remote coffee communities around the world.

BY RJ JOSEPH

BY ANASTASIA PRIKHODKO

Red, Red Rooibos

Pay Transparency

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United “States” of Tea

Café Femenino

DEPARTMENTS JUNE 2018 | VOL. 27, NO. 6 | FRESH CUP MAGAZINE

18

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#Trending

SCA Show Shots

Floral flavors are blooming in the café.

Smiling faces abound at the 2018 Specialty Coffee Association Expo.

BY JORDAN JOHNSON

BY FRESH CUP STAFF

24 Counter Intelligence Get the freshest goods, gadgets & gizmos.

26 66

Rocky Mountain Roasters Reach for Higher Ground

Caldas, Colombia

Colorado roasters face challenges—and create opportunities—when launching individual fundraising efforts to assist coffee farmers in Peru, Guatemala, and Rwanda.

BY PETER SZYMCZAK

BY ELIZABETH AVILA

Crop to Cup

FROM THE EDITOR , Page 12 | CONTRIBUTORS, Page 16 | C ALENDAR , Page 62 | AD INDE X , Page 64

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FROM THE EDITOR

Kombucha + the volcano

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and nutraceutical products galore. Kauai Juice Company was my health-food heaven and an everyday must-visit before heading to the beach—even when the sun wasn’t shining!

Despite the overcast weather caused

by Kilauea, I took full advantage of my time on the beach by reading several books, the trashiest of which was undoubtedly “David Bowie: The Biography” by Wendy Leigh. The tell-all book documents the sexual adventures of the glam rocker’s early celebrity years. After having his fill of debauchery and drugs, Bowie finally settles down with his soulmate, Iman, and quips, “There are no temptations anymore—coffee, maybe.”

Caffeine played a supporting role in another page-turner I read, “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch. The sci-fi thriller explores the proverbial “fork in the road” moment and what would happen if one could go back to that time and place, but this time, go down the path not taken. Several key episodes in the book take place in coffee shops…

It was at this point in my trip that I realized when you cover café culture, you’re never able to completely detach—even when you’re supposed to be on vacation!

And it also leads me, indirectly (and appropriately so), to the last book of my Kauai trilogy, “Obliquity” by esteemed economist John Kay. According to Kay, we rarely know enough about the problems we face to tackle them head-on.

Furthermore, our unpredictable interactions with the world at large mean that the path to our goals—even the goals themselves—may change.

Sometimes the best way to achieve your goals is the indirect way. Directness can blind us to new information, fool us into confusing logic with truth, cut us off from intuition, and distract us away from alternative solutions that may be better in the long run.

Which brings me back to the kombucha conundrum. A little foam, as it turns out, is not necessarily a bad thing. A layer of froth in the headspace actually keeps oxidation to a minimum, so the kombucha can last a while inside the growler before it’s opened.

PETER SZYMCZAK, EDITOR

editor@freshcup.com

EDITOR PHOTO BY CHA RL ES GUL LUNG ; JUI CE P H OTO COUR TES Y OF K AUA I JUICE CO.

A

s anyone who operates a fill station can likely tell you, when you pour a growler full of kombucha, the fizzy, fermented tea beverage has a tendency to foam and froth, overflowing the spout like a volcano oozing and spewing lava.

Comparing the kombucha fill-up process to an erupting volcano is no mere coincidence. It was during a recent trip to Hawaii—Kauaii, thankfully, not the Big Island, where Kilauea has been wreaking havoc—that I fell head over flip-flops in love with the delicious kombucha flavors made by the Kauai Juice Company.

Every morning I’d jog through the “vog” (volcano fog, in island parlance) over to the Poipu location and fill up a fresh growler full of Strawberry and Sour Sop Lemonade, Passionfruit Pineapple, or Tangerine Vanilla.

Besides kombucha, the Kauai Juice Co. serves up nitro coffee on tap, recyclable glass bottles filled with freshly cold-pressed fruit juices, nut milks, and cold-brew concentrate. Cold cases are stocked with grab-and-go meals, including yummy vegan salads, lettuce wraps, and kimchi bowls—all made with locally produced foodstuffs. The company’s eco-minded mantra is “Grown here. Not flown here.”

KJC has two other locations on the Garden Island, and each is bedecked with racks full of branded merchandise

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE | 13

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE FRESH CUP FOUNDER WARD BARBEE 1938-2006 FRESH CUP PUBLISHING Publisher and President JAN WEIGEL jan@freshcup.com EDITORIAL Editor PETER SZYMCZAK editor@freshcup.com Associate Editor JORDAN JOHNSON freshed@freshcup.com ART Art Director CYNTHIA MEADORS cynthia@freshcup.com ADVERTISING Sales Manager MICHAEL HARRIS michael@freshcup.com Ad Coordinator DIANE HOWARD adtraffic@freshcup.com Marketing Coordinator ANNA SHELTON anna@freshcup.com CIRCULATION Circulation Director ANNA SHELTON anna@freshcup.com ACCOUNTING Accounting Manager DIANE HOWARD diane@freshcup.com EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD DAVID GRISWOLD

ANUPA MUELLER

Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers

Eco-Prima

CHUCK JONES

BRAD PRICE

Jones Coffee Roasters

Phillips Syrups & Sauces

JULIA LEACH

BRUCE RICHARDSON

Toddy

Elmwood Inn Fine Teas

COSIMO LIBARDO

MANISH SHAH

Toby’s Estate Coffee

Maya Tea Co.

BRUCE MILLETTO

LARRY WINKLER

Bellissimo Coffee Advisors

Torani

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FRESH C UP.COM 14 | JUNE 2018 » freshcup.com

CONTRIBUTORS ELIZABETH AVILA is a Colorado-based coffee journalist and photographer covering the local and regional coffee scene.

Read her profile of three Colorado coffee companies that are trying to raise funds for infrastructure improvements at origin, while raising awareness at home—read “Rocky Mountain Roasters Reach for Higher Ground” on page 26. When Liz is not writing or taking pictures, she is making espresso drinks in the mountains, catching live music, helping out at the local radio station, or traveling.

World-traveling journalist, copywriter, and native Cape Towner NICK DALL hiked up the remote Cederberg mountains in South Africa to meet the owners of a company that has catapulted an indigenous herb onto the boutique coffee scene.

Read “Red, Red Rooibos” on page 36.

Fifth-generation Oregonian JORDAN JOHNSON is associate editor at Fresh Cup Magazine. Prior to joining the staff, Jordan was a public relations professional promoting the restaurants, wineries, and roasteries of her home state. For this month’s Trending column on page 18, Jordan takes a stroll through the flower garden to pick a bouquet of floral-flavored beverage recipes.

ON THE COVER

RJ JOSEPH is a coffee roaster, journalist, and blogger based out of Oakland, California. Her work in all areas of her life focuses on trying to create better systems for all types of people. Read her overview of the above-the-board wage system called “Pay Transparency” on page 52.

When she’s not pulling shots, you can find her cooking, listening to records, and enjoying long city-hikes.

ERIC NATHAN is a freelance travel and landscape photographer with over 20 years and more than 90 countries’ worth of experience. He is based in Cape Town and since photographing this issue’s rooibos tea feature he considers himself a devout Red Cappuccinoist. More of his work can be viewed at www.ericnathan.com.

Brooklynite RACHEL NORTHROP is communications manager with Ally Coffee and the author of “When Coffee Speaks: Stories from and of Latin American Coffeepeople.” In this issue, Rachel switched over to the steeped side of the café business to document the surge in popularity of tea in America. Read about the “United States of Tea” on page 46.

ANASTASIA PRIKHODKO is a freelance journalist covering travel, culture, agriculture, gender, and the hospitality industry.

Turn to page 58 to read her profile of the Café Femenino Program and the support it is providing women coffee farmers in Sumatra and other countries. Anastasia’s work has also been published

by Daily Coffee News, Drift, Glory Mag, Paste Magazine, and For the Love of Travel.

Pete Ethelston of Red Espresso and farmer Bertu van der Merwe with bundles of harvested rooibos in the Cederberg mountains in South Africa.

Photo by Eric Nathan

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TRENDING

#floralflavors

By Jordan Johnson

BUDDING TREND While it might seem like floral flavors sprouted up out of nowhere, the flower fad is a result of broader trends that are changing the way consumers think about food and beverages today.

Global research firm Mintel noted in its 2018 US Flavor Trends report that “diners often aim to strike a balance between health and indulgence.” These findings suggest consumers are seeking food and drinks that temper sweetness, and

18 | JUNE 2018 » freshcup.com

that are made with wholesome, all-natural ingredients. Floral flavors can satisfy these consumer cravings, and more.

Many floral flavors first originated in Asia and Europe and are just now being picked up in the United States. More and more food and beverage producers are hopping on the floral bandwagon and featuring botanical ingredients in their recipes.

New products include an all-natural elderflower drink by Agropsta for stocking in grab-and-go cases, lavender ice cream

by Snoqualmie Ice Cream is a great addition to dessert and frozen drink menus, and whole-dried calendula blossoms from Feel Good Organic can be used in creating unique tea and tisane blends.

According to Emma Schofield, global food scientist with Mintel: “It is likely that we will continue to see flowers being used in new ways. Food producers

can maximize this opportunity by using flavors from new and different types of flower species.”

PLANTING THE SEEDS Adding floral flavors to your café menu can be a walk in the park, thanks to the bouquet of floral-flavored syrups and sauces. There’s lavender, vanilla (which is a type of orchid, in case you didn’t know), violet, and hibiscus, among many others. In liquid form, floral flavors are easy to incorporate into food and drink recipes.

Fresh blossoms are a great option, as well. Those looking for an eye-catching garnish can look to their local farmer’s market for edible flowers, or order online from websites such as Freshorigins. com and Amazon.com.

A few cafés are even creating their own floral-flavored concoctions.

P HOTO BY D OMINIK S C Y THE

F

lowers have long been a feast for the eyes—and now they are being seen on modern café menus and grocery store shelves. Also pulling up daisies are baristas and tea specialists who use a variety of floral ingredients at their fingertips to create refreshing, innovative, delicious, and eye-catching menu items.

Danelle Reagan of Vault Coffee in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, combines lavender buds with sugar in a food processor to make a topping for her honey lavender latte. “It comes out a slightly lavender-colored hue and is very aromatic,” Reagan says.

At Tea Bar in Portland, Oregon, founder Erica Indira Swanson creates simple syrups infused with rose, peppermint, lavender, or vanilla bean in a 24-hour process.

These infusions are then used in house-made beverages, such as a vanilla rose latte.

“We take a lot of care in balancing the recipe—not overpowering and not perfumey,” Swanson says. “Your palate can become accustomed when tasting [floral recipes], so we always make sure to take breaks when developing a new drink.”

Tea Bar lets customers customize how much syrup to add to their drink, making it easier for customers to try out floral flavors for the first time and gradually get used to the aromatics.

P HOTO COURTESY OF BAR IS TA PRO SH OP

BLOSSOMING BUZZ Photogenic food and drinks not only stimulate your guests’ appetites, they also can get your customers to market your product on social media for you. Floral accents can increase the “Instagram-ability” of your menu. The bright pinks of hibiscus and rose, and style of edible flower garnishes appeal to social media savvy customers.

“Social media reacts really well to our floral offerings,” Swanson says.

“We use dragon fruit to make our Rose Petal Elixir a bright pink—and it’s good for you, too. People love the vibrant, eye-catching colors, and seeing the ingredients and quality.”

Customers are looking for ways to visually communicate great experiences to their friends and followers on social media. A beverage that looks as good as it tastes is a great merchandising tactic.

HONEY HIBISCUS ICED LATTE Courtesy of Barista Pro Shop Makes 12 ounces 2 oz. espresso ¾ oz. Madhava Ambrosia Honey ¾ oz. (2 pumps) Torani Hibiscus Syrup 8 oz. cold Milkadamia Original Macadamia Nut Milk Ice Pour espresso into a 16-ounce serving glass and then add the honey and hibiscus syrup. Stir well. Add cold nut milk and top with ice.

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TRENDING: #FLORALFLAVORS

BOTANIC LEMONADE Courtesy of 1883 Maison Routin Makes 32 ounces ⅓ oz. jasmine white tea 28 oz. hot water 3 oz. 1883 Maison Routin Orchid Syrup 1½ oz. lemon juice Ice Infuse the tea in hot water for about 10 minutes, tasting from time to time to ensure that the tea does not become too bitter. Strain and let cool. Pour the syrup and lemon juice in a 32-ounce soda siphon and add the tea infusion. Insert a CO2 canister, shake well, and let rest. Fill a tumbler with ice and serve the soda. Garnish with lemon and edible orchid flowers.

HONEY LAVENDER ICED LATTE Courtesy of Vault Coffee Makes 16 ounces ½ oz. (1½ pumps) Monin Lavender Syrup 1 tablespoon honey 2 oz. espresso Ice 8 oz. cold milk Pour syrup, honey, and espresso into a 16-ounce cup and stir well. Add ice and cold milk. Garnish with a dusting of lavender sugar.

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HIBISCUS SPARKLER Courtesy of Pearl Soda Company Makes 16 ounces Ice 8 oz. sparkling water 1 oz. Pearl Soda Company Lemon Hibiscus Tea Syrup 4 oz. grapefruit juice Fill a 16-ounce glass with ice. Pour in sparkling water and syrup, and stir gently. Top with grapefruit juice.

Garnish with a sprig of mint. FC

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SCA SHOW SHOTS ONE VESSEL: Customizable and reusable drinkware solutions.

Check out “The Price of Green Coffee” by RACHEL NORTHROP in the April issue of Fresh Cup.

HOLY KAKOW: handcrafted, small-batch organic chocolate.

LOTUS ENERGY hanging out with STARBUCKS managers.

HIGHWAVE INC. unbreakable cups.

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GROUND CONTROL: Winner of the Best New Product award, Commercial Coffee or Tea Preparation and Serving Equipment, for its Cyclops batch brewer.

SAINT ANTHONY INDUSTRIES: Tangible solutions for the world’s finest baristas and coffee enthusiasts.

IKAWA digital micro coffee roasers.

READ PERRY CZOPP’S (pictured at right) article: Costa Rica, Part Two, Harvest Report 2017-18 in the April issue of Fresh Cup.

To read our full report on The Expo, “SCA Expo Three-peats in Seattle” please go to our website: https://www.freshcup.com/sca-expo-three-peats-seattle/

33 BOOKS CO.: Tasting journals, posters, and gear.

FRESH CUP teams up with the GOLDEN BEAN crew.

CREATED CO.: Full line of quality-crafted ceramic mugs.

CAFÉ FEMENINO FOUNDATION’S board members.

DOMINION TRADING COFFEE: Premium green coffee from Ethiopia.

DETPACK PACKAGING: Winner of the Best New Product, Coffee Accessories. They offer paper and cardboard packaging products.

KLEAN KANTEEN: Certified B Corp offering high-quality, reusable products.

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE | 23

COUNTER INTELLIGENCE

fresh businesses & products

A BREW-TIFUL MIND You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to make the perfect pour-over. The Brewista Ratio Scale is your coffee calculator, solving the problem of how much water is needed, based on the amount of coffee grounds. Dual timing bars display the actual and desired pour rates—match them up to achieve the perfect pour rate. Use in the café to teach perfect pour-over technique to beginning baristas, or sell to at-home coffee customers. www.mybrewista.com

POST-MODERN POUR-OVER Pour-over may seem like a modern phenomenon, but it was actually invented over a hundred years ago by a German housewife named Melitta Bentz, who came up with the new brewing method by using notebook blotting paper and a brass pot with a hole in the bottom. A century later the Melitta Heritage Series updates the original design while retaining a vintage look. The porcelain brewing set also retains heat well and features a pour-over cone and 20-ounce carafe with specially engineered drip-resistant pour spout. www.melitta.com

SWEET ON MAPLE SYRUP For those folks trying to side-step processed sugars, maple syrup is an enticing alternative. Maple syrup contains minerals, nutrients, and antioxidants that appeal to the health conscious. Drink makers like that it dissolves easily in liquids, taste-wise it straddles the line between sweet and not so sweet while adding a familiar flavor. Anything associated with pancakes is generally a good thing. Taking full advantage of maple syrup’s myriad merits is The Maple Guild, a Vermont company that saps syrup from 25,000 acres of maple tree-studded hills surrounding the small town of Island Pond, and blends it into a line of ready-to-drink green and black teas. www.mapleguild.com

COMPACTER IS BETTER The Loring S7 Nighthawk puts efficient roasting capabilities into a compact 22 square-foot package, freeing up space for operations. The roaster features a single-burner design, precise temperature control with convection heating and responsive thermocouples, manual and autopilot capabilities for reliable roast profile reproduction, and safety features including a chaff barrel quenching system and self-cleaning hot stack. www.loring.com

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FC

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PHOTO BY LEO SIDER A S

HINGAKAWA CO-OP IN RWANDA: Thanks to funding from Denver’s Queen City Collective Coffee and Corvus Coffee Roasters, Hingakawa now has the needed support to improve its infrastructure and build raised drying beds.

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C

OZO COFFEE COMPANY + PERU APROCASSI At the 2014 “Let’s Talk Coffee” conference held in Panama, Ozo Coffee Company’s Director of Coffee Nolan Dutton was introduced to Peru Aprocassi cooperative’s general manager.

The co-op represents 425 small-scale producers in Northern Peru, based in the communities of San Ignacio, Cajamarca, and Jaen.

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P HOTOS COURTES Y OF OZO COF FEE CO.

olorado is home to dozens of coffee roasters, although a few have set their sights on reaching even higher heights. These roasteries are funding projects that hope to make a meaningful impact at both ends of the supply chain, helping to strengthen the connection between local consumers and producers at origin.

Boulder-based Ozo Coffee Company, for instance, wanted to help a group of farmers in Peru improve their coffee-drying infrastructure, so the company created a campaign to raise funds through sales of a special roast, coupled with donations from café customers.

In Guatemala, a group of coffee farmers felt that raised drying beds would be a way to increase coffee quality, price, and land use. Huckleberry Coffee Roasters in Denver stepped in to help finance the effort through sales of its Sister Winter Blend.

Meanwhile, Queen City Collective Coffee partnered with a cooperative of female growers in Rwanda to build raised drying beds. Queen City enlisted the help of another coffee company, Corvus Coffee Roasters, as well as additional promotional support from their community.

In each case, the roasters worked with the producers to decide on the projects that would enhance the coffee’s quality and lead to higher earnings for the communities.

The three roasters ranged in size from large to small, and each had different experience levels, which goes to show that it is possible to integrate a producer-friendly model into your business at any stage of company development.

While each roaster experienced distinct challenges, all projects were fully funded, leading to increased optimism for the upcoming harvest seasons.

NOLAN DUTTON (cupping at left) has raised money for Peru Aprocassi to build raised drying beds (right) from sales of specially marked bags of coffee (opposite page).

As the relationship between Aprocassi and Ozo grew, Dutton learned about the challenges farmers encounter in coffee production. In Northern Peru, coffee is harvested and dried on patios during the rainy season— a difficult proposition considering that coffee requires 30 to 40 hours of sun exposure to achieve the required

THE CO-OP PREPARED A PROPOSAL REQUESTING FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO BUILD 100 SOLAR DRYERS, DESIGNED TO GIVE FARMERS MORE CONTROL OVER TEMPERATURE, AIRFLOW, AND HUMIDITY DURING DRYING.

humidity level. Producers were disrupting the coffee drying process five or six times a day to protect it from rainfall. Sudden showers affected uniform drying, compromised moisture levels, and impacted the coffee’s shelf life during storage.

Due to these conditions, coffee was only exposed to direct sun in short intervals, prolonging the time required to dry the coffee and causing production backups. Inevitably, the coffee’s

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ROASTERS

quality was compromised from interruption to drying, as well as a lack of consistent direct sunlight or constant airflow.

The co-op prepared a proposal requesting financial support to build 100 solar dryers, designed to give farmers more control over temperature, airflow, and humidity during drying.

The co-op would also implement a quality control standardization process for the resulting product.

The proposal outlined how the solar dryers would increase quality and yield, while decreasing the cost of production, improve quality of life for coffee-growing families, and reduce environmental pollution, among other benefits. The project cost

The funds were delivered in December 2017, and the co-op is currently working to implement the new drying process. Although there is optimism about the improved structures, it requires the farmers to learn new maintenance and care techniques.

Even if the solar dryers are built well, the lack of experience may result in excessive or inconsistent drying until producers become accustomed to the new process.

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P HOTOS COURTES Y OF OZO COFF EE CO.

was estimated to be $22,000, with the co-op pledging $7,000 of its own money and the remaining $15,000 to come from Ozo. The goal was to have the solar dryers in place by the 2018 harvest and processing season.

In just six months, Ozo raised the funds through sales of a specially marked bag of coffee filled with beans that Aprocassi harvested and Ozo roasted. A portion of every bag sold, in addition to money donated by customers who opted to donate on their bill at Ozo’s four standalone cafés, went into the fund.

HUCKLEBERRY COFFEE ROASTERS + APROCAFÉ Head roaster Kevin Nealon got to know the associated growers of AProCafé nearly a decade ago while working on the shores of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala.

After returning to the United States in 2011 and joining Huckleberry Coffee Roasters in 2014, Nealon began sourcing green coffee from AProCafé. Through this partnership, Nealon instituted a fundraising program that would financially support the growers’ needs at the farm level. The program has three main objectives: to fight leaf rust with organic-approved treatments, to sponsor educational opportunities, and to build raised drying beds.

P HOTO BY DA NIEL M END OZ A

After working in Guatemala for nearly a decade, KEVIN NEALON became head roaster at Huckleberry Coffee Roasters and started raising funds for AProCafé.

The decision to first integrate fundraising efforts into the roastery’s retail sales followed a recommendation from AProCafé’s agronomic advisor Danilo Cholotio. After seeing an increased prevalence of leaf rust in their region over the past decade, growers desired organic-approved treatments to fight off the disease so as not to compromise or damage their environment. Lake Atitlán is especially vulnerable to runoff from the bordering agricultural communities, so the coffee growers wanted to remain as eco-friendly as possible.

From the start of their partnership, Huckleberry has helped AProCafé purchase the inputs for an organic-approved calcium sulfate solution to fight leaf rust. “That actual physical purchase of chemical inputs is still the crux of the program,” Nealon says.

Given Cholotio’s academic background in agronomy and advisory role in AProCafé, Huckleberry sponsored him to attend the Specialty Coffee Association’s Avance sustainability conference in Guatemala City as an educational opportunity that might improve various sustainability efforts. Avance

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ROASTERS

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PH OTOS BY DA N IEL ME N DOZ A

offered lectures and workshops that could address concerns and answer questions about alternative approaches in coffee production that lessen coffee’s environmental impact.

Another quality enhancement goal that was funded through the partnership was the implementation of raised drying beds. Traditionally, Guatemalan producers use the patio drying method, which renders large swathes of land useless for most of the year, because it is covered by a slab of concrete. Raised drying beds can be placed temporarily over soil, allowing land to remain vacant and usable for other crops between harvests.

In addition to freeing up space, the raised beds dry coffee more evenly, improving the consistency and quality so growers can (hopefully) sell at higher prices. Drying beans on raised

THE APROCAFÉ CREW benefits from every bag sold of Huckleberry Coffee Roasters’s Sister Winter Blend.

ROASTING FOR A CAUSE: Shepherd Wadley of Huckleberry Coffee Roasters.

beds also extends the longevity of the coffee once it is exported and arrives at its destination abroad.

Fundraising efforts included a coffee produced by AProCafé and roasted by Huckleberry for its Sister Winter Blend.

A portion of sales from each bag goes directly to the producers. With these funds, the cooperative purchased the raw

ingredients needed to make a calcium sulfate solution. The organic solution, organic-approved by Mayacert, was applied to coffee trees between harvests, three times each year, to mitigate leaf rust. AProCafé was also able to build 20 drying beds for the start of the 2018 harvest.

Huckleberry also contributed more than $1,000 per harvest for three years, with the average ratio of proceeds to outof-pocket contributions being 50/50. In addition, Huckleberry commits to paying premium prices for the raised drying bed coffee whether or not it matches the quality of the patio-dried coffee.

Adopting a new drying process does not guarantee the coffee’s quality will be better, so Huckleberry offered to cover financial costs if raised bed processing techniques weren’t executed correctly during the initial trial while the team was still learning.

Huckleberry plans to continue supporting AProCafé moving forward, and regroups with the association after each harvest to see what works and

what doesn’t. Based on past success, the next project under consideration is a new depulper for some of the group’s more remote farmers, leading up to the 2018/19 harvest.

QUEEN CITY COLLECTIVE COFFEE + CORVUS COFFEE ROASTERS + HINGAKAWA CO-OP IN RWANDA Scott Byington returned to his hometown of Denver and launched Queen City Collective Coffee in 2016 after spending nearly a decade immersed in the coffee trade and development work in both Africa and the United States.

As a newcomer to an established coffee scene, Byington went around town meeting his fellow roasting community and sharing information about the coffee he planned to source from Misozi, a Rwandan coffee cooperative aligned with an all-female producer group, Hingakawa. The women of Hingakawa had lost many men from their families and communities to the country’s 1994 genocide. They are still struggling

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ROASTERS

HOT SHOT BARISTA calendar helped to raise funds for the Hingakawa Co-op.

SCOTT BYINGTON: Cupping coffee for Queen City Collective Coffee.

today to restore their homes and lives through coffee production.

Byington asked the producers about potential options for improving the coffee’s quality, eventually settling on a proposal of $2,000 to build raised drying beds. The beds would expand the co-op’s drying capacity and support a process of reorganization that would lead to micro-lots and hopefully, higher price points for the growers.

Corvus Coffee Roasters, an established coffee roasting company in Denver, expressed interest in learning more about the Rwandan coffee collective needs and asked Byington about collaborating on an origin trip. Together, the roasters committed to raise funds to support an infrastructure improvement

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project for Hingakawa. Queen City and Corvus held fundraisers for the project, such as latte art competitions and promotional t-shirt sales.

Chelsea Keeney, a local artist and coffee lover, was inspired by the coop’s story and roaster collaboration.

She created the “Hot Shot Baristas” calendar, which featured 12 baristas modeling for each month of the year.

The calendar was sold around town, with proceeds donated to the Rwandan project. Ultimately, the donations, community events, and calendar funded the $2,000 goal.

Although the project’s monetary goal was successfully reached in Denver and delivered to Rwanda, the process was not without complications. Byington

said the main challenge was not in raising the funds, but rather in building relationships between consumers, roasters, and producers. He had to educate the Denver community about coffee and the unique farming conditions faced by a group like Hingakawa.

Making a lasting impact was also a challenge. Byington said, in the case of Africa, development organizations have been working there for nearly a century and still face security, logistical, and social challenges when it comes to implementing projects. Queen City is continuing its support of Hingakawa with future projects, such as a new funding initiative of $10,000 to build a community center that will function as a workshop hub and childcare center. FC

P HOTO OF S COT T BY DANIEL M ENDOZ A; COF FEE BAG COURT ES Y OF QUEEN CIT Y COLL EC TIV E CO FFE E ; C AL ENDAR P HOTOS BY CHEL S E A KEENEY; H ING AK AWA P HOTOS BY L EO SID ER A S

HINGAKAWA: Female-run producer group in Rwanda.

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HORSE-DRAWN CART used for transporting the harvested rooibos plants in the Cederberg mountains in South Africa.

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rendsetting baristas in locations as far-away as coffee-crazed Seattle and starchy London have discovered they can express fine-ground South African rooibos tea through their beloved GB/5s and Aurelias—and with good reason. A single shot of the brick-red liquid contains five times more antioxidants than green tea, and it blends seamlessly with steamed milk. Red lattes have lit up Instagram feeds while boosting sippers’ immune systems.

Cup of rooibos RED CAPPUCCINO

The red drink trend started thousands of miles away, on a sun-parched plateau in the rugged Cederberg mountains. Here, Boltwin Tamboer harvests rooibos tea in much the same way his San forefathers would have done. Watched over by a cavern adorned with 6,000-year-old depictions of elephants, handprints, and winged medicine men, Tamboer slices through a fistful of the hardy shrub with a deft flick of his sickle before stashing the yard-long stems between his legs. He works swiftly, despite the 100-degree heat. Depending on the size and vigor of the tea bushes, he will harvest between 650 and 1,300 pounds of wet tea every day for the next two months.

The San people are recognized as the first nation of Southern Africa, and were also first to discover the healing properties of the yellow-flowered rooibos shrub, which grows only in the mountainous region close to the Cape of Good Hope. But it was the European pioneers who arrived in the hostile, drought-prone region in the 18th century who first cultivated Aspalathus linearis and brought the nutrient-rich tea to a wider audience.

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Farmhand BOLTWIN TAMBOER with a bundle of harvested rooibos in the Cederberg mountains in South Africa.

In its bag and loose-leaf forms, rooibos tea has long been a South African favorite, found at the heart of church fetes and board meetings alike. It’s also known for its healing properties; generations of doctors, mothers-in-law, and sports coaches have prescribed it for everything from stress and hay fever, to insomnia and muscle pain.

GOOD BECOMES GREAT Advocates praise rooibos for its potential health benefits. Many have suggested that its antioxidants can help to protect against cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

That’s all good, but when the folks who started Red Espresso first put it through a 9-bar espresso machine, good became great. By experimenting with the coarseness of the grind and sourcing the finest higher-altitude tea, they were able to produce a drink that is naturally caffeine-free and packed to the jowls with antioxidants. Lab tests confirm that Red Espresso has five times more antioxidants than green tea and 10 times more than regular rooibos tea.

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Health benefits aside, pulled shots of rooibos boast a dark red ochre crema that wouldn’t be out of place in a Roman café, not to mention an intense, earthy flavor profile that lingers long on the palate.

“We wanted to launch a healthier, caffeinefree coffee alternative that tasted great and could be enjoyed in just the same way,” says Red Espresso’s co-owner Pete Ethelston. “In the process, we created a whole new beverage category.”

Red Espresso marries the health and café markets. Since launching 13 years ago, the company has carved a niche in nations as diverse as Portugal and South Korea, and scooped up no less than six international awards. In fact, when they were voted Best New Speciality Beverage 2008/9 by the Speciality Coffee Association of America, Red Espresso became the first tea brand ever to win SCAA recognition.

Their consumer base is also surprisingly broad. “Lots of our most loyal customers are mornings-only coffee drinkers looking for an afternoon coffee substitute,” says Pete’s wife, Monique Ethelston, Red Espresso’s marketing director. Athletes, nutritionists, yogis,

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PETE and MONIQUE ETHELSTON with subsistence farmer Donald Ockhuis in the Cederberg mountains.

pregnant women, and children are a few of the caffeine-adverse folks who can now participate in café culture, thanks to caffeine-free Red Espresso.

Rooibos is a household staple in South Africa, but global acceptance has proved harder to achieve. When Red Espresso launched 13 years ago, rooibos wasn’t well-known outside of Africa, and the company had a hard time educating consumers about an espresso made from a product they had never heard of.

The global shift towards health and wellness has helped their product make inroads, Monique explains. “We now find consumers and cafés very open to the idea of a naturally caffeinefree alternative,” she says, citing the fact that Starbucks has added rooibos tea lattes. “The beverage category we created is here to stay.”

BORN OF THE LAND We caught up with the Ethelstons while they were checking in on the upcoming harvest at Sarel and Leonie van der Merwe’s farm, some four hours north of Cape Town. The following morning, we watched the sun rise over the gnarled rock formations that have made

BERTU VAN DER MERWE holds a handful of freshly ground rooibos from a pile laid on special drying courts.

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the Cederberg mountains an international climbing mecca, before heading out to nearby Heuningvlei. As we rattle along the 15-mile road to this 25-home Moravian mission town, we learned about the outreach project Red Espresso launched to uplift local farmers and increase the quality and supply of rooibos tea.

Residents of Heuningvlei can lease land from the church for next to nothing, explains Sarel van der Merwe. “But [the land] isn’t worth much without seedlings, tractors, and money.”

IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS TWO TONS OF TEA, GHAL IS PAID THE KIND OF MONEY HIS PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS COULD ONLY HAVE DREAMED OF, RECEIVING ONE LUMP-SUM PAYMENT EVERY YEAR.

Since 2015, the Ethelstons and van der Merwes have helped out with farming necessities, yielding extremely promising results. Spurred by a muchneeded cash injection to this forgotten corner of the country, more farmers have come onboard every year. “Yields have been steadily improving and the quality is incredible,” Pete says.

By the time we arrive at Ghal Ockhuis’s 12-acre patch of land at 10 a.m., his rickety horse-drawn cart is already piled high with fresh rooibos. Heuningvlei’s farmers take turns assisting each other with the harvest, and today is Ghal’s turn. He’s lived in Heuningvlei all his life and has been farming— beans, rooibos, sheep—since he left school. But “everything has changed,”

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Subsistence farmer BAREND “GHAL” OCKHUIS with harvested rooibos crop.

ROOIBOS— FROM SEED TO CUP The production cycle of rooibos encompasses ancient traditions and modern farming practices.

• Seedlings are planted in the cold, rainy season between June and August. Rooibos plants thrive in sandy soils where their extremely long taproots can access groundwater.

• On the unirrigated, high-altitude land where the best rooibos comes from, plants are hand-harvested once a year for five years. In their sixth year, they are plowed back into the soil and the land is left fallow for 3–5 years.

HARVESTED PLANTS

• The shrubs are hand-harvested over a two-month period, usually between January and March. This allows for daily processing of the wet tea.

• Once it arrives at the processing facility, the plant—stems, twigs, leaves, and all—is put through a shredding machine.

• This fine green “mulch” is then laid out in a narrow stripe on a concrete tea court and left to oxidize overnight.

SHREDDING MACHINE

• The following morning, a customized tractor attachment sprays the tea, which has now turned a rich ochre.

• After drying in the sun for seven hours, the tea is packed into 900-pound bags and sent to a nearby factory for steam pasteurizing and quality control.

• The next stop is Red Espresso HQ, where the tea is ground to an espresso-like consistency. The tea is so tough that the grinder blades have to be replaced every ton!

CUSTOMIZED TRACTOR

• Finally, the grinds are packaged into bags or pods, and distributed around the world.

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3 WAYS TO MAKE RED ESPRESSO

RECIPES

RED LATTE: Express a double shot of Red Espresso.

Top with steamed milk of your choice. Serve with honey and cinnamon.

ESPRESSO MACHINE: Scoop 14 grams of Red Espresso into a Red Espresso RCP basket or a standard double filter basket (no need to tamp) and express a double shot (2 ounces).

COLD BREW RED: Brew in a ratio of 10:1 (water to Red Espresso) for 12 hours.

AEROPRESS: Dose 14 grams Red Espresso, add hot water (195 degrees F), stir, and allow to brew for 1 minute before expressing.

FRENCH PRESS: Dose 14 grams Red Espresso per cup, add hot water, and stir. Allow to brew for 2–3 minutes before gently plunging.

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FRESH RED ICED TEA: Fill a 16-ounce glass with ice and 8 ounces apple juice. Add a double shot of red espresso. Garnish with fresh mint.

Ghal says, “since Pete and Sarel started to give me seedlings and plow my land.”

In exchange for his two tons of tea, Ghal is paid the kind of money his parents and grandparents could only have dreamed of, receiving one lump-sum payment every year.

“Tea is making a difference for my generation,” he says.

Measuring out ground RED ESPRESSO

Later that afternoon, as we prepare to leave the farm, two days of oppressive heat come to a head in a tumultuous thunderstorm. Instead of seeking cover, Pete and Monique Ethelston stand arms outstretched in the center of the tea court, allowing the plump desert raindrops to drench them.

In an area that only receives six inches of rain a year, every drop counts, bringing with it the promise of better tea and higher yields.

And that’s good news for hipsters, dieticians, gym instructors, and farmers like Ghal Ockhuis. FC

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FLASK BREWER available—starting in July—from Alpha Dominche.

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CAREFUL PREPARATION: A tea sommelier at London’s Fortnum & Mason uses Alpha Dominche’s Steampunk to brew tea.

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ea’s renaissance is making waves in cafés across the nation, and now elevated tea experiences can also be had in the home, thanks to better brewers and advanced education.

The café experience of tea has traditionally been based on the cultural specifics of tea-producing or teadrinking countries, with cafés replicating traditional Japanese teahouses delivering the experience of British high tea.

Now, the love of science, technology, and craft that transformed coffee, beer, and other beverages, is remaking the café experience of tea. Customers then retunr home with new ways and whys to refine their home team brewing habits.

Extraction Lab is both their showroom and experimental brew space for dialing in tea recipes.

For café manager Sara Karges, brewing tea is all about the variables. “Time, temperature, and dose interact with tea similarly to how they interact with coffee, affecting strength and extraction.

and exploring from there.

“Tea is even more complex than coffee,” Sara says, “which is why it’s fun.”

The Extraction Lab also serves herbal infusions, but there is a world of variety in the beverages brewed using tea leaves.

“The difference between green and black tea is oxidization,” Sara explains,

ON THE STEAMPUNK, WE DIAL IN A TEA SIMILARLY TO HOW A BARISTA WOULD DIAL IN A KENYAN VERSUS A COLOMBIAN, A WASHED ETHIOPIA VERSUS A NATURAL, OR A LIGHT ROAST VERSUS A DARK.

ATTENTIVE BREWING IN THE CAFÉ In Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, the Extraction Lab is the pinnacle of how technology can build on traditional methods in order to make something new.

Alpha Dominche is the manufacturer of the Steampunk brewer, and the

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Temperature helps unfurl leaves, like with a tightly furled oolong, and helps bring out certain complexities, like floral notes and sugars.”

The learning curve starts with researching the general recommended brew parameters for a given type of tea

“which can be encouraged physically—in a barrel that pulverizes it, tossing it, hand-rolling it. The process depends on each farm’s culture, family tradition, the country’s tradition. Black teas can be totally different in how they were processed based on time and humidity

IN GOOD COMPANY: Teatulia’s Tea Bar and Tea School conducts food and tea pairings as a learning tool.

levels, too. Green tea is zero-percent oxidized. It is plucked and then steamed in a kind of flash blanch on a hot stone to stop oxidization immediately.”

Understanding the basics of tea’s processing histories makes it easier to sense how to brew them.

“On the Steampunk, we dial in a tea similarly to how a barista would dial in a Kenyan versus a Colombian, a washed Ethiopia versus a natural, or a light roast versus a dark,” Sara says.

In addition to accounting for differences in terroir, processing, and roast, the range of brewing temperatures for tea is much greater than for coffee.

Delicate Japanese sencha can be brewed at 120 to 130 degrees.

The Steampunk uses software to save recipes. But, like any chef or craftsperson knows, different leaves need to be handled individually, and that takes experience. “For Chinese green tea, a starting place could be at 150 degrees for a minute, or for a really tightly rolled oolong or a black tea you might start at 200 or 190 and go a little longer because black teas require a little bit more temperature and time, and

can stand up to more. Green teas and white teas are a little more delicate.”

Optimal brewing temperature and time avoid the “cereal” off-taste and drying astringency of an over-brewed tea, qualities all-too-familiar when making tea at home. Finer cut leaves have a quicker extraction time, which is why traditional tea bags are stuffed with powdery dust. Almost like a tea K-cup, classic tea bags are the strongest and fastest way to brew.

Refined brewing takes traditional practices of tea brewing and applies record keeping, plus trial and error, to yield tea-specific recipes. “Just like there are washed, natural, and honey coffees, there are white, green, oolong, and pu’er teas, but here is a much wider range in the processes. The resulting teas are almost different beverages based on how they are processed,” Sara notes.

Tea has more room for exploration because it is by nature, a wider category.

CAFÉ TO CLASSROOM TO KITCHEN Exploration with tea brewing and tea-based beverages is taking place at

Teatulia’s Tea Bar and Tea School in Denver, Colorado. Owner Linda Appel Lipsius emphasizes that the café is a social space where “Tearistas” work to welcome those less familiar with the tea experience.

“Our Tearistas are very friendly and engaging which sets the tone for the entire shop,” Linda says. “Tea Bar is an invaluable opportunity to build friendships and continue conversations. Tea School classes encourage learning and have established us as a community place you can go to learn and meet new people.”

The Tea Bar’s guidelines for brewing tea for customers are the same parameters the Tea School teaches in its classes.

“We adjust the steep time and water temperature depending on what type of tea is being brewed,” says Aly Thompson, Tea Bar’s manager.

For green tea, the ideal brewing temperature is 175 degrees for 2–3 minutes, whereas a black or a pu’er tea can withstand up to 200 degrees and 4–7 minutes of steep time.

“We dose two grams of tea for up to 16 ounces of water for a straight tea, though for our tea lattes and tea sodas

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we tend to make it more concentrated,” Aly says. “Pu’er teas, as they are fermented, need to be rinsed before steeping, and herbal teas can steep as long as the drinker wishes.”

While tea brewing can be timed down to the second—like a precisely pulled espresso shot—general guidelines are a good place to start to get people excited to make tea at home.

Aly’s philosophy is to keep it simple.

“Our tea classes are designed to translate the café brewing experience into the home. In our matcha class we show not only the traditional methods of making matcha, but also how to best make drinks using a blender, a gym bottle (the kind with the shaker), or even low-tech handheld frothers. Our staff are all people, and we too take shortcuts to home brewing.”

Tea School also covers other topics relevant to its mission of education about tea in general, including clean food and organic/regenerative farming.

The context of tea as an agricultural product and also a social experience is part of improving brewing methods both in the café and at home.

Tea is meant to be social, so Tea School classes partner with local businesses like DAR Chocolate, Truffle Table, and Growesince. “Tea is a great accompaniment to anything, so we combine it with everything,” Aly says. Teatulia’s Tea Bar and Tea School are community places to meet new people while experiencing and learning about tea.

SINGLE CUP: Finum sells the Smart Brew System (top) and biodegradeable, fillable tea bags (bottom) for single cup orders, or home use.

TOOLS FOR THE HOME FRONT While tea in the outside world is both social and technical, making tea at home requires the right tools.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Finum manufactures coffee and tea brewing accessories for the home. The Smart Brew System, Tea Control Brewer, and Biodegradable Tea Filters are designed to brew loose-leaf tea and herbal infusions by the cup or the carafe.

Finum distributes their products to retailers across North America and Europe, but the perception of tea preparation products is different in the United States. In Europe, you can easily

find excellent loose-leaf tea, coffees, and brewing accessories in regular grocery stores, even drugstores. In the US, these are still considered niche products.

Alpha Dominche is bringing refined tea brewing home with their Flask brewer, with availability starting in July after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Tymer Tilton, one of the designers, explains that “Flask brews tea like a traditional French press and also keeps the tea leaves separated from the water once it’s brewed, so you don’t have to worry about over-steeping.”

Because tea gets bitter more quickly than coffee, the Steampunk controls

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for over-extraction with an automated recipe, whereas Flask controls manually with a simple press action. The glass version of Flask, like Finum’s systems, adds an aesthetic experience to tea brewing.

“As leaves saturate they float and sink, giving a ‘lava lamp’ effect,” Tymer says. “It’s a pity if you hide the brewing process. It is something to be enjoyed.”

As more cafés prepare whole leaf teas carefully and involve customers in the process, patience is becoming less niche.

Brewing tea with a stopwatch and a thermometer—or at least a glance at the clock and an awareness of temperature— might be the new normal in America. FC

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IL LUSTR ATION BY JOR DAN JOHNS ON

he concept of pay transparency is intimidating, and rightfully so. Once people know what others are making—and how their own pay measures up—conflict is natural next step. At least, this is what most business owners have historically assumed.

However, many in the coffee industry—especially in the retail sector—are moving toward or have already implemented pay transparency. Not only a way to make their cafés more equitable, pay transparency can be a tool to set transparent expectations, increase productivity, and reduce conflict.

What are the benefits of pay transparency, and how can cafés implement transparent pay structures without added expense or conflict? Experts from pay-transparent cafés have the answers, and they are eager to spread the word.

WHAT IS PAY TRANSPARENCY? Among compensation professionals, there are actually three specific categories of policy that fall under the umbrella of the term “pay transparency”— 1. Pay process transparency refers to being clear and open about how compensation decisions are made.

2. Pay disclosure refers to revealing employee-level compensation information to other employees.

3. Employee-led pay transparency is when employees share and discuss their pay amongst themselves.

According to Stephanie Thomas, Ph. D., of compensation professional website Compensation Cafe, many

employers have tried to discourage this employee-led policy, and others would argue it is illegal to prevent employees from discussing their salaries under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. Many employers fear pay transparency because what they’re picturing is pay disclosure, often without pay process transparency. In fact, while the two policies complement each other, pay process transparency is often completely independent from pay disclosure.

Whereas pay disclosure could lead to conflict around certain employees getting paid more than others, pay process transparency promises to reduce that type of conflict by explaining why those employees make more, and give others a chance to increase their own earnings.

Where pay disclosure in a vacuum could highlight and publicize salary inequities within a company while not inherently fixing them, pay process transparency actually reduces or fixes salary inequities by creating positive, equitable systems for compensation and accountability.

While many companies have implemented pay transparency policies to great success, there’s crucial factor to keep in mind: when people know that another person makes more than they do, they fully understand why. Since employers have no legal power to restrict employee-led pay transparency, they benefit from getting ahead of it in every way they can.

SHOW ME THE BENEFITS Pay transparency comes with many well-documented benefits, including:

• Promoting equity and fairness • Helping motivate workers • Reducing gossip and negativity around compensation • Improving retention Pay process transparency is relatively easy to implement and paves the way for smooth implementation of pay disclosure and full pay transparency, which combines the two.

Fairness & Equity When there are transparent pay ranges in place for worker compensation at every level, employees are practically guaranteed fair and equitable salaries based on clear, tangible markers.

Pay process transparency helps reduce the gender pay gap, where, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, white women make 78 cents on each dollar compared to white men. Black women earn 64 cents, and Latinx women just 54 cents. Clear processes also help with similar gaps that exist for non-white male workers.

In other words, pay process transparency helps all workers know they are getting paid fairly, which positively impacts morale. When pay processes aren’t transparent, workers may hear pay details through the grapevine, not knowing why certain employees are paid more than others. This fosters resentment and makes emplyees question whether they’re truly valued.

Conversely, when people know exactly why they are paid what they’re paid, that resentment is replaced with understanding and motivation.

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tephen X. Welch is education director at Ultimo Coffee in Philadelphia, a company that has implemented pay process transparency to great success.

“I’ve found that employees tend to be more satisfied with their pay rate when they know they’re on equal footing with their peers, or if they aren’t, having very clear explications why,” he says. “It removes the confusion and resentment I’ve encountered in other cafés that grow around unequal or unfair pay practices.”

Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco emphasizes the benefits in situations where employees come in with different experience levels. At Ritual, all employees start at the same rate with the same pre-scheduled raises based on in-house training.

“Everyone has the same expectations and the same rules apply to everyone,” says Daria Whalen, Ritual’s director of education. “I think people value understanding what is expected of them and knowing each of their co-workers has been in the same position.”

Motivation When companies implement transparent pay processes, they encourage employees to take specific steps to increase their value to the company, thereby increasing their pay. By laying out tangible steps that lead to pay increases, companies define their values in a way that enhances company culture and focuses baristas’ energy in the right direction.

Ritual’s baristas, for instance, earn a raise for passing a milk test and then an espresso test. These tests take place at intervals based on experience level and learning speed. Next comes a sixmonth and one-year check-in, then annual reviews and raises.

When Ritual makes major changes to employee compensation based on cost of living in San Francisco, those changes are implemented as a specific increase to all retail employee pay, announced at a company-wide meeting. Ritual adjusts from the bottom up, raising the company minimum and other retail salaries by the same amount. By having everyone start at the same rate and get the same raises over time, the company clearly demonstrates that they value equality and loyalty.

At Ultimo Coffee, baristas benefit from transparent raise structures that reward standard time and training markers.

Other motivators include advanced participation in educational programs within the company and success at local competitions.

By raising pay based on factors like competency in espresso, time spent in the company, continuing education, and wider industry participation, Ultimo shows baristas they are okay with employees doing just their shift work, but there’s room for them to grow past that. A raise for winning a local throwdow demonstrates that the company values representation in a larger industry context. When everyone is working with the same values in mind, this helps focus company culture.

Less Conflict & Negativity When everyone knows who makes what, there is no place for hearsay or resentment. When one worker finds out

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that a less-tenured worker makes more than they do, or if someone questions why a worker they manage makes more than they do (answer: it’s because of longer tenure), such conflicts have less room to thrive. Pay transparency lets workers focus on their work. This result is not only logical, it’s also validated by research.

One study, by Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, an assistant professor of economics at Middlebury College, found that participants who were shown their earnings and how they compared with others generally worked harder and increased their performance.

A similar study from Elena Belogolovsky of Cornell University and Peter Bamberger of Tel Aviv University found that pay secrecy was associated with decreased performance.

On top of that, a study from PayScale, a wage data collection and analysis group, found that only 45% of participants who felt they were underpaid were actually earning less than their peers in similar roles.

By showing people where they stand, you reduce negativity and conflict based on misperception of inequity as well as reducing inequity itself.

Retention A survey from data collection group PayScale found that the more information employees have about why they earn what they do, especially in relation to their peers, the less likely they are to quit. According to the survey, the main predictor of both “satisfaction” and “intent to leave” is whether employees feel they are paid fairly.

Transparency raises the “satisfaction” metric dramatically—even at companies that pay below market wages. When employees know why they’re paid less than they could earn elsewhere, 82% say they’re “satisfied” with their jobs and plan to stick around.

Welch has definitely seen positive retention as a result of pay process transparency. “It shows people what they’ll be making at what point on their career path in the café, even without a promotion to upper management or another role.

We have folks on staff who have been with the company for years, so I can’t help but think it helps.”

The key is that, on top of the increased morale that comes with knowing you’re being treated fairly, people can actually look within the pay structure and plan for their future, making them more likely to stick around and plan their future as part of a transparent business.

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IMPLEMENTING PAY TRANSPARENCY Now that we’ve established the benefits of pay transparency, here are actual steps to make your company transparent. These steps will help you define your values and outline your policies, which in turn will help focus managerial and staff efforts. Taking these steps is worth your time whether or not you value pay transparency.

Spreadsheet it Put everyone’s wages into a spreadsheet with their title, number of years at the company, and relevant experience level before they joined the company.

This info should be private and not seen by anyone but you.

Which factors determine that? Remember, if you like your process but want it to be more transparent, you don’t necessarily need to change it—you just need to figure out what it is and communicate it clearly.

Record, record, record Using your spreadsheet, outline all the different positions that exist in your company and create pay ranges for the various positions. Here again, break them down into one, two, or three rates based on real-world factors.

Figure out starting wages Determine your company minimum.

Does everyone in your company start at the minimum? If not, what is the starting range? Break starting wages into one, two, or three starting rates, based on specific factors like experience.

Examples One starting rate looks like: all baristas make $13/hour to start.

Two starting rates looks like: baristas with 1–3 years of experience make $13 an hour to start and baristas with four or more years make $14/hour to start.

Three starting rates looks like: baristas with 1–3 years of experience make $13 an hour to start, baristas with 4–6 years make $14, and baristas with seven or more years make $15.

Review your review process Break down the different tiers of training your company has and decide when to reward with raises. If raises already happen informally, you now get a chance to formalize the process. You can do this either by process or by time period; for instance, a milk-training raise or a three-month raise. You can also decide these tiers are not when raises happen, but it’s important to outline them regardless.

Think about how often reviews should happen. Are they linked to raises or not?

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Extra credit If you enjoy this process and want to take things further, you can get even more transparent by adding pay disclosure to your business and becoming fully transparent. To do this, update your spreadsheet and make it accessible to your employees. Once they have the tools to understand why people are making what they are, there’s no reason it should cause extra conflict.

If you’re really excited by your newfound pay transparency, you can post this information for the public on your website. You can even issue a press release and tell the world about your transparent company. The more you promote a culture of transparency and the benefits it brings, the better the chance you’ll attract new talent who share those values and who want to work with you.

TRANSPARENCY AROUND THE WORLD

Square up This is the one tricky part. You might see that within the new structure you’ve created, someone’s compensation isn’t fair. Sometimes lack of pay transparency leads to certain employees getting raises because they asked, or because they were in the right place at the right time.

When a transparent system is in place, get ready to square up the compensation of anyone who is out of range of their position. Since you created the ranges based on current wages, this shouldn’t be too likely, but be ready to do the right thing and fix the disparities with the rollout of your new pay process transparency. Employees should be excited about the new process, and squaring up helps get everyone onboard.

Spread the word Once you have your policy in writing and are ready to even out any past errors, add your transparent pay process policy to your handbook and send a memo to your staff. Give them a clear venue to get in touch with any questions they might have.

In specialty coffee, industry marketing has placed a heavy emphasis on the value of transparency in promoting sustainability, quality, and equity across the supply chain—and rightly so. It’s important to justify why the best coffee costs more. It’s not just because of quality, but because of fairness and sustainability.

Transparency often stops at the green coffee level of the labor chain. Nowadays, more and more coffee US companies are investing in transparency as a means to promote equity and sustainable compensation for labor, ensuring that—just as paying fair prices for green coffee makes coffee production sustainable—paying fair prices for café labor makes café work sustainable.

As companies that have taken the transparent leap have seen, the benefits can be solid. They are not just moral or theoretical, but fiscal. Companies that invest in transparency receive dividends in morale, retention, and fairness, and they promote a positive labor standard that makes coffee work sustainable into the future. Increasing pay transparency is absolutely doable, and if it interests you, you should try it. FC

KOKOWAGAYO CO-OP: Members of this women’s Sumatra cooperative take a break from coffee production.

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P HOTO COURTESY OF K AL A DI COF F EE

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or many coffee drinkers, the realities of coffee production are a distant thought. But as we continue to consume and enjoy our daily brew, it’s time to take into account how our actions can manifest positive change in coffee-producing regions—such as Sumatra.

On the northwest tip of Sumatra Island is Aceh, a deeply religious region that has a serious knack for growing coffee. Here, women are the backbone of coffee farming. They take on the majority of labor, from planting and pruning, to fertilizing, harvesting, and drying the coffee.

Once prepared, the coffee gets passed on to the men who sell it to traders. Men are able to sell the coffee because they own the land. This is commonplace in conservative regions where women farmers have no land rights, no control of their income, and they are unable to make important decisions. This ultimately puts women in a vulnerable position, with high chances of living in poverty, abuse, and fear.

According to the International Finance Corporation, a sister organization of the World Bank, women make up 80% of coffee farm workers in North Sumatra and Indonesia. Despite their key role in coffee cultivation, processing, and marketing, they are often excluded from training and other development opportunities.

With this in mind, the Café Femenino Program helped the women there become established in the global coffee industry and their local community.

“It took almost a year of work to implement the Café Femenino Program in Sumatra,” explains program director Connie Kolosvary. “Areas of the Aceh region happen to produce amazing coffee, and the fact that there are gender equity challenges there simply called us to do something.”

The Café Femenino Program was founded in 2003 in a partnership with Organic Products Trading Company (OPTCO), a green coffee importing company, and their long-time partners, CECANOR cooperative in Peru. The program was created and designed to give women coffee farmers fair pay, decision-making power, and leadership roles within their communities and coffee cooperatives.

The program now operates in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Rwanda, and most recently, Sumatra.

“Before we began the process of implementing a Café Femenino Program in a region ruled by Sharia Law, we did our homework. We talked to people, communicated with women leaders, asked a thousand questions, and through that process, we became friends,” Kolosvary explains. “Men are a big part of the change. So when it comes to obtaining land rights for women in those areas where Sharia leadership administers local laws and it is traditionally prohibited, the men have to be on board for the change to happen. This was the biggest challenge for the cooperative in order to become a Café Femenino Program.”

At first the male-dominated government did not support the idea. But after some time, a solution to the problem of ownership was made. All the women in Sumatra who entered the Café Femenino Program had an affidavit signed by their husbands that gave complete control of the land to the women. This document was recorded with the local municipality. Once given authority, women were able to own land with full administrative power over it. Finally, women were

able to sell coffee and most importantly, receive income from the sale.

With 476 members from six villages within the Gayo highlands of Sumatra, Kokowagayo became the first cooperative just for women. The name is an acronym of Koporasi Kopi Wanita Gayo, which translates to Gayo Women’s Coffee Cooperative.

“In a traditional fair trade cooperative, the men vote for how the social premiums are to be invested. Oftentimes, the women’s priorities are different and our voices are not heard. This was the motivation to form the first all-women cooperative,” says Ernani Muzaputri, member of the Kokowagayo cooperative.

She also serves as coordinator of social training and is acting head of a nonprofit that provides training to the cooperative.

Rizkani Ahmad is Kokowagayo’s chairwoman and coordinator of the Café Femenino Program. “Since participating in the program, women have gained confidence because they can deliver their ideas freely and could make their own decisions,” Ahmad says. “Some women have also drastically changed in how they cultivate their coffee farm and the crops.

They also understood about good sales if they have high-quality coffee.”

The co-op members receive a higher premium for their beans along with political and economic benefits including leadership positions within their cooperatives, and the opportunity to contribute to financial and business decisions.

When the first Café Femenino premiums were paid to the women in Kokowagayo, they collectively built a space where they could meet regularly and provide training for their members.

Other positive changes included the reduction in physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Family incomes increased.

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CAFÉ FEMENINO

More men participated in childcare and domestic responsibilities, school attendance among girls increased, and women had higher self-esteem from recognition for the work they do in the home and on the farm.

Several women are also undergoing training to become collectors for the cooperative, which traditionally was always a man’s job.

Participating coffee roasters are also integral to the program. They donate five cents ($0.05) per pound of coffee purchased to the Café Femenino Foundation, the non-profit arm that works within the Café Femenino Program to fund projects and grant requests proposed by the women farmers themselves. Roasters may also split their donation between the Café Femenino Foundation and a local nonprofit that supports women crisis organizations.

SUMATRA: Members of the Kokowagayo cooperative with Café Femenino program directory Connie Kolosvary (back, far right) and former director of trade, Katherine Oglietti (back, far left).

KOPERASI KETIARA Ibu Rahmah is founder of Koperasi Ketiara, a fair trade cooperative in the Gayo Highlands of Sumatra. Like the Café Femenino Program, Rahmah is also challenging the norms of equality, but in her own way.

“I come from a family of coffee farmers and coffee traders,” Rahmah says. “I am inspired to continue the work of my grandparents and parents.”

Rahmah started as a small coffee trader, purchasing a few pounds of coffee cherries from farmers and reselling them to larger traders.

As demand and interest from coffee businesses increased, Rahmah decided to establish a cooperative whose members were mostly women.

According to Rahmah, women in the cooperative would “equate with men, but still uphold the honor of being a woman like any other housewife.”

In 2009, she organized 37 other coffee traders and farmers to found the Ketiara cooperative.

With her guidance, the cooperative has grown to nearly 2,000 smallholder farmers, including about 40% women members.

Although Ketiara is a cooperative for men and women, Rahmah is particularly invested in improving the lives of women farmers. This is reflected in the cooperative’s line of coffee that is grown only by women, called “Queen Ketiara.”

For future generations of women coffee farmers, Rahmah hopes to see improvement in the quality and production of the farmers, better transparency, mutual respect, and mutual benefits between the buyer and the farmer.

Rahmah wants women’s groups to rise higher, attract those who have not joined a co-op yet, spread the message of equality, and improve the quality of resources.

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IBU RAHMAH

FAR L EF T PH OTO COUR TESY OF OPTCO; T WO KOPER A SI KETIAR A P HOTOS COUR TESY OF IBU R A HM A H

M

utu Coffee Roasters is one of Café Femenino’s most ardent supporters.

“As we were forming Mutu Coffee Roasters, and doing our research, we quickly realized that women were doing the majority of the coffee production and played a vital role in its success as specialty coffee producers for export,” says Russell Fleming, managing director of the roastery.

“I have this value and I speak it often to whoever will listen. I wouldn’t roast coffee and participate in an industry that would deepen the poverty and social injustices in the world,” he says.

When forming Mutu Coffee Roasters, Fleming felt his company should be “a force for good in everything we do in the world—from the farmer to the experience that our customers taste in the final cup.”

By participating in the Café Femenino Program, roasters like Fleming help support women farmers and the positive changes that spring from it.

“Educating customers is vital to the success of coffee and to Mutu Coffee Roasters. We communicate to our prospective customers that when they make wellinformed choices in their purchases, these choices continue the momentum of good, spreading throughout their communities and across the globe. By educating customers, we can make a difference.”

With the support of roasters and consumers, women coffee farmers can be owners and decision makers, just like their male counterparts.

“We connect with the women in Sumatra on so many levels: as parents, as leaders, as businesspeople,” Kolosvary says. “We all want the same thing in the end, and that is to be able to pay our bills and raise our kids in a way that they will go on to be productive humans. Pretty simple.” FC

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE | 61

TRADE SHOW & EVENTS CALENDAR JUNE

AUGUST JUNE 8–10 COFFEE FEST Denver, Colorado coffeefest.com

JUNE 12–14 WORLD TEA EXPO Las Vegas, Nevada worldteaexpo.com

JUNE 21–23 WORLD OF COFFEE Amsterdam, Netherlands worldofcoffee.org

AUGUST AUGUST 19–21 COFFEE FEST Los Angeles, California coffeefest.com

62 | JUNE 2018 » freshcup.com

AUGUST 19–21 WESTERN FOODSERVICE & HOSPITALITY EXPO Los Angeles, California westernfoodexpo.com

AUGUST 30–SEPTEMBER 1 EXPO CAFE MEXICO Mexico City, Mexico tradex.mx/expocafe

SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 5 TEA MASTERS CUP Riga, Latvia teamasterscup.com

SEPTEMBER 6–8 FLORIDA RESTAURANT & LODGING SHOW Orlando, Florida flrestaurantandlodgingshow.com

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER 8–9 MIDWEST TEA FESTIVAL Kansas City, Missouri midwestteafest.com

SEPTEMBER 23–24 CANADIAN COFFEE & TEA SHOW Toronto, Canada coffeeteashow.ca

SEPTEMBER 15–17 CAFE SHOW CHINA Beijing, China www.cafeshow.cn

SEPTEMBER 24–27 MOSCOW COFFEE & TEA EXPO Moscow, Russia pirexpo.com/en

SEPTEMBER 19–22 GOLDEN BEAN Portland, Oregon goldenbean.com

SEPTEMBER 29–OCTOBER 1 ATHENS COFFEE FESTIVAL Athens, Greece athenscoffeefestival.gr/en/

SEPTEMBER 20–24 LET’S TALK COFFEE Huila, Colombia letstalkcoffee.org

OCTOBER OCTOBER 10–12 COTECA Hamburg, Germany coteca-hamburg.com/en/

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE | 63

ADVERTISER INDEX

Go to freshcup.com/resources/fresh-cup-advertisers to view the Advertiser Index and the websites listed below.

ADVERTISER

CONTACT

ONLINE

1883 Maison Routin

800.467.7142

1883.com

AeroPress

650.493.3050

aeropressinc.com

Art of Tea

213.493.6518

wholesale.artoftea.com

Barista Pro Shop

866.776.5288

baristaproshop.com/ad/fresh

31

Brewista

888.538.8683

mybrewista.com

54

Café Femenino Foundation

360.901.8322

coffeecan.org

61

The Chai Co.

888.922.2424

chaico.com

Coffee Fest

425.295.3300

coffeefest.com

Custom Cup Sleeves

888-672-4096

customcupsleeves.com

65

Descamex

844.472.8429

descamex.com

55

Divinitea

518.347.0689

divinitea.com

65

Eastsign

sales@eastsign.com

eastsign.com

55

Empire Tea Services

812.375.1937

empiretea.com

65

FETCO

800.338.2699

fetco.com

Finum

49.4073424

finum.com

51

Flair Packaging

888.202.3522

flairpackaging.com

54

Fresh Cup Magazine

503.236.2587

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62

Frozenta

888.786.0701

frozenta.com

25

Ghirardelli Chocolate

800.877.9338

ghirardelli.com/professional

Golden Bean

503.706.1330

goldenbean.com

57

Gosh That’s Good! Brand

888.848.GOSH (4674)

goshthatsgood.com

11

Grandstand Glassware + Apparel

800.767.8951

egrandstand.com/coffee

25

GSD Global Trading

928.814.9943

gsdglobaltrading.com

35

Haelssen & Lyon

212.488.1674

haelssen-lyon.com

20

Java Jacket

800.208.4128

javajacket.com

63

Lotus Energy Drinks

888.702.5584

lotusenergydrinks.com

15

Malabar Gold Espresso

650.366.5453

malabargoldespresso.com

29

Milkadamia

630.861.2102

milkadamia.com

Monin Gourmet Flavorings

855.FLAVOR1 (352.8671)

monin.com

Mountain Grounds Coffee Roaster

406.459.9206

mtngrounds.com

45

Mr. Espresso

510.287.5200

mrespresso.com

21

notNeutral

800.270.6511

notneutral.com

39

Organic Products Trading Co

888.881.4433

optco.com

13

Pacific Foods

503.692.9666

pacificfoods.com/foodservice

SAKU Tea

360-820-3995

sakutea.com

38

SelbySoft

800.454.4434

selbysoft.com

13

SerendipiTea

888.TEA.LIFE (832.5433)

serendipitea.com

45

Service Ideas

800.328.4493

serviceideas.com

28

Sonofresco

360.757.2800

sonofresco.com

32

StixToGo

800.666.6655

royalpaper.com

33

TEA House Times, The

973.551.9161

theteahousetimes.com

65

TeaSource

855.320.4832

teasource.com

51

Theta Ridge Coffee

800.745.8738

thetaridgecoffee.com

45

Toddy

888.863.3974

toddycafe.com/wholesale

31

Vessel Drinkware

855.883.7735

vesseldrinkware.com

41

WaterWise

865.724.1200

maveapro.com

28

Workbench Coffee Labs

816.419.1904

workbenchcoffeelabs.com

65

Your Brand Café

866.566.0390

yourbrandcafe.com

14

Zojirushi America

800.264.6270

zojirushi.com

17

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MARKETPLACE

FRESH CUP MAGAZINE | 65

CROP TO CUP–CALDAS, COLOMBIA Superbly situated in the Andes mountain range, farmers in the Caldas coffee region are increasingly turning to specialty coffee offerings to showcase the outstanding quality of their micro- and nano-lots. These three roasts show the broad range of flavors and production techniques practiced in this blossoming coffee region.

By Peter Szymczak

QUERCUS COFFEE

CAFÉ MORROGACHO

CAFÉ LA LOMA

Organico

Selección Café en Grano

Rum Barrel Aged

Producer: Luz Amparo Arias of Finca La Persia Aroma: Nutty walnut. Spicy clove. Roasted cereal.

Taste: Creamy. Raisin. Molasses.

Producer: Huber Grajales Muñoz of Finca La Diana Aroma: Fruity cherry and coconut. Spicy nutmeg.

Taste: Light caramel. Rose petal.

Esta café orgánico se define como aquel sistema sostenible de producción y procesamiento en el cual no se utilizan quimicos de sintesis como plaguaguicidas, defoliantes, herbicidas y fertilizantes, los cuales se reemplazan por métodos naturales, con minimo riesgo para salud de los seres vivos y que preservan el medio ambiente. Entre los beneficios para la salud aportados por el Café Organico podemos encontrar que este cuenta con menor cantidad de ácidos y más nutrientes por su cuidadose producción, además de mayores concentraciones antioxidantes, minerales y componentes benficiosos para combatir el envejecimiento.

En el corregimiento de Montebonito, una familia se ha dedicado con esmero a producir este café de caracteristicas sobresalientes. Café La Loma es cultivado en fértiles tierras y aplicando las mejores prácticas para conservar y exaltar su fragrancia y aroma. En el décimo primer concurso Caldas: Cafés de Alta Calidad–2015, el café de Don Huber logró ser reconocido como la segunda major taza. Café La Loma es cultivado en fértiles tierras y aplicando las mejores prácticas para conservar y exaltar su fragrancia y aroma.

Producer: Guillermo Alvarez Arias of Finca San José Aroma: Fruity blueberry. Nutty marzipan.

Sweet vanilla.

Taste: Intense. Almond. Blueberry. Rum.

Luz Amparo describes her farming practices as organic: “It’s a sustainable production and processing system in which no synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, defoliants, herbicides, and fertilizers are used. They are replaced by natural methods, with minimal risk to the health of living beings and that preserve the environment.”

Among the health benefits provided by organic coffee, Luz lists lower amount of acids and more nutrients, higher concentrations of antioxidants, minerals, and beneficial components to combat aging.

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In the village of Montebonito, a small town high in the mountains along the border of Caldas and Tolima in west-central Colombia, Don Huber’s family has dedicated itself to producing coffee. “Café La Loma is cultivated in fertile lands, applying the best practices to preserve and exalt its fragrance and aroma,” Huber says. The complexity in the cup speaks for itself, and notably, it was recognized as the second-best cup in the 2015 Caldas Quality Coffee contest.

Llamamos a este café Quercus, después del nombre científico del Roble Andino utilizado para construir nuestros barriles de ron. Quercus nos recuerda nuestro compromiso de garantizar que el Roble Andino y el Bosque Nuboso perduren para las futuras generaciones de amantes del café. El resultado es una infusión extraordinaria que agrega los sabores distintivos del roble y la dulce complejidad del ron fino al sabor de fruta adelantada.

Quercus refers to the scientific name for the Andean Oak used to build the rum barrels that are then used to age and infuse their flavor into these coffee beans.

“Quercus reminds us of our commitment to ensure that the Andean Oak and Cloud Forest will endure for future generations of coffee lovers.” The result is an extraordinary brew that adds the distinct flavors of oak and the sweet complexity of fine rum to a phenomenal fruit-forward flavor. FC