COFFEE NOTES MAY/JUNE
Welcome to the May/June issue of Coffee Notes. In this latest issue we will look at how coffee is and has always been central to communities across the world, what makes speciality coffee ‘speciality’ and sustainable ways in which the coffee industry can control water usage. Finally, with summer just around the corner, we’ll be looking into cold brew coffee; how it came into existence and why it's so popular today. As always, we’re here if you have any questions or want to talk through anything you’ve read here today. You can get in touch with us at: coffeepartners@uk.nestle.com
3-MIN READ
THE CLIMATE FOR COMMUNITY The coffee shop is a climate, and within its walls you’ll find different cultures, different generations, different crowds, all with two things in common: community and coffee.
This has always been the case, from the first recorded coffee house, Kiva Han, in 1475, to the café buzz in 1920’s Paris, to the latest third-wave coffee shop found on the UK high street. It’s been a venue where people come together, with friends, family and strangers, to listen to music, watch performers, converse and discuss the news over a cup of coffee. Coffee and community have been so tightly entwined that coffee shops have been widely regarded as the ‘third place’ for community and discussions – behind the home and the workplace – though for many, the coffee shop is and will always be the first port of call.
STEEPED IN CULTURE Before they were known as coffee shops, they were called public coffeehouses, and were largely popular in the Middle East where the first coffeehouse, Kiva Han, appeared in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1475. So central to discussion and debate, coffeehouses then were often referred to as ‘schools of the wise’ 1. But coffeehouses were open for everyone and were so embedded into Middle Eastern culture that attending a coffeehouse was considered a tradition and a symbol of hospitality, friendship, delicacy and entertainment. The culture around coffee drinking continues to be passed down through generations and the famous Turkish proverb of “the memory of a cup of coffee lasts for forty years” perfectly sums up just how deep coffee runs in their community.
COFFEE REACHES EUROPE When coffee spread from the Middle East to Europe by the 17th century, there was huge effort to ban the drink, describing the beverage as the “bitter invention of Satan”. But, fortunately for us, Pope Clement VIII stepped in and after trying the drink himself, gave it papal approval. From there the beverage’s popularity grew and spread across the continent.
THE PARISIAN CAFÉ AND THE GOLDEN ERA The first of what would become known as the Parisian café and consequently the café ‘golden era’, came in 1686 when Italian-born Francesco Procopio opened Café Procope, a venue where guests would sit at marble tables, sip their drinks from china cups, surrounded by paintings, mirrors and dazzling chandeliers. The Parisian cafés were originally a place frequented by the upper class and were not so much about the coffee itself, but the overall experience. In 1723 there were a reported 323 cafés in Paris, but by 1790 there were more than 1,800 2 . The café evolved and started to become more and more integral to the Parisian lifestyle over the following centuries, launching a golden era by the 1920s for café culture in Paris that revolved around socialising for all classes. This was largely embodied by the café au lait. As socialising poured out onto the Parisian streets, the café became an important meeting place for writers and artists and a space for inspiring philosophical movements and revolutions. Cafés were indeed attended by artists and intellectuals that would shape much of the 20th century, from Honoré de Balzac and Jean-Paul Sartre, Picasso and Gertrude Stein, to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Cafés were officially synonymous with Parisian society. As Hurtaut and Magny famously wrote about cafés, "You don’t have to encounter anyone with bad morals, no loud persons, no soldiers, no domestics, no one who could trouble the tranquillity of society" 3.
THE THIRD PLACE The idea of ‘the third place’ was coined by sociologist, Ray Oldenburg, in 1989. He outlined how coffee shops were one of the essential pillars for social connections, inclusion and democracy. He said that for a healthy existence, people should ‘live in a balance of three kingdoms: life at home, workplace, and even social places.’ With the latter being known as the third place 4. While work is regarded as a more formal social enterprise and home being a private experience, a third place is needed to create a more relaxed environment where people feel comfortable enough to want to go back, socialise and enjoy a sense of community. The modern-day coffee shop, by Oldenburg’s reckoning, should be full of conversation between people from different social and economic backgrounds. It’s safe to say that such places exist along nearly every street and on every street corner.
COFFEE AND COMMUNITY While many modern, third wave coffee shops appeal to more progressive consumers that care about choice, sustainability and experience, there are still many other traditional coffee shops that appeal to consumers who prioritise price, for example. But there is a coffee shop for everyone, and within the walls of every coffee shop, and behind all visual aesthetics, no matter where you look, you’ll find the ingredients that have been universally consistent and instrumental, throughout history: coffee and community. The coffee shop is a climate; for discussion, progression, tradition and community. Steeped within the history of so many cultures, coffee shops have housed many of the greatest discussions and stories of our time. Some of which we’ve heard about, many of which we’ll never be fortunate enough to hear. As research shows that humans engage in conversation to spark and nurture connections, by providing spaces for regular and spontaneous interaction, coffee shops have, and always will be, a heartbeat in any community, creating social networks and promoting communal values 5, the echoes of which know no bounds and can be felt from generation to generation.
1
https://www.ncausa.org/About-Coffee/History-of-Coffee
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parisian_caf%C3%A9#:~:text=Coffee%20had%20been%20introduced%20to,had%20just%20moved%20to%20that
3
Fierro Alfred (1966) Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris. Rober Laffont p. 742
4
https://www.mjvinnovation.com/blog/third-place-and-the-starbucks-empire-the-user-experience-at-the-heart-of-strategy
5
(Stafford T. (2003): Psychology in the coffee shop. The Psychologist, 16(7):358-359
4-MIN READ
WHAT MAKES COFFEE ‘SPECIALITY’ Coffee comes in many shapes and sizes. From cortados, flat whites and small cappuccinos, to large lattes, mochas and Frappuccino® blended beverages. A lot of what makes one coffee different from another is the various milk textures and amounts. But there’s one thing, beneath the silky surface, that separates the wheat from the chaff: the espresso.
COMMODITY COFFEE Before we define speciality coffee, first let’s define what’s known as ‘commodity’ coffee. Commodity coffee is a product that’s considered to be ‘interchangeable’ with another coffee of the same type, which makes up most of the coffee consumed worldwide. The price of coffee is known as the C price, and it’s traded on the C market on the New York Coffee Exchange. Its price is set on the world market, which can fluctuate dramatically and is affected by a wide variety of factors, though none of which include taste, quality and cost of production. Regardless of the quality of the coffee produced, growers will get paid the same for their goods in the commodity market. Thousands of farmers worldwide rely on the commodity coffee industry for their livelihoods and though speciality coffee is often more desirable, not all farmers can make the transition to speciality coffee, usually due to either a lack of initial finance and resources, or because their land and climate is not optimal for the production of speciality coffee.
SPECIALITY COFFEE The term ‘speciality coffee’ was first used in 1974 by Erna Knutsen in an issue of Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. Knutsen used the term to describe beans ‘of the best flavour,’ produced in special micro-climates. According to the Speciality Coffee Association, speciality coffee is reached “through the dedication of the people who have made it their life’s work to continually make quality their highest priority” 6.
Q GRADING Q Grading is the process in which speciality coffee is established. A Q Grader is a licensed professional who’s capable of scoring the quality of roasted coffee. To become a Q Grader, you must pass a series of rigorous tests that measure your sensory abilities. Firstly, green coffee is graded via visual inspection. Visual inspection involves taking a 350g sample of green coffee beans and counting defects: • Primary defects black beans, sour beans • Secondary defects broken beans For a coffee to pass this visual test there must be zero primary defects and no more than five secondary defects. Next, a cupping takes place which involves roasting a sample of the green coffee and brewing it with hot water. The roaster must roast the coffee within 24 hours before the cupping and allow it to rest for at least eight hours. The cupping relies on the Q grader’s skill to assign scores out of 10 to each of the coffee’s attributes, done over five cups from the same sample. These attributes are:
Aroma The smell of the dry coffee, wet coffee at crust break and wet coffee as it steeps
Acidity Brightness = good, Sourness = bad
Uniformity Consistency of flavour across cups
Cupper points Holistic score by Cupper
Flavour Mid-range notes in between first impression and aftertaste
Body The feeling between tongue and mouth
Clean cup Lacking negative tastes from beginning to end of taste
Aftertaste Length and quality of enjoyable flavour after the coffee is swallowed
Balance Balance of flavour, aftertaste, body and acidity
Sweetness Sugary flavour = good, Astringency flavours = bad
Total Total score of previous 10 metrics
A defect in the cupping can either be a ‘taint’ or a ‘fault’. Every tainted cup will deduct two points from the score, while a faulty one will deduct a whole four points from the score. For a coffee to be labelled ‘speciality’, coffee must score at least 80 points overall on a 100-point scale. If a coffee scores below 80 then it’s considered commodity coffee.
THE SPECIALITY COFFEE PROCESS FARMING Speciality coffee is largely grown at higher altitudes, in micro-climates that provide the perfect conditions for coffee growing and much care and attention is needed from the farmer for it to satisfy the next stage in buying. Farmers will only pick coffee fruit with zero defects and at peak ripeness.
BUYING Next, it’s sold at a premium price to coffee traders or directly to roasters. The C price is not the final price that a farmer is paid for their coffee, but merely makes up a portion of that price 7. The higher prices paid for this coffee makes it more likely for farmers to be fairly compensated for their work and adds incentive for the farmers to maintain the highest of standards. It’s during this step where Q grading takes place and the coffee will either be deemed not of standard or labelled speciality. Once it’s passed the test, information about the coffee will be passed on to the roaster and coffee shop staff.
ROASTING Coffee roasting is an art that demands the highest level of knowledge and experience to produce speciality level roast profiles. During the roasting process, principles such as heat transfer and coffee chemistry must be applied and only with this level of finesse will the highest quality of flavour come through in the final roasted bean.
SERVING This is where speciality coffee meets the final hurdle. Like the previous processes, this one must be perfected. The barista is often highly trained and experienced, with a thorough knowledge of that particular coffee. They take the roasted coffee and produce quality beverages, often with specialised equipment. If they don’t do their job, then the end consumer will likely miss out on experiencing that coffee to its fullest potential.
CONSUMING To complete the process, it’s up to the consumer to actively seek speciality coffee, to learn from the barista about the people whose passion and hard work created the coffee, to show an appreciation and willingness to commit to a higher standard of taste to ensure the ongoing cycle of speciality coffee.
6
https://sca.coffee/research/what-is-specialty-coffee
7
https://sprudge.com/what-is-the-c-market-183157.html
3-MIN READ
THE WATER WE USE A cup of coffee requires two ingredients: ground, roasted coffee beans and water. The Water Footprint Network estimated that a typical cup of coffee or espresso (123ml) requires 140 litres of water, which means that one part of coffee consumes 1100 parts of water . With so much water being needed for coffee, it’s worth looking into how we can – as an industry – find sustainable solutions to water usage where possible. 8
FOR FARMING Agroforestry systems in the coffee industry are generally very effective for watershed health, with only natural forests being more effective at regulating the water cycle 9. There is, however, a very broad spectrum of how coffee is managed on farms. The differences between good and bad coffee processing practices have major implications for water resources 10. Further, the impacts of climate change, with more droughts, erratic rainfall, and unpredictable weather patterns are a major environmental stress affecting water usage in most coffee producing countries.
CONTOUR PLANTING: Planting coffee trees along contours (across hillslopes) and not across contours (up and down hillslopes) reduces the speed at which water moves downhill to increase infiltration and soil moisture. Coffee plants that are planted along contours create natural water breaks that disrupt and reduce the speed of water. This increases water infiltration into the soil and the roots. In slowing down water flow, soil erosion can be controlled, which improves fertility in the soil by holding onto key, fertiliser and organic matter in place.
MICRO-TERRACES: Small terraces that are at the base of each coffee tree are very effective at capturing water and sediment that runs downhill. Having these micro-terraces across a coffee farm can slow runoff, reduce erosion, increase soil moisture and improve aquifer recharge 11.
WATER-SMART FARMING PRACTICES: Water-smart agricultural practices use water efficiently, minimising the impacts to downstream water quality. They’re good for both coffee production and water resources. A major hurdle to improving coffee processing is that a lot of coffee producers believe that using more water results in higher coffee quality. Research and field evidence demonstrate, however, that more efficient water management can deliver improvements in quality and profitability 12 .
CASE STUDY Last year, Starbucks ® set goals to conserve water usage in green coffee processing by 50% by the year 2030 13. To help reach that goal, they invested in ecological wet mills, known as eco-mills and nearly 600 eco-mills were acquired in 2020, which were sent to coffee farms across the world. This ended up with 80% water savings in coffee processing 14. Further, Starbucks ® also set out aims to produce water processing technology and machinery that is more efficient and develop water replenishment projects in coffee growing communities 15.
FOR CAFÉS AND CONSUMERS While many solutions are available for farming, there are also many ways in which water use can be controlled and reduced by cafés and consumers.
MINDFULNESS: One of the easiest ways to reduce water wastage is mindfulness. Thinking about how much water is being used and controlling it when washing dishes and cups, rinsing filters and brewing coffee.
REPURPOSE , REUSE: Another hugely cost-effective method is reusing/repurposing water where possible. Considering when using hot water to pre-heat cups, pouring it back into the kettle rather than down the drain, or pouring water from the drip tray into plants or vegetation if available.
COFFEE CHOICE: Choosing coffees that require the least amount of water at home will make a big difference, like drinking a black coffee, or choosing a pour-over or AeroPress, which require minimal amounts of water for washing up. Only filling your kettle with the amount of water that's necessary will also go a long way in reducing your water usage.
EDUCATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY: Then there’s knowledge and education. Making sure as an industry – from farmer and roaster to barista and consumer – we’re educated on where we can improve and how we can improve and seeking new ways in which improvement can be reached. Holding one another accountable in the joint effort towards a more sustainable future is a steadfast way to getting there.
8
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/water-use-coffee-sustainable-profitable
9
https://scanews.coffee/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Water-Security-and-Coffee-.pdf
10
Stubblefield, A., Hicks, P., Sheridan, M., and Kline, A. Beyond the Quality of Water in Your Cup: Coffee and Water Resources at Origin. The Specialty Coffee Chronicle, 2013 Issue No. 3.
11
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/584f6bbef5e23149e5522201/t/5bfee5b44ae23714bd9e34a1/1543431625366/Water+Security+and+Coffee.pdf
12
Dr Flavio Borem’s presentation at the SCAA Symposium in 2015 provides a strong argument for reducing water use in mills, and for the potential for natural coffees, including references to academic studies. See: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=6QJRklaKEgY
13 14 15
https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2021/starbucks-announces-coffee-specific-environmental-goals/
2-MIN READ
IT’S COLD BREW SEASON With the returning distinctive shades of blue skies and sun-kissed landscapes, so too, returns the desire for colder, iced coffees. Summer is near, which means cold brew season is on its way. Cold brew coffee is different from other forms of coffee. It’s made using cold filtered water and doesn’t carry the stereotypical ‘bitterness’ that hot coffee usually does. Not to be confused with an iced coffee, however, as an iced coffee tends to contain the bitter/sour elements that come from an espresso.
A BRIEF HISTORY To trace the history of the cold brew, is to go back to the early 1600s in Kyoto, Japan. Although this is the first recorded use of cold brew coffee, it’s not confirmed as to whether this drink and method existed previously. It’s believed by some that this cold brewing method may have been introduced to Japan by Dutch traders from Indonesia, developed for the purpose of transporting large amounts of coffee which later could be reheated or served cold.
Despite the questions about its origins, the Japanese-styled cold brew coffee spread through different trade routes around the world and eventually grew into the cold brew popularity we see today in coffee shops around the world.
WHAT MAKES IT SO POPULAR? Cold brew is a coffee with a known smoothness and clarity to it. Brewing with cold water produces a range of mouthfeel and sweetness that’s absent of the acidity found in hot coffee. This absence of acidity is noticeable when comparing cold brew coffee to iced coffee. Cold brew coffee provides an added level of convenience as once it’s made it’s ready-to-drink and there’s no need to wait for temperature changes. It’s this inherent clarity of flavour and convenience that makes the cold brew the perfect iced beverage for summer.
Nestlé Coffee Partners offers a range of brands and solutions to suit your customers’ requirements. If you’d like to talk through any of what you’ve read and explore how we can help you leverage the insight we’ve shared this month, or if you’d simply like to catch up over a coffee, we’d love to hear from you. We’re available on +44 (0)203 124 1029 (Option 2) or at coffeepartners@uk.nestle.com.