Sniff. Slurp. Spit. Repeat. Coffee Cupping at Counter Culture DC

Until recently, my formal beverage tasting experience has been singularly focused on beer. I’ve judged beer in competitions from South Africa to Virgina and held countless semi-formal tastings with friends and family. But, although I roast my own coffee beans at home, I’m a newbie when it comes to professional coffee cupping.

My first official cupping was just last month when I visited the Asorcafe coffee lab (above) in the small town of Pedregi, in the Cauca region of Colombia. The lab technicians were experts, as were my companions from Peace Coffee and Higher Grounds, so I had good coaching that helped prevent me from dribbling coffee down my chin. I did, however, begin the cupping while wearing a cowboy hat which Jody from Higher Grounds suggested I remove so as to avoid knocking over glasses as I bowed my nose to the grounds.

This morning I attended a free cupping at Counter Culture’s lab in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C. (For background on Counter Culture’s “direct trade” business model, read my online conversation with Kim and Peter from Counter Culture and my other recent post about the chat I had with folks from Intelligentsia, the company that trademarked the term Direct Trade.)

Here’s a primer on the tasting procedure and a report on the three coffees we cupped this morning.

The Cupping Ritual
Our host, Ryan Jensen, Customer Relations, prepared by lining up a set of about ten 8 oz. glasses for each of the three coffees. He scooped about a tablespoon of grounds (13 grams to be exact) into each glass. It’s important to cup several glasses of each coffee in order to avoid mischaracterizing a whole batch based on just one cup. A single glass can exhibit a defect from one bad bean but the rest of the batch might be flawless. Once the glasses were filled with grounds, we were armed with pens, clipboards and cupping forms. Silence and furrowed brows indicated that the ritual was about to begin.

1. Moving from glass to glass, we sniffed and noted the fragrance of the grounds.

2. Then Ryan poured 8 oz. of hot water into each glass. Going glass to glass again, we smelled the aroma of the steeping coffee.

3. We were given small paper cups and large spoons with deep basins. We used our spoons to once again move down the line of glasses and “break” the layer of grounds floating on top of the coffee, noting the fresh burst of aromas released by this technique. The grounds were then removed from the glasses.

4. For the final gauntlet of grounds, we dipped our spoons into the glasses and raised the samples to our bowed heads. Using our lips, we slurped across our tongues, aerating and roiling the coffee throughout the mouth, saturating every taste receptor from front to back, top to bottom, and side to side. After each swish, a few of the cuppers opted to avoid ingesting too much coffee by spitting the samples into their cups. Most, including me, chose to go whole hog and swallow every ounce.

In this last step we actually tasted the coffee, noting brightness, flavor, body, and aftertaste. In beer tasting terminology, brightness is similar to crispness. A bright coffee is snappy and clean like a pilsener, whereas a less bright coffee is mellow and smooth like an ale. (I’m generalizing here, don’t take this beer comparison too far because the exceptions will just make it confusing.)

Flavor is what you taste. Anything goes – the point is just to recognize all the flavors you can identify. Flavor can be intense or subtle, direct or nuanced, complex or one-dimensional. I relied on one of the handy tasting wheels Ryan had distributed in order to help connect what my taste buds were experiencing with what my food-memory has stored in the recesses of my mind. Body can be full or thin. Going back to beer, Bud Light is thin-bodied and watery, while imperial stouts, barleywines, and double IPAs are rich and robust. Aftertaste is how any flavor lingers on the palate or cuts short and clean.

Here is a summary of my tasting notes.

Coffee #1: Peruvian from Valle del Santuario, Ignacio
Representative of its region, this certified organic, shade grown coffee is an everyday cup, the equivalent of what beer drinkers call a session beer such as an English bitter or American amber. Milk chocolate and brownies dominated the fragrance. Sweet, roasted peanuts appeared in the aroma. The break released leather and malt. As a routine morning cup, the brightness was light and mellow, with an earthy flavor, mild body and little to no aftertaste.

In one word: quaffable.

Coffee #2: Kenyan from the Gaturiri and Nyeri regions (auction lot #4486)
After the cupping, the participants unanimously requested this one to be brewed as our cup to savor during the post-cupping discussion. Because of the Kenyan national coffee system, direct, fair trade coffee buying relationships are nearly impossible. So, although this coffee’s region of origin is known, its exact farmers are anonymous. Furthermore, it is neither organic nor shade grown. Damp earth and dark berries and fruits in the nose made way for roasted nuts at the break, followed by a bright, tangy grapefruit, tangerine, spicey cinnamon flavor. While it was perhaps the most rewarding cup of the three, the medium body was just shy of the strength needed to counter balance the punch of citric acid that lingered in the finish.

In one word: conversational.

Coffee #3: Sumatran from Gayo, Aceh
Certified organic and shade grown, earth and smoke came to the fore throughout this complex cup from the damp forest lands of Sumatra. The nose was rough, like roasted chestnuts, pungent and acrid, with a full-bodied musty, tobacco-like flavor and lingering hide-like aftertaste.

In one word: comforting.

Proof that Beer and Coffee Are the Best Companions
After the tasting, I thought it was only fair to let Ryan know that the reason I attended was that I am an author and I’m conducting research for my next book. He replied that he had just started reading Fermenting Revolution two days ago. I’m hoping to make the Counter Culture lab a place for repeat visits in the coming months of research. I’ll have to treat Ryan to a beer sometime as thanks for his free educational cuppings.

Looking for Justice and Sustainability at Coffee Fest DC

Posted by Chris O’Brien

I’ve been looking forward to this for about a month. Finally the Coffee Fest as arrived – and I’m sick as a dog.

I had planned on taking a couple of the $95 seminars on cupping and blending but frankly I couldn’t smell the difference between a cup of Rwandan Zirikana and a piece of burnt toast right now. I’ve had the worst cold of my life for five weeks now. It hit me the day I landed in Colombia for coffee coop visits and I haven’t been able to shake it yet. In fact it’s gotten so bad I even – gasp – went to see a doctor. Four days on prescription meds and I’m still clogged up, congested, bronchially infected and generally down and out and dejected.

So I skipped the costly (but probably worthwhile) training classes and barely managed to haul my belling-aching ass to the show at all today. I traversed the whole show floor in less than two hours. It was a little smaller than I expected, which was a relief since I was so sick, but made the $30 door charge seem slightly steep. I tried to get in on a press pass but got no response at all from my emailed request. So right off the bat I was going in already docking them points for poor media relations.

My goals ranged from seeking sustainable packaging and serviceware, talking with roasters, importers and certifiers about sustainable trade issues, and looking for roasting equipment for my own possible coffee roastery business (shh, that’s kind of a secret). I left mildly better informed on each of these points.

Here’s what I learned.

PACKAGING & SERVICEWARE
Marketing claims about ‘green’ packaging and service items were all over the place. In fact, the majority of the booths offering these products made some kind of eco-assertion.

EcoSleeve. Made from polystyrene, this cup sleeve is marketed as “100% recyclable.” The bad news is that polystyrene, a.k.a. styrofoam, a.k.a. #6 plastic, is NOT recyclable where I live. As one might expect of one of the most liberal counties in America, Montgomery County, Maryland has a robust curbside recycling program, and even sponsors a free waste veggie oil exchange program in order to encourage conversion of this byproduct into useful biodiesel. If styrofoam is not recyclable here I wonder where it is recyclable.

EcoSleeve also claims to be “#100% biodegradable.” I’ve never heard this claim about styrofoam before, but the product brochure references a certification by EcoLogo, a credible eco-certification program that I’m very familiar with from first hand experience with the people who run the company. In fact, I’m giving a series of seminars in California next week with one of their VPs. I’ll have to make a note to ask him about this product because he is fond of noting in his presentations that biodegradability claims are generally bogus since nothing degrades in a sealed landfill. The EcoSleeve website further claims that one sleeve produces 66% less waste than a paper sleeve. That seems vague since it leaves me wondering whether the product itself just has less mass or if they are accounting for all the waste in the respective manufacturing processes, or what.

Despite the EcoLogo certification, the combination of three dubious claims (recyclability, biodegradability, waste-reduction) earns this product a double thumbs down from me.

GreenGood. This company produces PLA cups and containers; plates, clamshells, and other containers, made from recycled paper pulp and sugarcane waste; and 42% post-consumer waste recycled plastic cup lids. PLA stands for polylactic acid, which basically means plant-based plastic as opposed to plastic derived from petroleum. This is generally a good alternative to regular plastic, especially if you have a composting program for the used cups. However, my sense is that prices are steeper than conventional plastic plus PLA has the disadvantage of breaking down when exposed to sunlight or high temperatures. The good news is these guys also sell something called CPLA, or crystallized PLA. The science is lost on me but the salesman explained that it’s a microwaveable version of PLA, but it too has a performance tradeoff in that the crystallization process turns transparent PLA into a tan opaque color, thus obscuring the beverage.

Ag waste and recycled paper are definitely better options than virgin paper pulp. And the recycled plastic lids seem like a pretty good no brainer. I wasn’t able to do a cost comparison on any of the above because there were no price lists. But if you’re looking for solid environmental benefits, GreenGood seems to deliver.

CupCoat. Why is everything twowords combined into one these days? CupCoat is reusable “fabric” cup sleeve claiming to be environmentally preferable because it replaces multiple disposable sleeves. The promotional literature claims that one CupCoat saves “approximately 2-5 lbs of garbage per person.” Hunh? How ever did they arrive at that number. The “coats” are made of such eco-friendly materials as “faux-fur” (okay, that tells me what it’s not, but it doesn’t tell me what it is), “rubberized synthetics” and “waterproofed t-shirt material.” Not sure what the second one is there either but the last one is apparently an obfuscating way of saying “cotton,” which happens to be the most chemical input-intensive crop on the planet. Sorry CupCoat, you are way bogus. Oh, except you almost won me over with the “T-zur” line. I’m a sucker for animal prints.

ecotainer Hot Cups. These are apparently an International Paper product marketed under the brand JavaStock. The ecotainer ™ is simple a virgin fiber paper cup with a PLA lining instead of a regular petro-plastic lining, earning it a BPI Certification. That’s a new one to me but on first glance the certification looks legit. Unfortunately, there’s a hefty price premium for this eco-benefit. For example, 1000 8 oz. ecotainer cups cost $82 compared to $59.40 for the regular kind. Seems steep and for that price I’d think you could get some recycled content fiber in there too. This gets a marginal thumbs up on the environmental improvement but a big wet raspberry for the jacked up price.

COFFEE CERTIFICATIONS
Rainforest Alliance. I talked with the folks from Rainforest Alliance about how their sustainability standard stacks up against the many other coffee certification schemes. The staff rep at the booth asserted that its “up there with Fair Trade and organic” and emphasized its focus on “conservation” whereas Fair Trade addresses “trade.” I asked who pays and how the label is applied to products. Confusingly, he said anyone along the chain of supply can pay, but when I pressed him for a firm answer it became clear that ultimately farmers must pay the costs unless some generous partner offers to pay it for them. He also explained that there is a “traceability” system that serves to verify a company’s right to use the logo, but when I asked how a coffee drinker could access that traceability system he allowed that they couldn’t and the best they can do is ask a roaster for their certificate. We weren’t able to get into much more detail but this conversation highlighted to me how the trade and environmental communities continue to see themselves as separate instead of focusing on their obvious commonalities. Ultimately, long-term sustainability must include people and the planet.

Fair Trade Proof. I was happy to then run into Tripp and other good folks associated with Cafe Campesino. Finally a friendly face in what was mostly a sea of food-colored-syrup-flavored “coffee” drinks. I indulged in a cup of medium roast Colombian since he offered and because I was kinda grooving on the fact that I had just visited Fondo Paez, the coop that grows these very beans. I asked Tripp about whether CC had considered Rainforest Alliance certification and his direct answer was that there was no way they could ask their producer partners to pay for another certification. He also thought that organic certification more or less covered what was important in terms of shade canopy and that this extra certification would be like “splitting hairs.”

I’m not convinced on this latter point (and I’d advise Tripp not to say such a thing to the bloggers over at Coffee and Conservation!) but I do see the inherent contradiction in holding growers responsible for the costs of certification in general, be it Rainforest Alliance or otherwise. It forces the good guys to pay for being good while letting the polluters/exploiters off scot-free. But the advantage is that it provides transparency to business claims about justice and sustainability. Cafe Campesino, and it’s importer Cooperative Coffees, will soon be launching an online transparency program called Fair Trade Proof that allows regular old everyday coffee drinkers to access company trade documents which show producer origin and payments. This is a significant stride forward in terms of truly transparent business and I look forward to announcing the launch when its ready. But I think you can already take a sneak peak now, just click the link above.

Direct Trade. Speaking of transparency, my next stop was Intelligentsia Coffee right across the aisle. They treated me to a Rwandan Zirikana and I spoke with a company rep who explained a little bit about their “Direct Trade” business model. Importantly, he first mentioned that it incorporates quality. Many certification programs for other unrelated products are going this same direction. For example, Green Seal launched a new certification last year for recycled content paint which incorporated performance standards from the Master Painters Institute. This is a significant trend because it helps dispel any notion that going “green” or “fair” means a compromise in quality. The myth that green equals poor quality has slowed the uptake of sustainable products for decades.

But Direct Trade, as far as anyone has been able to explain to me so far, including this rep from Intelligentsia, is not a certification and as far as I can tell it isn’t even a standard. It is really just a company (and a couple other companies they like) making unsubstantiated claims about fairness and sustainability. Their brochure lists six “criteria” of Direct Trade including that the price must be at least 25% above the fair trade price. It’s not clear whether this includes the fair trade premium or just the fair trade floor price and its also not clear whether this includes the additional organic premium required by the fair trade standard for the 80% or so of fair trade coffees that are also organic. When you add those both in and then consider that Intelligentsia’s coffee’s retail on their website for $14 or $15 dollars a pound all the way up to $28 and even $60 per pound, one wonders whether 25% is really very meaningful. Keep in mind also that by skipping certification, this company also gets to avoid paying its own share of the fair trade fees. I asked the rep point blank, without any certification, why should I believe that any of this is true? His response was “come to Nicaragua with me.” Hardly a viable option for 99.9% of this company’s customers. Ironically, one of his first assertions in our conversation was that their model is “totally transparent.” I got this same claim about Direct Trade from folks at Counter Culture in an online discussion we had over at the fantastic Coffee & Conservation blog.

One thing is clear: everyone is making claims about justice and sustainability in the coffee trade but there is little agreement about what that means. Hmm, someone ought to write a book. Oh wait, that’s what we’re doing!

Fair Trade Towns

Posted by Chris O’Brien

In the past week I’ve chatted with Carmen Iezzi, the director of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF), and Anne Riley, the director of the Fair Trade Resource Network (FTRN). Having formerly served as the director of FTF and worked closely with FTRN, it was great to catch up on all their current projects.

I was particularly excited to learn from Anne about the Fair Trade Towns program because it overlaps with my work at the Responsible Purchasing Network, so Anne and I plotted a bit about how we might work together to co-produce an Responsible Purchasing Guide for fair trade to help complement our series of purchasing guides for institutional buyers with something focused on internationally traded commodities that affect low-income producers.

The Fair Trade Towns initiative helps folks who are interested in working with their local governments to ensure that Fair Trade products are specified in government contracts. A few cities have already issued Fair Trade procurement resolutions, such as San Francisco, New York City, while the little burgs of Media, PA and Brattleboro, VT have both become full-fledged Fair Trade Towns.

Big Boss (Fair Trade) Coffee Stout

Posted by Chris O’Brien

Some of you know that before starting the Bean Activist, I cut my teeth (so to speak) on beverages as the Beer Activist – oh, the difference two little letters can make! But why choose coffee over beer or beer over coffee? Why not pour one over the other? Check out this near little video about this Coffee Stout produced by combining cold-pressed fair trade coffee from Larry’s Beans and a stout brewed at Big Boss Brewing, both in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The world gets a little better every day.

10 years after the Acteal Massacre….

Posted by Chris Treter

Few coffee co-ops we’ve come across in our adventures have the tragic yet inspirational story of Maya Vinic. On Dec. 22nd, 1997, many in the refugee camp of Acteal were off tending to their coffee fields while the women, elders, and children were praying and fasting for peace in their chapel. That morning, dozens of armed paramilitary climbed the cliff that marks the edge of the camp and surrounded the wooden chapel. Over the course of 5 hours they killed 45 mostly women and children; their penalty for pacifically struggling for indigenous rights and refusing to side with the paramilitary against the Zapatistas.

Most who were on the ground (see the documentary “The Damned War in Chiapas” if you don’t believe me!), knew that such a massacre could be imminent. In fact, although the government was informed by the community of Acteal a full month before the massacre that threats were being made, nothing was done to prevent it. The survivors tell us that the only thing the government did that day was block the road to traffic while the massacre took place and then tried to cover up its’ traces that evening.

The truth and the continued search for justice is being uncovered and pursued thanks to the perseverance of the survivors and their families, most of which make up the coffee growing co-op of Maya Vinic. Maya Vinic was formed in 1999 because they were members of the same coffee growing co-op as the paramilitary who attacked them. In the countless visits we’ve made to visit Acteal and the farmers of Maya Vinic we have repeatedly heard from them about the injustices they faced at the hands of paramilitary farmers.

This past week, as the farmers of Maya Vinic commemorated the 10th anniversary of the massacre, human rights groups are giving warning that the same conditions that existed in Chiapas in 1997 are present today. Many fear an escalation in violence is imminent. In his last public speech, Subcommandante Marcos, the masked military leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) declared that the time has come to end speaking in public forums and return to a preparatory and more clandestine stance to deal with increased paramilitary and military activities in the state. Upon the announcement, he stated, “The signs of war on the horizon are clear. War, like fear, also has a smell. And now we are starting to breathe its fetid odor in our lands.”

In my many visits to Chiapas in the past two years I have traveled with CAPISE (The Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations ) to hear the testimonies of various communities effected by paramilitary activity. Now, my contacts tell me that the situation has become increasingly more difficult. Threats of displacement and death are becoming common place. Visit these links to learn more:

– To learn more about the situation read “Zapatista Code Red,” by Naomi Klein

– To get up to the minute details and action you can take to support human rights in Chiapas visit Indymedia Chiapas

– Want to travel to Chiapas and document human rights violations? Then contact CAPISE

The Indigenous Arhuaco of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Posted by Chris O’Brien

In two weeks, I’ll join my fellow blogger-soon-to-be-authors Chris and Jody Treter for a visit to two coffee producing communities in Colombia. The first is the indigenous Arhuaco of the coastal Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia. The Arhuaco are one of four indigenous groups believed to be descendants of the ancient Tayrona civilization which thrived around 900 CE and may go as far back as the beginning of the first millennium. We’ll be meeting Arhuaco representatives from the Tayrona Indigenous Federation.

In preparation for the trip I’ve been learning what I can about these people and their environs. I started by reading a chapter about them in Dean Cycon’s book Javatrekker and a few dribs and drabs floating around on the web.

Some themes emerge in what I read. First, as with many indigenous people around the world, coffee was used against them as a colonial weapon of oppression. But today they are tentatively embracing it as a potential tool of economic empowerment by seeking relationships with fair trade coffee partners.

Second, by all accounts they are distrustful of and unwelcoming to outsiders. I suppose they have their reasons.

And finally, they have a deeply held religious belief that their mountains are the heart (or, depending on what you read, the navel) of the world. As such, they feel that the health of the Sierra Nevada range is critical to the survival of the world. Apparently, for decades now they have been diagnosing local ecosystem changes as symptomatic of global warming.

According to our trip host, Cooperative Coffees, the Tayrona Federation have the following eight objectives in commercializing their coffee. Here they are as quoted verbatim from the Coop Coffees website.

1. Give to the Confederación Indígena Tayrona, as legitimate representative of the insterests of the Arhuaco people, the economic capacity to commercialize their own coffee.
2. To strengthen indigenous institutionality of the Arhuaco natives, represented by the Confederación Indígena Tayrona.
3. To strengthen economic self/sustainability in the Arhuaco community as a strategy to prevent deplacement of the indigenous population of the zone.
4. To control the entering to the zone of external agents to the community that produce internal disarticulation.
5. To assure that the coffee producing Arhuaco community members receive the benefits to which an organic producer has right.
6. To refrain from cultural dissolution or crackeling of the community.
7. To create the mechanisms that permit the Arhuaco community to have better sales processes in their agricultural products.
8. To acquire knowledge based on experience of commercialization of agricultural products.

I’m very eager to learn whether selling coffee through fair trade relationships is helping them realize these goals. The beer activist in me is also very keen to see if there are some unusual versions of chicha being brewed up in them there mountains.

News from Fair Trade: FLO’s Pricing Announcement, Market Forces & Peru

 Last Week, the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) announced a long-awaited decision to increase the Fair Trade certified minimum price for washed and unwashed arabica coffees. The press release is here: FLO Price Increase Release

For washed arabicas the minimum price per pound bumped to $1.25 per pound (up from $1.20) and for unwashed the price increased to $1.20 USD per pound (from $1.15). The FLO increase translates into a base price of $1.55 for organic fair trade washed arabica coffees. ($1.25 minimum + $.20 organic premium + $.10 fair trade premium).

FLO’s press release states that market pressures didn’t warrant a price increase for robusta coffees.

This announcement follows on a decision made in June 2007 when FLO conceded a modest increase on both the organic and fair trade premiums by 5 USD cents each under  pressure from producers, ATOs (alternative trade organizations) and allies. 

For many ATO’s and trade allies, FLO’s decision to increase pricing is too little too late. For several years now, alternative traders and small scale producers have attempted to engage FLO on the minimum price issue. How are Fair Trade cooperatives supposed to secure coffee in a market when, on one hand, the global commodity market prices are reaching those of the Fair Trade minimum and, on the other end of the spectrum, elitist coffee importers are offering exhorbitant prices to indiviual farming families for a year’s entire harvest?

So, while FLO’s price increase may be vital when the world’s coffee prices spiral downwards once again, it is unlikely that small scale farmers will see much benefit in 2008 from the recently announced price increase.  In 2007, importers of specialty coffee were forced to pay prices that far exceed fair trade minimums in order to secure high-quality coffee. 2008 promises to be yet another year of increasing prices in the specialty market.  The Oromia co-op from Ethiopia, for example, recently announced they expect approximately $2.50 per pound USD on 2008 contracts.  

The increase in coffee prices, whether dictated by FLO or a result of demand for specialty coffee, is a victory for small scale producers. Alternative traders and allies have long advocated for severing ties with the commodity markets and, instead, create pricing structures based on the cost of production plus differentials related to quality, cost of living, isolation of the farmers and inflation in the country. It remains to be seen what our market in the States will bear as increasing prices get passed along to roasters, retailers and consumers. The value of currency will be another factor to watch in 2008 because buyers from Europe, New Zealand and other countries, with their currencies becoming stronger and stronger against the dollar, have more flexibity to deal with increasing prices in their respective markets.

 Finally, it’s important to note that healthy trading relationships shouldn’t be relegated to pricing alone. Small scale coffee growers from Peru circulated the following letter (linked below), admonishing FLO for their acceptance of Perales Huancaruna into the FLO certification program. They assert that Perales Huancaruna, the biggest coffee exporting corporation in Peru,  has a long history of disenfranchising small scale growers in order to make a profit.  They fear the entrance of Perales Huancaruna into FLO’s system will be the demise of the fair trade certification system for small scale growers in Peru. Read the letter by clicking below

Letter from the National Association for Small Scale Producers in Peru

Yachil Xolobal Chulchan (A New Light in the Sky)

By Chris Treter

The fog lifts from the steep mountain and the seasonal rain has briefly ceased leaving behind deep puddles of mud. I hand my passport over to a masked joven guarding the gate of the Zapatista headquarters. I’ve arrived again at Oventic, an hours’ drive from San Cristobal de Las Casas in the heart of the Mayan Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. It was here nearly 14 years ago that a well-organized and determined group of impoverished Mayan farmers rose up against the Mexican government on the day NAFTA began. Telling the world “Ya Basta“, they ushered in a global movement for a dignified and just economy.

Just seven years ago, Jody and I hunkered down here on our arrival to Chiapas to serve as human rights observers. Living and working among the community for two weeks, the experience offered a window into the harsh reality of the poorest of the poor in Mexico. Here we learned that the struggle for a just and sustainable existence for the Mayan people does not end overnight. Here we found the heart of fair trade beating inside a people who where brutally subjugated to the “conquest” of the “new world.” Where the likes of Pedro de Alvarado and Diego de Mazariegos placed the Mayan people into servitude of the Spanish elite. Today the global conquistadores, veiled as corporations such as Coca- Cola and Syngenta continue the rampage of the rich and vibrant Mayan communities, playing its role to tear apart the threads of its cultural existence.

The guard, sporting a black pasamontana to conceal his identity from belligerent outsiders opens the gate and ushers me on to the Office of Vigilance where I am questioned once again for the purpose of my visit. Outside, Monika Firl, Cooperative Coffees Producer Relations Guru, visits the women’s artisan cooperative, Mujeres por La Dignidad (Women for Dignity), while I go through the process of authorization to enter Zapatista Territory.

“I’d like to speak with the Junta to discuss our coffee purchase this year,” I tell a half a dozen masked men in a dirt floor shack with one table and a bench. Here after conversation with the Junta – the judicial and administrative body elected in a form of participatory democracy – we get approval to head on to Santa Catarina, the Zapatista municipality where Yachil Xolobal Chulchan (Tzeltal translation of “A New Light in the Sky”) is headquartered.

The rains have been heavy this October; locals say some of the worst they remember. Not only does this lead to a cold and damp life for the Tzotzil and Tzetal Mayans that call the Highlands their home. It also means that already difficult traveling conditions are made worse. Trails that lead farmers to the closest town, sometimes a six-hour hike through the meandering mountain forests, turn to an impassable mud pit. For the privileged class like myself, this equates to mudslides and washed out bridges on the main road as our taxi lumbers toward Santa Catalina with our meeting with Yachil.

Rain pounds the windshield as Monika and I discuss topics ranging from communication problems with our Ethiopian partners to how to meet the green bean coffee needs of 23 small roasters who make up our roasting cooperative. We brainstorm on how we are going to approach our meeting with Yachil – a co-op with almost no infrastructure, facing continued government oppression, extreme poverty, and operating on a shoestring budget.

Upon entering the town square of Pantelho, a run-down, coffee frontier town at the end of the long paved road in this region, our companeros come out of the shadows and lead us to the house of the President of the Co-op. “He had to go to the hospital in San Cristobal,” they say. “We are sorry but his wife has a very bad heart.” Quickly we are reminded of the daily existence of life in the rural highlands of Chiapas. She is one of the 1 million inhabitants, the vast majority indigenous, that do not have access to health care in Chiapas. Though 71.6% of the indigenous population is malnourished, there is only 1 doctor for every 25,000 inhabitants of the state (Source CIEPAC).

The meeting begins with 17 members of the board of directors and representatives of the communities to discuss this year’s harvest. We sit in the “living room,” – a vacant room with one computer. Wooden planks used as a bed are strewn across the old tattered and cracked concrete floor. The compas put down their satchels and sit upon them. The wind and rain take turns interrupting our discussions as they find their way between the holes in the aluminum roof and cracks of the old weather worn door. The corn, towering over the house at nearly 10 feet tall (this isn’t Midwest GMO corn!), sways back and forth in the courtyard to the rhythm of our conversation.

”Greetings brothers, I am honored to spend some time with you today.” I state, as Monika and I start the greetings that at times can continue on for minutes in a Mayan community. In the corner against the wall, the representatives of San Juan Cancuc huddle together. They had walked for 4 hours – leaving the house at 5 am to make it to the meeting.

As we discuss harvest projections, coffee related projects, and possible damage caused to the fields due to the heavy rains, our conversations are translated from Spanish to Tzotzil and Tzetal, the Mayan languages spoken primarily by the growers in this area. Since the Zapatista uprising in ’94 the number of people speaking these language have actually increased. This is rare in a world where indigenous languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. According to the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America, there are only a third of the 1,750 languages that were spoken in Latin America when the Spaniards arrive still in existence today. The pressure to speak Spanish is evident in our meeting.

“Friends, why are you so quite?” I ask. After contemplation they respond, “We are ashamed, we don’t speak Spanish very well.”

”You should be proud of your language. I should be ashamed, I don’t speak Tzotzil or Tzeltal.” I say in a customary reply made dozens of times in my many travels here.

”Well you may be ashamed buy I am afraid! Chris is one of my 23 bosses and if we don’t figure out how to overcome these challenges he will be mad.” Monika chimes in, trying to break the ice.

It works as the room roars in laughter. It seems they know my demeanor and disposition too well to fall for that! We return to our meeting, unified and in understanding that we are working together to overcome the evil and oppression brought on by the conventional coffee market and global economic policies.

From then on the meeting moves quickly. They need pre-financing if they are to get the beans from the growers this year. Many of them do not have an income other then their crop and need money immediately to feed their families. The co-op has nowhere to store the coffee and needs to get three trucks on the main roads. Once the beans are harvested and dried the growers will bring their coffee to the trucks for collection. But no one is trained to prepare the coffee for exportation.

Overcoming these challenges are necessary to provide a better livelihood for the growers. Last year the farmers received 23 pesos per kilo from the co-op. The coyotes – the pesky competition in the conventional market – only paid 17 pesos (and that was in a high market). The 5 pesos difference is very important to communities of growers that are literally leading a “hand to mouth” existence. In addition, Cooperative Coffees leaves the contract open and pays $.30 cents above the market price.

This year, Cooperative Coffees is paying $1.70/ a pound – nearly 30 cents more then the certified fair trade/organic price. In addition, Cooperative Coffees keeps a buffer of 30 cents above the market price at all times. So, for instance, if Yachil closes the contract on the day the market price reaches $1.50, Cooperative Coffees will pay $1.80. Higher Grounds has put profits generated from coffee sales to help fund water and school projects in Zapatista communities.

Our offer is appealing to the co-op and such face-to-face conversations are necessary to understand the overwhelming challenges of this underdeveloped cooperative. They sign the contract, committing to sell us a container of green beans and hand it back to Monika. Now the hard work will begin.

Following picking, depulping, fermenting, drying, and sorting, the farmers must store the bags of coffee in their homes until enough coffee is ready for them to hike it out and deliver to the trucks which will rush it off to the processing center in Tuxtla Gutierrez to be sorted for exportation. Once 40,000 pounds are split up into 152 pound jute bags and processed into cafe de oro – export grade green beans, a truck takes off to the coast of Veracruz where the coffee is loaded on to a ship and sets off for New Jersey. Once through customs safely in the U.S., a semi brings us bags of Yachil’s coffee to our roastery where it is roasted fresh and delivered to customers around the country. A long tedious process, but well worth it once its signature flavor, notes of chocolate and a clean, smooth aftertaste, hit your tongue.

On our way out of town, we run into the President of the co-op and his wife. She stands stoically and silent to the side of her husband. Shoeless, she is dressed in a traditional Mayan huipil with a shawl to protect her from the cold and rain. Her husband fills us in on the journey, “She is still sick and the doctor isn’t sure how to cure it,” he tells us. “The rain has completely washed away the bridge on the main road leading back to San Cristobal, you will have to cross the river by foot. You should hurry, it is getting late.”

For the members of Yachil Xolobal Chulchan, it’s another day in the life of an indigenous coffee farmer. Who after 500 years of the Conquista, continue to struggle against a global economy that is threatening the very existence of its language, culture, and indigenous identity. Another day where the happenings on the floor of the New York Board of Trade influence the amount of food a farmer can bring home to their families. Where U.S. immigration policy is a conversation had huddled around the family fire between bites of tortilla and beans. And where the privatizing interests of an increasingly powerful Mexican Government threaten traditional Mayan governing systems practiced daily in the juntas and community asambleas across the region. Here, the translation of the word “fair trade” does not just mean a price paid to a certified coffee grower. It is the tedious and time-consuming construction of lasting dignified direct relationships. It is the transformation of trade relations into a partnership for a better future. Where a New Light in the Sky can someday shine down even on the rainiest of days.

Beans in the Home Roaster

I started home-roasting my own coffee a few months ago. I use a “Nesco Smokeless Roaster.” I chose this model partly because it has a catalytic converter to capture most of the smoke generated during the roasting process. It takes me 20-25 minutes to roast up enough beans for several pots of coffee. Here’s a picture below of the roaster (coffee porn?). If you have a microscope, you might notice that it says “Zach and Danis” on the side. That’s the old name for this model. I snagged the image from Seven Bridges and they apparently just have an old photo, but I actually got the Nesco from them and its the same as what is pictured here.

I also ordered a five pound sampler bag of ten different varieties of green beans. They are all certified Fair Trade and USDA organic.

Using the roaster is very simple, but I’m still learning about which kinds of beans I like best and how long each should be roasted. So I’m going to blog about each roast as a way of teaching myself more about the beans and their roasts, and in order to share a little info about the coffee growers that grew the beans.

This morning I roasted some Sumatra Takengon. According to the Seven Bridges website, these beans are shade grown on the highland slopes of the Gayo Mountains near Laut Tawar in the Takengon region of Northern Sumatra where over 200 small coffee producers involved in producing this varietal. The farmers and communities of this remote region face a number of environmental and socio-economic challenges, including soil erosion, deforestation, low and unstable incomes. The organization, production, technical assistance and higher prices for certified organic, fair trade coffee help them fetch higher prices for their harvest. The beans are “semi-washed,” and come described as being “full bodied, slightly fruity, and clean with a sweet finish. . . great as a varietal, blender and perfect for espresso.” If you’re interested in Sumatran coffee, you can also check out the beans Higher Grounds sells from the Gayo Organic Coffee Growers Association.

I roasted about 5.5 ounces in the Nesco for 23 minutes. At first whiff, they smelled very acrid so I’m afraid I might have burnt them. I’m already drinking my morning mug of “1st Grade Ethiopian Arabica” from a company called Mamo Kacha PLC so tasting the Sumatran will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry to leave you hanging! Oh, and for the record, I would have cited the Ethiopian regional growing name and referenced its certifications but this coffee came as a gift from a friend who recently traveled there. Since she bought the beans in-country in a grocery store, they aren’t labeled in the way they would be if they were being sold in the specialty coffee market here so I don’t know much about them except that they are delicious (and free!).

Is there Fair Trade Clothing for a Conscientious Coffee Drinker?

Conscientious coffee drinkers know to seek Fair Trade, organic, shade-grown beans for their morning buzz. But as important as coffee is to the world economy and to its millions of devotees, its just one of the many things we buy. What does an enlightened fair trade coffee drinker don when its time to pull on something as simple as a t-shirt?

Fair Trade began in the 1940s when a number of religious groups like SERRV International and Ten Thousand Villages started marketing hand-crafted goods from economically impoverished artisans in less industrialized countries in the global south. Other early fair traders created direct trading relations between Northern marketers and small Southern artisans as part of a larger political movement aimed at countering corporate-lead capitalist imperialism.

Eventually, fair traders, or “alternative traders” as they were also known, realized that commodity goods like coffee could be powerful levers in rebalancing the global trade machine since agricultural goods generate the most cash income for millions of the world’s poor. Today, a sophisticated global system is in place for verifying “fair” trading relationships between peasant farmers and the northern customers who consume the goods they grow. Just look for Fair Trade Certified coffee, tea, cocoa, bananas, wine or any of a number of other commodity food goods.

But the global apparel industry has yet to catch up. Worker exploitation still runs rampant throughout the world’s many sweatshop apparel factories. So where does a conscientious coffee drinker turn when its time to buy some threads (besides the thrift store)?

A handful of “sweatfree” clothing producers have been working to perfect a fair trade model for working with garment workers. Five years ago Maggie’s Organics helped a group of women in Nicaragua build their own factory called The Fair Trade Zone. They documented the story in a brief video called Ants that Move Mountains. If the tale of how these women overcame the destruction of Hurricane Mitch and built their own factory doesn’t make you want to go out and buy their camisoles, you must be a nudist.

A new business on the block is called Counter Sourcing. Company owner Joe Falcone recently contacted me to share news about their success converting the University of Wisconsin campus to cotton tees delivered through their fair trade channels. Here’s the model they use for equitable distribution of the profits made from the t-shirt trade.

An essential link that remains missing in the apparel trade is certification – who is verifying the claims made by companies like Maggie’s and Counter Sourcing? Personally, I have confidence in Maggie’s Organics since I’m friends with the owner and know her commitment runs deep at a personal level. Likewise, Counter Sourcing appears to be on the level; the founder has a long list of credentials from the garment worker justice movement, and I have social links to him too through a mutual friend that introduced us. These kind of social links are important in establishing credibility. But trusting a personal friend who runs a business is different from trusting an unknown company who makes a fair trade claim in a hang-tag without having any verification to back it up. Should the average consumer trust these company claims?

So the good news is that fair trade or “sweatfree” apparel is inching its way into the marketplace. Maggie’s and Counter Sourcing are just two examples of a growing cadre of conscientious clothiers; check out Co-op America’s National Green Pages for a directory of many more.

These small companies are a great start. They are blazing the fair trade trail for others to follow. In fact, Counter Sourcing even claims to be in dialogue with TransFair USA about creating a Fair Trade certification standard for clothing. That needs to happen, whether its with TransFair or another group, in order for this small movement to move beyond being a niche and become a viable strategy for replacing the conventional trade system – one that relies on widespread worker abuse and exploitation. For an example of how this leads to success, look at the growth the organic food movement has experienced as a result of the nationalization of standards with the USDA National Organic Program – organic has been the fastest growing segment of the grocery industry ever since the standards went into effect ten years ago. Its time for that to happen with fair trade clothing.