My favorite mail order coffee

Queijo wrote:I admit it: Metropolis is the only coffeehouse and roaster that I like in the Chicago area. But since it is so far away from the cheese cave, I've had to find other alternatives to my metropolis-based coffee lifestyle.

Recently I've become addicted to the fine roasts from Terroir Select Coffees, a micro roaster in Acton, MA.

Those of you living in the Boston area in the late '80s and early '90s may remember Coffee Connection, a much beloved roaster that was unceremoniously purchased by Starbucks. George Howell, the wacky founder, signed a 10 year non-compete. In 2004 he was released and immediately began his Terroir Select Coffee operation, to select, roast, and sell the best coffee that he could get his hands on.

Queijo wrote:Tell me more about drinking the aged Sumatra. I was going to try it but Trina convinced me that I might hate it. What flavors did you pick up, did you share the coffee with others, and how did they respond?

Queijo wrote:The other week I ordered two blends from Terroir - Las Termopilas and Rwanda. Both were incredible, but Las Termopilas was remarkable -- one of the finest coffees I've had in...forever.

Choey wrote:Go back to your regular coffee maker and I predict you'll be happy with the results.

Choey wrote:Go back to your regular coffee maker and I predict you'll be happy with the results. I only use the presspot once in a while because it's so finicky about grind, water temperature, and amount of coffee, but if you stick with it, you can figure it out and make great coffee. I like the Rwandan coffee quite a bit. I'm drinking the Brazilian right now.

It's a HUGE topic and I think over time, with reading, you figure out a position for yourself. In the trade, there are people who chant the Fair Trade mantra, people who don't give a crap and want to pay the lowest price, and everyone in between. The later group is irrelevant because they don't care about quality coffee. Let's just nibble off a piece of the discussion and address those in the trade who visit the farms, who know the reality, who care (for a variety of reasons) about the process, and who know (and care) about cup quality. Those people are probably all offering some Fair Trade coffee, and the majority of these truly "caring" people have a problem with Fair Trade to some degree. They, okay, we ... see it as a band-aid, something for the here and now, but not a solution. It's a bad model to solve the problem. What most people who care about the farms they deal with end up doing is making arrangements outside of the coffee market (the new york c), oftentimes paying
higher than FT prices, for a consistent supply. Some call it "relationship coffee". Good companies just do this, and don't make a huge fuss about it. After all, one of the issues with FT is that it is a badge of "good conscience" and most sane people feel a little queasy about that dynamic. And appealing to conscience to sell really impacts a very small portion of the market, and a small sliver of the coffee farms out there.

I have been walking 10 yards behind the "Quality Coffee" bandwagon, meaning that if a consumer buys good quality coffee, they will be most likely buying coffee that the farmer was paid well for. This holds a lot of weight (because I can guarantee you if you buy a major brand of roasted-ground coffee, farmers got screwed). The problem that has come up is this: because "Specialty Coffee", ie Quality Coffee was a growing segment and there are higher margins made by broners on smaller amounts sold, all these giant multi-national brokers opened up "Specialty" divisions. In many cases, they simply diverted containers of coffee that cupped reasonably well from their "commodity" division to their "Specialty" division. They didn't necessarily pay a penny more for the coffee, they dressed it up with a name and sold it as "Specialty Coffee". These are companies I do little to no business with, but I can say that a lot of roasters Big and small, and a lot of green coffee sellers do ...
in fact some have their entire selection from these brokers. Now, this doesn't shoot my "Quality" theory to hell, but it has a big hole in it. Nonetheless, I know what I do here every day, I know how I deal with the farms, and I am pretty damn proud of it. But I am not going to make a slogan out of it, or a bumpersticker. It's really not a political thing, it's just that a lot of people in coffee realize we rely on the farmers, and we have to pay so they can do a good job. It makes sense, and our businesses are based on it.

Thanks for bringing up a good topic. I have recommended people read the Oxfam report on coffee, but it is a little dated now. The best thing in it is an acknowledgment of the MASSIVE influence that the Big 4 coffee companies have in the coffee trade. And, yes, we do support and sell fair trade coffee too....

Tom