Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Café Aficionado: Trudging through the coffee trail

Future coffee supplies are in uncertainty. Production has leveled off even as demand has increased, causing coffee-bean prices to quadruple since 2001.

Almost 17.6 billion pounds of coffee beans were consumed worldwide last year, up from 2.6 billion in 1982, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But production in Colombia, which provides 10% of the world's Arabica beans, has dropped 36% since 2005. Output in Brazil, the world's leading Arabica producer, recently hit a four-year low.

According to coffee industry experts, there are other factors causing coffee's problems, such as climate changes in some coffee-growing areas and population growth in Central America leading to pressure to convert coffee farmlands into housing and shopping malls.

Coffee historians believe most of the world's Arabica coffee crop shares genetic ancestry with two 18th century plants: one brought to Europe from Indonesia, and another taken from Yemen and cultivated in Brazil.

And this is the reason why some experts favor expanding the varieties of coffee being cultivated and crossbreeding plants to strengthen them. "The holy grail is a heat-resistant varietal that provides quality coffee," says Patrick Criteser, chief executive of Coffee Bean International, which supplies the private-label coffees to such retailers as Target and Kroger and is part of World Coffee Research. "If we could develop that, it would solve a lot of our problems."

But efforts like World Coffee Research, which aim to persuade competitors to tackle common problems, face obstacles. Some of the world's largest coffee companies are pursuing proprietary research projects to expand coffee's genetics. Nestlé SA has a project it calls the Nescafé plan, which involves robusta, the other major type of coffee bean, a spokeswoman says. And Starbucks Corp. is conducting research through support centers staffed by agronomists who help local farmers, a spokeswoman says.

Ventures like World Coffee Research must also overcome friction with national research institutions that often aim to protect local interests, notably in Ethiopia, believed to be the fatherland of Arabica. There, hundreds of wild varieties exist, but government officials have sometimes had a contentious relationship with foreign coffee sellers.

Starbucks and Ethiopia reached a legal settlement in 2007 after the country sought to trademark its best known coffee beans. Ethiopia wanted U.S. patents on the names of its three best coffee regions, Yirgacheffe, Harrar and Sidamo, while Starbucks sought to patent a coffee with Sidamo in the name.

Ventures like World Coffee Research must also overcome friction with national research institutions that often aim to protect local interests, notably in Ethiopia, believed to be the fatherland of Arabica. There, hundreds of wild varieties exist, but government officials have sometimes had a contentious relationship with foreign coffee sellers.

Starbucks and Ethiopia reached a legal settlement in 2007 after the country sought to trademark its best known coffee beans. Ethiopia wanted U.S. patents on the names of its three best coffee regions, Yirgacheffe, Harrar and Sidamo, while Starbucks sought to patent a coffee with Sidamo in the name.

Regarded as Indiana Jones of coffee, Tim Schilling, 59 years old, was recently trudging through the African wilderness in South Sudan, trailing a barefoot tribeswoman guide named Nyameron. He was seeking wild strains of Coffee Arabica, the fragrant beans used to make most of the world's lattes and cappuccinos. The Texas A&M University agronomist heads World Coffee Research, a nonprofit financed by Folgers coffee maker J.M. Smucker Co., Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc. and others.

The expedition group's goal is to expand the global coffee crop's tiny gene pool. But after four days of hiking on this plateau west of Ethiopia, Mr. Schilling's 15-member expedition—which included a coffee taxonomist, a Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. executive, agriculture students and hired porters—still hadn't found any specimens that seemed new. They were hoping that Nyameron, a wild-coffee connoisseur they had met through a Murle tribal chief, could help.

A former expert on peanut breeding, he became a coffee-growing guru after the U.S. Agency for International Development challenged him to help revive agriculture in Rwanda after its civil war. He soon realized the answer wasn't nuts but coffee, and he set out to use scientific methods to help the country's small growers.


Mr. Schilling's recent destination—the Boma plateau—seemed an unlikely place to find wild coffee. But he was armed with a treasure map of sorts: an account by botanist A.S. Thomas, who wrote of encountering coffee in 1942 "growing wild and reproducing itself without human aid."

The coffee experts camped at a Christian missionary compound and trekked about six miles a day along narrow footpaths. "We're looking for genes that could improve taste or color" and plants with good drought resistance, said botanist Sarada Krishnan, Denver Botanic Gardens director of horticulture.

Read more here.

Tom Schilling (photo courtesy of Specialty Coffee Association of America)

Meanwhile, on the Australian front, here’s a fascinating Wall Street Journal article by Gillian Tan, which spotlights Mr. Di Bella, 37 years old, founder of Di Bella Coffee in Australia’s Queensland state, which now sells 124.8 million cups a year nationwide.

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Phillip Di Bella recently launched Kick, a line of canned espresso drinks, in Australia and Malaysia, and he plans to supply cafes and restaurants in China, India and Vietnam, as well as the rest of Asia-Pacific.

He credits Starbucks for the increasing demand. “The emerging middle class in Asia are beginning to enjoy the boutique coffee culture, and a lot of that is due to Starbucks and other chains acting as a pioneer,” he says.

Mr. Di Bella’s travels have taught him, however, that tastes vary. “Italy drinks 90% of its coffee black, and in the morning, but Australia drinks 85% of their coffee with milk throughout the day,” he says, noting that he’s a three-a-day man but goes up to a heart-jolting 10 when he’s doing tastings.

“Coffee is a plant which changes yearly, as do the innovations around its extraction and processing so I’m constantly in search for elusive perfection,” says Mr. Di Bella, who believes the best cup hasn’t been grown yet.

Not that some regions aren’t getting close. He shared his five favorites.

Cuba: “The region produces coffees with elegant and complex notes of masculinity, which have a very unique infusion of tobacco, cocoa and espresso,” Mr. Di Bella says. “Farmers use no pesticides and achieve richness in flavor due to their ability to use diverse varieties of plants in each farm.”

How to drink: Espresso

Mexico: Coffee from the Veracruz region can be “high grown,” resulting in a mix of full flavors where no single one dominates, or “prime washed,” which are strong with a rich, thick taste. “Mexico also provides excellent peaberries, adding intensity to the cup, and maragogype beans, a variety known for its greater size,” Mr. Di Bella says.

How to drink: Piccolo, a small latte

Costa Rica: Washed Arabica beans from Costa Rica acquire their premium standard through their high levels of acidity, which translates to zesty, citrus-like flavors, Mr. Di Bella says.

How to drink: Costa Rican beans are ideal in milky coffee drinks like lattes, he says.

Peru: Peru’s coffees come from the Amazon rainforest areas or the country’s higher-elevation northern region, “resulting in rich cups always maintaining their sugars, due to the ability of those varieties to retain the minerals emanating from the fruit of the coffee,” he says. They tend to have a berry-like flavor, he adds.

How to drink: Macchiato

Brazil: Brazil is seen by many as the “must-have coffee” when it comes to espresso, he says. Farmers there have worked hard to provide consistency in their beans, one of the reasons it is the world’s biggest grower.

How to drink: Perfect for a cappuccino, and a light dusting of chocolate brings it to life, Mr. Di Bella says.


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President Richard Nixon enjoying some coffee (Photo provenance unknown)
   

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1 comment:

  1. It's incredible how one coffee chain store made the world "crave" for coffee like never before.

    ReplyDelete