The Nod: Heart vs. Lip Service
The Nod- written by Intelligentsia Coffee’s Green Coffee Buyer Geoff Watts – is always good and always interesting. Some weeks, though, Mr. Watts sets his coffee smarts aside and slams his heart on the table. This is one of those weeks. It ressonates with me and the desire to see true community and it may resonate with you and your passion. It is fantastic.
Hola:
I’m here in Lima, Peru helping to conduct a national coffee competition. In the understatement of the year, I will tell you that it has been an interesting week. By now you know that we’ve been actively involved in various coffee quality competitions for many years, with much effort going to the Cup of Excellence, which is the undisputed gold standard when it comes to these kinds of events. What you might not know is how much work goes into making them run. The preparations typically begin almost a year in advance, and there is a staggering amount of logistical coordination required to make the event effective and efficient.vA typical CoE costs well over $100,000 to operate and involves the efforts of dozens of people and many local and international organizations. It’s a ton of work, but the results are well worth it. I can say with certainty that the impact on the producing countries is profound. It is an opportunity for them to demonstrate to the Specialty Coffee world what kind of quality exists on their farms and what the real potential for future development looks like. These events have succeeded in raising the profile of many countries that had not been considered high-quality origins in the past and have positively raised expectations among consumers, farmers, and roasters as to what coffee can taste like when everything goes right.vJust over a month ago I was in Rwanda for the CoE and received an email from a friend asking me to participate in the Peruvian competition. I had done several of these events in Peru, even serving as head judge in a competition a few years back. They were typically very low-key events with just a handful of cuppers and a small number of coffees. With only a few exceptions, the quality had been decidedly mediocre. Given my travel schedule and previous experiences here, I was a little reluctant to sign on. In the end I made the decision to come because I believe in the importance of efforts that acknowledge and celebrate quality as a means of changing the face of the coffee industry and creating opportunities for producers that would not otherwise exist. Quality competitions are, in my opinion, an essential part of the movement to change the way coffee is perceived on both a local and international level.
What followed was quite interesting. After agreeing to participate as a taster, I was then asked to help assemble a jury. Given that the event was to take place in less than four weeks, it was a lot to ask. I reached out to some friends and colleagues, and we managed to make it work. I arrived in Peru on Sunday night only to find that I had been thrust into the role of head judge and leader of the competition. That meant not just managing the group, but also evaluating and selecting the local cuppers who would join the international jury, setting up the cupping schedule and establishing the protocols, monitoring and managing the roasting of the samples, coordinating the logistics for a proposed auction, and corresponding with the local media to explain the nature and importance of the competition.
I think I must have given eight or nine interviews in the last few days. (Much more than I had bargained for, to be sure.) The morning after I arrived I was whisked to the television studio to be interviewed on a live broadcast about the economics of coffee. The entire thing was in Spanish without the possibility of translation. Although my Spanish has improved tremendously over the last couple of years, it is still far from perfect, and it was a bit of a struggle to properly explain the complexity that is the world coffee trade in any detail.
The international jury arrived the next night and we got right down to business, starting with a calibration cupping to get the jury on the same page. The next few days we worked our way through the coffees, and to our mutual delight, there was much to be excited about. I had been worried. The previous competitions I’d attended had only produced a handful of good quality samples, but as it turns out there were at least three coffees that were scoring in the 90’s (out of 100, a great score) and many others that were 85+, which made them legitimate Specialty coffees. There were even a couple of surprises. We found one lot that had very overt floral and stone fruit traits with some characteristics that reminded us of Geisha coffee.vIn the final analysis, I’m glad I came, despite all of the unexpected responsibility and extra work that I had not anticipated and for which I was not compensated. The only thing that really bugged me was that most of the key players here still just do not understand Specialty Coffee. They have a very narrow vision of coffee and fail to realize the importance of working together to improve the overall quality being produced in the country. For them this competition is a bit of a dog-and-pony show, useful insofar as it can generate some publicity and serve as an example of how they are working to advance the cause, help the farmer, etc., etc. But it is a flimsy and half-hearted effort, not convincing at all, and more lip service than substance.vDuring my speech at the closing ceremony, I enjoyed the opportunity to cut through some of the spin and explain that there is a better way to do things that will provide more mutual benefit to EVERYONE in the Peruvian coffee industry, from farmer to miller to exporter. Peru has one of the most politicized coffee industries in the world, and this is the reason why the industry has failed to advance in the way that many of their competitors, including places like Nicaragua and Colombia, have despite the country’s incredible natural resources and amazing potential. Without strong vision and active collaboration, the industry here will continue to crawl along and stagnate, its progress indefinitely halted by lack of coordination, constant in-fighting and jealousy among the local players, ineffective leadership that puts self-interest in front of group success, and an unwillingness to actively engage with groups like ACE (owners of the Cup of Excellence) who could really make an impact. It’s a sad state of affairs, to be sure.
All that being said, I am glad to see that there are some things happening at a grass roots level. Certain cooperatives and organizations have really shown some impressive maturation over the last few years, and it is way past time for the new generation of coffee people to take over the leadership and change the focus to the lift up the small producer. With some concerted effort to provide better infrastructure, technical assistance and financial resources to producers, Peru could easily become one of the most exciting coffee origins on the planet.
Cheers,
Geoff Watts
Green Coffee Buyer
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea
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