CAN Community Agroecology Network

I was recently contacted by CAN (Community Agroecology Network) based at U.C. Santa Cruz, California. CAN evolved out of the research efforts of Ph.D. students working with the San Ramon coffee growers co-operative in Nicaragua. The students' original aim was to research sustainable coffee growing models that would achieve not only greater plant and wildlife diversity, but also result in a robust local economy for the growers, along with ensuring support for local food production and sourcing.

During the mid-2000s when the coffee price collapsed, the CAN researchers broadened their aims to include achieving higher price returns for the growers' coffee beans.

As a result of this, CAN is now extending its sales channels, and asked if I would be willing to taste and review a sample of their coffee. A review is coming soon.  (See review here: Review of CAN Light Roast beans)

The relationship between CAN and the coffee growers first started with Ph.D. student researchers in agroecology who were doing their research between 2002 - 2007. Starting in 2005, in the depths of the coffee crisis, the CAN researchers began to look at how Fair Trade helped farmers and their families get through the crisis, and set out to help make improvements to the FT model. One idea was to have the coffee served at U.C. Santa Cruz in the Dining Halls, and through a relationship that one researcher had with the owners of the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co., the students managed to contract an importer to ship the coffee, and SCCR roasted it. The coffee was delivered to the university starting in 2006.

Originally the idea was simply to help the specific farmers who had helped by participating in the studies and research. But then some students started to sell the coffee at the local Santa Cruz Farmers' Market, among other places. Then some started to send some home to their parents, or their parents would want to buy the coffee when they came to visit the campus.

From there the model grew, and after about 5 or 6 years of developing various sales channels, CAN has grown to the extent of distributing 7,500 lbs of coffee a year, and is now hoping to be in a position sometime to purchase the entire production of the San Ramon co-operative at the CAN price. This would be a major jump in income for the farmers who don't always get the FT price for every last pound they have grown, even though they have paid to have their entire co-op FT certified.

CAN's goal is to have a relationship-based model that goes beyond Fair Trade, into relationships and research-backed data that measures the true impacts on the community.

Through a grant received from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, CAN is currently working with communities that GMCR sources coffee from, including the Union of Cooperatives San Ramon in Nicaragua (where AgroEco Coffee comes from). CAN has moved beyond collecting research data on the farms and the communities, into initiatives that help make real and measurable changes in the coffee-farming communities. These changes are intended to increase resiliency to future coffee crises by diversifying livelihood strategies, maintaining youth in the community by creating a local economy, and maintaining food sovereignty by ensuring a system of local food supply.

I asked the people at CAN if they could help me understand the main differences between Fair Trade coffee and CAN coffee. Marketing Coordinator, Daniel Fuentes, provided the following bullet points for me. 

• The farmers do not have to pay to be an AgroEco partner 
• Prices are decided through dialogue, and take into consideration the cost of production, yields, market price, and local cost of living - The AgroEco minimum price is $2.00/lb green bean, and generally we agree to pay 20% over other FT offers the co-op receives
• The "certification" process is done by university researchers who then train high-school to college-aged youth to continue data updates
• The cooperative is required to be FT certified, but not organic certified - the reason being that organic fertilizers are not available in sufficient volume to meet the needs of the growers
• Our emphasis is on agroecology, which means diversifying the coffee shade trees, providing migratory bird habitat, and growing other food crops for household consumption
• Farmers are allowed to use fertilizers, but not toxic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or miticides
• All weeding is done by hand 

For a review of CAN light roast beans from the San Juan Cooperative in Nicaragua and how to buy them, see this post: Review of CAN Light Roast beans

CAN Reading Resources:

CAN Receives Two Year Grant
Food Security and Sovereignty Best Practices Guide Published
CAN Nicaragua Scholarship Program sends rural community organizers to school
Nicaragua Food Sovereignty Forum Summary Available
Policy Brief

Great Value Coffee Beans Suitable for Espresso

A house-guest of mine who had recently spent a few months in Guatemala brought me a bag of Guatemalan coffee beans back for me as a gift. I have to say I was a little apprehensive at first as a prior experience of beans brought back from Costa Rica for me a few years ago was such that I threw the beans away. When I opened them and saw that they were a nice medium roast rather than a dark roast I thought that they at least had a chance of being able to produce some crema. To my great surprise and delight, the beans actually produced a rich, sweet crema, and overall a very pleasant cup of espresso.

So once I had used up the bag I thought I'd give Guatemalan beans another shot so went out to Amazon.com to see what I could see. I found a 2lb bag of Guatemlan Antigua blend medium roast beans from Copper Moon World Coffee for an incredibly good price and free shipping with my Amazon Prime membership, so decided to give them a try. Once again these are fantastic beans for making good espresso with rich crema. The flavor is a nice sweet with just a hint of bitterness, with no hint of sourness. Perfect! I really recommend them.

Here's a link to them at amazon.com Copper Moon Guatemalan Antigua Blend Medium Roast, Whole Bean, 2-Pound Bag

Grades of Coffee Beans

Coffee bean grading indicates the size of the bean - a key measure of quality in the coffee. There are exceptions, but those beans cultivated at higher (often mountainous) elevations are usually larger, denser and more flavourful. To grade coffee, the beans are passed in an unroasted state through sieves, or containers, of different sizes.

Coffee bean classificiations are an important part of the coffee trade and the SCAA is one of the primary methods for comparing different varieties and quality of bean. Although various systems exist, the SCAA system is popular in that it considers the relationship between coffee bean defects and the quality of the drinking cup. However, it doesn`t account for some of the key coffee defects than occur in the bean, for which the Brazilian Green method is known to be superior.

Essentially coffee bean grading systems are there to measure the quality of coffee bean which will eventually end up in the customer`s cup. It helps set pricing and determine which beans will be suitable for which type of resulting product - whether budget `everyday` ground coffee, or high-end artisan fresh coffee beans, sold raw and unprocessed for commercial uses.

To carry out the SCAA grading method, 300 grams of fully hulled beans are sorted using a variety of screens. Those beans remaining in a screen are then weighed, with the percentage recorded. This is a time-consuming process and sometimes lesser quantities of a hundred grams may be used, particularly for grading lesser quality beans with multiple grading defects. The 300 gram method is recommended for superior quality coffee with few defects.

Different grades will result from this process as follows:
For Green Coffee - Speciality Grade (rated no.1) - these will be coffee beans with five or fewer full defects per three hundred grams of coffee. These will be speciality beans and the coffee must possess one or more distinctive bean attribute, such as acidity, body, flavour or aroma. The beans must also be entirely free of taints and faults, with a moisture content of between nine and thirteen percent. No quakers are allowed to be present in this category.
For Cofee Graded at 2 - premium coffee - there must be 8 or fewer full defects in the sample size of three hundred grams. Some primary defects will be allowed, with a maximum of five percent around the screen size shown. Again, a distinctive flavour, aroma, body or acidity attribute must be present, again with a moisture content of between nine and thirteen perfect. Only three quakers can be present in this grade. These coffees will tend to be useful for espresso machine and more expensive products.

Exchange coffee is graded at the third level - it can have between nine and 23 defects in its 300gram sample.

Below standard coffee, graded as level 4, will have the most defects - between 24 and 86.

Other coffee grades are used in different classification systems - such as Kenya AA for larger bean sizes, Altura grades for mountain grown beans, Excelso for large and flavourful Columbian beans and the various bean hadnesses - particularly as the mountain grown high beans have a more desirable taste and tend to be more expensive.

Types and Varieties of Coffee Beans

Where coffee beans grow and their distinguishing attributes
Coffee beans are grown is three major regions of the world: Central and South America; Africa and the Middle-East; and South East Asia, particularly the islands of Indonesia.

Beans from the Americas are usually characterized by mild acidity with tobacco flavors, or even a hint of white chocolate. Beans from Africa are wine-like and very chocolatey, while Indonesian coffee beans are usually very earthy-tasting.

There are two varieties of coffee plant: "Arabica", which is thought to be indigenous to Ethiopia and was first cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula. The other variety of coffee is "Robusta" which contains up to 50% more caffeine than Arabica, and which is a far more hardy plant, resulting in it's much wider dispersion around the globe.

Robusta, however, is considered an inferior coffee since it tends to have less flavor, and exhibits bitterness. Nonetheless, because it is more widely distributed and a more hardy plant, it is less expensive than Arabica and used widely in coffee blends by the large industrial coffee blenders and instant coffee makers. Good quality Robusta beans are actually what provide the crema so essential to espresso coffee, so are typically found in espresso coffee blends, especially dark Italian espresso roasts.

Arabica coffee beans were traditionally called after the ports from which they were exported, hence "Mocha" which was shipped out of Yemen, and "Java", which was shipped out of Indonesia.

The coffee beans from each of these regions exhibit characteristics that can be grouped as follows: Beans with light-body, high acidity and sweet flavor come from Central and South America. Coffee beans that exhibit medium body and acidity hail from Africa. And finally, beans from South East Asia and the Pacific regions are characterized by dark body, low acidity, and an earthy flavor.

You no doubt will see coffee beans sometimes being described as "100% Colombian". This branding falls under the control of the Colombian Coffee Federation founded in 1927 to promote the growing and marketing of coffee from Colombia under the "Juan Valdez" brand.

Terminology Used to Describe Coffee Flavors
"Body" in reference to coffee refers to its feel in the mouth.

The flavor characteristics of coffee can be referred to with such terms as "earthy", "sweet", "bitter", "smoky", "cardboard-like", "citrus-like".

Coffee is naturally acidic. The pH of black coffee is around 5. (A pH less than 7 is acidic.) Reference is often made to the amount of acidity noticeable in a particular coffee bean.

Further Reading
Espresso Beans and My Recommendation on Where to Buy Great Espresso Beans Online

Roasting Green Coffee Beans at Home

Colombian Coffee

I'm interested in anyone's opinions on Colombian coffee beans. My experience of them has never been good. That in large part is driven by the fact that at the two companies I have slaved at, I mean worked at, over the last 7 years, both have Colombian coffee as the "office coffee", and it is just so bad. It's just not coffee-snobby me; almost all my co-workers agree. At the last company I was at, we were lucky enough that they also provided different blends from coffees from all around the world, and that's what my group always brewed. But at the company I work at now, there is only Colombian coffee available, and it's even worse tasting than what was on offer at my previous company. In fact, it is SO BAD, that I consider it undrinkable, and have given up drinking it at all. I've taken a French press ("plunger") and my own beans to the office and make my own coffee. Perhaps that is just what the company wants; that no one will drink the coffee and the company saves money.

I have bought and used premium Colombian Popayan beans before, but while it was drinkable, I never did fall in love with them, and never found that they were that good from making espresso at home.

Did you know that what you see labelled as "100% Colombian" is a brand that falls under the control of the Colombian Coffee Federation founded in 1927 to promote the growing and marketing of coffee from Colombia under the "Juan Valdez" brand. You'd think by now they would be growing beans that tasted good.

So what is your opinion and experience of Colombian coffee? Has it been as bad as mine? I'd be interested in what you think, so please post a comment.

Arabica Output Falling in India

This article from the Economic Times of India details the falling production of Arabica beans in favor of Robusta. Though Robusta is, well, more "robust", they are in fact generally thought of as inferior coffee beans compared to Arabica beans. Part of the reason for the fall in production in India is attributed to a two-year old infestation of "white stem borer" (a wood termite), as well as a labor shortage (is everyone in India now working "offshore" for American companies?). On top of that is the simple demand for cheaper beans, and that's just what robusta beans are.

Do your bit by always buying coffee beans that are comprised in large part of Arabica beans. Demand creates supply. On top of that, your flavor experience will be better.

Read more here about Arabica and Robusta coffee beans.

Can you make espresso with regular coffee

That was a question asked in the server log today. By "regular coffee" I'm presuming the questioner meant coffee beans that aren't specifically an espresso roast, such as say "French Roast".

Well you can certainly grind the beans and pull a shot, but it's not likely you will get good crema production, or any crema at all, and that's what espresso is all about, right? I have tried it myself, of course, and normally end up with a cup of black coffee without crema which is very unsatisfying when you are hoping for that elixar of espresso coffee. I have managed to squeeze a little crema out by grinding the beans more finely than I normally would and tamping with my full body weight.

So, answer to the question is basically "No, you can't use regular coffee beans to make espresso". Buy espresso roast beans from a premium roaster such as Espresso Vivace Rosteria in Seattle. You can order online.

Espresso Vivace Coffee Roasters

Espresso Vivace Rosteria Cafe Seattle

Here are reviews of Espresso Vivace Rosteria Cafe in Seattle from Yelp. This is the place from which I currently buy my espresso coffee beans online from their website. Next time I'm in Seattle I've got to check them out. I was turned on to their coffee beans when a friend in Seattle gave me a bag of their beans as a gift. Anyone out there been to the cafe? And has anyone started buying their beans on my recommendation? How are you finding them? I highly recommend their Vita espresso roast.

Illycaffè is the anti-Starbucks -- and it's out to spread the espresso gospel to java heathens

I am of one mind with Andrea Illy, the 42-year-old head of Illycaffè, who will tell you to use a light hand with the steamed milk and skip the caramel syrup for your espresso drink. She describes an espresso as something that rolls over your tongue, leaving subtle hints of buttery chocolate, almonds, and fresh peaches. "Espresso is a miracle of chemistry in a cup," says Illy.

BusinessWeek reports that Illy is hoping to spread the gospel and position itself as the global leader in luxury coffee, the 73-year-old family-owned company is rolling out hundreds of licensed cafés called Espressamente. Unfortunatlely, Illy isn't yet ready to take on Starbucks in the United States, and will focus on Europe with just some temporary outlets in NYC. Let's hope that one day we will get the opportunity to support them throughout the United States.

For the full story, go to Basta With The Venti Frappuccinos.


Recommended reading at ECS: The Secrets to Perfect Expresso and Is it "espresso" or "expresso"?