Coffee

I first remember hearing the word “origin” when I was about 3 years old. My father, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was debating the Origin of Species with my mother over dinner. Like any good Presbyterian he was an evolutionist- not that I knew what origin, evolutionist or Presbyterian meant way back then. The next time the word “origin” became important to me was when I was at University. It was not part of my official studies, but rather a fundamentally important concept relating to my part-time job as a wine waiter at one of Wellingtons new 5 star hotels. We were taught that not only was grape variety important in determining the character of a particular wine, but also the origin- the specific area or appellation where the grapes where grown. A sauvignon blanc grape grown, picked and vinted in Marlborough, New Zealand, would display very different aroma, taste and body compared to the same grape varietal grown in Margaret River, Western Australia. It is for this reason that wine labeling clearly displays the origin, grape type as well as the year that the wine is made. It is to tell the customer exactly what to expect in the bottle. We were taught to pick the difference between a Chardonnay and a Riesling, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Pinot Noir. To start with it was a little difficult to pick the “cut grass, gooseberry, ripe lime” in a Sav-Blanc, or the “Deep ripe plum, soft peppergrass” of a Cab-Sav, but it soon became part and parcel of our lives as wine stewards.

Fast forward to the modern error. These days “Origin” is not only a very important part of my job working with coffee, it is also a word that sometimes wakes me at night, like a the noise of a rusty file scraping over a old, painted blackboard. Origin, in coffee, is not as simple or as transparently honest as many coffee proffesionals would like it to be.

The ICO, or International Coffee Organisation, is somewhat responsible for controlling origin labels on coffee in the fact that any coffee shipped from a growing country must be accompanied by a Certificate of Origin. However… the shipper of the coffee often will fill out the ICO form- adding the origin in as he/she sees fit. The system is based on honesty. If the coffee is Arabica grown in Java, the origin certificate should correctly read “Java Arabica” along with the appropriate grade, weight etc. It should not read “Sumatra Mandehling”, “Bali Arabica” or “Sulawesi Toraja Arabica”. That I am writing this means that it is sadly sometimes fact, not fiction, that mislabeling sometimes intentionally occurs.

Why is this wrong? For starters put aside the fact that it is fraud, misrepresentation and lying, it is more importantly doing huge disservice to the true coffee coming from that origin. Coffee, like wine, has a particular character that is found in the beans growing in a particular geographical area. In fact the flavor of coffee, more so than wine, is almost entirely molded by where it is grown. Take 100 identical seedlings of Typica Arabica and send 25 plants to Aceh, 25 to Central Java, 25 to Flores and 25 to Indonesian Papua. 6 years later the cherries from these trees, ripe and processed, will display vastly different tastes (or cupping characteristics).

To most coffee professionals it is simply a preposterous presumption that anyone would try and mislabel coffee on purpose. Yet, it happens. Sometimes the deceit fools even hardened regulars. Not too many years ago there were two big cases of coffee fraud- one involving fake Hawaiian Kona coffee, the other Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. In both cases the origins were mislabeled because both Jamaica and Hawaii coffees demand a premium on the world market. In both cases the perpetrators were eventually caught out.

Think of it this way- if you were to buy a brand new BMW, you would expect the engine not to have already done 100,000km, and the body not to have been panel beaten to make the car look brand new. If someone tried to pass off such a used vehicle as new- that would be serious fraud.

The more common problem, and one which is beginning to cause real problems for coffee as a quality product, is not the blatant examples of cheating but rather what is call the ‘creeping boundary of origin’ (or CBO). Many years ago coffee origins were perhaps more clearly defined by geographics than they are today. For instance, in Indonesia Mandehling Coffee was picked and marketed from a fairly small area in North Sumatra- thus meaning the characteristics of that coffee were as clear to the drinker as day is to night. These days the geographical or ‘catchment’ area “Mandehling” comes from is 15-20 bigger than what it was 25 years ago. This means that almost by default the characters that the coffee was once famous for- the ripe paprika, fresh cut grass, passion fruit and earthiness are very seldom found to the same degree as coffee from that area today. Its like saying that Italians are the same as Germans. They are not. Lines are drawn on the map- Italians are Italians, Germans are…well…Germans. The French- they have perhaps identified this problem and dealt with it strictly. Not in regards to coffee, but to the labeling of one of their national treasures: Champagne. Only grapes grown and vinted in a particular way, with in a strictly identified area, may be called “Champagne”. Anything else can only be called “Methode Champagne” or similar. Seems pedantic? Coffee should look at this as being part of a solution to a problem which longterm threatens to affect customer perception of coffee in general.

Recently on a trip to coffee savvy New Zealand, a coffee professional was surprised to find just how the problem of labeling origin incorrectly can conspire to creating changes in perception of the customer. He was meeting with an eminent marketing guru who had brought along some material a well known company had put out to support its product. The professional was was not surprised to see “Java” and “Sumatra” on the list of coffee that this company sold. What was surprising was the fact that “Java” was a described as a blend of Guatamalan and Sumatran and “Congo” a blend of Colombian and Sumatran. As in the above European example- Java is likewise not Guatemala or Sumatran!

On the positive side many coffee professionals realise that the future of specialty coffee is going small, not labeling big/expansive origins. Small is easier to define, more difficult for unscrupulous brokers to mislabel. The SCAA’s Cup of Excellence Awards recognise quality origins may be as small as a tiny Finca producing 1000kg of coffee a year. This think small, produce superior beans idea hopefully will result in a better cup of coffee.

In the end thats what it is all about. Despite the complexities of choice faced at a coffee shop, ultimately the customer wants a great cup of Java. However if he wants “Java”it should be the coffee grown on that Indonesian Island, not a mixture of beans from Africa and South America. And if its pure Kopi Luwak that customer is looking for? Well then that is another story altogether.

Alun Evans is a coffee roaster based in West Java, Indonesia. His company Merdeka Coffee, is pioneering relationship coffee with farming communities throughout the country.

Author: Alun Evans
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Coffee came to the Dutch East Indies archipelago in the late 17th century. The legend of coffee itself makes fascinating reading (Kaldi and his dancing goats!), but for Indonesian purposes coffee arrived here in an organized and less mythical fashion on VOC (the Dutch East Indies company) trading galleons, via Yemen and the Dutch enclave of Malabar. These first coffees introduced were Arabica, direct descendents of 6 coffee trees the Dutch managed to smuggle out from Yemen and plant in the Botanical gardens in Amsterdam. The trees were well suited to the tropical conditions found on Java and quickly thrived and produced cherries. The first plantations were located close to Batavia (modern day Jakarta). Later plantations were established in Sulawesi, Maluku and Sumatra. Independently Colonial rivals Portugal planted Arabica in East and West Timor as well as in Flores. Coffee, along with nutmeg, cloves and other spices, became the backbone of the VOC economic machine. Infrastructure to get crops out of plantation areas led to development of port and later rail and road systems that still exist today. After the demise of the VOC the Dutch colonial government took over many of the business activities in Indonesia. At one stage sale of these commodities made up almost 30% of the entire Dutch GDP.

In the late 1800′s rust disease hit the coffee crops of Indonesia. The disease was debilitating, wiping out most of the Arabica trees in Java, as well as in the outer islands. The Dutch colonial government responded by replanting- firstly in a subspecies called Liberica (which proved to be almost undrinkable) and then mostly in the more resistant Robusta variety. Robusta still makes up around 90% of the coffee crop grown in Indonesia today.

There are four main sub types of Arabica found in Indonesia. These sub-varietals are locally called- USDA, Kartiki, Lini-S and ABG-III. Of these the most widely grown are Lini-S and Kartiki. The differences are mostly in the yields on the tree and sometimes in the size of the cherry.

Robusta is a hardier tree. The beans from the Robusta plant have a higher level of caffeine than that found in those from Arabica plants. Robusta is often used in instant coffee and has half the chromosomes found in Arabica. Robusta makes up the bulk of the coffee exported from Indonesia, but it is the regional Arabica’s that make the archipelago famous.

Processing

The coffee beans you see after the roasting process have come a long way from where they started, as “cherries” on Arabica plants. Coffee trees flower twice a year, the flowers being fragrant, white bunches that hang from the trees. Only 25% of these flowers will go on to be fertilized and produce small buds that later grow into coffee beans. The beans take several months to ripen. Once they have reached a level of ripeness where the outer skin turns red, the picking begins. The majority of our partners hand pick, so the selection process is far better than the bigger estates that often strip pick using machinery.

Arabica trees can grow up to 30 foot tall, if not pruned. Most farmers try and keep their trees to around 8 foot or shorter, so the cherries can easily be reached during picking. The seasons for picking vary across the archipelago. In Sumatra the season runs from November to January, in Java from early June through to September.

Generally Government run Estates and small-hold farmers use one of two different methods to process the picked cherries into what’s called “green coffee”. The “dry” method is predominately used in Sumatra and by small hold farmers in Java, Bali and Flores. This method involves drying the beans outside under the sun. The beans are laid out either on a concrete pad, or on sacking laid out on the side of the road. The process can take several weeks if done properly. Over this time the beans are raked and turned as often as needed to ensure a universal drying effect is achieved. Once the outer area of the bean begins to fall off, the coffee is ready to have the pulp removed. Normally this is done by machinery- although some of these mulching machines are still hand driven! The final product is a green bean, about 1/3 rd of the size of the original cherry.

The second method of drying coffee is the “wet” processing system. Wet processing means the bean can begin the final preparation stage immediately after being picked. Instead of drying under the sun the cherries are processed through a water system. This leads to the outer skin softening making it easy to remove. The system works well although there are often times when the sugar in the beans can ferment, causing the flavor of the beans to be affected. Most large estates in Java use this system as it speeds up processing and generally makes selection of the final green bean much easier. The quality of green bean from wet processing is generally higher.

Dynamics

It is estimated that almost 97% of all coffee in Indonesia is grown by small-holders. The definition of a small holder is a farmer who grows coffee on a plot that is around 1.2ha in size or smaller. This is in sharp contrast to coffee being grow in Central and South America, where most coffee grown is on Fincas (Estates). The number of farmers growing coffee as a main or a subsidiary crop is conservatively estimated at being around 8 million. The sheer number of growers and the geographical isolation of where coffee is growing in Indonesia, makes this country one of the most unique collection of origins in the coffee world.

Indonesian Coffee has always had a special place in the specialty coffee niche. Consumers have been able to enjoy Kayu Mas Estate Java, Mandehling, Gayo Mountain Arabica and Highlands Toraja Arabica for many years. The new wave of Indonesian Specialty Coffee goes a lot further- bringing coffees from many new, exotic and exciting growing regions- Bali, North Sulawesi and West Java to name just a few. The future for Indonesian producers is to move away from the historical dependence on Robusta and to bring to the coffee drinking world these new and exciting origins.

© Alun Evans, Merdeka Coffee- all rights reserved. May reproduce or republish with permission and accreditation to original author.

Alun Evans is a coffee roaster based in West Java, Indonesia. His company Merdeka Coffee, is pioneering relationship coffee with farming communities throughout the country.

Author: Alun Evans
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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