Uncommon Grounds Part 16

In contrast to Starbucks, Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), under new CEO Larry Blanford, was booming. It sold its cobranded Newman's Own Organic coffee in New England's McDonald's, roasted Jane Goodall's Gombe Reserve beans to help save African chimps, and placed its beans in ExxonMobil's convenience stores. Most important for its bottom line, in 2006 it purchased Keurig Inc., which made single-cup brewing systems for use with K-Cup portion packs. GMCR bought the brand and wholesale operations of Seattle-based Tully's Coffee in 2009 to give it a presence on the West Coast, then the wholesale and roasting operations of Timothy's Coffees, based in Toronto.

GMCR stock soared in 2009 as more home consumers purchased the single-cup brewer, with one model priced below $100. The nitrogen-flushed K-Cup capsules allowed single servings of various origins and flavors of coffee, tea, or cocoa.

The Third Wave Buyers for specialty coffee companies travel the world to source beans. They generally combine an obsession with coffee's taste profile with an adventurous spirit and a big dose of altruism, knowing that their purchases at reasonable prices are vital to the livelihood of the people they meet. Lindsey Bolger of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Peet's s.h.i.+rin Moayyad are typical of the breed. "Where I source beans, there are many different languages and cultures, but if you speak the language of coffee, you can communicate on a deep core level," Bolger told me.

Moayyad lived in Papua New Guinea for over a decade. One of the first things she did upon joining Peet's in 2005 was to arrange for the company to donate money to construct a primary school on a New Guinea coffee estate. Since then, she has sourced coffee throughout Central America, Brazil, East Africa, Yemen, and Sumatra.

"When people go to coffee origins such as Guatemala or Nicaragua," Moayyad said, "they are impressed with how primitive life is. But that is nothing compared to Papua New Guinea, where people often live in gra.s.s huts without electricity, with animals wandering freely in and out. These remote estates are nowhere near public schools, and the children of tribal laborers were receiving no education before this school was built."

Then there are what writer Michaele Weissman called "third wave" coffee people in her book G.o.d in a Cup G.o.d in a Cup.126 She featured younger cutting-edge coffee buyers Geoff Watts of Chicago's Intelligentsia, Duane Sorenson of Stumptown in Portland, Oregon, and Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture in Durham, North Carolina. She featured younger cutting-edge coffee buyers Geoff Watts of Chicago's Intelligentsia, Duane Sorenson of Stumptown in Portland, Oregon, and Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture in Durham, North Carolina.

They are all members of the Roasters Guild, which grew out of Donald Schoenholt's organizing a "Roastmasters Roundhouse" at the 1995 SCAA Conference. Officially incorporated in 2000, with Schoenholt as president, it was modeled after medieval craftsmen's guilds, and it grew into a vital organization of independent roasters who, at the annual Roasters Retreat in a remarkably noncompet.i.tive atmosphere, share their pa.s.sion for small-batch roasting the finest beans.

The third wavers form a direct relations.h.i.+p with growers, help them improve quality, and pay top dollar for their beans. They do not usually eliminate all middlemen, however. Sustainable Harvest, in Portland, Oregon, Elan Organic, in San Diego, California, and Royal Coffee in Oakland, California, often import such beans. Led by founder and president David Griswold, Sustainable Harvest invests two-thirds of its operating income in helping farmers improve their coffee. Beginning in 2003, in order to promote transparency and communication, Sustainable Harvest brought together roasters, growers, exporters, importers, and even baristas in a producing country for an annual event called Let's Talk Coffee.

No one could be more pa.s.sionate and fanatical about coffee than George Howell, who is old enough to be the third wavers' father. He roasts his Terroir Coffee in Acton, Ma.s.sachusetts, and is constantly pus.h.i.+ng the envelope to achieve high quality. For instance, he wants farmers to s.h.i.+p their green beans in airtight plastic containers instead of the traditional burlap bags that allow off tastes and smells to permeate the beans. He then deep-freezes the green beans to keep them from staling.

Cupping at Origin In 1996, Paul Katzeff of Thanksgiving Coffee asked a group of Nicaraguan farmers, "How many of you have tasted your own coffee?" No one raised a hand. He subsequently wrote a grant proposal leading to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding for cupping labs at origin. These labs made a huge difference in getting coffee growers to understand why it is vital that they harvest selectively, process carefully, and identify particularly fine trees and growing conditions. Starbucks and illycaffe also dispatched agronomists to help growers improve their coffee and learn to taste it.

Cupping labs and a host of experts, partially funded by USAID, then helped Rwanda establish a reputation for exquisite beans. In the country where Hutus tried to exterminate their Tutsi neighbors in 1994, people from the two tribes now work in harmony to grow and sell coffee.

There have been many other extraordinary outcomes from the cooperation of roasters and growers. Paul Katzeff sells Delicious Peace, coffee grown on a Ugandan cooperative consisting of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Community Coffee of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, convinced the feuding Colombian towns of Toledo and Labateca to work together to produce a great blend high in the Andes.

In 2003 the Coffee Quality Inst.i.tute (CQI), part of the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America (SCAA), partnered with USAID to fund programs such as Coffee Corps, sending volunteer coffee experts to origin as advisers in a kind of specialized, brief Peace Corps. CQI also trains "Q cuppers" who can certify that particular beans meet a high standard. The designation was intended to raise the bar (and the price) above the C market, though not as high as the Cup of Excellence.

Rock-Star Baristas The dawn of the twenty-first century saw the arrival of global barista contests, beginning in Monte Carlo in 2000. Three years later the Barista Guild was formed to share knowledge and technique. By the time I attended the World Barista Champions.h.i.+p in 2009 in Atlanta, the compet.i.tion had become a spectator sport. The tension was palpable, with judges watching every move. A timer ticked down the seconds on the routine.

Hundreds seated or standing in the audience could see the action displayed on a huge video screen. With a flourish, Isabela Popiolek of Poland successfully finished one part of her routine. She was one of fifty-one contestants from countries as far-flung as Nicaragua, Finland, China, South Africa, and New Zealand.

"Give it up for Isabela's cappuccinos!" the announcer boomed. The judges admired the rosetta adorning the coffee beverage. Then they smelled and tasted, making notes on their pads.

In fifteen minutes, each contestant had to grind specially chosen coffee beans, tamp them expertly into the portafilter, then create four espressos, four cappuccinos, and four "signature drinks," a creative effort based on espresso, but including ingredients ranging from chocolate to seaweed in that year's event.

At first I thought that all this hype and tension over making a coffee beverage was rather funny. Yet the more I watched and learned, the more I realized that good baristas really are skilled artists. Not only must they draw the essence of the coffee in less than half a minute, but they must pick the type of beans and grind, steam the milk to a precise texture and heat, then pour it from the proper height and with the right flow to create the latte art. The same is true for a simple espresso-does it flow evenly from both spouts? Is there a rich crema on top? And the signature drink-is it creative, mouthwatering, and unique? Does it augment rather than mask the espres...o...b..se?

Most of the contestants were twenty-something men and women. They took part in a series of compet.i.tions in their home countries to win a spot here. One finalist, Gwilym Davies from the UK, at forty-two the oldest contestant, moved with a.s.surance into his routine. But after he tamped to prepare an espresso for his cappuccinos, he abruptly dumped the portafilter and chose to regrind and reload, losing precious seconds. Then, during his signature drink preparation, the espresso dribbled out too quickly. Again, he dumped and started over. He ran overtime by seventeen seconds.

Davies won the entire champions.h.i.+p anyway, in large part because of his signature drink. Each judge had to pick a favorite from a category such as sweetness (cane sugar, honey, caramel, or mola.s.ses), flavor (toasted almonds, hazelnuts, milk or dark chocolate), texture/mouthfeel (milk, single cream, double cream, b.u.t.ter), and fruit (orange or lime zest, strawberry, cherry).

When Ernesto Illy, the grand old man of scientific espresso expertise, died in 2008, the mantle of world's most pa.s.sionate espresso engineer arguably pa.s.sed to David Schomer, the self-taught Seattle owner of Espresso Vivace. When I met him in 2009, Schomer explained that he had been obsessed with finding a machine that would maintain a steady water temperature for espresso, and he finally achieved it by working with local manufacturer Mark Barnett, whose Synesso Inc. created the Cyncra machine.

"I fell in love with the smell of coffee when I was four," Schomer explained. "I was so p.i.s.sed when it didn't taste like it smelled." His goal was to produce an espresso that did. He wrote Espresso Coffee Professional Techniques: How to Identify and Control Each Factor to Perfect Espresso Coffee Espresso Coffee Professional Techniques: How to Identify and Control Each Factor to Perfect Espresso Coffee, to tell others in exquisite detail just how to do the same.

The Rape of the SCAA In 2009 the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America was still reeling from what founding member Donald Schoenholt called "the rape of the SCAA." The organization had grown into a large bureaucracy, overseen by longtime executive director Ted Lingle. On September 19, 2005, Tim Castle called Schoenholt, explaining that Lingle had just discovered that Scott Welker, the recently departed chief financial officer of the SCAA, had embezzled at least $250,000.127 Unless they could come up with that sum within ninety days, the organization would go bankrupt. Unless they could come up with that sum within ninety days, the organization would go bankrupt.

Castle and Schoenholt quickly sought donations. Some gave $100, while Tatsus.h.i.+ Ues.h.i.+ma sent $30,000 from j.a.pan. Most donations were $2,500 or less. By October 5, the required amount had been raised from ninety-three individuals and organizations. Ted Lingle had trusted the thief and had not kept adequate tabs on the accounts. Having already planned to retire, he stepped down in 2006 to head the Coffee Quality Inst.i.tute. Ric Rhinehart then served as the SCAA executive director.

The Battle over Coffee's Soul At the end of chapter 18, I asked whether a consolidating specialty coffee industry might lose its soul in the process of growth, profit-taking, and merger mania. Certainly the embezzlement at the SCAA would appear to indicate a troubled soul for the organization that began as a small, idealistic upstart.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, coffee brands continued to be pa.s.sed like trading cards. In 2004, for instance, the Sara Lee Corporation, frustrated by lackl.u.s.ter profits, sold Chock full o' Nuts, Hills Brothers, Chase & Sanborn, and MJB to Italian coffee company Segafredo Zanetti Group for $82.5 million. Caribou Coffee, begun by newlywed Alaskans in 1990, had been sold to an Atlanta investment firm in 1998, which was later heavily financed by the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain. In 2005 Caribou Coffee completed an IPO and became a publicly traded company.

In 2006 India's Tata Coffee Limited acquired Eight O'Clock Coffee, the old A & P brand, from Gryphon Investors for $220 million. Diedrich Coffee had bought U.S. outlets for Gloria Jean's, Coffee People, and Coffee Plantation in 1999, but its ambitious expansion faltered, and in 2006 it closed most company-owned stores, selling them to Starbucks. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters bought Keurig in 2006, then Tully's and Timothy's in 2009 and, as this book went to press, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was engaged in a bidding war with Peet's over Diedrich Coffee, which made its money primarily from selling single-serving K-cups for Green Mountain's Keurig machines. In 2008 Procter & Gamble spun off Folgers to jam-maker J. M. Smucker Company in a $3 billion all-stock deal.

Even as the specialty coffee industry consolidated, chasing money as much as ideals, many traditional roasters such as Gillies in New York did not pursue major growth strategies, preferring to expand slowly, if at all. Smaller independent roasters kept the flame alive-indeed, the Roasters Guild newsletter was christened The Flame Keeper The Flame Keeper. Chicago-based Intelligencia, Portland-based Stumptown Coffee, and Counter Culture Coffee in North Carolina are prominent examples of smaller roasters that garnered glowing reputations for high-quality coffee. Yet their success will likely lead inexorably to expansion and another round of consolidations.

Still, small independent roasters and retail coffeehouses have continued to pop up around the world. As of 2010, the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America estimated that there were some 24,000 special coffee outlets in the United States (stores, carts, or kiosks that make at least half their revenue from coffee). Many of the coffeehouses, often begun by neophytes, fold within a few years.128 But most new roasters-such as Storyville in Seattle or DoubleShot in Tulsa-have thrived, finding niche markets, taking advantage of the Internet, and stoking the fires that fed coffee's soul-still not lost even amid the merger mania. But most new roasters-such as Storyville in Seattle or DoubleShot in Tulsa-have thrived, finding niche markets, taking advantage of the Internet, and stoking the fires that fed coffee's soul-still not lost even amid the merger mania.

Techno-Coffee Many specialty roasters program computers to duplicate a "roast profile," seeking to reproduce a small-batch feel in large (and sometimes small) automated roasters by manipulating the burner, airflow, and drum rotation speed. Utilizing digital technology and easily understood LED screens, brewers from such companies as Bunn-O-Matic and FETCO allow operators the option of controlling water and brew cycle times with pulse brewing and pre-infusion options. In 2009 George Howell Coffee Company introduced the ExtractMoJo, a handheld unit with a software application and a digital refractometer that yields data required to adjust brewing equipment to meet standards in either filter or espresso coffee.

Meanwhile super-automatic espresso machines allow anyone to create respectable beverages simply by loading the machines with roasted coffee beans and milk. At the push of a b.u.t.ton, the machine grinds the beans, tamps the results, pushes hot water through the fine grounds, steams the milk, and all the rest. Starbucks backed off from such total automation, but Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's have embraced it.

The Flattening of the Coffee World Economist Thomas Friedman has written compellingly that the Internet and cell phones are "flattening" the world's playing field, allowing people to communicate and do business in Third World countries. Even the coffee world has been gradually flattening. Starbucks agronomist Peter Torrebiarte told me late in 2008 that he had just visited a coffee cooperative in Haiti, the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere. "I drove up a terrible road, got stuck, crossed rivers, and finally got to the coop warehouse for training, and there I found a satellite link to five flat screens and computers. I was blown away. There was one young whiz kid who set it up."

Those computers were donated by a charity and were still unusual in the coffee world, but there is no question that rural farmers are becoming more savvy not only about cupping, but also about finding information about prices and markets on the Internet or through cell phones. Coyotes Coyotes-the pejorative name given to local opportunists who buy coffee beans at ridiculously low prices-have less success when farmers know what their beans are worth on the New York market or to a particular roaster.129 The Threat of Global Warming Even as the coffee world is flattening in one way, it is climbing higher peaks. Because of climate change, some farmers have begun to move coffee plantings up mountain slopes in Central America. Eventually, that will mean less square footage as the cone narrows, but agronomist Daniel Urena of the Coopedota Coffee Cooperative in Costa Rica told a reporter in 2008 that he was pleased about the trend. "We can now plant at 2,000 meters (6,562 feet)," Urena said. Normally, seedlings didn't survive above 1,800 meters. The higher the elevation, the higher quality the strictly hard beans would be.

In Peru, farmers weren't so happy. "The seasons are changing tremendously," reported Cesar Rivas, president of the national growers' group, in 2008. "You can no longer say winter is in November, December or March. It falls in other months sometimes. This is generating complete productive disorder." The usual Peruvian coffee harvest began in April, a half year before most harvesting elsewhere, giving it a seasonal advantage. The Peruvian growers also blamed global warming for the scarcity of rain that year.

Coffee Kids and Other Ways to Help In 1988 coffee retailer Bill Fishbein visited small coffee farmers in Guatemala. Though appalled by their living conditions, he found that "they were living vibrant lives in poverty, with a sense of community and a spirit that is absent in our own lives." Fishbein returned to the United States determined to help coffee-farming families, creating Coffee Kids to address one of the primary causes of poverty in those communities: an over-reliance on coffee.

Each year millions of families count on the coffee harvest for their economic survival; for the majority it is not enough. Coffee Kids provides funding to create communities that offer greater economic options, improved access to health care and education, and increased food security. By injecting life into local economies, families can diversify their income and continue farming coffee without total dependence on it.

Fishbein retired from Coffee Kids in 2008, but the organization continued under the guidance of executive director Carolyn Fairman. In 2009, Coffee Kids worked with sixteen organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Peru. Projects included microcredit and savings, organic gardening and small animal production, training center development, scholars.h.i.+ps, and health awareness programs.

Similarly, Vermont-based Grounds for Health set up clinics in coffee-growing regions of Central America to test for and treat cervical cancer, a major problem among women in remote areas. The nonprofit is supported by coffee roasters and consumers. The Gates Foundation, concerned primarily with public health, realized that poor health and poverty were intimately a.s.sociated with coffee. It gave $47 million in 2007 to help East African coffee farmers improve their beans' quality.

The Cafe Femenino Foundation began in 2004 with Peruvian women creating their own coffee blend of that name. The foundation also helps empower women in coffee-growing regions elsewhere, working to improve economic conditions, health, and educational opportunities as well as providing a.s.sistance in times of crisis. In Los Cacaos, Dominican Republic, for instance, Cafe Femenino helped women to diversity the produce on their small farms by adding pa.s.sion fruit crops.

Since women are fundamental to coffee culture both at origin and destination, the International Women's Coffee Alliance was founded in 2003 to promote networking, mentors.h.i.+p, and training. In addition to the United States, the organization has active chapters in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. The IWCA aims to make a difference in the lives of a million women in coffee by 2016.

Cup for Education, created in 2003, specializes in building schools in remote coffee-growing regions of Central and Latin America. The organization also helps fund teachers and provides textbooks, backpacks, notebooks, and pencils. "How can they improve their coffees if they cannot read, write an agricultural report, study the weather, or understand the fundamentals of the coffee trade?" asks the Cup for Education Web site.

On an individual level, in Bremerton, Was.h.i.+ngton, Eric Harrison, a former Peace Corps volunteer, imports Honduran beans he calls Eco Cafe in order to fund improved water safety programs in Honduras. Airline pilot Trevor Slavick has founded Little Feet Coffee Company ("Coffee with a Kick") to fund soccer equipment for children on fincas fincas.

Mending the Heart with Organic Gary Talboy of Coffee Bean International pioneered the certification and marketing of organic coffee in the mid-1980s, working with Tom Harding of the Organic Crop Improvement a.s.sociation (OCIA) to certify coffee from Mexican and Guatemalan cooperatives.

Organic coffee now has grown to 5 percent of the specialty market. At first, most organic coffee was pretty bad. It came from poverty-stricken smallholders whose coffee was organic by default, since they could not afford fertilizer or pesticide. They also took little care with proper pruning or processing. Over the years, however, organic coffee improved dramatically, thanks largely to the efforts of people such as San Diego business-woman Karen Cebreros.

In 1989 Cebreros was diagnosed with a rare heart disease and was told that she would eventually need a transplant. Determined to live life to the fullest, she flew to South America to visit her brother-in-law in the remote Peruvian village of Tamborapa. "There was no running water, no electricity, but the people were so loving and happy and giving," Cebreros recalled. They grew coffee, for which they received 8 cents a pound.

Cebreros helped the Peruvians to improve their coffee and get it certified as organic. Today, with the premiums from organic coffee sales, Tamborapa has electricity, running water, telephones, bridges, roads, a school, and a laboratory to study coffee quality. "But they are still loving, happy, and giving," Cebreros reported. Miraculously, her heart healed itself.

Her company, Elan Organic, acted as a facilitator, working with local growers to improve quality and to help fill out the mountain of paperwork to become certified. In 2008 Elan was purchased by Neumann Kaffee Gruppe. "When we began, the questionnaires weren't even available in Spanish, let alone indigenous languages," Cebreros recalled. Many of the growers were illiterate, and they didn't have the survey maps the OCIA and other certification agencies demanded. Nor did they have the hefty application fees, which Elan initially paid. To be certified, coffee must be inspected for three consecutive years to make sure it is chemical-free. The process costs from $5,000 to $30,000.

Still, the effort has paid off for many cooperatives in Latin America, Indonesia, and Africa. Now there are hundreds of certified organic coffees. It is ironic that most truly organic coffees (for example, the majority of Ethiopia's and Indonesia's beans) can't be sold as such, since they aren't certified.

Pesticides pose no threat to consumers, since they are applied to the cherries, which protect the inner seed. Then the heat of the roast drives off any chemical residue. Coffee is, however, one of the most heavily sprayed crops on earth, and most pesticides miss the intended target. For those concerned about the environment and the health of campesino campesino laborers, organic coffee makes sense, and it a.s.sures growers a decent price for their product. laborers, organic coffee makes sense, and it a.s.sures growers a decent price for their product.

Even certified organic coffee can cause terrible water pollution, however. For years, in the wet process, the fermented mucilage floated downstream, where its decomposition robbed the water of oxygen, killed fish and other wildlife, and smelled horrible. Two-thirds of the river pollution in Costa Rica's Central Valley stemmed from coffee wastes until recent years, when stringent national legislation changed beneficio beneficio practices. practices.

Fortunately, there are viable alternatives, some of which I witnessed on my Central American tour. At Guatemala's Oriflama Oriflama, coffee was depulped without water, the red-skinned pulp piled in a huge pit and sprinkled with lime. There, it slowly decomposed without the stench that accompanies the water-soaked pulp. After the controlled fermentation, the water used to loosen the mucilage was recycled until it made a thick soup, then discharged into a pit to create excellent fertilizer. Even the parchment was recycled, burned to fire the dryers.

Later, at a Honduran coffee research facility, I saw what California red worms could do to coffee pulp, transforming it in three months to rich soil. I also saw tiny African parasitic wasps that provided biological control for broca broca, the coffee borer.

Coffee Ecotourism I stayed at an ecological coffee resort in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, run by Eddy and Mausi Kuhl. Selva Negra, named for the Black Forest of Kuhl's German ancestors, is a 2,000-acre farm (much of it virgin cloud forest) where visitors eat at a central Swiss-style chalet and sip the sun-dried coffee. The coffee mucilage, along with cow and pig manure, undergoes anaerobic decomposition in an underground tank, producing enough methane to cook the food. Electricity for the coffee mill is produced by a Pelton water turbine. The farm's laboratory experiments with various "teas" to prevent coffee rust. The staff raises tilapia for guests, but the fish waste also feeds worms that decompose pulp to make fertilizer. All of that ecological work has produced an astonis.h.i.+ng biodiversity, with over 350 types of b.u.t.terflies and 280 bird species.

Such coffee ecotourism is a growing trend throughout Latin America, where the coffee-harvesting season coincides with cold northern winters. People can help pick ripe beans while getting to know the local people. When they return home, they inevitably bring back a greater appreciation of what a cup of coffee means in terms of labor and love, and sometimes that can evolve into direct trade of the beans to a local coffeehouse or roaster. Ecotourists can find coffee farms to visit in Latin America, Africa, and India.130 The activist organization Global Exchange sponsors "Reality Tours" to some coffee regions. A few coffee roaster/retailers also organize trips to origin, including the Just Coffee Cooperative in Madison, Wisconsin, Higher Grounds Trading Company in Traverse City, Michigan, and Seattle-based Pura Vida Coffee.

For those who can't travel to remote coffee regions, Majka Burhardt, a rock climber, writer, and coffee maven, has written Coffee: Authentic Ethiopia Coffee: Authentic Ethiopia (2010), a lavishly ill.u.s.trated cultural guide to the birthplace of coffee. "I want to augment people's appreciation of coffee by helping them understand the cultures that produce it," says Burhardt. She plans a series of such books. (2010), a lavishly ill.u.s.trated cultural guide to the birthplace of coffee. "I want to augment people's appreciation of coffee by helping them understand the cultures that produce it," says Burhardt. She plans a series of such books.

Befriending the Birds Walking through Selva Negra, you might spot a Resplendent Quetzal, a toucan, or 279 other species of birds. I didn't see a quetzal during my brief hike there, but I heard a constant chorus of birdsong and the occasional cry of a monkey. Like me, most rain forest visitors actually see little of the wildlife around them, but they can hear the thrumming chorus. These birds lie at the heart of a controversy over coffee cultivation techniques. Should coffee always be grown under overarching trees that provide shade?

Shade-grown coffee provides an important habitat for migratory and resident birds. "Thousands of birds fill the air with song-pert green parakeets, big gray mockingbirds, brilliant bluebirds and little yellow canaries," wrote a 1928 visitor to Guatemala. "It is difficult to imagine anything more delightful than a ride through the long avenues of trees heavy with green coffee berries. . . . When new ground is to be planted in coffee, shade is the most important consideration." This description is still true of plantations such as Selva Negra, but their number is dwindling. Within the past few years, coffee grown under shade-"Bird Friendly," as trademarked by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center-has provided one more value-added way to sell beans.

Prompted by the invasion of leaf rust into Latin America-arriving in Brazil in 1970 and spreading to Central America six years later-researchers urged coffee growers to "technify" their plantations, switching from traditional arabica beans such as bourbon bourbon and and typica typica varieties that had been grown beneath shade to "modern" arabica varieties such as varieties that had been grown beneath shade to "modern" arabica varieties such as caturra caturra, catuai catuai, or catimor catimor, which can be grown in full sun, as long as the soil is fertilized and weeds and pests are hit with agrochemicals. In Central America, the U.S. Agency for International Development provided funds for the switch to technified sun coffee.

As a result, by 1990, 69 percent of Colombian and 40 percent of Costa Rican coffee was grown in closely packed rows in full sun. When I visited a sun plantation in Costa Rica, the trees were so tightly packed that I could not easily walk between them. They stretched up the hillside in solid, silent, low-slung ranks. There were no birds, only morning glory vines climbing the squat trees in search of the sun.

The sun coffee revolution has failed to fulfill its promise. Instead, it has contributed to ecological degradation and loss of important habitat. Various species of swallows, swifts, warblers, vireos, orioles, raptors, thrushes, and hummingbirds are neo-tropical migrants-Western Hemisphere birds that travel from their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada to their wintering grounds in the American tropics each year. Up to 10 billion birds occupy the temperate forests of North America from May to September, then fly south to winter in Latin America. During the decade 1978-1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' Breeding Bird Survey showed a decline in neo-tropical migrants, ranging from 1 percent to 3 percent annually. Although other factors may be involved, it is alarming that shade-grown coffee was declining at precisely the same time.

"Throughout the Latin American wintering grounds of migratory birds," wrote Russell Greenberg of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in 1991, "the natural landscape is undergoing ma.s.sive changes at phenomenal rates." The world's rain forest belt once covered 5 billion acres, 14 percent of the earth's land surface. Humans have destroyed over half of it, and the destruction continues at the rate of eighty acres a minute, according to some estimates. Species are disappearing at the rate of three per hour. In the 1830s Charles Darwin observed, "The land is one great wild, untidy luxuriant hothouse, made by nature herself." Much of the land he saw has now been deforested for cattle, soybeans, or other uses.

Coffee is an Ethiopian tree/shrub that has displaced local vegetation and dramatically altered the habitat. Yet "traditional" shade-grown coffee at least provides a relatively benign habitat, encouraging more biodiversity than many other agricultural alternatives. "Traditional" is in quotation marks because much coffee of the eighteenth and nineteenth century was grown in full sun until farmers developed production systems that mimic coffee's natural understory habitat. Arguments over the amount of shade needed, as well as the benefits of full sun, are long-standing.

By the turn of the last century, most agronomists came down on the side of shade. In 1901 the U.S. Department of Agriculture published Shade in Coffee Culture Shade in Coffee Culture, in which O. F. Cook pointed out the multiple benefits of nitrogen-fixing leguminous shade trees. "[They] hold the soil in place, and seldom require replanting or other care; their shade discourages the growth of weeds, diminishes the cost of cultivation, and lessens the bad effects of drought." They also protect coffee from high winds and provide mulch in the form of falling leaves.

Cook observed that two indigenous Latin American products, cacao and coca, were also grown under shade prior to the European invasion. These shaded production areas qualify as "agroforestry" systems, a combination of agriculture and forestlike production that has received significant attention from researchers in recent years for the ecological and socioeconomic benefits provided by these multi-use management schemes.

By eliminating shade trees, modern technified coffee plantations can produce more beans but must support hastened photosynthesis through heavy applications of petroleum-based fertilizers. Perhaps due to the high elevation and marked dry seasons, leaf rust has not caused as many problems as feared in shaded plantations. The coffee berry borer, one of the crop's fiercest insect pests, has thrived in the monoculture of sun coffee, though other wildlife cannot survive there.

In countries such as El Salvador, shaded coffee plantations account for 60 percent of the remaining "forest" cover. Billions of migratory birds fly south into the narrow funnel of southern Mexico and Central America, where loss of the coffee canopy could prove disastrous.

Turf Battles over Politically Correct Coffee In September 1996, I attended the First Sustainable Coffee Congress sponsored by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Academics, conservationists, and development experts came together for three days with coffee growers, importers, exporters, roasters, and retailers to discuss and debate coffee sustainability.

Biological researchers at the conference made a compelling case for shade coffee's support of biodiversity. "What is surprising here is the large numbers of species of insects that are found in the canopy of single trees in the traditional farm," Professor Ivette Perfecto reported. Russell Greenberg noted that his Mexican survey found 180 bird species in shaded coffee, second only to the number found in undisturbed tropical forests.

Greenberg then launched into a pitch for bird-friendly coffee's commercial potential. Of the 54 million Americans who consider themselves birders, 24 million traveled in 1991 to observe their avian friends, spending $2.5 billion. The demographics for serious birders-well-educated, well-heeled, and interested in conservation-dovetailed nicely with those who drank specialty coffees.

Chris Wille of Rainforest Alliance told the audience, "We can tell people to drink more coffee and better quality coffee-just make sure it is certified eco-friendly. The birds win. The bees win. Everybody here wins." Yet turf battles loomed over how to label and market such coffee. Organic retailers couldn't agree with Fair Traders. The Rainforest Alliance wanted to stamp the coffee with its seal, while Conservation International representatives planned a slightly different set of criteria. Unwilling to wait for a consensus, Paul Katzeff unveiled his own point verification system for Thanksgiving Coffee's shade-grown brand.

Even if they could agree on a shade-coffee seal, what would const.i.tute sufficient shade? Also, all the attention to shade-grown coffee centered on Latin America, ignoring Africa and Asia, while the promoters didn't discuss areas in which shade was unnecessary because of cloud cover and climate.

Bert Beekman, the Dutch founder of Max Havelaar, gave the most pragmatic advice to the bird-loving coffeephiles: create a uniform, recognizable, high-quality product. Make it available at reasonably compet.i.tive prices in supermarkets by forming joint ventures with major roasters. Refrain from one-upsmans.h.i.+p, turf wars, and ego tripping. Convey a simple, clear message, and get tons of free publicity through church groups and the press. Begin the campaign intensively in one regional test market, then expand.

No one heeded Beekman's message. True, the SCAA added sustainability to its mission statement, and its Sustainable Coffee Criteria Group created a doc.u.ment urging, among other things, minimal agrochemical use, cessation of habitat destruction, and biodiversity preservation. Yet there was no concrete agenda. Even so, eco-friendly coffee now accounts for 1 percent of the specialty coffee market.

A Troubled World At the Smithsonian conference, I heard a grower ask, "We are shocked and confused that specialty roasters sell our coffee for $8 or $10, when we only receive a little over a dollar a pound. How is that just?" While their U.S. colleagues made sympathetic noises, no one really answered the question.

Later, a specialty coffee professional gave me an answer. Let us say he pays $2 a pound for Colombian Supremo green beans (and remember that this price can fluctuate). Add 11 cents for freight-in, storage, and handling, 46 cents for the 18 percent weight loss during roasting, 19 cents a pound for roasting, 35 cents to hand-pack in five-pound valve bags for wholesale s.h.i.+pments, and 40 cents for s.h.i.+pping costs. That totals $3.51. Add $2.05 to cover overhead for the roaster/distributor (everything from mortgages and machinery loans to sales commissions, repairs, and rubbish removal) and profit, and it costs $5.56 to deliver roasted coffee to a specialty retailer. Depending on the retailer's size, rent, and other overhead costs, he or she must then charge between $9.50 and $11.50 a pound to make a reasonable profit.

If the roasted beans go to a coffeehouse outlet, the proprietor converts the $5.56 per pound beans into a twelve-ounce regular coffee at $1.75 or cappuccino or latte for $2.50 or more. If the proprietor gets twenty-four servings to the pound, that translates to a whopping $70 a pound for regular filter coffee, and $82.50 a pound for thirty-three lattes, minus the cost of the milk, stirrer, sweetener, and stale discarded coffee. On the other hand, coffeehouse owners have to pay astronomical rents, sh.e.l.l out $18,000 for a top-of-the line espresso machine, and allow customers to linger for long, philosophical conversations or solitary reading over their single cup of coffee.131 It appears that the high end-costs are probably justified, at least in terms of the U.S. economy and lifestyle. Nonetheless, there remains the glaring disparity between the affluence of the United States and the poverty of coffee-growing regions, and the talk about migratory birds seemed dilettantish to some at the conference.

A Mexican speaker complained, "Coffee communities which produce wealth for the country live in poverty without the benefit of social policies. . . . The coffee growing areas are a powderkeg waiting to explode." Although he was talking about Mexico, that also described conditions in many other coffee-producing nations.

By e-mail I receive "Coffee Talk's Daily Dose of News," which ends with a section called "News from Origin." The news is mostly awful in the poverty-stricken coffee-growing countries. Here is a random sampling of headlines from August 19-20, 2009, but every day brings such news: Latin Leftists Fear a Honduras Coup Domino Effect Colombia Arrests Ex-security Head Ethiopia's Business Climate Worsening, Chamber of Commerce Says Mexico: Gunmen Attack Newspaper Offices UN Official: Zimbabwe's Woes "Pose Significant Challenge"

Kenya Drought Worsens Hunger Risk Yemen Rebels Kidnap 15 Red Crescent Aid Workers Indonesia Militants Plotted Obama Attack Group Finds More Unmarked Graves in Indian Kashmir Quake Hits Sumatra, Indonesia Ana Remnants May Regain Strength in Gulf of Mexico Coffee-growing regions seem plagued with more than their fair share of natural disasters. Hurricanes routinely devastate the Caribbean and Central America, and earthquakes frequently rock coffee-growing regions. In 1996, for instance, Hurricane Mitch killed an estimated 11,000 people and cut coffee production nearly in half in Honduras and Nicaragua.

Coffee-Part of the Matrix Coffee is inextricably bound up in a history of inequity. On my trip to Central America, the close connection between coffee, power, and violence was brought home repeatedly. In Nicaragua, I met Alvaro Peralta Gedea, who had reclaimed his family's finca finca, confiscated by the Sandinistas in the early 1980s. Before he could prune the neglected trees, he had to remove mines planted on his land. Fortunately, he had been trained by the U.S. Navy in mine removal, and he taught his campesinos. On his uncle's farm, however, an incautious worker was blown up.

During my time in Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, I joined a trip organized by the Specialty Coffee a.s.sociation of America. At a c.o.c.ktail party I met General Joaquin Cuadra Lacayo, then the head of the Nicaraguan army, on Esperanza Esperanza, his beautiful coffee estate. He explained how, as a Sandinista general, he had given land and guns to peasants and told them to defend it, while his government confiscated other coffee fincas fincas. His own farms, he explained, were not suitable for confiscation.

The next day we crossed into El Salvador, where the civilian police provided an armed escort. Our guide was Ricardo "Rick" Valdivieso, cofounder with Roberto D'Aubuisson of the right-wing ARENA party. Raised in the United States, he resembled a wholesome camp leader, yelling from the front of the bus, "Are you having fun?" It was difficult to imagine that he, like D'Aubuisson, might have been a.s.sociated with death squads-an allegation he denied when I asked him about it. He told me how he had been shot and nearly killed in El Salvador just before the 1982 elections. Hospitalized for a day, he then was spirited away to a "safe house" to avoid a.s.sa.s.sination.

The coffee economy itself is not directly responsible for social unrest and repression; we should not confuse a correlation with a cause. Inequities built into the economic system nonetheless exacerbate conflicts. Compared with many other products developed countries demand in cheap quant.i.ty, however, coffee is relatively benign. Laboring on banana, sugar, or cotton plantations or sweating in gold and diamond mines and oil refineries is far worse. Most coffee is grown on tiny plots by peasants who love their trees and the ripe cherries they produce.

Coffee provides a fascinating interconnection between the disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, medicine, and business, and offers a way to follow the interactions that have formed a global economy. Though this history has concentrated solely on coffee, similar stories could be told for other products. The European countries extracted furs, silver, gold, diamonds, slaves, spices, sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, opium, rubber, palm oil, and petroleum from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. As North America, taken over by white Europeans, developed industrially, it too joined the conquest, particularly of Latin America.

Caffeine, the Drug of Choice Caffeine is the most widely taken psychoactive drug on earth, and coffee is its foremost delivery system. "Today, most of the world's population . . . consumes caffeine daily," wrote Jack James, author of two books on caffeine. He estimates that global consumption is the approximate equivalent of one caffeine-containing beverage per day for every person on the planet. In the United States, around 90 percent of the population habitually takes caffeine in one form or another.

Humans clearly crave stimulating concoctions, drinking, chewing, or smoking some form of drug in virtually every culture in the form of alcohol, coca leaves, kava, marijuana, poppies, mushrooms, qat, betel nuts, tobacco, coffee, kola nuts, yoco bark, guayusa leaves, yaupon leaves (ca.s.sina), mate, guarana nuts, cacao (chocolate), or tea. Of those in the list above, caffeine is certainly the most ubiquitous, appearing in the last nine items. Indeed, caffeine is produced by more than sixty plants, although coffee beans provide about 54 percent of the world's jolt, followed by tea and soft drinks. As cartoonist Robert Therrien has a character proclaim, "Coffee is my drug of choice!"

Caffeine is one of the alkaloids: organic (carbon-containing) compounds built around rings of nitrogen atoms. Alkaloids are the pharmacologically active chemicals produced by many tropical plants. Because they have no winter to provide relief from predators, tropical plants have evolved sophisticated methods to protect themselves. In other words, caffeine is a natural pesticide. It is quite likely that plants contain caffeine because it affects the nervous system of most would-be consumers, discouraging them from eating it. Of course, that is precisely the attraction for the human animal.

Caffeine, C8H10N4O2, was first isolated from green coffee beans in 1820. It consists of three methyl groups (H3C) attached around a xanthine molecule-one of the common building blocks of plants and animals-making caffeine (a trimethylxanthine) a k.n.o.bby molecule that b.u.mps about in the bloodstream, though it readily pa.s.ses through biological membranes such as the gastrointestinal tract. The human liver treats caffeine as a poison and attempts to dismantle it, stripping off methyl groups. It can't cope with all of them, so quite a few whole caffeine molecules make it past the liver and eventually find a docking place in the brain.

The caffeine molecule mimics the neurotransmitter adenosine, which decreases electrical activity in the brain and inhibits the release of other neurotransmitters. In other words, adenosine slows things down. It lets us rest and probably helps put us to sleep once a day. When caffeine gets to the receptors first, however, it doesn't let adenosine do its job. Caffeine doesn't actively keep us awake-it just blocks the natural mental brake.

The brain isn't the only place caffeine affects. There are receptors throughout the body, where adenosine performs varied functions. Thus, caffeine constricts some blood vessels. In low doses, it appears to slow the heartbeat, while larger amounts cause the heart to beat more rapidly. Caffeine causes certain muscles to contract more easily. At the same time, however, it can relax the airways of the lungs and open open other types of blood vessels. Caffeine is a diuretic, and small amounts of calcium float away in the urine, leading to concern over possible bone loss. The latest research indicates that this is a potential concern only for elderly women with low calcium intake. other types of blood vessels. Caffeine is a diuretic, and small amounts of calcium float away in the urine, leading to concern over possible bone loss. The latest research indicates that this is a potential concern only for elderly women with low calcium intake.

Coffee and caffeine have been implicated in an enormous array of ailments, but subsequent studies have failed to confirm most of the negative findings. As Stephen Braun concluded in his book Buzz Buzz, "The effects of caffeine on such things as breast cancer, bone loss, pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and mental dysfunction have been examined in . . . detail and, to date, no no clear evidence has been found linking moderate consumption of caffeine . . . with these or any other health disorder." clear evidence has been found linking moderate consumption of caffeine . . . with these or any other health disorder."

Jack James, in his book Understanding Caffeine Understanding Caffeine, agreed that there is no unequivocal linkage, but he felt that caffeine probably probably contributes to heart disease. In addition, he pointed out that boiled or unfiltered coffee has been linked to higher serum cholesterol levels. "Even the equivalent of one cup of coffee produces modest increases in blood pressure lasting 2 to 3 hours," James argued. "Experienced over a lifetime, these daily elevations of blood pressure probably contribute to cardiovascular disease." His conclusion was that there is contributes to heart disease. In addition, he pointed out that boiled or unfiltered coffee has been linked to higher serum cholesterol levels. "Even the equivalent of one cup of coffee produces modest increases in blood pressure lasting 2 to 3 hours," James argued. "Experienced over a lifetime, these daily elevations of blood pressure probably contribute to cardiovascular disease." His conclusion was that there is no no safe level of caffeine consumption, and that the drug should be avoided completely. safe level of caffeine consumption, and that the drug should be avoided completely.

Few doctors would go so far, though all authorities agree that people with high blood pressure, as well as those with insomnia and anxiety disorders, should consult their physician about their caffeine intake. They also recommend that patients taking other drugs ask their doctor about possible interactions with caffeine. In the stomach, caffeine stimulates gastric acid secretion. Thus, while it helps some people digest food, it gives others an acid stomach. Caffeine does, however, have a synergistic effect with a.n.a.lgesics, making it useful in painkillers.

Most authorities recommend "moderate consumption." There are many anecdotal and clinical reports that drinking too much caffeine can cause problems. The lethal dose for humans is about 10 grams, though it would be virtually impossible to consume that much quickly by drinking coffee, requiring more than one hundred cups. Initial signs of toxicity include vomiting, abdominal cramps, and a racing heartbeat. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) includes caffeine intoxication as a bona fide ailment. (DSM-IV) includes caffeine intoxication as a bona fide ailment.

Yet moderate caffeine intake has benefits. As Harry Hollingworth found in his 1911 double-blind studies, caffeine can minimally improve motor skills and reaction time while leaving sleep patterns relatively unaffected. Coffee boosts athletic performance (perhaps through stimulation of more adrenaline) to the point that the International Olympic Committee used to call caffeine a "doping agent." Caffeine can help those who suffer from asthma and is given to infants suffering from neonatal apnea (cessation of spontaneous breathing). Some adults with allergies find that caffeine allays symptoms. It can mitigate the pain of migraine headaches (though withdrawal from caffeine causes causes other headaches). For those who need a diuretic or laxative, coffee provides relief. Some studies even commend the drink's use as an antidepressant to prevent suicide. other headaches). For those who need a diuretic or laxative, coffee provides relief. Some studies even commend the drink's use as an antidepressant to prevent suicide.

Caffeine has been shown to increase sperm motility, so it may prove useful in artificial insemination programs (though some fear it may harm the sperm while speeding it on its way). Combined with a.n.a.lgesics such as aspirin, caffeine appears to help alleviate pain. While coffee often is accused of providing no nutrition, it provides traces of pota.s.sium, magnesium, and manganese. Like red wine, it is an important source of antioxidants. In fact, according to a 2005 University of Scranton study, coffee is by far the largest supplier of those vital chemicals to the average American. Because it raises the metabolic rate, it may help with dieting, but the effect is slight.

Caffeine has a paradoxical effect on hyperactive children with attention-deficit disorder: coffee seems to calm them down. Coffee consumption can apparently help prevent Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, liver cancer, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and gallstones.

I am somewhat skeptical about these findings. All too often we hear that what caused cancer ten years ago is now supposed to cure it, or vice versa. Yet many of the recent coffee studies are epidemiologically sound, following huge numbers of people for many years and carefully weeding out possible confounding factors. For example, a 2006 study on liver disease, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine Archives of Internal Medicine, tracked 125,580 people, concluding that "there is an ingredient in coffee that protects against cirrhosis." A study in the Journal of the American Medical a.s.sociation Journal of the American Medical a.s.sociation the previous year followed 193,473 partic.i.p.ants. It found not only that coffee protected against type 2 diabetes, but that the more cups you drank, the lower your risk of diabetes. the previous year followed 193,473 partic.i.p.ants. It found not only that coffee protected against type 2 diabetes, but that the more cups you drank, the lower your risk of diabetes.

Surprisingly, there is little evidence that caffeine harms children. Like adults, however, children are subject to withdrawal symptoms-from soft drink deprivation more frequently than from coffee. Many doctors have expressed concern about pregnant and nursing women who drink coffee. Caffeine readily pa.s.ses through the placental barrier to the fetus, and it turns breast milk into a kind of natural latte. Because premature infants lack the liver enzymes to break down caffeine, it stays in their systems much longer. By the time they are six months old, most children eliminate caffeine at the same rate as adults, with a bloodstream half-life of around five hours.