The Dead Line
I must ask, how far off harvest is too far to be selling and serving a coffee? Is it 12 months, 15 months? I know some folks will step in here and say that vacuum packing can prolong this, but should coffee be presented as fresh produce or as a science experiment with a mountain of excessive packaging? Our own experiments have found that the re-useable Grain Pro works very well at maintaining green coffee integrity.
I cannot see how selling faded coffees from Central America or past crop coffees from parts of East Africa serve the purpose of impressing or developing the customer base that we are hoping to attract. The culinary world is moving decisively toward seasonal products and developing their menus around that principle. Why aren’t more folks in Specialty Coffee following suit? It amazes me that many roasters (including some of great notoriety) currently have menus that rest heavily on opaque blend formulations and single origin coffees that were harvested over a year ago. Often these coffees are dead in the cup, a shadow of their freshly-picked former selves. I challenge all of the industry to move from just listing roast dates somewhere on your bags (you are doing this, right?) to including the harvest month(s) and year for all of your single origin offerings. We will begin to do so companywide for coffee roasted Monday, February 8th, 2010 and thereafter. It’s high time we tighten the deadline from harvest into our customer’s cup. Are you in or out?
Thank you.
As an ex cook – little has been as frustrating as the lack of respect for the seasonal nature (and fleeting flavours) of coffee. Instead of seeing this as a problem – we should see it as a constraint. And we should respect that constraint and even celebrate it.
Yeah?
Nick,
Unsure? Might I suggest wading right in. Let’s change the world’s mind about how great coffee can be. Bold measures are necessary.
I’ve written and deleted a few comment drafts. There’s a tonne of stuff around this that I would like to talk about, but I’d rather do it as a fluid (ideally face to face) conversation than an awkward online back and forth.
What I will ask – how do we make this important to the consumer?
I’ll start on a slight tangent – though still relevant to your post. Does publishing a blend recipe for espresso make a big difference to the majority of people buying it? Traceability still outweighs seasonality in my book, and I don’t think we’ve won this battle yet – or even come close. (I’m not saying it is an either/or situation of course).
Right now consumers aren’t rejecting coffee due to lack of sufficient traceability, despite the fact that some roasters are publishing the contents. In theory once a few people started doing it there should have been sufficient pressure to create a tipping point and a change. This hasn’t happened.
Roast dating has had a deeper impact because of a more tangible value to the consumer. They know that they want fresh, and when buying premium product expect this kind of information, which is good. They will reject undated, or insufficiently dated coffee when shopping within the better quality range.
I want consumers to care about seasonality, I want to go further in embracing seasonality. (I don’t really want to use someone else’s blog to talk about my own business). Is a change in consumption habits and preference likelier to happen by influencing the consumer and changing what they demand, or by pushing from within – making a stand within the industry and pushing the change from this side?
Did I get a bit off topic? (It’s late….)
I like the seasonality aspect of food. No strawberry is finer than the ones harvested by my suppliers at their peak of ripeness in June.
However, I wonder if coffee is more akin to grains than normal perishable foods? The moisture content is such that coffee does not deteriorate like normal produce and can last and remain true to its character for a considerable amount of time.
To my mind, coffee (like any produce) has an opportune window for flavor and freshness. As long as the coffee is consumed within that window, what does it matter?
Beyond the move by Intelligentsia to package coffee with additional data (a very important step, in my opinion), how many of the clients actually order and cup samples of the coffees they are considering? How many shops vet their coffees?
In a situation where the client relies on the roaster to offer a range of coffees, it is important to utilize these new practices. But the responsibility of the cup lies with the clients themselves. It is the responsibility of the client (the shop) to taste, cup and vet the coffees being served – and to reject those that are not up to scratch.
This is a great suggestion! Count me in (as a customer for the best possible coffee)!!!!
[...] ————————– POSTSCRIPT: Doug Zell has posted a challenge to roasters on this topic here. [...]
Doug,
As a long-time customer of yours, we get what you’re saying here and we’ve been talking seasonality for as long as you’ve put those stickers on the bags.
However, if a coffee continues to cup well, why should a roaster stop offering it?
Transparency in harvest dates is a worthy concept (and my own fledgling roasting operation does so). But if we start getting into dogmatic “X month” deadlines without considering if that’s necessary for a given coffee, then I’d be worried that we’re headed toward potential absurdities as in the razor blade business. And that might result in worthy coffees sitting on shelves just because somebody said X+1 month = stale. Not sold on that being helpful.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by jimseven: I desperately want to comment on Doug last post, but can’t do so without hating what I say. Worth a read – http://bit.ly/bbxFOl...
why not be seasonal? we have been pushing that with are customers for a while now, yes there is that consumer wanting an Ethiopian or a Brazil out of season but if you have the customer to a point where they know remotely what origins they prefer then go ahead and take the next step and tell them that if they wait until its in season its going to be better and hey this Guat. that happens to be in season is amazing! yes they may go next door where they have an out of season coffee they are wanting but it will NOT taste as good as what they could get or even what THEY THINK THEY DO NOT WANT, and that is all about winning your customer over and gaining there respect and confidence, and i guaranty if you have already done this you are going to keep the customer and solidify his return even more. If we do not keep pushing forward with things like this then we might as well be pumping out chocolate sauces and iced drinks in my opinion. there needs to be a defined line between specialty coffee and the other and this is something that will make that line a bit bolder.
Someone once said to me, “onwards and upwards!”.
;-)
We are in. We’ve had harvest info on our bags for almost 3 years now.
[...] OK, I see the roast date, but no harvest date YET. Marketing HYPE or something we should really be questioning. Of course, I like the one comment, roasting and harvesting date aside, if the customer and baristi aren’t ready to vet poorly made coffees from so-called third wave cafes, this is all for naught: “It is the responsibility of the client (the shop) to taste, cup and vet the coffees being served – and to reject those that are not up to scratch.” Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Feb 4 — smiling goat.April 14pm — intelligentsia BrazilFeb 2 — smiling goat TO GO [...]
As I stated in the post, we will begin doing this on single origin coffees roasted February 8th, 2010 and thereafter.
Hats off to the Tim & Tim that have been doing this already for three years. I would expect nothing less from one of the most progressive thinkers and companies in coffee.
Okay everyone, so the answer goes like this. How the coffee tastes should be the guide. So no Jay, I don’t think customers (I don’t like the word client-were not shrinks or a lawyers are we?) vet their coffee and often (including coffeebars using multiple roasters) people (not naming any names here) buy coffees from roasters based on coolness and not the coffee itself and select coffees they have heard are good versus actually trying them and deciding for themselves. As for seasonality and its relevance, importance, etc., I think we really need to start somewhere and here is why…if the public gets so used to tasting and accepting past crop coffee as the norm and believe these coffees represent specialty then specialty becomes that much closer to commercial coffee. If a coffee still tastes good 15 months off harvest (and I guarantee this is the exception not the rule) you should let folks know that this rarely happens. Ultimately seasonality increases the idea of scarcity and specialness and de-commoditizes coffee. And hasn’t that always been the goal of Specialty?
I think, sadly, that the public are completely accepting of past crop as the norm – baggy, flat notes are part of the familiar taste of coffee for a vast majority of people.
The hard part is telling them that a large part of the flavours that they like/are used to are wrong – or at least that we believe them to be defective, negative flavours and not just part of coffees base makeup.
Its the difference between creating the market and responding to it.
In my experience with coffee I’ve found that the reward for my pursuit of perfection in coffee is an appreciation for the imperfect. Seasonality is one of those imperfections.
The concept of seasonality definitely has some roots in our coffee culture (U.S.) though its not exactly how we’d prefer it to be: Pumpkin Spice lattes, Eggnog lattes, Frappuccino Season, etc. Starbucks customers even know when to expect Guatemala Casi Cielo and Gazebo Blend so this concept rings true with a lot of … clients.
Starbucks has re-imagined the concept of seasonality in our culture through repeatedly getting their message out and committing to that message through their operations… year after year after year. Obviously, Intelli is no Starbucks but the concept of seasonality can be re-re-imagined and this is something that all can be involved with. We can surely go back and forth on what constitutes an in-season coffee but I think we can all agree coffee harvested this year is preferential to coffee harvested last year?
I say great for Intelligenstia for getting their message out. Great for Intelligentsia for committing to that message through their operations by putting the info on the bags. And great for Intelligenstia for calling us all to action.
I’m in… once we sell the remainder of our Costa Rica (packed in GrainPro, at least)
As coffee retailers, sometimes I think we blame the customer too much. While it may be true that the retail customers are accepting of baggy or “off” coffees, but who’s responsibility is it when the average customer isn’t experienced and/or informed enough to know the difference?
If we (meaning those of us who sell coffee to the retail client) are serious about our craft, then I think it is our responsibility to vet the coffees we sell and ensure that the coffees pass muster.
I think of the approach of the revered restaurants of the world. These are outfits that are pursuing quality at any price. They taste and work with their suppliers to source the best quality possible. Should we not pursue similar?
James questioned how we make this important to our customers – I think that we have to make it important to us first before it can be important to our customers. They need to feed off of our passion and excitement over the product before it can germinate in their own minds.
But I think the truth is that we need to realize that we cannot convert everyone. Take tomatoes in the United States, for example. I can buy and eat tomatoes year round, if I desire. But I don’t. I don’t because I recognize and love the seasonality of fresh tomatoes. They’re amazing. But the stuff you buy now are bland and insipid. Why bother?
While I think that way, most people do not share that enthusiasm. They’re perfectly content with the bland tomatoes at the supermarket.
It’s a shame but we should also recognize that converting the masses will take time. Twenty years ago, no one thought much about their food. Today, there’s a growing awareness of food and dining that never existed in the 1980s. Should many of us continue on our path of passionate advocacy of coffee, perhaps the public awareness will increase for coffee.
A resourceful explorer will try a new Intelligentsia release in the first month it is offered in, or at least use In Season as a guide. Obviously this should be like a gold standard, even if pesos are your preffered currency. Only then can seasonality education be maximized by comparing the standard to future tastings. If done thoroughly enough, it will be a revelatory and empowering journey.
In Season! Excitement! Integrity! Intelligentsia!
[...] On his blog a few days ago, Mr. Zell outlined a call to action for craft roasters. He suggests that in addition to a Roasted On date, we begin to include the crop harvest month and year on the bag. The logic is as straightforward as it is unassailable: coffee is a seasonal, agricultural product. Harvest date is relevant to cup quality, even if it’s not a perfectly linear thing. [...]
We’ve listed the harvest time on our website for all coffees, but not on the bags. We’ve marked the arrival of every new crop with signs, happenings and oublic tastings. However, we have to be careful (in our market in Denmark) about choosing our battles. We’re very much trying to push Direct Trade – and just as James says, when customers have become aware about buying practices and the price paid to the farmer, one would have hoped it would have created that tipping point where the customers really starts to question how and for what price their coffee was purchased. This I am sure will happen, but it’s not happening over night. I fear that if we try to communicate too many things at once the message(s) will drown.
I’d be careful about saying when a coffee is fresh and when it’s not. I’ve tasted just 3 months old coffees that were flat and woody because of storage in jute in a room with varying temperatures. I’ve seen roasters store their green coffee in the same room they roast in and consequently the temperature in that room would go up and down in the course of a day. But I have also tasted 2 year old coffees that were surprisingly fresh. We still offer the last bit of the Idido mill’s Aricha microlots that are now 2 years old. It’s been vacuum packed at origin and kept in a cool storage room since then and it’s still have heaps of strawberry aromas and does not taste like such an ‘old’ coffee. If it should suddenly cup out disappointingly we’d remove it in an instant. But until that happens I have no issue serving it. Now, this isn’t to say I don’t think seasonality is important or that I don’t fully support Intelligentsia’s move on making customers aware of it, but I think Rich Westerfield’s comment above sums it up quite well.
Anyhoooo, this kind of thing is exactly why I wish we could afford to attend the SCAA Symposium – to be able to have this kind of talk in person.
” We will begin to do so companywide for coffee roasted Monday, February 8th, 2010 and thereafter. It’s high time we tighten the deadline from harvest into our customer’s cup.”
Hooray! Absolutely pleased to hear this.
[...] toward polarization are the most recent posts on Doug Zell’s (owner of Intelligentsia) blog (one, two). They represent a challenge, to be sure, but I think Mr. Zell manages to keep the level of [...]
[...] On his blog a few days ago, Mr. Zell outlined a call to action for craft roasters. He suggests that in addition to a Roasted On date, we begin to include the crop harvest month and year on the bag. The logic is as straightforward as it is unassailable: coffee is a seasonal, agricultural product. Harvest date is relevant to cup quality, even if it’s not a perfectly linear thing. [...]
In my experience with coffee I’ve found that the reward for my pursuit of perfection in coffee is an appreciation for the imperfect. Seasonality is one of those imperfections.
The concept of seasonality definitely has some roots in our coffee culture (U.S.) though its not exactly how we’d prefer it to be: Pumpkin Spice lattes, Eggnog lattes, Frappuccino Season, etc. Starbucks customers even know when to expect Guatemala Casi Cielo and Gazebo Blend so this concept rings true with a lot of … clients.
Starbucks has re-imagined the concept of seasonality in our culture through repeatedly getting their message out and committing to that message through their operations… year after year after year. Obviously, Intelli is no Starbucks but the concept of seasonality can be re-re-imagined and this is something that all can be involved with. We can surely go back and forth on what constitutes an in-season coffee but I think we can all agree coffee harvested this year is preferential to coffee harvested last year?
I say great for Intelligenstia for getting their message out. Great for Intelligentsia for committing to that message through their operations by putting the info on the bags. And great for Intelligenstia for calling us all to action.
I’m in… once we sell the remainder of our Costa Rica (packed in GrainPro, at least)