Do You Really Care About Coffee Producers?

In this episode, I dive deep into a frustrating yet enlightening experience with a premium Brazilian coffee called "The Tour Coffee." I share my months-long journey of carefully evaluating this supposedly exceptional coffee through multiple roast profiles and brewing methods, only to discover it had sold out when I was ready to purchase. This setback led me to a profound realization about what coffee drinkers truly value and care about. I explore the uncomfortable truth about how much we actually know or care about coffee producers versus roasters, questioning whether the origin story and producer details matter as much as we claim they do.

Through this candid reflection, I examine the complex relationship between producers, roasters, and consumers in the specialty coffee world. I challenge listeners to honestly assess what drives their coffee purchasing decisions - is it the taste, the roaster's reputation, or genuine concern for the farmers who grow the beans? By sharing my own struggles with balancing business survival and ethical sourcing, I offer insights into the reality of running a coffee roasting business and the compromises we all make. Listeners will gain a raw, unfiltered perspective on the coffee industry's marketing versus reality.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:00 Coffee Evaluation Process and Roasting Experiments
• 4:20 The Disappointment of Sold Out Coffee
• 6:00 Questioning Producer Knowledge and Consumer Care
• 9:00 Personal Reflection on Coffee Business Priorities
• 12:00 The Roaster vs Producer Dynamic and Final Thoughts

Transcript

[00:00:07] The Tour Coffee. Remember that name.

[00:00:16] Months ago, I bought this coffee. I was psyched, I was pumped. I was thinking about logistics of how this coffee was going to transform my coffee roasting business.

[00:00:32] See, if more people knew about the finest or the greatest coffee in Brazil, or one of many, or one of few, then people will see that this coffee was magical and I was the one to give it to them.

[00:01:21] Before July ends, you'll get free shipping. So I had about three months before I had to make a decision. Since I don't do any cupping, the process was fun to me. I took my time, I roasted it twice.

[00:01:42] One as a lighter roast and also one as a dark roast. I even gave it out to a friend who frequently buys from me. I just put one, two, three, four, five, six, seven on the bags and wanted him to feel prone to say what it is when it says what it is on the bag.

[00:02:03] I tried to do the same, tried to be as objective as I could, made challenges out of it, brought little things here and there with different brewers. Because you know, I don't cup. I could have been done with this assessment a lot faster, right?

[00:02:19] But regardless of the fact, I was there and I was present. I was trying to know notes, putting down my tasting notes, thinking about what you will probably taste in a coffee. Think about what you would enjoy about the coffee.

[00:02:34] One little thing I did though, too, is that I have a Brazilian already. It's a decent Brazilian. It tastes like a Brazilian, chocolatey, nutty, all the things that you could think about a Brazilian. It's a very low offensive, kind of like your everyday driver, so to speak.

[00:02:53] So I put that into the mix, too. I wanted to see how that one will compare. It's still specialty coffee they sell so much of it.

[00:03:08] So I went through this whole experiment, tasting the coffees, analyzing them, trying to be as objective as I could. Different temperatures, whatever it didn't matter. I threw at it. Then care for it as light roast. Surprise, surprise. But as a medium to dark and dark roast, the coffee started to come alive.

[00:03:32] I jotted down my notes. I compared my light roast versus my dark roast. I kind of had an idea of what I was going to do, which coffees I was going to select for whichever reason. And then it came time to purchasing, went to the website, was shocked.

[00:03:57] There is no Tour Coffee on there. I'm sure this probably happened sometime in time where they don't have the crops inside of their warehouse. Probably they ran out, makes sense for them to run out. But then I checked again another day and another day by that time it's already August.

[00:04:20] I was slightly pissed. I wondered if I wasted my time doing this whole thing. But now me and failure have a thing together that we, you know, are buddies together.

[00:04:35] And I just sat there just thinking about what I did wrong. I could have been better about this coffee presented in its best light given out to people and then for them to drink it and enjoy it and keep coming back.

[00:04:51] And then I start thinking and analyzing, probably a little bit of anger, is that probably only one to three coffees tasted a little bit better than the coffee that I usually have for people. The one that I believe that they should try, the gateway drug to, you know, specialty coffee or good tasting coffee in general.

[00:05:16] And I analyzed the price. And I kind of got an idea what I was going to pay for the other ones. And then I realized is that am I wasting my time and just go to the importer that I normally go to and just purchase the coffee and just keep moving.

[00:05:57] Yeah, it could be that I just could do that. All of the time I didn't want to because there's information here and there, all around, everywhere.

[00:06:24] Which is besides people knowing that it's a Brazilian or how high it was grown, or the tasting notes of that coffee, how much do you really know of the coffee?

[00:06:44] Do you care? Do you really, really give a damn? I'm serious. I mean, think about it.

[00:06:53] Do you say that you care in public, but then when you're behind the walls of your own house or online trying to buy your own coffee or going to the coffee shops and trying to see what you want? Do you truly care who produced that coffee?

[00:07:11] Do you? That's what I'm asking right now.

[00:07:17] Because as I was sitting there racking my brain trying to see what I can do to bring out this Tour Coffee to the world. I wonder who knew exactly what Tour Coffee is.

[00:07:30] Probably they think it's just a name brand. Probably they can research it and kind of figure out what the coffee is all about. But do people really care about the producers?

[00:07:40] Do they think that you're going to get a different product from the producers? Compared to what we know of is the roasters, right? What do we care about? Truly, really, what do you care about?

[00:07:58] Do you know who produced your coffee? I'm not going to lie. A lot of coffee I get, I get from the importers. They just tell me what it is. They give me some tasting notes. They tell me that it's been grown in this high altitude and all that stuff. And I move on with my day.

[00:08:17] I constantly think about how much information I want to give to people, how much they care. I just recently bought some coffee but somebody reached out to me on LinkedIn.

[00:08:31] That family farm's been in existence for almost 100 years. So they're really trying to bring it out to the masses. And it's a little pressure, but I ended up getting it. I went ahead and just bought the coffee. I'm going to test it for myself and see what it's all about.

[00:08:56] I wonder how much people care. I see it on the bag. I see the farm. I see how long it's been in the world.

[00:09:08] But if I told you what this coffee, who made this coffee, the processes that they took, the harvest that they went through. Do you truly really care? Do you just care about the taste? Me personally, I care about the taste.

[00:09:27] I care about how it goes through the V60. I care about how if I put this in an automatic drip machine, how customers and clients will hopefully appreciate this coffee. Because you know, a lot of times when I'm thinking about this is that I'm trying to survive too. I'm trying to come up and do the things right. And as much as I want to try to give you the homage or the origin story of this particular coffee.

[00:09:59] Honestly, I want you to buy the coffee, drink it, keep drinking it, keep drinking it. If you care, I'll give you the information if I know it. But it is what it is.

[00:10:37] Why do we care about it? Do we know one or two producers? Or really the best person to bring the best out of coffee is that roaster. So that's why we care more so about the roaster than a producer. And then of course, to an extent, the country that came from.

[00:11:00] That's what I'm thinking about right now. Now, as I sat there and just been pissed and just being not happy because I couldn't get that coffee. Even if I did get the coffee. Why would it have mattered.

[00:11:16] Even just talking back to my friend. He said that coffee that he usually gets anyway can't be beat. And he's enjoying that coffee. He likes different coffees. He likes it for whatever it is. And it is what it is.

[00:11:39] But even if I am having a difficult time trying to convince myself to see how this coffee is better than the status quo. And then all the things that I have to do in order to get you to understand that this is a producer that really cares about what they're doing.

[00:12:11] Then it's almost a waste of time. It is what it is, right?

[00:12:18] So how much do you know your producers? Do you care? Do you truly really care? I'm serious. Just don't tell me this crap about like, yeah, the producers this, you want to get back to the community and care about schools and all that stuff. How much do you truly really care?

[00:12:38] Because a lot of times when you pick up a bag of coffee, yeah, sometimes they'll have who made it in the back of the bag or probably even in the front of the bag giving respect back to the person who actually made it.

[00:13:26] I'm not here to bash you, to hate on you or anything like that. I do it too. I am not on this high horse type of thing to where I can say this is the things that I'm going through and doing, you know, because at the end of the day, it's about you.

[00:13:48] It's not about me. My journey is intact. I brew and roast coffee all the time. And these things are fun to me. But at the end of the day, what do you care about?

[00:14:03] Do you care about that producer? Or do you care about that roaster more?

[00:14:13] Probably not, you know, but I don't know. Be straight up and honest about it, but I don't know. That's kind of like where I'm at right now. So let me know what you think about that. How do you go about getting your cup of coffee or your bag of coffee and whatever it may be.

[00:14:36] Do you care who produced it? Because truthfully, if you think about it, a roaster is just a person who gets that ball, using a basketball sense, and that producer just throws a bag of coffee to him, and then he just alley-oops the dunk. He's literally the last person to give you something magical, not mess it up, right?

[00:15:05] Do you care about him more than the person who actually made it? Do we realize that it takes years, months of producing, of harvest, of all that stuff?

[00:15:28] Do we care? Do you care? Or do you just care about what appears on a sip and I just put a Brazilian on there, a morning brew, or whatever else we roasters do in order to get you to be enticed by whatever.

[00:16:12] So, how much do you really care? Talk to you later. Bye.