Tales of a Travelling Peetnik: Our year of Africa

- By Shirin Moayyad, Coffee Buyer

Why call it Peet’s Year of Africa?

Try looking at this decision through a coffee buyer’s eyes and you’ll see it’s a no-brainer. Should I source the best coffee in the world and use that purchasing power to help ease African farmers’ poverty? Let me think about that for all of a nano-second.

 

East Africa is the genetic home of coffee and though the tree has flourished beautifully in many other parts of the world, the continent’s soils are optimal for bringing out big rounded cups of dark berry topped with decorative floral flavours. We like to deep roast our coffee here at Peet’s, so that explosive acidity (which is how one refers to berry notes in prosaic cuppers’ terms) lends itself particularly well to our style: it means we can really push the coffee to develop flavour, accentuate its body, then balance both with a sparkling acidity (as opposed to a tartness so shrieking it strips the enamel off your teeth).

Not all our African findings have such high acidity; some are more subtle or distinguished instead by their jasmine and lemon notes. Still, all Africans we buy share this point in common: they have a fine quality and elegance in the cup that surpasses most other origins and an ability to sustain that finesse right through to when the cup is cold – something a lesser quality can never achieve. I’m one of those coffee drinkers who’ll leave my cup on the desk, come back to it 2 hours later and pick it up to drink again. So I know all about quality holding till it’s cold – or not.

That’s the cup angle.

Now, what good does the cup achieve for its producer?

The idea, in a nutshell, is this. If farmers have the potential to produce top grades of coffee (and we already know that East Africa’s terroir means they do), than improved milling and processing will express that quality. That is to say, will let it shine. Effective market linkages will realise the expression of quality by making these gourmet coffees available to consumers – market access. And, finally, efficient and transparent management will ensure the farmer gets paid a higher price than he would have before this project – not only because good coffee gets a higher price, but because better management means less money is lost. But it all depends on, and begins with, high quality coffee.

The most effective implementation of this “quality pays” concept we’ve seen is in the work of the NGO TechnoServe, the non-profit we most admire. Predicated on the idea that giving a hand up rather than a hand out creates self-sufficiency, TechnoServe teaches small-scale coffee farmers the business skills needed to add value and achieve better quality. They then link farmers directly to their potential market: i.e., a company like Peet’s, willing to pay high prices for deserving quality. There are many intermediate steps, such as helping farmers access commercial bank credit for the first time and designing the simple yet effective coffee washing stations that transform their quality to specialty grade. Yet the idea is basic: connect small farmers with their potential market and thereby afford them a decent livelihood.

 

With no promise that we will purchase any outturns, our commitment is to assist by advising what coffees could be called specialty or gourmet grade, what is acceptable but insufficient for Peet’s, what is commercial quality and what is outright defective. Specialty grade coffees provide the price premium that can help lift farmers out of poverty, thus enabling this quality step to meet both our goals and the farmers’ wishes.

Notwithstanding our wish to help farmers, we take the hard line on quality throughout our cuppings. 

In April 2008, our mentor, Roastmaster Reynolds, spent two weeks visiting Rwandan cooperatives and working with farmers to help them understand our devotion to quality, the need for them to be meticulous and attentive in order to win price premiums. For farmers who formerly fed their coffees into anonymous supply chains, the concept that their own work and care can change their lives is transformative and empowering. In late 2008, Doug and I visited some of the Tanzanian farmers who sell us their project coffees and in early 2009 I travelled first to Rwanda and then to Kenya to continue the work.

We were only able to export a small amount of Rwandan top quality in the first year, but were gratified to learn from TechnoServe that the price we paid made an appreciable difference in the lives of these farmers. Rwanda offers an exemplary illustration of how keeping the quality bar high directly yields higher prices. See some of our individual farmer stories and let them tell you in their own words how this principle proves to be true.

To read more on our work with TechnoServe, see The Tanzania Initiative and The Rwanda initiative.

Comments

[Ann Cowing]

I hope you will think about making the k-cups for the many Keurig owners- I love your coffee and I am also a stockholder who believes in your business. The Keurig machine makes a perfect cup of coffee.

[tashvi]

to Susan in the Boston area: we don't have butter at any of the stores here in the Bay Area in California, either, and in my experience they never have. Peet's is about high quality coffee and tea and the preparation thereof, not about pastries.

[Chris Thiessen]

I hope Peet's will start producing the K-Cup for the Keurig single coffee machines soon. The Peet's coffee is so great but I love the convenience of the K-Cup.

[Susan]

No butter in the Boston area stores because it's "too expensive"????!!!

[Sylvia Cunningham]

On behalf of everyone at the Alameda Food Bank, I wish to thank Peet's Coffee and Tea for your generous support throughout the year. By becoming a Spring Challenge Sponsor, and by the example you set of giving back to the community, you helped raise us over $32,000 for the Alameda Food Bank. Beyond that, the coffee and tea that you donate regularly to the Food Bank is truly appreciated by our clients, who otherwise could not afford a good cup of coffee.
Again our thanks.
Sylvia Cunningham,
Fundraising Chair, Alameda Food Bank