Assessing and Reflecting on Estate Coffees

Timothy J. Castle

Estate Coffee has endured a difficult in trying to establish itself as prevailing industry. Timothy J. (amines the great history of this ) well as the possibilities and '1ty of the future. ffees from specific estates have lilable for purchase by roasters des, the idea of marketing them did not get much attention until 1970's. Nonetheless, a good If coffee from single estates has eant that roasters had coffees luld depend on yearly. Ties I roasters and farmers have in fact, for over a hundred years lome rare cases, even between restaurants and farms. Many of elationships, however, did not the ecomomic expansion and ~ation of the mid 20th century. It ,umed, or at least the consumer j to believe, that modern methods ting, processing and selection lbviate the .need for anything so as a coffee estate.

lsumers are always drawn to a ory and they love to believe that I taste a good story in a great cup e. In the case of an estate coffee, Iry has to do with the person or responsible for growing and :ling the coffee, which is then enough to be labeled as having :rom a single farm. This is the that people buy estate-bottled and are willing to pay hefty ms for the same. There is a belief ys: well-known estates are well- for a reasson,and that if a wine juced by the individual, whose appears on the bottle, that wine better than a similarly priced wine not so labeled and produced. The It of "estate coffee" then is a ·ful one, and comes highly mended from the wine industry, it has obviously served its participants well. Until the coffee business can generate some ideas of their Own, it seems that they will continue to turn to the wine industry, one way or the other. However, there have always been good reasons for not drawing attention to the farms where particular coffees come from.

Many specialty roasters have long understood that buying coffees from single farms ensured them consistently great coffee, year after year. The roasters only needed to identify those farmers and make sure that no one else comes across these farms. Of course, there was a benefit for the farmer. Throughout the early and mid-20th century the number of roasters looking naturuly fine coffees was decreasing and once a farmer found a roaster who would pay a premium for their coffee year after year, they were not likely to shop around for their coffee. They knew they had a good thing going. Farmers were aslo not too anxious to tell their neighbours where they were selling their coffees. Often, the exporters to who these farmers were selling thier coffee to did not make this information available in the first place.

For the roaster, then, identifying the farm, while it had its merits, did not seem like the best call from the playbook. Traditionally, specialty roasters spend a great deal of time trying to communicate about coffee, as well as introducing another variable that flew in the face of every-thing they knew about the coffee business. In view of the complexities of this simple beverage, roasters generally opt to first credit themselves with the responsibility for making their coffee taste great, and are not anxious about telling their customers, 'Hey, this Guatemalan coffee tastes great because of the guy who grew it, not me. I'm just the person that roasted it.' Furthermore, the coffee business, or at least those on the trading side, has been traditionally fond of secrecy, and the idea of disclosing the names of sources to one's customers (whether they are coffee drinkers, roasters or even importers) was not the first choice of traditional exporters and traders. In parts of the world where it is still possible to keep background information confidential, it is still done so.

Further, young roasting operations (even those dedicated to roasting fine specialty coffee), have always looked forward to the day that they would ougrow the ability to sell one farm's production as their single origin offering, no matter how large. Larger operations dedicated to fine coffees have usually not said the patrticular estate \hat they are selling to, but rather that is is simple great coffee from that region.

It also must be noted that just because a coffee is from a single estate. and even if the farmer has done everything possible to ensure that the coffee is as good as it can be, it may not be great, or worthy of selling alone. It may be highly acidic and have some nice sweetness, yet it might also be mediocre, but contributing its strengths to blend that otherwise makes up for its weaknesses. The Impact of Estate COftBBS

Buying coffees at the farm level introduces accountability, and the assumption that this responsibility is taken up by only the Farnera in fellse, an estate coffee in one in name only if the farmer in Identified to the ro aster (and consumer) but the reverse is not the case. in other words, a trueestate coffee defines not only the coffee, but also a· relationspip.This may sound a little sentimental, but the fact is that when a coffee drinker buys coffee from a single farm, there is an implicit understanding that there exists an ongoing commitment on the part of the farmer, and the roaster to -provide a great cuap of coffee to the consumer cup after cup, and that effort will be made to make that cup of coffee, if not totally, consistent, then at least true to form -much in the same way that wine drinkers expect certain characteristies from certain estate bottled wines, year after year. Even if a roaster offers different estates from a particular origin from crop to crop. That roaster is wasting money if they don't acknowledge that the farmer's coffee possesses a certain taste profile. How that profile is interpreted is the job of the roaster, but the basic style, character and flavor have to be there, or there is nothing to interpret. In short, one of the best results of the trade in estate coffees is that it teaches both farmers and roasters to work more Closely together in thier effort to deliver a better cup of coffee to the consumer.

Lately, the initial interest in estate coffees and the estate coffee model has led many roasters to divide things even more finely. The owners of large estates have understood that certain parts of their farm produce better coffee than other areas, and they would often pick and choose which of their customers received lots of their coffee. Today, specialty roasters are asking to select from several lots of coffee of the same farm. Twenty years ago, however, these lots would· have been thought to be . identical (except by those who were let in on the secret). Additionally, roasters are asking co-ops to show them and allow them to cup the individual lots of coffee that were delivered to the co-op by each farmer. This phenomenon has led to hard feeling amongst some roasters, because if one roaster has the opportunity to pick and choose the best lots of coffee, it obviously means that other customers of that co-op will get lower quality deliveries. for something truly special and are willing to pay. Some roasters use the opportunity to sell microlots in another way. However, they can get into the business of selling estate coffee and benefit from the halo effect of that distinction while, ironically, making a minimal investment in it. Whether these lots are obtained through a CaE auction or by working with co-ops to separate the best lots, the phenomenon of small lasts selling at big premiums has enlivened many small farmers to the pOSSibility that they can get more money for their coffee by improving its quality. There will always be the "first growth" when it comes to estate coffee, the larger, professionally managed farms producing impeccable coffees year in and year out, but there will also be a few smaller farmers, working very hard to produce a few bags of something very special. The idea of estate coffees may even eventually become out mOded, as the arbitrary property lines that define an estate become less relevant and the micro climates soirs and farming methods that deliver the best, most distinctive cup of coffee pOSSible are identified. This is not to say that such separations lead to better coffees, so much a they might lead to more interesting and unique coffees. Such a sensibility already exists in parts of the wine business, as well as where vintners are bottling the production from specific 'blocks' of land, since they believe that each of these blocks produces wine that each of these blocks produces wine that is distinctive enough to stand on its own. Perhaps, some day, the coffee trade will have a thing or two to teach the wine business, however small that possibility might seem today.