“The ethics of excellence are grounded in action – what you actually do, rather than what you say you believe. Talk, as the saying goes, is cheap.” – Terry Pratchett

One of the great issues that has plagued Speciality Coffee¹ has been the struggle to define itself. The trite answer of “coffee that scores above 80pts on the SCA cupping form” is technically correct² but does little to answer the question apart from showing that you’re a smartarse, so where do we turn for an identity? Well, I contend that it’s the story, the ethics and morals of the Speciality movement that sets it apart from the commercial side of the business³. 

Sustainability, Equality, Fair Pay⁴, these and many more buzz words became the tag lines for 1000’s of coffee business across the industry and when times were good we were happy to turn a blind eye to a system which was (and still is) blatantly exploitative yet allowed us as an industry to give back through charity projects blissfully ignoring the cognitive dissonance at the heart it.

As you may have noticed already this is not one of those long form, scalpel like eviscerations of the the industry, it’s not a treatise on the realities⁵ or inequalities⁶ of the coffee value stream, no it’s a blunt instrument and the hammer is coming.

As green coffee prices have risen over the past two years and many producers are in a position to be profitable for a sustained period for the first time in decades, the true cost of the ethics and morals we hold dear has been laid bare.

Turns out that in the UK it’s £3-4 per kilo for landed green coffee.

We asked the producers to increase quality on the promise of better, fairer pricing. Yet when that pricing comes we search for cheaper coffee⁷. 

We make excuses,  The “customers just won’t pay” is a classic justification to suppress supply pricing, roasters do it, importers do it… we all look to keep our prices low on fear of this.

Yet, historically those who have suffered the consequences here are surely the producers? Those same producers who we built our industry on by pledging them our support.

I wonder how this fits with the story speciality coffee has told, the story that differentiated it from commercial coffee.  

Actually I don’t wonder.

Footnotes

1. Yes, it has an extra I, I’m British dont @ me.
2. As we know, this is the best kind of correct.
3. Of course it did so well that the big players soon jumped on the bandwagon…
4. the “Live, Laugh, Love” of the 3rd wave.
5. Grounds for Agreement by John M Talbot.
6. Cheap Coffee by Karl Weinhold.
7. Gotta fund those 6 figure buildouts somehow eh!