Organic Coffee Scams
Organic coffee is great coffee. It is almost always arabica and free of more than a hundred potential contaminants that can be found in non-organic coffees. As a rule the best way to know that your coffee is organic is to look for the USDA Organic label on the package. However, there are organic coffee scams and other false representations in the organic food and beverage world. The USDA has a long list of fraudulent organic certificates that it regularly updates. The image accompanying this article is one of them from a few years ago.
What Is USDA Certification?
In order to be certified as organic coffee by the USDA, a coffee farm or production facility needs to be inspected and then routinely reinspected in order to obtain and maintain certification. Crop standard for USDA certification include the following:
- Three years of having no prohibited substances applied to it.
- Maintenance of soil fertility and crop nutrition via crop rotations, cultivation practices, tillage, cover crop and crop or animal waste materials with only allowed synthetic materials.
- Management of diseases, pests, and weed via biological, mechanical, and physical controls instead of chemicals whenever possible. When necessary synthetic, botanical, and biological methods are allowed but only from a list provided by the USDA.
- Planting stock must be organic and any use of ionizing radiation, genetic engineering, or sewage sludge is prohibited.
Why Is Honest Organic Coffee Certification Important?
There are three issues here. If you want organic coffee you not only want great coffee taste and aroma but you want it without a long list of potential impurities that can be found in regular coffee. And organic coffee drinkers typically want the coffee they drink to have been produced without damaging the environment, water table, bird life, or the lives and safety of those working on coffee farms. Thus the two first issues are coffee quality and environmental concerns. The third is the cost of the coffee. Organic coffee is more expensive than other coffee. It costs more to produce all the way from the coffee farm through processing, storage, and shipping. Organic coffee is similar to gourmet coffee in this regard. Because of the cost and trouble of growing and processing organic coffee nobody bothers with low quality coffee. Thus, organic coffee drinkers are getting better coffee that is environmentally friendly and ultra-pure. Nobody wants to be paying organic prices and then getting an inferior product that ends up hurting the environment.
Fraudulent Organic Certifications
Despite all of the effort put into certifying organic foods and beverages, including organic coffee, there are fraudulent organic certifications that amount to organic coffee scams. The image below of a fraudulent certificate from a few years ago is just one example published by the USDA.
If you wonder about whether the USDA certification of your organic coffee is valid you can check with the USDA. You can also rely on established coffee suppliers such as those who have sold coffee from Colombia with the Juan Valdez trademark as well. For quality coffee from Colombia, organic or not, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org today.
Is Robusta or Stenophylla the Future of Coffee?
A while back we posed the question, will climate change lead to worse coffee at higher prices? Arabica coffee production is threatened by hotter temperatures and extreme climate fluctuations. Arabica is superior to robusta, the other commercially dominant coffee, but robusta is a hardier coffee and more tolerant to higher temperatures. One of the potential paths forward in the world of coffee will be to cross breed robusta with arabica varieties in an attempt to produce a hardier coffee with arabica’s great taste and aroma. Another route will be to look at coffee varieties that are not now commercially dominant but have flavor and aroma characteristics of arabica along with robusta’s hardiness. One of these is Stenophylla. So, is robusta or Stenophylla the future of coffee?
Robusta Coffee
Robusta is the second most produced coffee in the world, only slightly behind arabica. It has a higher caffeine content. Robusta produces more coffee per plant, comes to maturity quicker, and is much more resistant to coffee plant diseases like coffee leaf rust. Compared to arabica, robusta does better in hot climates and when rainfall is irregular. It can be grown at both high and low altitudes. The main drawback is that robusta does not have the same flavor and aroma qualities as arabica. This issue may be resolved as growers in Asia but also places like Colombia are trying to cross breed arabica and robusta varieties to obtain robusta hardiness with arabica flavor and aroma in a single coffee.
Stenophylla Coffee
All coffee originally grew wild in Africa. There are many coffee varieties that are not grown commercially to the extent that robusta and arabica are. Nevertheless, there are some great, essentially wild, coffees. One of these is Stenophylla. It grows in West Africa, is extremely tolerant to high temperatures, and has a flavor profile similar to arabica! Prior to the last couple of years you have to go back a century to find reports about this coffee variety. This virtually forgotten variety has been rediscovered growing wild in north West Africa.
Information and Image Courtesy of Springer Nature
Not trusting century old reports of a coffee once cultivated in commercial quantities in West Africa this coffee was sent for blind taste testing to eighteen judges across the world. This coffee came from two sources. One was the Coffea Biological Resources Center on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and the other was from Sierra Leone in West Africa. The results were that this coffee is very similar to a fine arabica in taste and aroma. The coffee was said to have fruitiness, good body, natural sweetness, and a complex flavor profile. Notes of mandarin, peach, honey, jasmine, spice, chocolate, honey, nuts, caramel, and elderflower syrup will be reported in this taste testing.
How Heat Tolerant Is Stenophylla Coffee?
The issue here is preserving good tasting coffee as the world heats up. Stenophylla appears to be a great tasting coffee of a quality similar but not identical to arabica. In other words, judges in the taste testing typically thought this was great coffee but something different from arabica. Stenophylla coffee fruit is black instead of the red color of robusta or arabica. This coffee in indigenous to the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. It grows at low altitudes and significantly higher temperatures than robusta or arabica. The mean annual temperature when Stenophylla grows well is 24.9 degrees Celsius or 76 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 23 degrees Celsius or 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit for Robusta and 18.1 degrees Celsius or 64.5 degrees Fahrenheit for Arabica!
Average Temperatures in Colombian Coffee Growing Region
How does all of this apply to a place like Colombia that currently only grows arabica coffee? The average annual temperature for the city of Pereira at 1,411 meters is 21 degrees Celsius or 69 degrees Fahrenheit. The average annual temperature for Manizales at 2,160 meters is 17.7 degrees Celsius or 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The old standard arabica strains of coffee are only grown at the higher altitudes around Manizales and higher up in the Western Andes. In lower regions like around Pereira they only grow modified arabica strains that are currently tolerant to the heat currently experienced at these lower altitudes. As temperatures climb over the years there will be a need for heat tolerant strains at lower Colombian altitudes. Thus, they may end up using modified robusta strains or introducing a new variety such as Stenophylla.
How to Filter Your Coffee
You can buy great coffee, store it correctly, roast to perfection and still end up with a cup of coffee that is not to your liking. How is that? It has to do with the quality of the water that you use and how you filter your coffee. Using bottled or filtered water will generally take care of the water quality issue. But how to filter your coffee can be a more involved issue. What kind of filter you use determines if you remove oils that provide flavor but also may create health issues.
Optimal Coffee Brewing Temperature
To get the best aroma and flavor you should be buying arabica coffee from places like Colombia. Store correctly and only grind enough coffee for what you will brew. Water temperature is important as water that is too cool will not extract the flavors of your coffee. Water that is too hot will destroy some of those flavors. The ideal brewing temperature is between eighty-two and ninety-two degree Celsius which is one hundred eighty degrees to one hundred ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit. For pour over coffee boil the water and let stand until the temperature falls sufficiently.
Why Filter Your Coffee?
Brewing coffee is based on pour over, immersion, pressure, or a combination of these. A good reason to filter your coffee is that you then remove both cafestol and kahweol coffee oils. These are diterpene compounds that can raise your cholesterol. Filtered coffee generally contains about one part in thirty of these compounds compared to unfiltered coffee. Using a simple cloth filter for pour over coffee eliminates any hit of paper taste from that kind of filter and lets more oils through for more flavor. More complicated metal and plastic filters are generally designed to get the coffee away from the grounds quickly to avoid over brewing. Paper filters are handy because they can be easily disposed of along with the used grounds. They are also the most effective for screening out all of the grounds as well as a majority of oils.
Filtering Coffee With a French Press
If you want more of the taste and aroma that comes with not removing so much of the oils and grounds from your coffee you probably want to use a French press. With this method make sure that you only use a coarse grind and a pot that exactly fits the amount of coffee that you are going to brew. Ideally preheat your pot and add only about a sixth of the water and your ground coffee. Stir for about fifteen seconds and then add the rest of your water. The wait four minutes as the coffee extracts into the water before pushing down on the plunger of the French press. To avoid over extraction pour your coffee immediately and enjoy.
Paper Coffee Filters
This is the idea way to avoid having too much oil with your coffee as well as unwanted grounds. Coffee filters are convenient but make sure you use the right size for your brewing method. Ideally soak your filter in boiling water and discard excess liquid before using it to filter your coffee. For the pour over method use two tsp of grounds and place in the filter before pouring the water. Do so slowly, for thirty seconds. For coffee percolators follow the direction on the packaging for amount of coffee grounds and water.
How to Make Gourmet Coffee
If you like great coffee you probably buy gourmet coffee. Gourmet coffee is that which has been grown under exacting conditions, picked at the peak of perfection. Gourmet coffee starts with the highest quality coffee beans such as arabica coffee from Colombia. Gourmet coffee is processed in small batches in order to preserve its excellence. All of this having been said, it is important to know how to make gourmet coffee when you make coffee at home. In other words, don’t spoil all of that effort that went into creating high quality coffee by messing up your storage, roasting, grinding, or brewing!
Taking Care of Your Gourmet Coffee
The flavor and aroma of great coffee does not last forever. Over time oxidation (exposure to air) degrades the chemicals that create the best aroma and flavor. If you buy green coffee beans they will retain their freshness for up to three years providing that it is stored properly. Green coffee beans need to be stored in a dark, cool, and dry location. That means no direct sunlight, on shelves and not on the ground, away from strong smells, and away from sources of humidity. It may be convenient to put your coffee in the cupboard right above your stove but that is a really bad idea!
If you buy roasted whole bean gourmet coffee the beans will retain their freshness for up to six months when properly stored. The same “rules” apply to storing roasted coffee beans as to green coffee beans.
Ideally you should store your coffee in a ceramic or dark glass canister and never freeze it. The problem with freezing is that when the coffee thaws it tends to absorb moisture. Each time you take coffee out of the freezer to brew you will degrade your gourmet coffee a bit more.
When to Grind Gourmet Coffee Beans
No matter whether you roast your own coffee at home or purchase roasted gourmet coffee beans, only grind enough coffee to use for one preparation or at least only enough for the day. Oxidation happens much faster when air is in contact with all of the interior of your coffee beans than when air has to penetrate the intact beans. Basically, you start to lose flavor and aroma as soon as you grind your coffee. You also start to lose the valuable antioxidants that confer so many health benefits as well!
Brewing Gourmet Coffee
After you have expended the effort to get, preserve, and grind your gourmet coffee don’t mess it up by using water that is impure, heavily chlorinated, or otherwise likely to impart unwelcome flavors to the final brew. Use filtered water and heat it to at least 195 degrees Fahrenheit but not more than 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Ideally you should purchase a scale for accurate measurement of how much coffee to use with each brewing. As a starting point measure out 90 grams of coffee for a standard coffee maker and then adjust the amount for taste in subsequent efforts.
Choose Your Method For Brewing Gourmet Coffee
We have written about making coffee with a French press versus pour over coffee versus using a percolator. Assuming the same ingredients, a percolator will give you milder coffee while a French press results in a darker, stronger flavor. The pour over route tends to end up with something in between. No matter which method you choose, it is important to clean your equipment after each use. Oil collects in a coffee pot if it is not washed. Mold and bacteria can accumulate in a percolator that is not routinely cleaned. Do not go to the expense and trouble to make great gourmet coffee and then ruin it by neglecting to clean your equipment routinely!
Coffee and Your Mental Health
Drinking coffee can help you keep your focus when you are tired. Drinking coffee can also make you feel nervous or jittery if you drink too much. However, there are a lot more effects of coffee on your brain and how it functions. What are ways in which coffee and your mental health are related? Some of the effects of coffee have to do with its caffeine content. Others appear to be related to the many healthy antioxidants found in coffee.
Coffee, Caffeine, and Your Mental Health
Caffeine from coffee confers alertness, a sense of well-being, and energy, especially when we would otherwise feel tired. It is the world’s go-to wake me up and keep me awake drink. And when we drink too much (which varies from person to person) we have trouble sleeping and feel jittery. If one’s coffee consumption is high enough there is a withdrawal effect of cutting back consisting of more irritability and headaches. When students drink coffee there is good evidence that it helps consolidate learning. All of this applies to consumption of coffee in normal amounts. When coffee is ingested in toxic levels individuals with schizophrenia experience worsened symptoms and others can also experience psychotic symptoms as well as symptoms of ADHD. There is no evidence that coffee consumption in the normal range has any long term detrimental effects of mental health. On the contrary, it can have significant benefits in some cases.
Coffee and Reduction of Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease
Long term observational studies of humans indicate that people who drink coffee have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This is a degenerative condition of the brain that appears to be related to long term effects of inflammation. It has been suggested that the antioxidants in coffee are responsible for coffee’s benefit in reducing the incidence of Alzheimer’s. Interestingly, a study done on rats used one of the antioxidants in coffee, eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide, in treating rats and found that it helped prevent the rat version of Alzheimer’s! In humans, those who report higher coffee consumption up to six cups a day also turn out to have a lower rate of Alzheimer’s than those who drank only a cup or so each day.
Coffee for Treatment of Depression
We generally think of coffee as a stimulant to keep normal people awake and alert late in the day or while driving at night. Coffee is not generally considered a treatment for depression but that may not be entirely correct. Doctors in Japan evaluated 1992 women in nursing home for caffeine intake and depression. They found that increased amounts of caffeine intake from coffee, tea, or caffeine pills all were related to lower levels of depression in women aged 65 to 94 years. This was a cross-sectional study of symptoms and behavior. The authors suggest follow up studies in which caffeine is used for depressed individuals and in which caffeine and no caffeine groups are studied for depression over time in order to confirm their findings.
Interactions of Coffee and Medications
As we have noted, the caffeine in coffee can make you jittery and nervous. It can even raise your blood pressure. These potential effects can be controlled by reducing coffee intake or going with decaf. However, if a person is taking some medications such as thyroid pills, the effects of caffeine add to the effects of the thyroid medicine and can make coffee more of a problem. Too much thyroid medicine can raise blood pressure and make a person jittery as can too much caffeine. These effects are additive in sensitive individuals. Thus, individuals taking thyroid pills should modify their coffee intake and intake of caffeine from other sources accordingly.
Is It Organic Coffee?
If you love great coffee you want coffee that is free of impurities. If you love the environment you want coffee that is sustainably grown. If you love great coffee you probably want organic coffee. So, is it organic coffee? Organic coffee is coffee that is free from as many as 150 impurities that have been discovered in regular coffee. Organic applies to roughly three 3% of all coffee produced commercially. You know that coffee is organic when it has the USDA organic seal on the container. However, there is a lot of coffee that is not certified but nevertheless organic!
Organic Versus Regular Coffee
There are two basic things that make organic coffee different from regular coffee. The first is what it lacks. Organic coffee grow and processed under strict conditions does not contain residues of synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, or a whole host of other unwanted ingredients. Organic coffee is grown under special conditions and processed separately from regular coffees. The second part is that organic coffee is generally excellent coffee of gourmet quality. Coffee farmers do not go to the trouble and expense of growing and processing low quality coffee to get an organic product. However, organic coffee does not have any more or less caffeine than similar coffee that is not produced by organic means. In general, the same coffee variety produced by non-organic processes does not necessarily have any fewer antioxidants, worse flavor, or inferior aroma just because it is not certified as organic.
Organic Coffee Certification
How do you know that your coffee is organic? You know because it says so on the bag of coffee you are purchasing. In the USDA the certifying authority is the Department of Agriculture. As noted by the Organic Trade Association, organic standards include growing and processing without using synthetic or toxic fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, genetic engineering, artificial flavors, synthetic growth hormones, preservatives, colors, radiation, or sewage sludge.
In order to demonstrate that coffee is organic coffee farmers and others along the supply chain need to provide traceability from the coffee farm itself to the cup of coffee on consumes. This is a multistep and rigorous process that is carried out by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) within the USA itself and by assigned proxies elsewhere across the globe. Because only Hawaii produces coffee in the USA the USDA outsources certification across the coffee belt to local authorities.
No matter who does the actual certification process on behalf of the USDA, certified organic coffee has the USDA organic seal.
Specifics of Organic Coffee Certification
As with most things in life, the truth is in the details. In regard to organic coffee, land has to be free of pesticides, herbicides, etc. for more than three years to be certified and to maintain organic certification. Furthermore, organic coffee cannot be produced right next to regular coffee. There needs to be a meaningful buffer or space between the two. This has be verified by the certifying agent. Processing and storage facilities also need to be physically separate for organic and regular coffee as well. The same applies to shipping.
Is Organic Coffee Expensive?
It costs more to produce organic coffee than a non-organic version of a comparable coffee of the same variety. The care and attention to growing organic coffee are comparable and often greater than for gourmet coffee that is not organic. Thus, it should not be surprising that organic coffee generally carries a premium price of at least fifty percent more than non-organic. Beyond that price differences have more to do with marketing than with quality.
Organic Coffee At the Best Price
The best coffee and the best organic coffee at the best price comes from the coffee growing district of Colombia. If you are interested in high quality coffee, organic or not, at reasonable prices, contact us at admin@buyorganiccoffee.org.
How Much Does Coffee Help Your Health?
We have known for years that coffee is good for your health. But how great are the benefits? It turns out that researchers have real numbers for us and those numbers tell give us a clear indication of the health benefits of coffee in regard specific diseases and health conditions. Specifically, how much does coffee help your health in terms of percentage reduction of specific health conditions and diseases?
Drinking Coffee and the Risk of Type II Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which a person’s blood sugar is elevated. This causes damage to blood vessels of the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and other organs over time. Type I diabetes is when a person does not produce enough insulin to control their blood sugar. Type II diabetes is when a person’s body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin. Type II is by far more common, occurs in adulthood, and is treated with pills instead of insulin shots. About a million and a half people die every year because of complications of diabetes. It is wonderful news that drinking three to four cups of coffee a day cuts the risk of getting Type II diabetes by 25%! Drinking coffee has been associated with pre-diabetic individuals returning to a state of normal blood sugars which fits the association of more coffee and less diabetes!
Drinking Coffee and the Risk of Heart Disease
We have also known for some time that coffee consumption is helpful in reducing heart disease risk. It turns out that the benefit is a ten to fifteen percent reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease from drinking coffee. There is apparently a “U-shaped” benefit curve with the maximum benefit from reduction of risk of dying from heart disease at three cups a day. That risk benefit is a twenty-one percent less chance of death by heart disease. This risk reduction includes heart attacks and heart failure but not arrhythmias.
Drinking Coffee and Liver Disease
Research has indicated that drinking coffee can reduce one’s risk of hepatocellular cancer (liver cancer) as well as cirrhosis. Retrospective studies have shown that drinking two cups of coffee a day or more protects against virtually all forms of liver disease. These conditions include advanced cirrhosis, liver cancer and cirrhosis. This protective effect applies no matter what the cause of the liver disease. The benefits of drinking coffee increase as one consumes more, up to the four to six cups a day range.
The percentage reductions in liver diseases were significant across the board. The reduction in hepatocellular cancer risk ranges from thirty to eighty percent depending on the amount of coffee consumed per day up to six cups a day at which the benefit appears to level off.
Drinking Coffee and Risk of Parkinson’s Disease
Research has shown a reduction in the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease in coffee drinkers as well as those who drink other beverages containing caffeine. Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative neurological disease seen in older individuals. The risk of Parkinson’s was reduced by forty-two percent between men who drink the most coffee and those who drank no beverage with caffeine. In women the maximum benefit occurred at about three cups a day and fell off with both greater and lesser consumption. No one yet understands the male to female difference in this case. Nevertheless, there is a distinct and measurable benefit for caffeine consumption including drinking coffee in the prevention of Parkinson’s disease.
Will Good Intentions Kill the Coffee Industry?
In a perfect world all coffee would be totally organic, shade grown, bird friendly, and of gourmet quality. In the real world coffee farmers need to work with what they have to grow their crops. They need to deal with buyers who commonly do not want to pay higher prices than they have to in order to pad their profits as they pass coffee along the supply chain. Meanwhile, well intentioned individuals and organizations try to enforce strict regulations in order to accomplish an ideal such as preventing deforestation by the coffee industry. Such is the case with the EU deforestation-free supply chain law (EUDR). Although the intentions behind the law are good the end result might not be. Will good intentions kill the coffee industry in this case?
What is the EUDR Law?
The European Regulation on deforestation free products is meant to protect global forests from deforestation. It prohibits businesses from selling products in European Union markets unless they are “proven” to be deforestation-free and produced legally. Additionally, such products will be banned from export from the European Union. A recent estimate of the total cost of compliance with this law is between $170 million and $250 million in US dollars.
For this plan to work, companies will need to do their due diligence and produce reports regarding the products involved, their origin, and proof of lack of deforestation, existing land claims, presence or absence of indigenous communities, and more.
For this plan to work companies will need do their due diligence and produce reports regarding the products involved, their origin, and proof of lack of deforestation, existing land claims, presence or absence of indigenous communities, and more.
Problems With the EUDR Law
An issue with the well intentioned EUDR law is similar to something we have written about in regard to small coffee farmers maintaining certification for organic coffee. It costs money and takes times to get certified. As a practical matter the coffee farmers who seek certification need to make enough extra money selling their coffee to make the process worthwhile. The same is very likely to be true with small coffee operations across the world
What Will Be the Results of the EUDR Law?
In all likelihood the EUDR law will result in deforestation not being an issue with coffee sold in the European Union. It will also likely result in having only coffee from large international suppliers being available to European buyers as smaller operations will not be able to deal with the costs of compliance. To a degree this will reduce the variety of coffee available in the EU and result in a lot of excellent coffee going to local consumption instead of export.
Organic or Deforestation Free Coffee in Fact if Not in Name
What we expect to see with the EU law is that the EU will reduce the amount and variety of coffee that it can import and sell locally. Meanwhile there will be a lot of coffee that cannot get into the EU because it is deforestation free just like being truly organic but not certified as such. To the extent that the process reduces deforestation it will be a good thing overall. However, it threatens to consolidate the global coffee industry because only large, global companies will be able to comply and smaller companies as well as small family coffee farmers will be excluded.
Shade Grown Coffee and Coffee Diversity
The EUDR law has to do with preventing deforestation. Another argument could be made that by keeping trees on coffee farms we end up with more shade grown coffee. Studies have shown that in Latin America coffee species diversity increases on farms where coffee is grown in the shade. Thus, in theory, the EUDR law might help coffee diversity in Latin America. However, because so many small coffee growers will be unable to take advantage of this law to sell their coffee to European companies.
Is It Dark Roast or Burnt Coffee?
Do you drink a strong, dark roast coffee? Much of what one finds at the grocery store falls into this category. The problems with a strong, dark roast are that one loses most of the flavor of a good coffee and also serves to disguise low quality coffee. So, is it dark roast or burnt coffee that you are buying at the supermarket? If you like a darker roast but also good coffee, what do you look for?
Why Do We Roast Coffee?
Green coffee beans can remain reasonably fresh for up to three years when properly stored. However, green beans smell a bit like wet grass and are spongy when bitten into. But when we roast coffee beans a series of chemical changes occur that result in the flavors and aromas that we associate with coffee. Although there are several terms used to describe the degree of roasting, they generally fall into four categories, light, medium, medium-dark, and dark. Light roasting is the least time spent and dark roasting is the most time spent on the process.
How Does Roasting Affect Flavor and Aroma of Coffee?
If you have coffee beans with milder flavor you probably want a light roast as it brings out subtle flavors that are not overwhelmed by the bitterness that comes with more roasting. If you are buying gourmet coffee this is a good place to start when you are doing your own roasting. When you go to a medium roast you get a stronger flavor at the expense of losing some of the subtlety of a light roast. This trend continues into dark-medium and dark roasts. On the darker end of the roast spectrum coffee beans caramelize as other flavors disappear. Here is where it can become difficult or impossible to distinguish between a great coffee and a poor coffee due the each being essentially burned.
Will We Be Seeing More Burnt Dark Roast Coffee in the Future?
Great coffee or gourmet coffee is the ideal for anyone who loves coffee. However, gourmet coffee is generally a lot more expensive than average coffee. One place in the world where this rule does not always apply is in Colombia where uniformly excellent arabica coffee at reasonable prices is in ample supply. When you buy a great arabica from Colombia you really do not want to use an excessively dark roast or you will be losing the fantastic flavor and aroma that this coffee brings to your cup. Sadly, the world is changing. The coffee business is competitive and it can be difficult to grow great coffee, organic coffee and make a living. As such there is always pressure on the coffee grower to cut corners, grow robusta instead of arabica, and end up with a coffee of lower quality. This trend is likely to hastened by steady warming of the climate and loss of land suitable for growing arabica coffees, even those cross bred strains that are more resistant to things like coffee leaf rust.
Roasting Your Own Coffee
One way around drinking excessively dark roast, burnt coffee is to buy green coffee beans and roast your own. To do this it works best to find a small coffee roaster near you. Buy enough green coffee for a few weeks or a month, roast only enough for the day, and use this strategy to enjoy a variety of coffees as well!
What Drives the Price Difference Between Arabica and Robusta?
Arabica coffee costs more per pound than robusta coffee. The price difference over the years has varied from arabica being a fourth more expensive to being more than twice as expensive. What drives the price difference between arabica and robusta? Can we expect to see the price difference increase or decrease over the next years and decades?
How Much Does the Arabica to Robusta Price Difference Vary?
Statista provides a price comparison of average prices for arabica and robusta over several years. The price variation from 25% to more than 200% comes from 2014 to projected 2025 numbers.
Arabica always commands a higher price than robusta because it reliably has better flavor and aroma. The price of robusta tends not to fluctuate all that much while the supply of arabica can drive prices up when there is a shortage and down when there is excess production. What we have seen over the years has generally been simply seasonal variation in arabica. However, with the climate warming year after year, we expect to see arabica production limited to higher and higher altitudes and shrinking as available land becomes limited.
Will Arabica and Robusta End Up Being the Same?
We have written a lot about how countries like Colombia have created strains of arabica that are more resistant to diseases like coffee leaf rust while retaining the superior flavor and aroma seen with arabica. Something similar is happening in the world of robusta coffee. Growers, especially in Asia but also Central and South America, are cross breeding robusta strains with arabica strains in an attempt to produce “specialty” robusta which will command higher prices that standard robusta. Indonesia is in the process of developing a robusta grading system similar to those used for arabica in order to facilitate a market for higher quality robusta. Thus arabica producers in search of hardier arabica strains and robusta producers looking for higher quality without losing hardiness may well meet in the middle with the result being either a great tasting robusta equal to a hardier arabica! These efforts could, potentially, lead to a single variety of coffee instead of the two that dominate commercial coffee production today.
What Will Happen With the Arabica to Robusta Price Difference?
If the current arabica and robusta coffees continue to maintain their respective qualities, we expect to see lower arabica production over time to a greater extent than any reduction in robusta output. This would cause a greater price differential between the two. To the extent that attempts to cross breed robusta and arabica varieties succeed, that will end up reducing the differences between these varieties of coffee and, consequently, the price difference as well.
Will We See More Caffeine in Our Arabica or More Flavor in Our Robusta?
In today’s world of coffee, we have two basic choices, cheaper coffee with more caffeine and less flavor versus more expensive coffee with more flavor and less caffeine. If plant breeder in Asia or the Americas succeed in their efforts, coffee lovers may find that in the years to come they do not need to give up their caffeine if they switch to arabica and that they will not need to pay a premium for better flavor because there will be a middle ground where arabica to robusta hybrids provide the best of both worlds of coffee!