h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Shade Grown, Fair Trade Coffee - A4492307
Author: Researcher 239363, (Mandy) - U239363

Hi

I wrote this a while ago and thought that it might be useful in the guide...

Any comments would be greatly appreciated

-Mandy

Hello Mandy,

I've had a look over your entry, and just have a few points to make.

It's a little hard to read at the moment, as it stands, it's one large block of text. Could you put a few line breaks between paragraphs just to make it easier on the eye

The second point comes with the 'meat' of the entry, so to speak.

The first paragraph, although 'setting the scene' nicely, is written a little too subjectively IMHO --- something from a more objective point of view would work nicer in EG style.

The next section, about Fair Trade(TM) coffee is a little simplistic in its explanation. Although it is correct that some cash goes to the farmer in growing coffee according to Fair Trade(TM) rules, it isn't much, and often 'locks-in' the farmer into the FT cooperative. This means that the farmer cannot explore new avenues of coffee growing, which may be just as environmentally friendly, but not approved by the FT rules. Also, FT rules do not equal good coffee, shade-grown or not. Perhaps a little balance is required in your description of the Fair Trade(TM) pros and cons, it doesn't have to be much, it's just at the moment, your entry is very much of the 'FT is very very good for the farmer', when in fact, it quite often isn't the case. A good read is this thread on alt.coffee[1], which has a look at the darker side of FT. One of the posters on that thread makes a very good point that farmers could make a lot more money for themselves by cultivating a premium crop of excellent speciality coffee instead of locking themselves into FT.

I would also be careful about preaching about the virtues of FT; it is after all, a brand to market as much as the next instant decaf. Even Nestle, that less than ethically-mindful of coffee companies, has an FT brand, or at least, are thinking about it[2], or as their analysts say:

'Sales of Fairtrade coffee keep growing, and so-called compassionate consumerism is on the march. However, the movement has changed since the media frenzy that surrounded it in the 1980s. Paradoxically, the Fairtrade phenomenon surfs a wave of egocentrism. What has catapulted Fairtrade products into the mainstream are not the altruistic principles of those with whom the idea originated, but the more widespread desire amongst consumers to make themselves feel and look good.'

About shade-grown coffee and songbirds; I have a few questions. Are you talking about the Smithsonian 'Bird Friendly Coffee' certification[3]? Does it *actually* taste better than sun grown coffee? How do you define 'shade'? Does shade mean canopied rainforest over a crop, or a few large trees?

You say 'About 150 species of bird species are able to live on shade grown coffee plantations, where only about 20 are able to live on sun grown land.' Where are we talking about? Does this apply to coffee plantations all around the world, or just a few in a given area?

'It also helps to stop global warming because the trees that are saved from clear-cutting are able to take carbon out of the air.'

I'm not so sure about this statement of 'stopping global warming'. You might want to leave it out as the 'global warming' issue is far more complex than ensuring a few coffee farmers plant in the shade

'As well as helping the farmers and the environment, shade grown coffee also benefits the consumer because it has a richer, less bitter taste. It is less bitter because it is not baked in the sun, and it is given a longer time to ripen.'

The 'bitterness' of coffee does not come from the bean, the ripening process or the roasting. It comes from incorrect brewing technique. If coffee is bitter, then you have poured boiling water over the coffee grounds, scorching them. One should always use 'off boil' water to make coffee, that is, at 96 degrees rather than at boiling point. Coffee made this way is *never* bitter.

The final section I'm not too sure about; I'm still not sure when I get to the end of reading it that I've seen the whole picture on Fair Trade Shade-Grown Coffee. I'm personally not sure that I would buy coffee purely for its moral value --- if it happened to be rather nice coffee, then yes --- in fact, there was a rather nice Rainforest Coffee at Whittards which was an uber-nice coffee, but I'm not going to say that because I tasted one coffee farmed in way X, then all coffees farmed in way X would be excellent. Conversely, I can think of several excellent sun-grown coffees. I am also aware that there are several Shade-Grown Fair trade coffee plantations in Hawaii, which have had a negligible effect on songbird populations. However, the increase in feral cats have had a huge impact in decimating the local population of birdies, as kitties do...

To summarise, this entry IMHO needs a lot of work before it can be EG material; firstly, make it a little easier to read, and then tackle the subjective material. We like our entries as objective as possible round these parts

A final linky[4] to have a peruse through, again, from alt.coffee.

Stay ,
WD


[1] http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.coffee/browse_frm/thread/546eee8722cce467/527ec551baab8c9d?tvc=1&q=Shade+Grown+Coffee+group:alt.coffee&hl=en#527ec551baab8c9d

[2] http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=52223

[3] http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationandScience/MigratoryBirds/Coffee/default.cfm

[4] http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.coffee/tree/browse_frm/thread/9a6879211dacfb33/15b8f9f10109e267?rnum=1&hl=en&q=shade+grown+coffee+songbirds&_done=%2Fgroup%2Falt.coffee%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fthread%2F9a6879211dacfb33%2F01203a0b516fcd28%3Fq%3Dshade+grown+coffee+songbirds%26rnum%3D1%26hl%3Den%26#doc_15b8f9f10109e267

I tried to fix this up as well as i could, although there are a few things that you said that i disagree with.

First of all, it may be true that much of the bitter-ness in coffee comes from the way it has been processed, however i have made a lot of chocolate at home striaght from the cacao bean, which are handled almost identically in the roasting process, and the beans' taste may change after the roasting, but a huge amount of the taste comes from the conditions that it was grown in.

Secondly, i don't think that i ever said that shade grown coffe always tastes better than sun-grown coffee, i am just making the point that if you take a random selection of sun grown coffee and compare it with shade grown, most people would usually say that the shade grown tastes better in general. there are always acceptions to this though, of course, and since how good something tastes is completely opinion, we can never get a completely "factual" answer to this question.

Thanks for all the help!!!

-Mandy

hi, nice read

I have a decent reason for refusing to by fair trade coffee, that is I don't drink coffee, but anyway

quikc question ... "where the farmers get at least $1.26 of the profit per pound"

should that be ... the farmers get paid at least $1.26 per pound,

or should that be ... the farmers make at least £1.26 per pound.

Also given that you say they get at least ... then the next sentence is redundant.

anyway well done

tjm

hi

I did mean $1.26, although i didn't mean profit...

thanks!

-Mandy

Hello Mandy,

It's easier on the eyes to read now with the line breaks; no doubt someone else will come along and mention GuideML, but I'll leave it to them for the time being

Nice work on the 'objectification' It's reading more balanced now. I'm currently away from home at the moment, so I'll garner a closer look at it later

Re taste quality: I hear what you say about taste being a completely subjective sense, and I agree with you. And I'm rather jealous of your home-chocolate roasting! I must get to the local chocolatier at some point....

Certainly, the chocolate roasting process would have a greater effect than that of the roasting process of coffee, as most of the cacao bean (I presume --- do correct me if I'm wrong), is used to make the final product. With the finished product of your morning cup, the majority of the cup contains water. As a result, the quality of the drink is more dependent on the quality of your tap water than the bean; though I will say that bad beans will always taste of 'burnt rubber', regardless of the water quality.

Then there is the brewing and grinding; certainly, paper filter coffee tastes different to French Press coffee, as the grind is finer in the former than the latter. Surface area to water contact etc etc

You could get around the subjective 'taste' problem by saying that 'Some coffee drinkers have remarked that...' or something along those lines

Stay ,
WD

hey WD!

thanks for clairfying the whole coffee thing...

it deffinately is true that more of chocolate's flavor comes from the cacao bean because a decently made batch is about 50% cacao, although i am fairly sure that coffee is a bit more about the bean than you might like to think...

adios

-Mandy

if anyone else has anything to say...

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

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a yeayness

yahoo!!!!!!

thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!