Monday, May 13, 2002


brazilian coffee. . .

when you think of coffee and brazil, the concept "best" doesn't always leap to mind. but there's some good coffee produced in brazil. and in a great story today, the vieira family, owners of the monte alegra/monte belo estate, have set aside some of their property in an experiment to drastically improve their production and raise quality standards. in this age of declining coffee consumption, will enough people notice?

`"we need a similar seal of quality like the appelation controlee in the french wine business,'' said vieira. `"brazilian coffee, when it's good, is the equivalent of a good bordeaux wine.'' that may be true. but once the quality is there, once the control and regulation is in place to keep standards high, how will average consumers find out about this great coffee?

to my mind this is the shortfall in all the marvelous new schemes for supporting the specialty coffee industry. how do they plan to get the word out, to get the public -- which after years of drinking the horrid and still-getting-worse supermarket coffee brand x is switching to other beverages -- interested again in that most sociable drink, superb coffee?


posted by fortune | 5:05 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments