Friday, March 19, 2004


speaking of relationships

those of you reading the comments recently have discovered the little discussion of relationship coffee. this concept has many components; today the mermaid announces another arm in its relationship coffee strategy.

i'm not going to criticize deans beans here; even tho' he has somewhat unjustifiably tangled with my pals, like catie baril at gmcr. the students for fair trade like dean, and i like them, so i'm calling it a transitive friendship right now.

dean is a very small biz; he's not a public company, which means certain changes are easier for him to make. there's no doubt the mermaid can do more, that the mermaid can do better. and it will.

but you will get farther with both gmcr and the mermaid by working with them. there are executives in both of those places who are on the right side; we should help them, not provide ammunition for those on the wrong side to undermine them.

gmcr is not the enemy; the mermaid is not the enemy. i must remind my friends that our enemy is the big four: kraft, sara lee, nestle, p&g, those who blend subpar coffee-by-products and robusta in the supermarket cans!

("good food, good life!" they say. but for whom? the moldy, worm-eaten defective beans they peddle to us consumers at high prices aren't "good coffee;" and the coffee farmers certainly don't see the "good life!")

the world-price depression known as the coffee crisis is now four years old; it shows no sign of seriously abating. we no longer have time for squabbling among ourselves. politics is the art of the possible; not a referendum on moral perfection.

and speaking of coffee, today i received an interesting but somewhat mysterious blend of african coffees. i'll describe it as a full, nippy coffee, with a coriander seed fragrance, a toasty, roasted hazelnut aroma, and a slightly dutch chocolate aftertaste. i made it in a french press, giving it a medium body.

surprisingly yummy. a tablespoon of light cream and a pinch of turbinado sugar emphasized the candy, nutty tones. . . but there's something about the aroma, a little wild note, what is that? it's driving me crazy. . .

tasting the coffee dead-cold reveals a slightly different picture: a slightly winey taste, a deeper chocolate finish.

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