Tuesday, August 03, 2004


what's in those cans?

long-time readers know i traditionally ask "where does your coffee dollar go?" (and here!)

to that, i'm adding a second question: what's in those cans? meaning the red-n-blue supermarket cans brought to us by the "big four" multi-national coffee roasters sara lee, p&g, kraft and nestle.

i shouldn't let tchibo off the hook here, either.

scaa chief, a.k.a. my personal coffee deity, ted lingle and i recently had a discussion about this. lemme just reprint it:

"Dear Fortune:

'What's in those cans' is a very fair question for consumers to ask. In effect, it's the other side of 'fair trade.'

Good luck,

Ted"

he also sent me this interesting manifesto:

What's in those cans?

  1. While SCAA's goal is "good" coffee in most of the cans, we think the first step is "pure" coffee in all of the cans.

    "Good" coffee, meaning few defects

    "Pure" coffee, meaning meets ICO standards

  2. SCAA's long standing position is that "great" coffee should be reserved for those coffees receiving the "special steps" needed to offer coffee to consumers as whole beans.

    "Great" coffee, meaning tastes great -- no defects

    "Special steps," meaning extra sorting & grading

  3. SCAA's concern is the continuing decline in the number of consumers drinking commercial coffees. We think the quality of coffee sold in cans needs to be improved (#1) until there are no further decreases in consumption

i can see from my website statistics that certain of the big four stop by and read bccy at least once a week. when, i beg you, will you take the message of all us coffee lovers to heart?

posted by fortune | 7:37 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments