Wednesday, October 27, 2004


the 2-tier coffee market

"we are moving toward a two-tier market where we have higher qualities being sold at one price level and commercial grades being sold at another level."

and today as the commercial coffee association, the nca (hiya robert nelson! nice tie, but where's your soul?), holds its little "quality coffee is whatever boosts my stock price" confab in good ole' bklyn, i wanted to present you with the above thought from coffee hero and scaa chief ted lingle.

of course the "higher qualities" means specialty coffee.

i have some trouble talking about this nca conference, because a lot of my dearest friends in the coffee business are there. why are specialty people hanging with these guys, who long only to eat them alive?

as one former prez of the scaa who has many large commercial clients said to me, "look, we're going to testify before them that our way has its benefits. that there are advantages to our way and they should consider that they can borrow our methods, our outlook, and still make money."

this is an appealing thought, surely. but i still can't shake it from my mind's deep recesses that the so-called "big four" multi-national roasting companies, the people responsible for that stuff in the supermarket -- kraft, sara lee, p&g, nestle -- are just using my dear friends.

that the big four will just co-opt the message for their inferior products. that they'll fool coffee drinkers who don't yet have as much information as they need to understand the quality situation.

that then all these people i really care about will find themselves and the beautiful coffees they lovingly produce in the belly of the whale. . .this is why i so desperately seek the soul of robert nelson!

i refuse to admit the possibility that it was lost forever in a container of worm-eaten, triage (and here) coffee-by-products. surely if we all call for it, it will return?

and finally, of course his antics are completely unproductive in terms of educating consumers about the effects of the world-price depression known as the coffee crisis, the problems with what some in the coffee industry call the mermaid's unfair business practices, or the alleged work issues for baristi there, but they're sure funny.

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