How (Valuable) Information Moves in the Coffee Industry 🌐

Image: Terra Negra

 

 

Vizcaya - maybe not the most recognizable word among us coffee drinkers, but we’d be willing to bet (idk a few dollars?) that a good chunk of our esteemed, beloved, incredible D-dub (and Insomnia!) customers will see this name and recognize it immediately. That’s because we’ve been offering this coffee every year for the past eight years now, and we’re truly amazed with its consistency harvest after harvest. Eight years ago, we fell in love with this chocolatey, classic, and overall solid cup, and with each harvest, we grow to appreciate this coffee more and more. 

We sourced this coffee from our pals at Terra Negra, who JUST opened up their own cafe in Guatemala City. It’s called Parcela, and if you’re ever in Guatemala, we recommend that you find some room on your itinerary for a visit. This coffee is grown on a farm just about 50 miles outside of Guatemala City managed by a man named Chespi. In fact, a few people from the DW crew had the pleasure of meeting Chespi in Guatemala back in 2018. We label this coffee a relationship coffee (more on that here…) however, let’s be honest, it’s been about five years since we’ve met Chespi, and since then, those folks have since moved on from Dapper & Wise. With the goal of strengthening this relationship a little more, we've been chatting with Chespi via WhatsApp to learn a little bit more about this lovely coffee, as well as share some things from our side of the supply chain.

 

It’s a funny (read: unfair, imbalanced, one-sided, etc) dynamic - as roasters, the amount of information we have access to (and maybe at times feel privileged to..) is incredible. With a simple email to a rep at an importer, we are usually given all the information - farm location, elevation, varieties, processing method, soil type, farm history, and even personal details such as family history and (sometimes) how much money the farmer received, etc, etc. Pictures too! But - do people at the beginning of coffee supply chains share this same level of access to information? Usually not.

With this in mind, here’s some questions that pop up for us.

As a company who buys green, unroasted coffee, then roasts it and repackages it in our branded bags, why do we need to know all this information? Do we deserve access to this info? Are we entitled to this info? While we may not be entitled to all of this info, yes, we'll admit that some details are very helpful for us. Knowing the coffee variety, processing method, and other variables that contribute to the quality of the physical raw material prior to roasting helps us determine how to roast a particular coffee so that we can confidently add value and offer a quality product to our customers.

 

One can also argue that while other information might not be necessary to roast a coffee, it's helpful for roasters to be able to market and sell a coffee. Things like a producers' family history, farm history, and photos of coffee pickers and producers, for instance. Firstly, there must be countless other ways for roasters to market and sell a coffee, right? And secondly, we can also ask ourselves, what’s the cost of this information, whether in terms of actual cold hard cash money, or other, non-financial costs such as the pressure it might put on producers to feel an obligation to share potentially delicate information for the sake of selling their coffee? 

 

We don’t have all the answers, and yes, we are 100% still learning. We do, however, think it’s worthwhile to compare our position in the supply chain as a roaster with, for instance, Chespi's position in the supply chain as a coffee producer. Months  in advance, we learn about his production volume, his coffee’s quality, and what price we’ll pay for it. This information is immensely valuable for us (and dare we say many other roasters?) To start, we use it to make purchasing decisions - can we afford it, what will our margins be, how much volume should we buy, etc. We can also use this info to strategically plan the best way to use it in our menu - Is the quality such that we want to single this coffee out and offer it as a single origin, or is the quality maybe not where we were hoping it would be, so we find some other tasty coffees to blend it with to end up with a product that meets our quality standards, price point, and our customers’ expectations? Speaking specifically about this coffee, we knew all this information back in March. Once it arrived in our roastery in October (a little delayed, but all good!) we had over six months to ask ourselves these questions and plan accordingly. Early access to information is game changing!

We don’t want to speak for Chespi, so we’ll speak generally here. Coffee plants require attention ($$) year round, whether it's pruning, fertilizing, harvesting, managing the soil, managing pests and diseases, building infrastructure, investing in planting new varieties, etc - all of which cost money and take time. Most (all) of us who live in predominantly coffee consuming countries have no idea what it’s like to grow coffee, but let’s ask ourselves - what information might be helpful for farmers to have access to throughout the year so that they can make strategic decisions just like roasting companies can? Maybe stuff like, who will be buying their coffee, how much will they sell their coffee for during harvest, what qualities and cup profiles might buyers be looking for, how have consumer preferences changed since last harvest, and how are coffees like theirs used on roasters’ menus? How dark do we roast their coffee, what are our costs and margins as a roasting company? (Many roasters request this kind of financial transparency about farmers’ costs, so can't us roasters reciprocate this transparency?) As a roastery, we can hit up our wholesale partners and hear their preferences and feedback at any time, and pivot as needed to maintain their business and our relationships with them. As a coffee producer, how often is this the case?

 

This has been a long winded way of saying this: Access to valuable and helpful information is not equal along the supply chain in the coffee industry. Yes, there are exceptions, but also yes, there are more non-exceptions. And maybe this is something we can aim to work towards as we take a critical look at what we at D-dub refer to as our ‘relationship coffees’. We’d love to share as much information as possible with the producers who’s coffee we buy, roast, and share with our customers. There is still much to be done, but maybe this is another small thing we can do to make the supply chains in which we operate more fair, balanced and two-sided. 

And now for the cheesy part - without you, our beloved custies, we wouldn’t be able to work towards these goals, and whatever possible positive changes we can make in the industry would vanish. Your trust and continued support is something we never take for granted and remain grateful for. Thanks for reading and taking the time to learn a little bit more about the delicious bean water we all start our mornings with.