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Permalink Reply by Brady on January 14, 2012 at 8:46am

Also for your consideration - here's a (somewhat lengthy) response from Eric Zuniga.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Hoeppner on January 14, 2012 at 8:58am

I think there is some importance to coffees that are "in season". I think more than that, that the roast profile needs to not hamper that. An older coffee can be disguised in a roast profile. And if you have a freshly harvested coffee that's roasted dark, it doesn't matter anyway because any benefit of having fresh coffee got roasted away. Alternatively, if you keep with lighter roasts, an old green coffee will taste bad when roasted. Then there is more importance in roasting fresh crops. As far as marketing, no matter how you roast, people will always respond to the word "Fresh" or "In Season". For me, I purchase only fresh crop coffees. For me it's two fold. First, I've tasted the difference. It's huge. Second, for marketing. Market the quality aspect. That's my 5 cents.

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Permalink Reply by Corvus Coffee on January 20, 2012 at 10:35am

We currently market our coffees as being current crop. We tie this concept in closely with the simple concept of freshness. For us, there is no differentiation between fresh roasted and current crop. It's an overall philosophy we promote of fresh coffee. Working with Chris out here in CO has also helped us redefine what current crop vs, in season is. In season can be a confusing concept if incorrectly applied. Because growing and harvest seasons depend more on orientation to the equator than anything else, it can confuse consumers when some African coffees are in season while others are not. This is one of those reasons that leads us to clarify it more as a personal promise to our customers of only sourcing current crops, and only keeping them in stock for 6 months or less.

I think this is a very valuable conversation to keep going, both within the industry and with customers. However you phrase it in your marketing efforts, I have the feeling it will be well received.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on January 26, 2012 at 9:30am

Thanks for jumping in on this.

I'm kinda of two minds on this topic. I can see the point - the harvest date is just one of many factors that contribute to quality in the cup. Choosing to focus on one of these factors above others might theoretically muddy the waters. But...

On the balance, I think seasonality is very relevant for coffees - as relevant as the origin, farm, varietal, and roaster information we've grown comfortable with seeing on the bag. We should be giving customers information in order to help them understand what they are enjoying (or not) and hopefully predict other things they might enjoy (or avoid). We should be helping them to think of coffee as being dynamic and fleeting. However, in doing so we should prefer information to excessive hype.

Roast it while its good, run out before it fades, celebrate when it returns next season.

My thoughts.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on January 27, 2012 at 6:14am

I often wonder when tasting many of these "seasonal" blends if it isn't just laziness on the part of the roaster.

Rather than using "in season" coffees to conform to a specific profile, I'm wondering if these roasters aren't just lopping whatever they have under 'seasonality' as a sheer marketing tool, regardless of taste.

Further, what is this 'seasonality' of coffee?  If you have a coffee today that was harvested January 2011, is it still 'in season'?  What if it still tastes delicious?  Is it no longer "in season"?

I think of my apple guy. It's almost February and he's still got a wide assortment of apples to choose from.  They've been stored in his warehouse since December.  Are these beautifully produced apples lesser just because?

The seasonality of coffee is pure marketing gimmick by roasters trying to surf the restaurant Farm-to-Table, local & fresh trend.

Buy what tastes good.  Simple.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis McQuoid on January 29, 2012 at 11:15am

As a retailer who does not yet roast, I want to know the harvest date on the coffee I am selling. In most cases, I currently don't - something I intend to change as of ... now. I do know the roast dates and share that information with my customers.

I agree with Jay that taste is most important, my business model, like Jay's, is based on high quality. I have a growing number of customers that really enjoy learning about all aspects of their coffee - including varietal, roast profile and date - as much as I enjoy talking about it. This information has value because sharing it sets me apart from my competitors.

The term seasonality is unclear to me. Is the coffee still in season when it's past harvest and processing while it's curing? How long after harvest is it no longer in season? Side note: This reminds me that I still have an awful lot to learn about coffee.

I prefer to know harvest date and roast date. On the Big Island of Hawaii, seasonality here is region specific as micro-climates dictate the season more than distance from the equator (Kona and Ka'u have somewhat different harvest seasons though the distance from the equator is virtually the same).

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Permalink Reply by Corvus Coffee on January 30, 2012 at 5:11pm

Good conversation. I do agree that the result in the cup is more important than any marketing strategy. However, I do believe very strongly that if the coffee industry is going to elevate itself to a higher level, we need to be more conscious about a lot of factors.

In keeping a base quality control standard at Corvus, we have focused on current crop coffees and ruled out past crop offerings. It's partly a commitment to our customers and partly a core group of principles we hold ourselves to in order to ensure that we are sending out the best coffee we can.

As to the confusion around the term, I should have elaborated on my thought before: a better term is "current crop." This implies we are buying and roasting coffee from the most recent harvest season. Due to the variety in harvest seasons and shipping/warehousing dates, we also find it hard to clarify the term "in-season" and are guilty of throwing this around freely without explaining it fully. We're trying to get better about using the term current crop to signify this aspect of freshness.

Also, I would like to make sure it's understood we don't simply lump in freshly roasted, current crop, and such things under a generic "fresh coffee" slogan. We emphasize the importance of all of these things. I was simply stating that it's all important to us because it all deals with freshness!

Thanks for starting and continuing this topic. I love conversation around good coffee concepts. Especially ones which are somewhat vague or under emphasized in the marketplace.

Phil
Corvus coffee Denver

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