Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Peter Tam on September 11, 2008 at 5:16pm

Hi Nicki,

I am a Chinese and living in China, now. After I saw this topic, I would like to say something about my understanding, for your reference. I do not mean to offend you in any way.

"ethical coffee", it sounds, somehow, strange.

It is exactly the samething as we may hear people from time to time in China, also for the reason that tea is much more pupolar than coffee, in this country.

The first question, in my mind, is what "ethical coffee" is.

From the coffee itself, we know that the original coffee drink is the Turkish coffee; when it came to Europe, it became Filter coffee; by chance, Italian invented the "espresso".

Till now, every nations of the world take coffee as their own normal drinks. Just like salt, all the people need it, wherever they are and whatever they believe. No one can call coffee as their own ones.

"espresso" was invented by Italian, and for this reason, we call it "Italian Coffee" in Chinese. But just like Turkish coffee and filter coffee, no one can call it their own, but for everyone. For the same reason, espresso is also for everyone in the world.

Besides the coffee its own, people may have different way of brewing coffee, drinking coffee, location and time to drink coffee. This can be different from country to country, and influenced by the averaged skills of coffee brewing.

This is a too big topic and we have a lot to think about. I am still thinking of it.

Permalink Reply by Alun Evans on September 22, 2008 at 8:24pm

I think Nicki is refering to "ethical" coffee in the context of an ethical approach to roasters buying coffee direct from origin and/or through the existing FairTrade mechanisms that are in place (if they are not in the position to work directly with growers at origin)... right through to buyer/consumer habits when purchasing retail packs of coffee.

I think you are right in saying "Ethical" is a big word, with many definitions, and perhaps one that is used loosely at times. There is another recent post about a very large company that we all know using this word maybe a little to freely. Have a look at that posting and see what your thoughts are>>

http://www.baristaexchange.com/forum/topic/show?id=1688216%3ATopic%...