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Permalink Reply by Brady on March 31, 2009 at 5:02am

Thanks for posting this, Chris/Dale. I was totally unaware of this. Maybe its time to spend less time on Facebook and more on Coffeed?

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Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on March 31, 2009 at 7:27am

Could be a little rough for a few years, but I think it will be good in the long run. My favorite coffees all time, defintaly some Ethiopians in there. They deserve more attention overall as a coffee producer, the general public (at least around here) doesn't realize how amazing these coffees can be. This just might be the educating tool we need to show the masses how exciting a cup of coffee can be. The initial branded coffees will be lame to the educated but possibly mind-blowing to a folgers or "Columbian" drinker.

Just trying to see the positive.

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Permalink Reply by Aaron McNany on March 31, 2009 at 11:13am

But seriously, you could be onto something. Most of the time [it seems] the public is unaware of the relationship between foreign countries and their 'cup 'o joe'. As we know, so much takes place between plant to brew. Perhaps this 'conflict' will make the public more aware of the coffee process and the politics involved.

Jesse -D-> said:

Could be a little rough for a few years, but I think it will be good in the long run. My favorite coffees all time, defintaly some Ethiopians in there. They deserve more attention overall as a coffee producer, the general public (at least around here) doesn't realize how amazing these coffees can be. This just might be the educating tool we need to show the masses how exciting a cup of coffee can be. The initial branded coffees will be lame to the educated but possibly mind-blowing to a folgers or "Columbian" drinker.

Just trying to see the positive.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Haeger on March 31, 2009 at 1:08pm

That is only applicable is the retailers are informing their customers. Most aren't, and thus, most of the general public stays blissfully unaware of the politics behind the scenes.

Coffeed > Facebook? absolutely

Aaron McNany said:

But seriously, you could be onto something. Most of the time [it seems] the public is unaware of the relationship between foreign countries and their 'cup 'o joe'. As we know, so much takes place between plant to brew. Perhaps this 'conflict' will make the public more aware of the coffee process and the politics involved.

Jesse -D-> said:

Could be a little rough for a few years, but I think it will be good in the long run. My favorite coffees all time, defintaly some Ethiopians in there. They deserve more attention overall as a coffee producer, the general public (at least around here) doesn't realize how amazing these coffees can be. This just might be the educating tool we need to show the masses how exciting a cup of coffee can be. The initial branded coffees will be lame to the educated but possibly mind-blowing to a folgers or "Columbian" drinker.

Just trying to see the positive.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on March 31, 2009 at 1:27pm

Agreed on the importance of education, tying the happenings in the world back to the cup they are drinking. I've been thinking of printing off news articles that pertain to the happenings at origin and putting them on the counter... but frankly am not nearly as up on happenings at origin as I could be to accomplish that. It'd be cool if there were a news service that specialized in this that I could follow, I'd bet there is...

Jason, Coffeed may indeed be > than Facebook, but will it help me figure out which 80s soap opera star I am? I think not! :)

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Permalink Reply by Greenway Barista on April 1, 2009 at 6:10am

The ECX is taking control out of the hands of the individual farmers, and placing it into the hands of the Ethiopian government. fail.

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Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on April 1, 2009 at 6:32am

mandate is often needed to drive innovation. Ideally this situation will improve coffee in Ethiopia. THe government focusing on making profit is bad, I'll agree to that. Although, I see some of that attention being really good for coffee in Ethiopia in the long run. It doen't seem like the Ethiopian gov't is taking the route of Columbia and trying to make one universal coffee, so that is good. It isn't going to happen overnight, but if we want to have access to great coffee and educate the public so that they want great coffee then we are going to neeed more people growing that coffee in the ways that make it great. I believe that the Ethiopian Gov't knows that they have somthing special, and if they are smart they will protect the coffee and trade will improve.


At least that is how I hope it works out.

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Permalink Reply by Greenway Barista on April 1, 2009 at 1:48pm

I agree that education and media is fantastic for furthering our trade, and on paper, ECX seams to be well meaning enough. I am worried about how the politics behind this will affect the farmers in Ethiopia who focus on higher quality instead of higher production.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Longsdorf on April 1, 2009 at 3:19pm

The unfortunate part of all this is that my understanding of this legislation is to decomoditize coffee. Which I can see the the purpose it could serve. They are trying to specialize each individual region. I however think that the only way for us to do this is to showcase each individual producer and with each producer possibly each of their different coffees. I think that a huge burden of this responsibility belongs to the barista. We are not just the person that prepares coffee for the consumer we need to ingage them in a way that we can put a face on every cup of coffee. Of course we do need responsible roasters putting the information the baristas need into their hands. On that note I started a discussion on bx a few weeks ago here. While I think Bx it's a great resource for all of us in the industry and don't condone the conversations here, life needs to be fun as well, I do think as an industry we could be doing more to openly have more such as this one.
I think Ethiopia will come around and allow us to experience single producers again such as Abdellah Bagersh. I know my fingers are crossed that they will. Until then let's hope these producers can find some sort of loop hole in the system.

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Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on April 2, 2009 at 6:27am

Me too!

Buehrer said:

I agree that education and media is fantastic for furthering our trade, and on paper, ECX seams to be well meaning enough. I am worried about how the politics behind this will affect the farmers in Ethiopia who focus on higher quality instead of higher production.

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Permalink Reply by Greenway Barista on April 2, 2009 at 10:18am

governments suck =[

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