COFFEE - THE COMPLEXITIES OF A GOOD CUP

The breeze coming in the window next to my computer is so cool I decided to make a cup of coffee. I drink only one cup of espresso per day so it is important to choose the right moment to get maximum time to savour the levels of enjoyment obtainable from these aromatic beans. One sip of the perfect coffee can bring a quiet "Holy Valotta, that's good" from me! Taking that first sip is not a moment I care to share with anyone and often, if people are here and I am making several cups, I will stand alone, out of view, in the kitchen and take that first sip, before delivering the rest to the visitors. Am I alone in this, I wonder? It is a similar feeling to the first bite of a strawberry off the best plant in your garden, gathered warm from the sun and bitten into with anticipation and delight. It is a private thing!

A variety of coffee plant (Coffea canephora or Coffea arabica) has become available to gardeners here lately, I have noticed. I did drop a few hints at Christmas time but it looks like I will have to buy my own or be more blunt when we get closer to my birthday! Evidently arabica will grow in our climate but probably won't produce anything worth roasting because it needs cold nights and only warm days and lots of water to produce a good flavour. The robusta (Coffea canephora) is hardier to heat but requires cross-pollination, and is probably the one for sale locally. Generally this is used to make instant coffee, and has more caffeine and a lower quality flavour than the arabica. Growing coffee in the shade can help produce a better flavour because it slows down the growth of the coffee and increases the production of more sugars and chemicals responsible for the flavour.

I am always trying new coffee beans and have tried a lot of organic and free-trade arabica beans and blends. There are a lot of issues involved in choosing where you stand on coffee purchase and like anything in life, it is not a simple choice, according to the research I have done thus far. There is Fair -Trade which, basically, by-passes the middleman and so the producer (sometimes as a community group) deals directly with the buyer so that costs are reduced and, theoretically, profits both ends of the deal are increased. Read more about this from the link.

Organic coffee may or may not differ from sustainably farmed coffee. Organic certification simply means, in this context, that the coffee is grown without the use of chemicals. Whereas the latter includes care of the land, the people and the environment. An example may be that a sustainable farm will reuse coffee husks as heating fuel rather than cutting down the local trees. Most sustainable farms leave a cover of native trees throughout the plantation for the benefit of the birds and other wild-life. An organic plantation may or may not do this.

Then there is the issue of the costs of certification. Small-scale farmers of coffee are often not aware of the premium they could charge for coffee certified to be organic, bird-friendly or sustainable and therefore do not apply for certification because of the expense.The weakening US dollar means that farmers are receiving less for their crops which, for westerners' benefit, are traded in that currency. So, while demand goes up production costs also rise often resulting in less coffee being planted rather than more.

The main problem for me is that, of all the dozens of varieties, roasts and blends of coffee that I have espressed through my little, Italian, stove-top pot, my favourites are neither organic nor fair-trade. Neither are they bird-friendly or grown sustainably, as far as I can tell.

So, do I buy the best of the organic / sustainable / etc etc coffee - which I think is from East Timor and happens to be our most local but which I would not rank in my favourites or do I drink one cup of my favourite coffee everyday and not worry about its politics??