The Coffee industry has boomed since the 1980s, and it is now an essential part of people’s lives worldwide. Coffee is the second-most-traded commodity in the world now with around 1.6 billion cups drank each day. From the girls who have turned PSLs into a deity to the working mothers and fathers that have it as an IV, to the farmers that live and die by our coffee consumption. Coffee is much more than just a drink or Instagram post. Here are some of the biggest things you should know about coffee before you order your next Americano.
1. Coffee should be shade-grown
This means that the coffee plant grows and produces the best in the shade with only a little direct sun. Big coffee companies rarely ever have shade grown trees. These beans are grown in the sun basically can only reach a certain level of quality because of the poor raising methods.
2. Coffee "beans" come from a cherry
At maturity, this berry is a dark red, and that is how you know that is going to be the best tasting coffee. Inside the berry is the “bean” which is actually the seed.
3. One cup of coffee takes about 37 gallons of water
This is obviously including the inputs that go into coffee consumption. That is a lot of water, though! This is particularly alarming when put into contrast with the amount of water coffee farmers have access to.
4. 67% of coffee is grown in the Americas
Coffee is grown in 50 different countries. This is obviously coming mostly from countries in the Americas though. 90% of this production is done in the developing world.
5. The coffee you’re drinking is most likely Arabica
Due to disease, market demands, and many other reasons, there virtually only two coffee strains in the world. The most popular is Arabica; the other is Robusta. I have seen quite a few of big companies’ signs that boast about having Arabica to seem more “artisan.”
6. Coffee is the livelihood for more than 25 million people
7. Coffee is the most popular “Fair Trade” Commodity
Even though it is the most popular, “Fair Trade” is still a very small section of the market.
8. Fair Trade isn’t necessarily all that it’s cracked up to be
There are heavy costs and a lot of work that falls on the farmer, so although this might seem more sustainable, all the kinks are not worked out. Many conscious coffee drinkers are looking towards Direct trade instead. Direct traders include corporations like Gold Mountain Growers.
9. There are three ways to dry coffee:
Dry, Wet, and Honey The honey is the most difficult but generally gives the sweetest tasting coffee. This dries the coffee with the mucilage still on. Though all the farmers I have met use a mixture of all three styles that have been passed down for generations.
10. Climate Change impacts coffee growing to the extreme
With the temperatures rising, coffee needs to be grown higher and higher in the mountains. It is estimated by the Royal Botanical Garden that Arabica may become extinct by 2080.
11. The coffee market is broken and antiquated
As you may have guessed, this article isn’t exactly about how great the industry is. Farmers, despite working incredibly hard and having an abundance of knowledge on coffee, are left out of all the profit-making activities about coffee. For the $15 bag of coffee you are buying, the farmer is only given about 70 cents. These prices are definitely not set by the growers. Coffee prices are set by people in New York City and London. Coffee farmers have very little access to market opportunities due to remote locations (coffee is best grown high on mountains) and a lack of resources. The middlemen, especially the Roasters, make the majority of the profit. These roasters and middlemen are not going to change just for the better of the farmers, which is why as the consumers we must demand that they do. Changing the market could be a radical change in actual people’s lives. Children could get an education, families can eat, parents could better clothe their children, and so much more.
Knowing what you are supporting monetarily is paramount. Most people don't want to keep feeding into a corrupt system, but do unknowingly. This ignorance goes for so much more than coffee too. So pay attention, stay woke. Vote with your money.
