Coffee tasting, but not judging

It was his third time tasting coffees since the Starbucks event began a few days ago. Born 49 years ago and raised on a farm before studying cooperatives, Tadesse, general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has also done coffee tasting in Europe and Africa.

"If it comes to quality, African coffees taste better," Tadesse said just before Thursday's tasting session. "This isn't a marketing statement. I've tasted coffees from all over."

Tadesse was explaining why, in spite of this, the Seattle-based coffee giant buys only 5 percent of its coffee from Africa, with the lion's share, 80 percent, coming from Latin America and 15 percent from the Asia-Pacific region.

"It has to do with geographical location," he said. "Latin America and Asia-Pacific are closer to the U.S., and it costs Starbucks just about $300 to get a container from Latin America. Meanwhile from Mombassa or Djibouti, that could cost them up to $2,000."

Tadesse was one of six coffee farmers from Africa brought in to showcase how Starbucks ensures equity with coffee farmers in Africa through its Coffee and Farmers Equity Practices, or C.A.F.E.

The others were Paul Nsengumuremyi from Rwanda, Adolphe Aloyce Kumburu and Philip Michael Schluter from Tanzania, and David Michael Nguni and Moses Wachira Crispo from Kenya.

C.A.F.E. practices are "coffee-buying guidelines designed to work with coffee farmers to encourage high quality coffee and promote equitable relationships with farmers, workers and communities, as well as protect the environment," a statement from Starbucks explains.

Begun as an experiment in 2001 and implemented first in Latin America from 2002 to 2004 as the Preferred Supplier Program, C.A.F.E. has been used in Africa since January of this year. The Asia-Pacific region followed suit in March.

It provides incentives to coffee suppliers who observe defined economic, social and environmental principles that benefit farmers, workers and their communities. It prohibits child labor and other workplace abuses.

After training experts in Africa to verify C.A.F.E. principles, Starbucks says, the practice is making inroads. Verifiers have been approved for Kenyan and Ethiopian farmers, and applications are coming in from more countries, including Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda representing more than 80,000 coffee farms.

In adhering to C.A.F.E., Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzanian coffees at different periods of this year earned the Starbucks coffee distinction label of Black Apron, an honor reserved for only the best coffee in the world.

Starbucks buys all of its African coffees from East Africa because "Starbucks wants super premium quality coffees, and they are grown in high altitude in East Africa," Starbucks spokeswoman Lara Wyss said Thursday. It buys only Arabica coffee.

In a presentation, Megan Campbell, Starbucks director for green coffee, said Starbucks rewards its C.A.F.E. partners by paying premium prices, and through incentives and social welfare projects.

Starbucks pays premium prices for the highest-quality coffee and maintains high payment even when the price on the world market is down to enable supplies to maintain production. In 2005 it paid an average $1.28 per pound for high quality coffee beans.

Starbucks believes that if farmers go out of business as a result of poor sales, its coffee supplies are compromised.

Farms selected as Starbucks Black Apron winners are awarded $15,000 each for community projects, and in 2005 Starbucks contributed nearly $1.5 million to social projects in coffee communities. It also provided $8.5 million in loans to tens of thousands of coffee farmers who could not have access to credit.

That is significant because 50 percent of coffee is grown in small-scale farms and up to 25 million people are affected around the world.

During the tasting session Thursday, the coffee education specialist at Starbucks, Jason Simpson, explained why thousands of cups of coffee are tasted the world over. "We're looking for consistency in the cup," he said. "Our customers would expect that coffee from the same area tastes the same each time."