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Specialty coffee has a meritocracy problem: We’re trained to believe that only producers whose coffees score 86+ are “hardworking,” “passionate,” “progressive,” or “committed to quality.” This is patently false. 1/9
This mindset lets us ignore the systemic issues that keep other producers at an unfair disadvantage: The system is designed to keep producers disenfranchised and poor, to keep coffee cheap, and to uphold the white-saviorhood of specialty coffee. 2/9
For example: The majority of smallholder producers have not only never been trained to cup or even taste their own coffee, but they also aren’t given access to the socioeconomic + cultural context that makes buyers value one coffee over another. 3/9
Another example: Producers who are remote enough not to be tapped in to technology or social media lack the “optics” that make their story and their coffee more appealing or accessible to specialty buyers. 4/9
The specialty lottery system is unfair & imbalanced: We claim to “reward” quality but our idea of quality is subjective/biased/unreliable, esp when a buyer takes high-scoring coffee one year but rejects the next bc the lot is down 3 points. Is that sustainable for the farmer? 5/9
No to mentch that some of the highest-cupping coffees are grown by THE most disenfranchised producers & sold at the highest $ at the export level. That $ doesn’t reward the producer, it rewards the elaborate chain of custody that’s in place to keep producers disenfranchised. 6/9
(Side note: This is why I don’t drink most Kenyan coffee anymore. In too many of these supply chains, there’s no guarantee that microlot-tier money is actually trickling down to the producer in any meaningful way.) 7/9
We're so obsessed with romanticizing flavors/nuance in coffee that we'd do anything to protect that status quo, & I’m over it: A producer with 80pt coffee is no less valuable a human than one with repeat 88s. We must create a more ethical supply stream for those farmers, too 8/9
An 82-point coffee that was sourced sustainably, with the producer in mind, will always, ALWAYS taste better to me than anything scoring at the top of the scale. Period. 9/9
Now I know this is the system that specialty coffee was built on, & the idea of re-examining it seems like a total teardown of the industry. But isn't it possible to put the "special" into specialty another way? The most special thing to me would be complete & total equity. >fin<
(excuse the extra Tweet but bb is only just now learning how to make a thread & I wasn't done yet lol)
