Cuvee Coffee

It is no secret that specialty coffees from Ethiopia can be some of the most interesting, unique coffees. One of my biggest issues the past 2 years has not been the flavor profile, but the poor prep. As a coffee buyer it is very difficult for me to justify the huge premium when the coffee prep is so terrible. Should I just bite the bullet and pay the high price to get that interesting cup character or should I use my money to reward someone else who is putting forth a total commitment to quality...including prep?

I know a lot of roasters tout the natural Ethiopian coffees because of that great fruit forward flavor. I mean, how can you not notice that blueberry or strawberry that completely dominates the cup? Another thing that is great for roasters is that when you have a coffee like that, it is really tough to screw it up during roast. Those fruit flavors will dominate with a number of different roast profiles. The coffee has a very large "sweet spot" if you will. To me, the coffees (particularly the naturals) are safe and an easy way to introduce the consumer to the idea that coffee can be unique. But for me, I will be investing my money into the specialty coffee farmer that is the total package. Once I see some changes, I will gladly re-visit the subject.

Here are some of the issues as described by an importer:
Having experienced many delayed shipments we visited our shippers to assess for ourselves the reasons behind this appalling state of affairs. Below is a statement of the circumstances that have led to such poor contract performance. We believe that since the
Reasons that have resulted in delayed shipments are several and it is possible that some of this information does not come as news, however hopefully this report puts things into some sort of perspective and brings some confidence that the worst is in the past!

Marketing System
The change in the marketing system at the start of this season, whereby coffee started to be sold x-region where the coffee is grown (rather than x-Addis) gave rise to some rather large logistical challenges resulting in a less than smooth marketing of the crop. Delays in starting the selling of the crop, delays in off-loading, loading and problems in finding adequate transport have been plaguing shippers since February. Coupled with increased rainfall and the subsequent deterioration of the roads meant that some up-country storage facilities were closed for several days at a time. Having coffee stored in several warehouses in and around Awassa has proven a logistical headache for shippers having to send trucks from one warehouse to another to collect a couple of hundred bags. In Djimmah, lack of a weighbridge and the very poor state of access roads resulted in multiple delays.

Port of Djibouti
Port in Djibouti bureaucracy and changes in procedures started a bottleneck that took weeks to clear in April; this issue has been well documented and was a very real problem; it delayed shipments with cargo stuck in Djibouti for weeks and shippers strapped for
Cash in Addis. An interesting consequence of the changes in Marketing mentioned in the previous paragraph has been the shortening of the time between harvest/primary processing and the marketing of the crop. Meaning that shippers are carrying stock for longer, putting more pressure on shippers financing.

Shipper Limitations
One of the consequences that came from the suspension of the "6 majors" has been that the shippers that remained active have increased their volumes quite substantially; this has put a strain on their resources, both financial and operational (logistics/transport and processing/storage capacity) and disrupting the flow.

Bags
The increased volumes of coffee offered this season have required additional quantities of export bags which have been in short supply; Relying on imported bags from Bangladesh has not been an alternative since it appears that shippers have not been able to find suppliers that can meet the strict chemical residue limits imposed by the authorities. There have been serious disruptions to local production of bags from power rationing after the new dam labeled has the answer to Addis' electrical power problems turned from panacea to joke when it collapsed shortly after its official inauguration!