I was chatting with my coworker Mandy the other day, and the topic of origin labelling in coffee came up. Looking at the big four, you have absolutely no indication of origin. Folgers is simply the brand name – absolutely no indication of where the coffee might be from. Going down a level, we have Starbucks who have begun to tell the average consumer where some of their coffees come from. But wait – Starbuck is only telling you to the extent of what country that coffee comes from! This is like going to the wine store to pick up a bottle of “Italian”! In this aspect, I think coffee is a victim of its past (and current) commoditization. The wine model is often bandied about as a direction that coffee should head in, and in the area of labelling and information, coffee still has a long way to go. All bottles of wine tell you exactly from which vineyard this particular bottle is from. Very few coffeeshops will do the same. Getting to the level of wine is definitely going to take a while, however. Customers need to demand and support coffees from specific farms, and push for more informative labelling. Hopefully this will lead to greater economic gains for farmers, which in turn will elevate coffee a little closer to wine.
Matthew
