The Race Towards Zero Waste
Tony's ongoing recycling efforts prove valuable
By Wendy Owen Harvey
This year Tony's Coffee made a significant commitment to reduce waste at our Bellingham Facility. Working towards an 80% reduction in waste at first seemed unattainable, but with the help of our local Sanitary Service Provider, SSC, it was easy.
Composting and recycling have reduced our weekly garbage waste from a 2 yard dumpster to a 90 gallon trash can. Not only have we reduced our waste, we've reduced our Sanitary Service bill by 34%.
Properly labeled recylcing containers make it easier to identify what is recyclable and compostable.
Tony's Coffee encourages our customers to move towards zero waste at their businesses and homes. Reducing waste is relatively easy and profitable. Imagine the impact if we all reduced our waste by 80%.
Wendy Owen Harvey is Distribution Manager in Bellingham
Tony's About Town
By Matt Bunn
Tony's Coffee was pleased to sponsor and participate in the Woodland Park Zoo Festival for the Birds event. In celebration of International Migratory Bird Day, Woodland Park Zoo's Festival for the Birds pays tribute to the world's migratory bird species and the yearly journey they undertake between their homes in Central and South America and their nesting sites here in the Pacific Northwest. We sampled our Songbird Blend to the thousands of bird lovers who attended the event.
Tony's Coffee also supported the Cascade Harvest Coalition's "FoodLust 2009". Thousands of dollars were raised in the dinner and auction to benefit community supported agriculture in Washington.
Also, thank you to those of you who stopped by to visit while we held our tastings at the Burke Museum Coffee: The World in your Cup exhibit. We had a blast sharing some of our incredible single origin coffees with hundreds of patrons and friends. The exhibit runs until September 7th, so make sure you check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
Matt Bunn is Northwest Sales Manager
New Las Capucas Micro-Lots From Honduras
Three distinctive and amazing selections we're proud to offer
By Andew Bowman
Tony's was proud to participate again in the second annual coffee quality competition held by the COCAFCAL co-op in Honduras. Tony's brought home our favorite three coffees from the winning round and is thrilled to again be the exclusive buyer for the entire Las Capucas Reserva lot. Please see our cupping notes below. These lots are very small — order soon!
Jose Morel Portillo: 1st Place Winner Sweet cherry aroma with milk chocolate flavor notes. Clean, focused, citric acidity that is rounded out by a long sweet finish. Extremely limited quantity available.
Pedro Antonio Romero: 4th Place Winner Plum aroma and elements of tart pomegranate compliment this coffee's sweet acidity. It is extremely well balanced with a creamy body and clean finish.
Modesto Torres Perez: 7th Place Winner Cedar, dark chocolate, and sweet ripe pineapple acidity combine with a full body, nougat and brown sugar finish.
Andrew Bowman is Head Roaster in Bellingham
Soul and Soil
Indonesia and Giling Basah
By Wendy De Jong
| Demonstrating the pulper. |
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The country of Indonesia claims the worlds second highest level of bio-diversity shared among its 17,000-plus islands. A sense of this vastness and complexity is present in the coffee — from flavor notes of its native nutmeg to aromas of the forest that covers 60% of the land — coffees from Indonesia are unmistakably unique.
During my visit there last year, I was struck by just how different this coffee growing region is. The coffee plants themselves are unique hybrids of multi-national experiments that somehow took hold. The pruning is umbrella style, with the top branches and leaves removed, and the side branches left to hang down like a skirt. The coffee is harvested and pulped by hand with homemade barrel style pulpers, then spread on concrete or tarps and only allowed to partially dry before having the protective layer of parchment removed, and then set out to dry again. This process that is unique in the entire world is called Giling Basah, or "wet-hulling" and is partially responsible for the unique and unmistakable flavor of Indonesian coffees.
| Coffee trading market in Sulawesi. |
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While in Sumatra, visiting the co-op that produces our Organic and Fair Trade certified coffee, I was able to observe the way Joselito manages the quality control of the wet parchment coming into the mill. He simply scoops up a handful and smells it. "It must have the smell of clean, ripe banana or we do not accept it." I waited through several delivery attempts, hoping to experience for myself the smell he had described, and sure enough, when it arrived it was unmistakable. "He always brings good quality. He is careful." Joselito said of the farmer whose coffee had passed the entry requirement.
I followed the coffee through the mill system, where much of the work is done by hand. Interestingly, the women who performed the final hand picking were paid by how many defects they removed, which bodes well for quality.
| Sorting coffee in Sulawesi. |
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Across the water on the island of Sulawesi, the coffee selection is a little more anonymous. Coffee buyers, who are also millers and exporters, must travel to "parchment markets" in small villages all over the region to select their coffees for export. These bags of wet parchment coffee are fussed and haggled over all day sometimes, and occasionally the buyer can leave empty handed. The best regions are well-known, and coffee sellers have a lot of power in the game.
Tony's was very fortunate to have the opportunity to buy some very exclusive coffee from the Toarco group in Sulawesi. During my visit to their state-of-the-art mill I was impressed with their meticulous attention to detail, their unique mechanical drying system, and the brand new community computer facility they are building. But it was the coffee we cupped in their lab that really proved outstanding. I was able to secure a few bags of their very special Peaberry selection for Tony's customers. If you have not yet had a chance to experience this unique and exquisite Sulawesi Peaberry, don't delay and get your order in soon. When we run out we will not have any more until next season.
Wendy De Jong is Vice President & Director of Coffee
Customer Profile: David Narazaki
Caffe Ladro's Union Street manager shares his philosophy and photography.
By Rosie Germond
| Self-Portrait by David Narazaki |
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Manager David Narazaki at the Union St. Caffe Ladro assumes a unique view of the coffeehouse as his venue to engage with people daily while providing customers with extraordinary coffee drinks.
The philosophy behind his success and dedication to serving quality coffee stems from the individuals he serves daily; people walk in a customer, and hopefully leave as a friend. David goes so far as to describe his life quest as being enabled by coffee.
Having been in the coffee business since 1984, David attributes the majority of his decision to manage Union St. Caffe Ladro to owner Jack Kelly. Previously a regular to Caffe Ladro, David found Jack Kelly's demeanor to be both friendly and engaging; he appreciated Jack's ability to provide excellent customer service and wanted to be a part of a business that appreciated the coffee process start to finish.
| Make that a coffee to go: a photograph from David’s book, Earth to Cup. |
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David's passion for coffee flows into other aspects of his life, such as his gift for photography. Inspired by his experience with Tony's Coffee on a trip to Chiapas, Mexico, David used his photographs and talent to create a book titled Earth to Cup, which highlights his passion for coffee and his respect for the people who produce it.
Stop by and visit David at the Union St. Caffe Ladro where he is proud to provide you with an excellent taste of what you are sure to find at any of the thirteen Caffe Ladro locations.
Visit www.caffeladro.com for more information.
Rosie Germond is Assistant Distribution Manager in Bellingham
Who's Who: Allison Aguero
A fond farewell to a Bay Area employee.
By Amber Paulson
| Allison faces a bright future. |
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Allison Aguero, who was our former Bay Area Distribution Manager, has moved on to pursue other goals in life. Allison began working for Tony's almost three years ago and not long after being hired was asked to fill the management position.
Her first mission was "to organize and clean up the warehouse for a smooth operation." With the help of her crew there is now more room and the efficiency of the distribution process has increased tremendously. She maintained customer support and always picked up the slack when necessary.
Allison grew up wanting to become a veterinarian, but now has a new passion for coffee. Thanks to "coffee college," Allison has gained a greater understanding of coffee and all that is involved. "I really enjoyed working for Tony's and hope to use all that I have learned in the future," she says.
Allison has been greatly appreciated for all her hard work and has set a great example for our new Bay Area Distribution Manager, James Rundell. He is very excited to join the Bay Area Team and experience this great coffee journey!
James was the manager at one of our former customers, Moonbeans, and is an experienced barista. James states after his first week, "I'd say it's a unique challenge and a wonderful opportunity to continue my coffee education working from a different aspect of the coffee industry."
Amber Paulson is a Driver in the Bay Area
President's Message
Q: What are the three most important things in choosing coffee?
A: Quality, Quality, and Quality.
What better example than the treasures coming out of Ethiopia's storied coffee growing regions of Harrar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe. For decades, Ethiopian growers and producers have responded to increasing awareness of and demand for unique flavors and clean quality coffees. By paying attention to growing, harvesting, processing, sorting and grading methods, producers have provided some dazzling lots of coffee by separating the best from the rest.
Recently, we've been hearing that the Ethiopian government has been curtailing producers' ability to separate lots based on quality. While there may be legitimate reasons to take such actions, such as egalitarianism and equality, the likely result is that all those unique flavors are going to be dummied down, washed out, and blended into oblivion.
Coffee co-ops the world over face the same challenge - How can organizations founded on the noble principle of equality, produce better than "lowest common denominator" coffees. In an effort to deal fairly with their members, co-op leadership often defaults to paying for volume, rather than quality. It makes sense; to ensure that your members (whether it's a dozen or a hundred individual farmers) feel like they are being treated fairly, you pay them in an equitable, transparent and understandable way.
And that leads to a payment system based on coffee weight, which is much easier to quantify than coffee quality.As long as co-op leadership pays for volume because cup quality is too mysterious, subjective, or arbitrary, growers will concentrate on strategies and practices designed to increase yield.
How can we support the continued production of truly unique and wonderful coffees in the world? One way is to seek out "Cup of Excellence", "Best of (pick your origin)" and Q graded coffees. All of these programs have some common themes:
- Education in how key variables affect the quality of coffee (agronomy, processing and storage)
- Independent and objective evaluation of cup quality, in terms understandable by growers, processors, sellers, buyers and consumers, and
- A transparent pricing system based on quality differences (i.e. where objectively better quality commands a premium price). This is the positive feedback loop that encourages the education, intention and efforts required to effect better quality.
So maybe the real answer to the question of what matters in coffee is — Quality, Quality, and Equality. By weaving together transparency, objectivity and education, the pursuit of quality can be in alignment with, rather than at odds with basic fairness.
Long live interesting coffee!
Todd, Licensed Q Grader
Todd Elliott is President & CEO
This Just In...
Tony’s earns a 93 from Coffee Review for our La Hacienda Esmeralda Special Geisha Mario Pascua 2009.
Check out the review at:
http://www.coffeereview.com/article.cfm?ID=163
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