Seeking - Attention Seeker
Last month, there was a disturbance in the force.
It was not a great force or even a great disturbance, but it was a movement of sorts, even if it only lasted 15 minutes.
During a particular boring period in the Melbourne coffee scene (it's been mindlessly boring for ages), with no real news or excitement for weeks and weeks, inevitably, agitators become desperate for attention.
So, what do most attention seekers do when they want something?
They chuck a few rocks at the glass house.
Specialty coffee is dead, according to the self-appointed high-priests in the coffee quality temple.
Oh dear, it's the dreaded cycle of destruction.
The industry has spent the last ordi10 years building up the notion of "specialty" in a Star Wars-like battle between the evil empire of mass-produced commodity versus the micro-niche crafty stuff nefariously called "specialty".
Marketing the bejesus out of Specialty has become too mainstream these days.
Hence, it needs to be broken up and torn down because it's obvious the only way forward is volatility and instability to keep the punters guessing - so what's hot today?
Not yesterday, that's for sure.
Everyone roasting coffee in Australia claims specialty status without even a hint of effort.
Surprise, surprise, the coffee industry being deceptive once again - please, surely not ROLF.
There is too much "puffery" in the coffee industry - don't you love that word called puffery.
For those who need an interpreter for the latest disruption descriptor, it means there are too many promises of "we source the best" and "we select only the finest beans".
Every man and his dog is
Specialty, and few, if any, can back it up, according to those with the stones in their hands.
Ho hum.
Why are we not surprised?
We called it out years ago when brands touting Specialty Coffee credentials were buying crap commodity junk.
What moved us to write about it so long ago was seeing evidence first-hand in trucks delivering coffee to our warehouse - on board were other pallets with Brand ABC and Brand XYZ in big black text marked all over the other pallets being offered on the run.
Out of curiosity, I frequently chatted with the truck driver and discovered that the same or lower quality coffees are being delivered to those brands regularly.
Upon closer inspection, these are items that we would never accept, but the brands seem to be content with receiving them.
They get away with it because some brands have "locked in customers" simply.
Any brand can buy whatever it wants and market it as something entirely different.
Some call it value-add or manufacturing; we call it deception, which happens across all types of industries besides coffee.
It's what they can get away with that governs the extent.
The only exception here is FAIRTRADE-certified products, which is barely 1% of the coffee market and not generally an area where the specialty coffee market tends to play.
Now, the stone throwers are seeking new definitions and terms.
In other words, they are trying to develop a different code, just like the Pied Piper luring rats onto a different path.
They seek to stand out from the crowd with some new point of difference; whether there is a legitimate point is the real question.
New codes and terminology involve having a more realistic relationship with farmers and the entire supply chain.
However, that does not define and guarantee Specialty because many other processes beyond sourcing and farming determine quality.
The experts - brokers and importers best handle the complexities of supply chains.
Coffee roasters pretending to visit origin regularly show off with attention-seeking selfies.
The harsh reality is that true, genuine, reliable roasters must be at their post and always chained to their machine.
Go away on a trip for a couple of weeks; you've got to be kidding.
Who is roasting their coffee, the Pied Piper or R2D2?
Coffee enthusiasts are encouraged to ignore the smoke signals of danger from "puffery" and vote with your taste buds and the obvious value propositions offered by your coffee suppliers - they are all trying their best to deliver some magic in your cup.
Brokers and importers are also doing their absolute best to compete in a tough market - they are not exploiting farmers or being opportunistic, and they are also perpetuating poverty in 3rd world countries - it's a far more difficult and complex structure than what the puffery brigade claims.
Things are never as they seem.
