Complexity of flavor, quality and price of coffee – what if they are not connected anymore?

What if the complexity of the flavor, quality and price are not connected anymore? What now? How to buy coffee now? What is a fair price to pay for 1 kg of green beans? And for a 250 gr bag of roasted coffee?

These questions are both for roasters who are busy creating their seasonal offer, and for coffee lovers.

Looks like we are entering a new era.

I am being asked, over and over again, both by roasters and consumers, the question “why”?

And both are talking about the same problem, both are facing the same issue, just from the different sides.

Roaster is buying a coffee for a price considered “elevated” – expecting a certain complexity of flavor for that price, and not getting it. 

Coffee lovers are in the same situation. Is more expensive better? Which price is the fair price? “I paid 18 euros for the bag, and this coffee is worse than one that I got for 15. Why does it cost more if it is not better?”

Scores are only adding up to the confusion. Both coffees are 87 points – so ideally they should be the same price, right? And yet they are not.

Can the company that is selling the coffee (green coffee importer or coffee roaster) score the coffee they are selling (when they have the interest of selling for the highest price? Is it fair? Should a third party do the scoring instead?

And does it make any sense to mention the score at all, if the price is not connected to it anymore?

All those questions are not easy questions to answer – and I am not intending to answer them now, but I really would like to point them out. We are currently facing a new situation.

Quality is not connected to price anymore. The same with complexity of flavor. 

How rare the coffee is, how much demand there is for this kind of coffee, how much the competitors are charging for something similar, how much was paid for it to the producer, how expensive it was to produce this coffee. These things are probably coming first, and afterwards – the profit. 

What can we do? As coffee professionals and coffee lovers, to make less mistakes and buy expected, or close to expected quality?

First, we need to stop expecting. 89 point coffee can cost 20 euros and can cost 100 euros per kilo, and it doesn’t mean that the second one is 5 times better than the first one. Probably it is more rare, there are more buyers who want to have it, there is a story behind it that allows it to be sold at this price. There is an added value to it, that the market is ready to pay, or is expected to be ready to pay. 

Roaster

• understand that quality (score) and complexity are not connected to the price anymore. They may be, but not necessarily are. 
• get a clear understanding of what you are looking for – quality, profile – and what is the price range for this coffee now. Take in consideration that some origins can be more expensive than others, historically, like Kenya, for example. 
• make sure that you are calibrated and scoring coffee regularly – it will help you to understand how different your scores are from the scores of the importers, and if you understand the quality in the same way. Not to say that someone is right, and someone is wrong – but just to simply be aware of the difference in perception, and use it when buying coffee
• make sure you know to taste the defects in green coffee, and how to grade the coffee

Coffee lover

• find a roaster you trust (via some trial and error), whose style of roasting and buying you like, and stick with it, if you like stability
• if you like to explore – understand that there is no guarantee, even if the brand is quite famous, there is no guarantee that the coffee will be superb
• the communication of the company, the design, the interface of the webpage, the expectations you might have – all of it influences your perception of quality. take it easy.
• high price does not always guarantee the complexity of flavor
• getting better at brewing and tasting, being exposed to very different coffees, together with someone who could guide you through the tasting is a big plus. It will give you a solid foundation, and help you to understand what you like and what you are looking for in coffee.
• before you judge the quality of the coffee and the quality of the roasting – make sure you are brewing it correctly, using quality equipment and proper water. 

And keep exploring!

Coffee is much bigger than simply flavor and a score, coffee has a story, and probably we are entering the era when we start paying more attention to the story of the coffee bought, and not only at the high score or new ways of processing. 

Probably that is the bright side of it all, when we finish playing with diversity of flavor, to start paying attention to what’s behind it – people, region, country, system. Coffee still has a “colonial” feel to it – the best of it is being exported out of the countries where it was produced, raw, to then be roasted and sold. Sometimes we have the situation when people in coffee growing countries have not even tasted the best that their land produces. 

Probably we could focus on that more. 

Flavor is an easy and approachable entry point – all of us like to savor and enjoy food, so it is not a surprise that specialty coffee is getting all that attention. 

So, when we finally have the attention – probably there are better ways to use it?

Probably coffee can be something bigger?