Quick aside before we start this topic: we love many of the importers and exporters we work with. We've begun building some amazing friendships, have already garnered strong trust with some, and greatly admire many of them for the work they are doing at origin and at home. Middle men are NOT innately bad. It is quite the opposite. Many do (some of what we think is) the least exciting jobs in the pipeline of coffee and with the least reward for their hard work. Do your due diligence on your own in finding reliable sourcing partners and understand that those are YOUR people. They will have your back!
A short story about OUR bad sourcing practice
It's April 30th and I've just had probably the biggest moral dilemma since starting Base Coat. Do I pull a coffee I just launched?
Today, we had this wonderful impromptu cupping with our good friend Christian, and the band he play's in, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. On the table, we had every past offering of ours and a few future ones. It was a really great time, but having our fresh crop Colombia right next to two of our recent Honduras offerings made one thing blatantly apparent. Our two Honduras were tasting incredibly tired.
How had I not picked up on this? In profiling, the age was definitely subtle. In fact, I hardly detected it in the Gesha nanolot. On the Java, it was subtle-y more apparent by the lack of acid that that Java should have, but also obscured by the fact that this coffee oddly held onto it's chaff very well. It made cupping already have an oolong character that otherwise would not have been there. (I believe this is because it spent too much time "stabilizing" in parchment, but I am speculating.) None of this means to be an excuse to our poor QC but it was one of many small contributing factors that gave us false confidence to still release this coffee that would not sit on our menu for even a month.
So, it was definitely on our radar that the three coffees we sourced this year from Honduras were already on their decline. They were also spot purchases a few months after arrival when we bought them. But, we were excited to offer Honduran coffee as extra light. We also saw and tasted a few other roasters just launch their expressions of some Honduran coffees in the extra light style, which contributed to our poorly-instilled, confidence. Then, we ignorantly sat on these lots for a few months after their arrival to schedule them "tactically" into our two coffee a month release schedule.
All of this planning came crumbling down after finally roasting first batch of the Gesha / Landrace blend we spent $16/lb on. After cupping, it had plenty of beautiful qualities: orange blossom, fuji apple, cinnamon, and turbinado, but it was ridden with bag-y and paper-y flavors. And, in low EY pourover, it was almost an acceptable quality of fade. However, when this coffee was fresh, it was so much more impressive of a cup. It started as berries and stone fruit and quickly turned into fruit loops at room temp. I had been so excited to release this coffee since tasting that sample brew. Now, it was far too aged to sell extra light (in our minds).
So, we decided that was $1200 of the $3000 we spent with this importer just gone. In their defense, all of the spot samples tasted lovely when we purchased them. But, this specific offering was not vacuum sealed like the others, which we were not aware of while it sat an extra month or two in palate storage on a shelf in our co-roasting facility. When it finally was pulled down for us, I saw the zip-tied grain pro sack, and knew the grave mistake I had made.
I think there were several more huge mistakes we made in purchasing these three coffees that could have prevented ~$2.5k loss from solely bad green purchases.
- I roasted our samples slightly darker than I normally would. I got stuck in drying with my old sample roasting method on the joper -- I've since found a new method that has an artificial cutoff to ensure this doesn't happen. I thought I was tasting through roast, but I really should have just asked for more sample green.
- We bought spot coffee, and out of peak arrival window.
- We did not pull any of the coffee when it arrived to roast and taste. We could have realistically rejected this coffee after purchasing in a small time frame after it had arrived, but we waited to taste.
- We sat on the coffee after purchasing instead of releasing it right away, which contributed to its decline.
All of this is to say, it was our fault (directly and indirectly) and we share this in hopes that people can learn from our mistakes. This year, we're buying from them again but we're taking a new approach and forward buying lots from these same producers way in advance. They'll be just as fresh as our Colombian coffees have been.
Sourcing is harder than roasting
Sourcing is harder than roasting. I say this confidently. There are traps everywhere and most importers, somewhat understandably, treat their role in the pipeline like being a salesman. What I mean by that is some importers treat moving coffee as more important than building a relationship, burning a bridge, or ensuring the customer ends up with the best product.
In addition, you'll start to observe that some importers do a much better job of QCing their lots as they sit longer and longer. Importing is a supply chain logistics and financial risk-analyst job fused together. While the best fly off the shelf, importers continue to pay to store others lots that slowly decay in flavor and cost them even more money. However, while some choose to share the observed flaws in their remaining offerings from a harvest in some way, others choose to do nothing (meaning a coffee remains in a spot listings with fresh tasting notes and details), or simply update with an abridged "positive-themed" tasting experience. Even worse, some imports obfuscate arrival and harvest details from their spot listings.
So, it can be incredibly hard to understand when coffee arrived simply without asking. And, many spot coffees sound beautifully tasty online when they're simply past their prime. Even worse, there are many "bag split programs" for smaller roasters and home roasters on the market that are marketed to be offering high-quality lots at a small premium. Some even have you blind buy (in confidence) thinking that the importer has passed them on as meeting their high QC standards. This has not always been the case in our little experience. Instead, specific importers seem to have built markets that prey on the inexperienced. We do not say that lightly.
So, what can you do?
- Always ask and ask directly
- "Is this tasting aged? When did it arrive? When was it harvested? What's the moisture? What have others shared about passing on it?" are all good baseline questions to consider asking.
- Pay attention to when you're buying spot and try your best not to buy out of new harvest arrival timing. Sometimes out of calendar sourcing (say for an exclusive with a subscription service for example) demands this.
- If you do buy spot late after it's arrival, you have a small window to reject what you receive. Roast first batch (or sample) quickly, and give the importer feedback. If it tastes off, don't pay the rest of your invoice. Discuss next steps with the importer.
- Buy forward (and commit to lots way in advance).
- This is what we plan to do moving forward. We've found a few producers whose stories resonate with us. We've contacted those importer/exporters and let them know ahead of time the quantity we want and what we're roughly looking for. The importer let us know roughly what moisture they had measured in pre-ships and a few tasting notes and processing info. When the importer / exporter gets pre-ships or arrivals too, they'll usually follow up and ship you these samples to taste. There's still risk in this, but you have a few more healthy windows to accept or reject what you receive. You'll really only get pre-ships if you're buying large enough samples though. Also, it does mean that you sometimes have to pay way ahead of time, but we think it is so worth it in the long run.
- Build relationships and do your best to nurture them.
- Communicate plans at the beginning of the year.
- Give the importer / exporter / producer clear idea that you want to buy from them and let them understand why and what you're looking for.
- Follow through with your promises. Pay-in-advance. Communicate clearly and promptly. Getting defective or faded coffee is not an "if" it is a "when". Understanding the risk you're willing to take ahead of time, will help soften the blow so that you can avoid what we did and buy 30kg of faded coffee at $16/lb.
- Lastly, when you do find faded coffee in the wild and purchase it, let others taste it in different brew methods and in cupping.
- Sometimes, if you move quickly enough, you can get a coffee out the door before the window is too late. Not every coffee ages the same and some have greater windows of "acid fade" before they get bag-y or paper-y. In our minds, this is acceptable coffee age. It's still really enjoyable brewing!
Closing thoughts
Roasting can be hard, but there is so much we get to control. Sourcing is hard because we're largely out of control. Find people you trust and appreciate. If they know what they're doing, they will appreciate you back . Nurture those relationships. That will treat you the best.
I think, as roasters, we all find ourselves with faded or defective coffee at one point or another. I've found solace in sharing these experiences with others.
We're still figuring out how to lessen our blown on these Honduras coffees. Some people would simply throw this in a blender, and call it a day. I want to be more transparent with this coffee. If we do decide to sell it, you'll see a coffee that is clearly listed as "aged" or "faded" on our menu. We're also working out how to address the coffee that did go out the door that we're not completely happy with.
Stay tuned! And thanks for being here and reading this far.
Cheers, Aidan