tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79988702128679547602024-03-05T05:31:08.763-05:00The Nice Drinks In LifeA website dedicated to the review and study of fine wines, spirits, coffees, and teas.Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-72434879325595330792015-08-05T00:39:00.000-04:002015-08-05T11:01:42.810-04:00Bao Zhong<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b>Name</b>: Bao Zhong</div>
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<b>Origin</b>: Pinglin, Taiwan</div>
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<b>Harvest Date</b>: April 27, 2014</div>
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<b>Type</b>: Oolong Tea</div>
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<b>Purveyor</b>: Everlasting Teas</div>
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<b>Preparation</b>: One teaspoon steeped in about eight ounces of 200deg F water for 4:30 (I am unfortunately unequipped for <i>gong fu cha</i>), sipped plain</div>
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As I tasted <a href="http://www.everlastingteas.com/product/baozhong/">this Bao Zhong</a>, what was most striking was how different the notes seemed now that I set down to taste it with intent. I had had this tea - the same batch, bought in the same canister - a few times before, either flying out the door in the morning or sitting watching a movie. But this was my first time focusing on exploring deeply and intricately its profile. Normally this would result in a refined and nuanced understanding of how I already know the tea to taste; instead it resulted in a surprise: the brew tasted like a completely different category of tea. Has that ever happened to you? It was certainly a first for me.<br />
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The dry leaves are long and twisted, like desiccated tree trunks. There is an overtone of blue to the brown that gives them almost a mystical quality. A ton of maltiness, manifested largely as vanilla, dominates the aroma, and there is also a certain sweetness that is hard to place. Let's put it somewhere between molasses and caramel. The same exact notes in a white wine would indicate more oak than grapes. But of course, such concentration of notes is plainly expected with dry tea leaves.<br />
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The steeped tea is exceptionally light in color. If I didn't know any better, upon looking at the completed brew, I would say that the bag had just gone in there. The hue is somewhere between lemongrass and sea green, not especially out of line with the tinge on the dry leaves, and if the thinness of the color were not so distracting it would be really quite enjoyable to contemplate visually - in fact, I quite think it was anyway.<br />
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The aroma, notwithstanding the paleness, is very pungent. Plenty of maltiness, a little sweetness around the edge. As I asked my wife if she thinks the particular note is more like vanilla or molasses - in the very middle of my sentence - I realized that it is neither so much as chestnut. (With which thought my better half concurs.) This nuttiness is not pure nuttiness per se, but a curious result of maltiness, sweetness, and floral notes combined into one. Or is, perhaps, all nuttiness like that?<br />
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It is at this point that I realize that this is not a typical oolong. The snobbier subset of aficionadoes will scoff here. Outside the base and narrow paradigm of packaged nonsense that Americans eating Chinese take-out mistake for oolong tea, they sniff, there is no "typical" oolong so much as a wide and diverse spectrum of teas from across the Orient that happen to be treated similarly post-plucking. And it is not that these aficionadoes are wrong - they are quite correct - but is is still plainly possible to identify certain notes common to oolongs and easy to distinguish in a blind tasting an oolong tea from a green, black, or white.<br />
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And yet there I was, exploring a Bao Zhong from a batch that I had sampled many times in the past without having ever noticed the first discrepancy, and realizing that it came off very - eerily - similar to a green tea. A Hairpoint green is what was specifically brought straight to the front of my mind, there to remain indefinitely.<br />
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For a brew whose aroma is stuffed with maltiness and chestnuts, the liquid is rather thin. Tannins are there on the side of the mouth, but light. The flavor is delicate. I get grassiness. It is a wee bit acidic but in a mild, balanced way. Maybe it is a simple matter of me not being able to get this whole green tea thing out of my head, but I taste all of those Hairpoint notes, albeit without quite choking on them as one might with that green. All of this is a compliment to the Bao Zhong, by the way.<br />
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The finish is simple and wonderful: the notes fade a little, and I found myself licking my chops, enjoying the sweetness as it comes out deliciously on the edges of the mouth for one last hurrah before the next sip.<br />
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We may never know for sure, but I believe that if it was a blind tasting, I - and not for nothing, but I am not new at this - would not have guessed that the tea is oolong. Being wrong about something I ought to know? Happens to me more often than I care to admit. But having a tea taste so radically different just because I pay a little more attention than usual? That has never happened to me before. I must admit, I rather enjoyed learning anew how rewarding it can be to pay attention to what it is I drink. It was a great and humbling lesson.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-51378770278812818832015-04-04T19:57:00.001-04:002015-04-04T19:57:29.507-04:00Viña Ardanza 2004 Rioja Reserva<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Producer</b>: La Rioja Alta S.A.</div>
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<b>Name</b>: Viña Ardanza 2004 Reserva</div>
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<b>Varietal</b>: Tempranillo</div>
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<b>Region</b>: Rioja D.O.C., Spain</div>
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<b>Vintage</b>: 2004 Reserva</div>
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<b>Tasted</b>: February 18, 2015</div>
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<b>ABV</b>: 13.5%</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">It was August, 2007. A co-worker friend and I were sitting at a hotel bar in South Beach, Florida, after the first day of a trade show. We decided to relax over a bottle of wine, and he, knowing that I knew all sorts of things about libations and had a decent palate for them, asked me to choose the wine. But this was long before I had ever considered entering the wine world, and in fact, I was only a few months out of college, where whatever wine we drank was, let’s say, not quite fine. So, what my friend did not know, because I had cultivated a façade to the contrary, was that my wine knowledge was barely a step and a half above that of a casual guzzler, and that I was unfamiliar with every last producer on the hotel’s wine list.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">I did, however, know what to expect from a good Rioja. There were a couple on the list, and I picked the one that said "Reserva" on it, to up the odds that it would be a good one. I was also sure to order it with a self-consciously confident trill in the Spanish language for the sake of my audience, you know, just to put a bow on how well versed I was in everything I was doing. (To give you an idea of how preposterous that was: among the bartender, my friend, and myself, I was the only non-native Spanish speaker, and we all knew it.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Out came the wine, pop went the cork, and with a toast to health and life, my friend and I took a sip. It was outrageous. Starting out sublime, it just got better and better as the minutes and hours ticked away. As best as I can remember, tannins and fruit managed somehow to surround each other, and the herb notes, which were strong, brought balance and complexity to the whole thing. The wine was dark but not heavy at all, and the interaction of the notes, which were in constant (though not frenetic) motion relative to each other, just made the whole thing beyond belief.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">I had always liked wine and I had always liked Rioja, but now I loved wine and loved Rioja. To this day Rioja remains my favorite type.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">The wine in question was Viña Ardanza Reserva 2004. We were sure to write it down, but when we got back to New York neither of us could find it in any wine shop. A few months later I read somewhere that it had sold out. Sorely disappointed, I gave up the search, hoping perhaps to stumble across it again somewhere in the future, but not expecting to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Fast-forward to the present day, minus two or three months. I am still no sommelier by any means, but I am a wine representative for Angels’ Share Wines, so I have been exposed to the best, and know my way around a wine conversation. The love of my life asks me if I will accompany her into a wine shop near her work and help her choose holiday gifts for her employers. In the shop, which was new to me as a consumer and outside my professional territory, I find a couple of wines from ASW’s book and recommend them to the lovely lady.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">And then I see them. Two bottles of Viña Ardanza Reserva 2004 sitting on the shelf in the Spanish section. I must have spent twenty minutes staring at them, just to make sure they were in fact what I thought they were. The store charged me $35 each; as far as I am concerned, it should have charged a hundred times as much.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Those who know me must be so proud: I, the least patient and most goofily impulsive man on planet Earth, did not head straight home, fly through the door, rip out the cork on the fourth or fifth try, and pour the wine across countertop, glass, and floor. In fact, I did not even open them that evening or weekend. I put the bottles on my shelf and let them sit there for a few weeks until it was the right time to try them: a slow evening that I had all to myself, a full stomach, and the right mood to really sit back and feel out a wine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">I set the bottle on the table and looked at it. It was really cool to see my first wine love right in front of me. "This is what it’s all about," I thought. But what if it disappoints? That's the kind of negative thinking to which many aficionados – of anything, not just wine – fall victim when preparing to experience a personally meaningful find. It is also a thoroughly pointless type of concern. "Don't bother with expectations," I told myself. "Just dive on in and have fun with it." And so I did.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">At a little over ten years of age, the Reserva is different, but no less sublime. The aroma shows it age beautifully. I won’t quite say that it does so gracefully at first – it is in a funky sort of age – but in a good way, as an older person who still has verve and energy and life. The notes are of typical Rioja herb and spice, principally cedar, very nicely expressed. These fruits, are they all awry? No, but they are old. Strawberry and plum, and oh, some vanilla! Oak, welcome! These aroma notes all come out evenly, well balanced, and sophisticated (or, at least, properly complex; maybe even impressively so). The oak, which can easily dominate a wine like this, does no such thing just yet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">The most striking thing about the palate is how light it is – I found it to be no heavier than a Pinot Noir. But the Tempranillo notes hold up, and together, perfectly. The fruits and oak are identical to the corresponding notes on the nose; the spice is similar, but more pungent, though without overwhelming anything else. The tannins and acidity are both moderate, and quite lovely. The tannins, in fact, play especially well with the fruit, and the other notes also get along quite nicely together. This whole is many times greater than the sum of its parts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">What a superb wine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">After breathing for twenty minutes, the Reserva’s nose mellows out a little, with the oak emerging as the dominant note. The fruits have not changed even an iota; the herb/spice, though, has nearly dissipated. The palate remains light as ever, with increased acidity, and unchanged or perhaps even diminished tannins. Oak prevails much as it does on the nose, but here it has teamed up with the herb/spice of cedar etcetera, while the fruits have become little more than an undercurrent. The specific notes have not changed, though the oak, being so augmented, has opened itself up to much more nuance than the simple sliver of vanilla that we had twenty minutes ago.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">I cannot express strongly enough how insufficient the written word is to describe the sublimity of the Viña Ardanza 2004 Rioja Reserva. I can pile adjective upon adjective; I can blither on with aroma and tasting notes; I can depict the scene and create the mood to make everything come together; and so I have. Or I could have stuck with pith: “The ’04 has gotten light in its old age, showing tannins and acidity, and combining with artful sophistication fruits, herb, and an oak profile that starts small but comes to dominate after only a short while of aeration. Good show!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">None of it is good enough. With poor wine, describing the notes is pointless, unless as an exercise. With good wine, fleshing out the tasting notes becomes a ton of fun, and also a very useful tool in that people can distinguish it from similar wines and know what to expect if they pair it with food and/or occasion. But with wine at a higher plane, bothering with such words becomes pointless again: The wine has transcended so far past the sum of its parts that to focus on those parts actually distracts from accuracy and relevance. The only way to know what a wine like this tastes like is to actually taste it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">I have written this article because I love writing, especially about wine and other beverages; I have wanted to contribute again to The Nice Drinks In Life for a long time now; and as soon as I sipped the Ardanza I knew it would be too much to resist pouring my heart into a paean to it as a renewal of my activity on the site. But I would be wrong not to include this disclaimer, if you will. The wine is above the words about it. It is just better. Better than what? Yes. It makes me weep. I actually got choked up (and no, it did not go down the wrong pipe or anything).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Shortly after I had the first bottle, I took the second to my parents' house to drink with dinner. They are Rioja people, in that they typically drink whatever popular-label current vintage is on the store shelf. Don’t get me wrong; though I am a snob, I drink those Riojas, too. But I was concerned that this older, unknown (to them) Rioja would disappoint them, which would embarrass me a little. It is lighter than young Riojas by a lot; oakier after a short while; just different. Would they like it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">They loved it. My dad snapped a picture of it on his phone to show his friends. I heard about it for a week. Even my mom, somewhat less adventurous than others in her family, took a second glass. All listened as I told them the story from Miami in between sips, and then we took the occasion to recall a few Riojas that we drank together in Spain on a trip some years back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">That evening was everything that is special about wine, everything for which we wine lovers stand. Everything. So is the Viña Ardanza 2004 Rioja Reserva.</span></span></div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-25656487589884080272014-06-01T21:46:00.003-04:002014-06-02T00:25:19.517-04:00An Adventure with Carmenère<div style="text-align: justify;">
Reading old reviews and articles about Carmenère – even some that are not so old, in fact – one sees hope that the grape will, as it is improved and perfected by Chilean growers and winemakers, graduate from blending grape to a stand-alone varietal in its own right. Such an outlook appears, in 2014, quaint and nostalgic, rather like reading a scouting report about a college athlete after he is already a veteran of the big leagues.<br />
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Carmenère today accounts for some 10% of Chilean wine production. That may not seem like much, especially if compared to Cabernet Sauvignon, which weighs in at over 40%. But compared to where it was just a little while ago, Carmenère is doing phenomenally; before 1997, it was not counted at all. Truly, Carmenère has come a long way in such a short amount of time.<br />
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In fact, the grape's recent ascendancy in Chile as a high quality varietal is just the latest leg of a much longer journey, begun in the plains of Bordeaux a couple hundred years ago. Carmenère was a minor celebrity in the Médoc as a blending grape. In the larger region it was, though not especially obscure, somewhat marginalized due to both the prominence of so many other grapes there and the difficulty of growing it properly. It requires more time than most varietals to ripen properly, and waiting for those extra days to get it just right opens up vulnerability to early frosts, which ruin everything. After phylloxera pulverized the region and the farmers more or less started over from scratch, they did not really bother with Carmenère again, even in the Médoc.<br />
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But right in the nick of time, just before the upheaval, some Carmenère vines found themselves aboard a ship headed for Chile. In that slice of the New World, some enthusiastic winemakers (and wine drinkers) were overseeing the creation of an Andean viniculture. French varietals of all sorts were brought over, planted, made into wine, tasted, refined, tasted again, refined again, and so on. It would be a long time until Chilean wine achieved the high quality that it has today, but Carmenère had found a new home in which it could safely await its moment to shine. Phylloxera never made its way to Chile, and the longer growing season there proved perfect for the varietal.<br />
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The story did not quite end there, however. There is a remarkable twist before the odyssey comes to an end. As Chilean wines became the focus of increasing attention in recent decades, concerns arose that certain vines producing what had been thought to be Sauvignon Blanc were in fact producing the inferior Sauvignon Vert. (The latter is also known as Sauvignonasse; the suffix –asse in French denotes a pejorative.) These concerns were confirmed by experts.<br />
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In the course of their investigations into the various Sauvignons, those same experts stumbled onto another item of confusion. They noticed that the leaves of many Merlot vines had an exceptionally pinkish hue compared to what is normal for the varietal. It was not long before the explanation presented itself: What makers (and, one can only assume, drinkers) of Chilean wine had always thought to be Merlot was in fact none other than our intrepid protagonist, Carmenère.<br />
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How such confusion came about is uncertain. Maybe some amateurs unloading the shipments from France back in the 1800s missed a label or something. But it really is remarkable how the mistake was not noticed much earlier. Carmenère takes a substantially longer time to ripen than Merlot, and in the glass tends to be a bit heavier, less fruity, and more floral than its erstwhile pretension.<br />
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But it is all too easy to jump to judgment about Chilean viniculture in the face of this snafu. Such luminaries in the wine world as Karen MacNeil, Jancis Robinson, and the late, great Frank Prial have all written about it without even raising an eyebrow as to the mix-up not being noticed sooner, and I think it is safe to say that they all know something – many things – that I do not.<br />
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Furthermore, this is not the only instance of Carmenère successfully masquerading as something else; the Old World has its own examples. We learn from Jancis Robinson in <i>The Oxford Companion to Wine</i> that in north-east Italy many vines of what was thought to be Cabernet Franc are in fact none other than our chameleonic friend. This is on the face of it no less egregious than the confusion with Merlot: yes, both Cabernet Franc and Carmenère started out jointly contributing to the prestige of the Médoc and larger Bordeaux; and yes, both share an etymological root (Cabernet Franc was once known as Carmenet in the Médoc; the root refers to the color carmine); but the real Cabernet Franc ripens somewhat early and is light, a bit less than medium bodied, and fruity while Carmenère ripens late and is dark, full-bodied, and herbaceous.<br />
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And yet, the experts pass no judgment. For that reason as well as more scriptural ones, neither shall I.<br />
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In any event the Chileans, or at least those whose Merlot was no such thing, found themselves in a real spot. Confirmation of their error came in 1994, right as a craze for Merlot was conspicuously burgeoning in the US (Chile's principle wine export market) and elsewhere, and as Chile's reputation in the wine world was set to grow. It was more than a small error: some estimates put the percentage of mistaken vines at 70% or more of the country's "Merlot". Initially there was a bit of a panic, including the human capacity for denial; authorities finally admitted the truth in 1997. And as late as 2001, Karen MacNeil and Frank Prial noted that many Chilean Merlots still contained a sizeable percentage of Carmenère.<br />
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But also by that time, a certain realization about the virtues of Carmenère came about. Cooler heads sat back and considered: If Chile’s reputation in the wine world has been growing in the past few decades, and if Carmenère has been a major part of Chilean production during this time, then is it not possible – likely, even – that there is much to be said for the varietal? It had a respectable history in one of the world's most venerated wine regions. The list of Chilean Merlots in which Carmenère was blended even after the public confession included the highest rated and most in demand. Clearly, this was no second-tier grape. Not to mention, the long Chilean growing season turned its late ripening from a liability into a perfect fit, and its abandonment elsewhere in the world gave it a uniqueness on which Chile could capitalize, a distinguishing factor with which the country could stand out.<br />
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Those cooler heads soon realized that what they had, far from a problem, was a golden opportunity. Their countrymen concurred. And Carmenère went almost overnight from unknown to denied to embraced.<br />
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So what exactly is this adventurous actor of ours? What does it taste like, what is its personality? What are we dealing with here? I tasted three Carmenères from different regions and of different ages.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWRc9z-EAuM15dPBy3wQGWLSnQn-uZLUKNdBGwZWPtV3LOBbXG9SVK75B63uwJ8pDfDNknVQlX7skorFnfQteZQhekSTxY6s9WBrwKZGbpy1a8Thv5XUlceo0DW6NSGPFvFcCG8PBPIYCc/s1600/CasilleroDelDiablo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWRc9z-EAuM15dPBy3wQGWLSnQn-uZLUKNdBGwZWPtV3LOBbXG9SVK75B63uwJ8pDfDNknVQlX7skorFnfQteZQhekSTxY6s9WBrwKZGbpy1a8Thv5XUlceo0DW6NSGPFvFcCG8PBPIYCc/s1600/CasilleroDelDiablo.jpg" height="310" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Producer</b>: Concha y Toro</div>
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<b>Name</b>: Casillero del Diablo Reserva</div>
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<b>Varietal</b>: Carmenère</div>
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<b>Region</b>: Rapel Valley, Chile</div>
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<b>Vintage</b>: 2011</div>
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<b>Tasted</b>: March 26, 2014<br />
<b>ABV</b>: 13.5%</div>
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The first of the three was a gift from my cousin for my birthday last summer, a 2011 Casillero del Diablo Reserva grown in the Rapel Valley. Seven months later, convinced that it was in bottle for exactly long enough, I opened it up, and indeed the age was perfect. The wine was a deep, dark purple, and a very fragrant one at that. In fact, it was pungent – in fact, it was more than pungent, much more. Having turned my back from the opened bottle for all of two seconds, I could smell it from across the room, without actually having poured any yet.</div>
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The aroma had light notes of citrus, vanilla, and leather. Very few reds were present. Perhaps I detected a note of deciduous fruit. On the palate, however, there were many reds out and about: strawberry, other berries, a hint of cherry. The aroma notes were also present in the mouth, and there was spice as well. These three facets of the wine's profile balanced each other out beautifully; it did a great job turning complex components into a single simplicity. The body was about average for a red with 13.5% ABV; it held the flavors well, and did not insert itself into play.<br />
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After aeration the aroma, without losing any of its earlier notes, picked up a great deal of reds. The palate lost much of the spice, gaining in its place a certain smoothness; the balance from earlier seemed to have recalibrated itself quite perfectly in light of this switch.<br />
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The 2011 Casillero del Diablo Reserva is, without question, an excellent Carmenère. It comes very highly recommended.<br />
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<b>Producer</b>: Viña Errázuriz</div>
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<b>Name</b>: Single Vineyard, Max Reserva Estates</div>
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<b>Varietal</b>: Carmenère</div>
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<b>Region</b>: Aconcagua Valley, Chile</div>
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<b>Vintage</b>: 2009</div>
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<b>Tasted</b>: April 10, 2014<br />
<b>ABV</b>: 14.5%</div>
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A couple of weeks later I had the 2009 Max Reserva Single Estate Carmenère from Viña Errázuriz, from the Aconcagua Valley. It, too, had a purple tinge, though being two years older than the Casillero del Diablo it was less dark. The aroma contained deep reds, principally strawberry and cherry, with a little bit of herby spice. Very minimal notes of vanilla and toffee rounded it out. The palate was spicy, full of red fruits, rhubarb, strawberry – it almost, in the strangest way, reminded me of a Chianti. The flavor was heavy, quite befitting a wine with 14.5% ABV, but the body was actually medium. And, I underlined in my notes, the flavors worked great together.<br />
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After aeration, the only difference was that the palate had acquired a bit of a lighter tone; nothing else changed at all.<br />
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The 2009 Max Reserva was another great example of how a Carmenère, composed of disparate tones and tasting notes, expertly fits them together into one, unified, harmonious experience.<br />
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<b>Producer</b>: Odfjell Vineyards</div>
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<b>Name</b>: Orzada</div>
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<b>Varietal</b>: Carmenère</div>
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<b>Region</b>: Maule Valley, Chile</div>
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<b>Vintage</b>: 2008</div>
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<b>Tasted</b>: April 16, 2014<br />
<b>ABV</b>: 14%</div>
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Finally, a few days later, I sipped the 2008 Orzada Carmenère from Odfjell Vineyards in the Maule Valley. This wine looked brand new with deep, dark purple hues, but the nose and mouth could tell right away that it had been in bottle for a little while already. The aroma was of chocolate, vanilla, and leather, with floral musk. Not too many red fruits were present. The palate also lacked fruit, though it was bright, and mellow, with notes of toffee, chocolate, leather, coffee, and vanilla. Tannins were felt, and the wine was a tad heavy, though not too much. On the finish I detected strawberry – finally, a fruit!<br />
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After breathing for a while the Orzada’s aroma acquired some reds, lost the vanilla and florals, and mellowed out very pleasantly. The palate at this point had definitely become much more like the younger Carmenères; the rejuvenation was very clear. Red berries, strawberry, tannins joined a slight herby spice and the old notes of chocolate, leather, and florals, all together creating a harmonious whole much greater than the sum of its parts.<br />
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It is remarkable what a little aging in the bottle – <i>and</i> subsequent aeration – will do for a Carmenère. The breathing is more crucial as the wine sits in bottle for longer, but it suits the wine at any age, really. The herbs in the flavor give way to the fruits as it endures contact with the air, which only serves to illustrate the superb sophistication of the Carmenère. Its aptitude for uniting disparate elements – leather and strawberry?! – into harmony is really something special. For those who like to pair wine with food, just about any red meat will do, especially if grilled.<br />
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As I look back on those articles from a few short years ago, reading about all the high hopes that wine writers had for the varietal, I feel glad that Carmenère overcame the odds and achieved success in its own right. And indeed, those were not the easiest odds. Consider: it was a minor grape to begin with, overshadowed by giants in a land of giants; it was transported across the globe to a faraway land (even farther away before airplanes) where it was not clear that wine would ever have a place, while its remaining brethren were obliterated by phylloxera; it was completely and utterly forgotten about for almost a century and a half; and nearly the entire world’s first reaction upon its rediscovery was to recoil in unpleasant surprise. And in no time, it has risen to prominence and prestige, held highly by an entire country as a mark of distinction. Get your hands on some today to find out why. And enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-705732866188297122014-04-02T11:10:00.001-04:002014-04-02T11:10:11.412-04:00Direct Trade & Fair Trade: Practices, Principles, & Possibilities<div style="text-align: justify;">
Coffee drinkers are not unique in harboring an interest in the provenance of their beverage. Tea drinkers will often have an origin of choice. Whiskey and beer drinkers usually prefer one place's tradition over others'. I'm sure I hardly need to describe how wine drinkers can be.<br />
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What set coffee drinkers apart in this context, however, are two things. The first is that it is not only connoisseurs of specialty coffee who care about where the beans come from. Many people who would not know a craft roast if it jolted them awake in the morning are sure to note their coffee's origin, and can usually tell a difference (which speaks volumes about the importance of <i>terroir</i>). The second is that it is not just where the coffee comes from that coffee drinkers care about, but also <u>how it got to them from there</u>. The particular origin is important for quality and taste, but most coffee drinkers are at least as concerned about the trade model that brought it from farm to cup, for the good reason that its import derives from ethics and sustainability, which are of course much more important in both the long and short terms.<br />
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At least on the surface (and we will see later on how the superficial scenario here is deceptive) there are two trade models competing for the hearts and minds of consumers, roasters, and farmers: direct trade and fair trade. Like most consumers, I thought I knew pretty well what the basic premise of each was, and took comfort in both taking the side of one of them and still feeling, shall we say, a tad sympathetic with the other. But also like most consumers, I misunderstood at least as much as I understood, and also remained ignorant of many important details, where (of course) the devil lies.<br />
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This article will discuss direct trade and fair trade with respect to coffee. The two models are of course relevant to scores of different products, but for the sake of simplicity, which is already conspicuously lacking with this topic, discussion will be limited to the coffee market. I will offer a conclusion with my own thoughts, but, while I certainly hope it proves itself worthy of consideration, that will not be nearly as important as the longer discussion preceding it, in which all aspects of direct trade and fair trade are more objectively explored. The goal here is to educate, illuminate, encourage thoughtfulness on the topic, and perhaps do a humble part towards making the world a better place. To that same end, thoughtful comments below are encouraged.<br />
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<b>WHY WE BOTHER</b><br />
Once upon a time, the status quo was that coffee was traded on the exchanges as a fungible commodity. This is still true in large part today, especially with lower grade coffee. Growers sold the cherries to processors, who brought about the green coffee beans and sold to exporters, who sold via commodities exchanges to importers, who sold to roasters, whence finally the coffee made it to retail: cafes, restaurants, packaging companies (e.g. for supermarket shelves), and so on. There were variations on that model among some organizations, but most crucial elements were the same.<br />
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The farmers, farthest removed from consumption, were the poorest and least able to benefit from the trade. In some instances it was a case of a large estate employing coffee pickers for a pittance, and in others it was small plots of land being farmed by a local individual or family that was likely to lack, if not business savvy, then at least a familiarity with the global supply chain and consumer preferences, which knowledge could be leveraged to produce better coffee and increase income.<br />
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The processors and exporters (and estate owners where relevant) generally took advantage of the farmers' ignorance of the larger market. They also had a tendency to lump all coffee together and both buy it sell it by weight. These practices had the effect of removing nearly all incentive for the farmers to look towards coffee as a way to improve their lives, for them to risk entrepreneurship at the production end of the industry, and for them to invest in improving the quality of their product or in differentiating it – all of which in turn contributed towards keeping them at the margins of the global coffee industry, and so on in a rather unpleasant, if not entirely vicious, cycle.<br />
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"The main instigator of Fair Trade was the lack of incentives growers were getting to improve the quality and sustainability of their product as well as the transparency and ethical handling of fair prices for the products grown," says Evan Closson of Roast Coffee & Tea Trading Co., a Long Island sourcer and micro-roaster.<br />
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By the time that fair trade as we know it today came around in the 1980s, there had already existed for many years charitable and other organizations that sought to pay poor farmers a premium for coffee. But what was different, and what really allowed for fair trade and later direct trade to take off, was the growing demand for single-origin and craft-roasted coffee – the growing understanding among professionals and consumers that <i>Coffea arabica</i> is no more fungible than <i>Vitis vinifera</i>, that stories of people and place make coffee better, and that while the particular <i>terroir</i> of a coffee may make or break it, the odds of "making" it are greatly augmented with investments into improved agriculture. In this way, the specialty coffee market, with its emphasis on origin, is in large part responsible for the new models of trade that have made the world a better place for coffee growers.<br />
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<b>THE COIN'S TWO FACES</b><br />
"Both Fair Trade and direct trade were originally created to help famers deal more directly with buyers and retain more value in the supply chain," says Jenna Larson of Fair Trade USA (previously TransFair USA), a fair trade certifying organization. That is about as succinct a way to introduce the big picture as possible.<br />
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We will soon see that the dichotomy between direct trade and fair trade is in large part a fiction. But it does form the basis of many important decisions that are made in real life, so it makes the most sense to first treat each separately. Before parsing details and exceptions, I would like to present an idealized, simple, textbook analysis of each.<br />
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<u>Fair Trade</u><br />
"Fair Trade is a simple way to make every purchase matter," according to Fair Trade USA's <a href="http://fairtradeusa.org/sites/default/files/General%20Media%20Kit_%202013.pdf">media kit</a>. "When you buy a product with the Fair Trade Certified™ label, you know that the farmers and workers who produced it were paid better prices and wages, work in safe conditions, protect the environment, and earn community development funds to empower and improve their communities."<br />
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"Fair Trade specifically means coffee or products that are Fair Trade Certified. In other words the entire supply chain has been verified as Fair Trade from crop to cup," explains Mr. Closson. "We are a Fair Trade USA Certified roaster. This requires reporting our Fair Trade coffee supply chains to the Fair Trade USA organization a few times throughout the year."<br />
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Rodney North of Equal Exchange, a fair trade worker cooperative, rounds out the picture from the institutional angle: "Fair trade is a voluntary set of business practices designed to shift more of the rewards and the security of trade to historically disadvantaged producers." It also serves to "shift more of the risk up the chain to the historically advantaged coffee importers, roasters, distributors, and so on."<br />
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At its core, fair trade is a certification system ensuring the livelihood of the farmers and their communities. As long as both farmers and consumers are content with the certification criteria, all stakeholders stand to benefit. Farmers can be assured that their coffee will fetch at the very least a floor price and usually more; distributors and roasters can use the fair trade label as a sort of marketing tool; and consumers can rest easy knowing that they are contributing not to penury but to prosperity in the third world.<br />
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Dan Streetman of Irving Farm, a coffee sourcer and craft roaster in New York, explains that with fair trade the farmer is paid a "minimum price and 'premium' (allocated monetary value) for the product in exchange for the auditing process conducted by the Fair Trade labeling organization, the license to use the 'Fair Trade Certified' trademark, and a 'social premium' which is allocated for specific purposes at the producer level." FairTrade USA's media kit identifies just a few areas in which these premiums are typically invested: "Healthcare, scholarships, women's leadership initiatives, micro-finance programs, quality control and organic conversion."<br />
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Ms. Larson identifies four "important elements" of fair trade: "standards" ("social, environmental and economic… audited by independent third-party auditors"), "premiums" (which "go into a separate fund, managed and used by the farmers and/or workers themselves"), "price protection" (a "safety net" protecting against market price fluctuations), and "democracy". Similarly, Florentine Meinshausen of Fair for Life, a European fair trade certifying organization, notes "the basic pillars of Fair Trade: fair production methods, long term cooperation between producers and handlers, commitment to support and work with suppliers as well as fair pricing." Ms. Meinshausen adds that Fair for Life fair trade "assur[es] physical traceability from producers to the final product."<br />
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Another key element of fair trade, especially in the early days but even still today, is its emphasis on moving away from the plantation model in which the owner can take advantage of employee laborers, in favor of the small farmer model. Mr. Streetman explains, "The historical model of Fair Trade… was a move to push the market towards groups of small-holder farms… versus the large mostly vertically integrated estate style producers." Ms. Larson's focus on "democracy" (described as "organization and participation among the farmers/workers") is also a part of this facet of fair trade. Movement away from plantations is one of the principle reasons that most fair trade certifiers give preference to co-ops, so that small landholder farmers – analogous to the small businessperson of the USA, but generally without the advantages of available capital or reliable rule of law – may have an inclusive, local, and democratic institution. To his earlier mention of "historically disadvantaged producers," Mr. North appended: "…specifically small farmer cooperatives." (More on co-ops later.)<br />
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Not everyone's explanation of fair trade uses the same specific language, but the gist of each is the same. Farmers are protected economically, given access not only to markets but in fact to a transparent supply chain, and offered incentive to improve their communities socially and, often, ecologically.<br />
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<u>Direct Trade</u><br />
Many of these aims are shared by direct trade. But the model itself differs somewhat. "Direct Trade emerged due to the perception of many coffee roasters that Fair Trade was not fulfilling its mission sufficiently," says Mr. Closson. "The result was direct relationships between roasters and growers that focused on quality, sustainability and mutually beneficial business partnerships."<br />
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Marc Chiusano of The Gentle Brew, a Long Island, NY, craft coffee roaster embarking upon direct trade relationships, puts it nicely and simply: "In direct trade, the buyer or roaster goes to the farm and buys directly from there. No middlemen."<br />
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"These programs generally involve price transparency at each step in the chain, and can involve multi-year outright contracts," adds Mr. Streetman. "This means that the producer of the coffee and the roaster agree on the price of the coffee at the farm gate." While the roaster is usually responsible for such items as "transport, logistics, taxes, storage" and the like, it may hire a third party to handle such things. This is to be distinguished from the inclusion of an importer in the chain: A traditional importer actually possesses ownership of the coffee for some time and adds his own markup, while a third party in direct trade is hired by the roaster, operates under its direction, and is simply paid a fee for a service (storage, shipping, etc.).<br />
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The implication is clear: the farmer gains access to the broader market not through layers of certifications but rather through dealing directly with the other end of the chain and negotiating his own price, in person. "Most (if not all) 'direct trade' roasters believe in paying a 'fair' price for the coffee," explains Mr. Streetman, "and the underpinning principle of mutual price agreement certainly gives the producer a voice in that conversation." Ms. Larson would seem to agree: "Direct trade… focuses primarily on paying top dollar for the highest quality coffee." Mr. North sums up, "[Direct trade] is, ideally, the coffee roasters directly buying their green beans from small scale producers in ways that are economically advantageous to the producers, above and beyond what they would get in a regular commodity market."<br />
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Further, deeper benefits abound as well. The roaster can specify a variety of requirements (bean quality, certifications such as organic, etc.), and can gain access through the relationship to microlots early on. The farmer can charge higher prices for all of these premium benefits, and both organizations can make money due to the absence of middlemen. The consumer, furthermore, has the best chance (in fairness, by no means the only chance) of finding the highest quality coffees from direct traders, who can be particular about what beans and lots to purchase. The consumer also has access to the most intimate information about each bean, lot, farm, and community from the direct trade model, whereas such access varies with other models.<br />
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"For Direct Trade the benefits are the relationships that are cultivated with growers," Mr. Closson opines. "Our mission is to educate our customers about the world of coffee and the best way to do that is to know every last detail about a particular coffee. Having a direct trade relationship with a grower allows for this."<br />
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A further important item of direct trade is sustainability. It is all well and good for a farmer to do premium business, but as any businessperson will confirm, it is much more preferable in high-risk environments to have a steady source of price floor security (e.g. of the fair trade style) over many years than to net a whale one year and be left adrift the rest of the time. Indeed, a review of the principles of fair trade above reveals that sustainability is of implicit importance to all of them. But direct trade provides for that, too, in that long-term business relationships benefit both parties.<br />
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Direct trade roasters visit farms at least once a year. More than simply shopping around for beans, signing an order, and leaving, the roasters learn detailed information about each lot, offer insight as to how the crop may be improved, and often invest financially in enhancing the agriculture for the sake of growing better coffee. They also ensure return on the investment by signing multi-year contracts with the growers for specific lots of coffee, at the aforementioned mutually-agreeable prices. It is a joining of forces between roaster and farmer, and everybody wins.<br />
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<b>A DIRECT TRADE CASE STUDY</b><br />
Mr. Chiusano and some Gentle Brew co-workers recently visited the Cerro San Luís farm in Costa Rica, and their experience there exemplifies the potential contained in direct trade.<br />
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"When we landed in Costa Rica we were taken straight to the farm," recounts Mr. Chiusano. "On the farm we spent a lot of time just learning how they do everything: picking coffee, identifying different beans, processing, washing and drying, and so on.<br />
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"The main things we were looking for," Mr. Chiusano continues, "were operations and processes, how they care for the product." To that end, the Gentle Brew team observed the sorting, did cupping, and so on. But there were other considerations, too, lending themselves to the sort of sustainable relationship that is ultimately what really lets roasters and farmers connect with one another. "Can the farm grow? What are its future plans? We are looking to create a long-term bond. You don't do direct trade just for a one-off deal."<br />
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Cerro San Luís is a family business, run by its third consecutive generation of farmers. "The current generation has only been at the helm for three or four years now," says Mr. Chiusano, "and they are really positioned to explode, much like the Gentle Brew is on our own end. The current generation, they've been really pushing hard to increase standards. Also too, they have been experimenting with all different varietals of coffee, so you have in addition to the usual sorts of coffees found in Costa Rica, other types that they are hoping will give their farm an edge. It’s a gamble," he continues, "but you know, it’s worth the shot." Especially if you have a partner organization working with you.<br />
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It is more difficult, outside of direct trade – in a model in which the farmer is much more anonymous and has minimal access to feedback from the other end of the chain – for such innovation to flourish. Direct trade hardly brings any promises of results, of course. But it most solidly offers the farmer a legitimate opportunity to shape his own destiny.<br />
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The anonymity of non-direct trade models is also an irritant to many roasters and consumers on the other end of the chain. Consumers, especially craft coffee connoisseurs, relish the opportunity to engage intimately the land and people whence their coffee originates. Roasters, then, enjoy bringing to their customers a first-hand account of such communities. They also prefer to observe for themselves the quality processes of the farms and perhaps even directly influence the nature of that quality. Direct trade is the best way for them to become intimate with how things are done.<br />
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Even gaining intimacy with the "why" of things makes a big difference. Let's look at a hypothetical. Cerro San Luís employs a honey process, which is semi-dry. The Gentle Brew learned on its trip that this is to conserve water. It just so happens also to result in coffee of optimal quality. But if, hypothetically, another processing method were preferable, then Gentle Brew could have worked with the farm to invest in and develop a program to either augment the farm's irrigation, or conserve water elsewhere on the farm, or otherwise adjust the farm's infrastructure to allow for optimal processing. Cerro San Luís would be given both incentive and means to augment quality, and Gentle Brew would be given access, probably exclusive, to such high quality product. Such cooperation generally includes a contract whereby the roaster agrees to purchase a whole lot's harvest at a specified price each year for a number of years, as long as the farmer engages in the agreed enhanced agricultural practices. The details of numbers and practices would be specified in print. Both sides would be bound to the contract – and both would stand to greatly benefit accordingly, with the long-term nature of the relationship and investment adding a great deal of security to both sides.<br />
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The odds of such arrangements taking place successfully in the face of multiple layers separating all the steps of the supply chain are, obviously, substantially diminished, regardless of any certifications adhered to them.<br />
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The relationships, furthermore, once established, have the opportunity to grow beyond a unidirectional supply route in a direct trade model. When I asked Mr. Chiusano why he thinks Cerro San Luís wants to engage in direct trade in the first place, he said that money may well be the principle concern, but that there is much more to it than that, consistent with the principles of growth and cooperation. "We didn't even know this until we got there," he explained, "but they also want to get into roasting themselves, and maybe even open a café." The Cerro San Luís team has a small home roaster on their premises, and everyone experimented together with some roasting of the beans. The Gentle Brew team worked with the beans from the farm itself, and offered pointers to their hosts on the craft. That had the obvious benefit of confirming the roast potential of the varietals on the farm, but it also offers a means for the relationship to grow closer and more reciprocal. The farmers have a standing invitation to visit the Gentle Brew on Long Island and do a roasting workshop for a few days.<br />
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Cerro San Luís, should it decide to open a roastery in its community, now has cheap and easy access to real expertise. So, if it vertically integrates that way, it is looking at an enhanced chance of success, which would open the doors to growth, prosperity, and security for the organization, as well as insight into what sorts of experiences and challenges exist for the roasters on the other end of the chain. That knowledge may be used to improve the choices they make in varietals to plant, farming practices, and processing methods, again furthering their ability to grow, prosper, and sustain their business.<br />
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At this point we may feel ready to reduce the question to a few basic points. Is it not just a complex way to pit certified good ethics against determination for high quality? The answer is no, but in any event we have much more to explore before we can fully understand the legs on which each model stands. There is no better place to continue from this point than the co-ops, about which alone entire volumes could be written.<br />
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<b>E PLURIBUS UNUM</b><br />
Mr. North describes how he and Equal Exchange believe the co-op to be nothing less than the "lynchpin for enabling these small-scale producers to get ahead," whereby the prosperity of a coffee farming community cannot be tied to the success of individual farmers but must be predicated upon the shared success of all. He offers as an analogy: "You have some run-down, or sort of downtrodden neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. And, like in a reality TV show, somebody comes in and takes somebody's little house and does a total make-over. And so someone could say, well, yeah, that homeowner's doing great. But it's done nothing for the neighborhood. And in fact, it can breed tensions, where it's like, well wait a minute, how come Joe, my neighbor, he got a big house and he's not really that much more deserving than I am?"<br />
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<u>Background</u><br />
The large coffee estates, or plantations, historically the typical coffee farm model, have always been sources of woe to the laborers who work them. These organizations exist in places where worker protections and the rule of law have rarely been worth the paper on which they are written – or rarely even written down in the first place, for that matter. Laborers are just as often cheated, swindled, abused, and otherwise taken advantage of as they are treated honestly. And "treated honestly" only means "paid what they expect," which is of course extremely little, rarely more than enough to keep a family from starving.<br />
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The tragedy here – outside of outright theft and abuse (the severe extent and frequency of which must not be underestimated) – is not the owner's greed; there is no sin in profit. It is rather the bastardization of the profession of coffee farming. Even today in many parts of the world, it is possible to belittle someone as being "just" a coffee farmer, but not to make a similar remark in admiration. If working the land and growing coffee is likely to result in wretched penury and social marginalization, and even in the best case scenario can only result in modest survival one year at a time without any hope of ownership or even recognition, then nobody is going to invest in learning how to do it well, let alone hone it into a craft.<br />
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The alternative has been individual coffee farmers owning a small plot of land and working it themselves or perhaps with the help of family or a few hired partners, building their equity through expertise and quality product. But how can a small landholder in a third world country selling a (most often) once-a-year crop be secure in his business? He must obtain credit, form relationships, negotiate contracts, weather market cycles, protect against natural and unnatural disasters, decide on investments, get certifications, be trained in best practices and stay current as they evolve, perhaps hire associates, and so on, all while competing against a large plantation down the road. All else being equal, this is rarely possible – but when a number of small farms band together to cooperatively pool their resources, they can share in increased scale, lowering costs of shared activities and augmenting their bargaining power.<br />
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<u>Nature</u><br />
Farm cooperatives, or co-ops, take many different forms, in that by their very nature they are democratic organizations in tune with local culture, norms, and conditions; and different parts of the world are home to wildly different cultures, norms, and conditions. What they have in common are the basic collective business activities, and the community orientation.<br />
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Co-ops "are primarily a method for selling coffee, and distributing earnings," explains Mr. Streetman. "Most of the time, the co-op is buying the cherry from the co-op members, and then overseeing the washing, and drying of the coffee. Usually this is important because each producer is too small to process their own coffee, or they do not have the capital to buy the equipment necessary."<br />
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Plantation owners, and others aligned with them, have not taken the threat posed by the co-ops sitting down. Many times co-op coffee is slandered as being of unreliable quality. Sometimes they are intimidated politically or physically, or both. Sometimes the old guard gets crafty.<br />
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"We see these examples time and again where the people who historically had been buying up all the coffee in a community, and buying it cheap, begin to see that they're losing market share to the co-ops, because now the small farmers are in business for themselves," tells Mr. North. "They will go into a community one year, and they'll just pay top dollar for everything – for the best coffee, for the worst coffee, and for everything in between. The idea is just to suck up all the coffee, there's nothing to sell to the co-op. The co-op is a business, it has fixed costs, salaries, mortgages… and what happens to the co-op? It has no coffee to process and export. It can't fulfill its contracts and goes bankrupt. It's gone. Next year, we're back to where we were twenty years before, and once again the small farmers are going to get squeezed."<br />
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But the co-ops have persevered. They are popular with many coffee farming communities, and also with many coffee consuming communities. Many co-op farmers have also wised up and voted for protectionist measures, such as requiring member farms to sell at least a certain percent of their crop through the co-op each year.<br />
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Ultimately, the co-op model has really done a lot to save the independent farmer from oblivion. Accordingly, fair trade organizations have typically focused principally, even exclusively, on working with co-ops, as mentioned earlier. A co-op that wants the fair trade prices and premiums must be audited and approved by a certifying body to make sure that the money is properly distributed to the farmers, community funds, and the like. Mr. Streetman mentions that "since they are democratic, the members in the co-op vote… for example on how to spend the 'social premiums' from Fair Trade, and it could be spent on anything from a school, or doctor's office, to a road… soccer fields, libraries are popular as well."<br />
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<u>Issues</u><br />
But even co-ops have their limits, and their pitfalls. Many are legitimate concerns, although some are urban legends, probably vestiges of slander. The most common complaint heard among roasters and consumers, which is important to address because it arises seemingly everywhere, is that co-ops mix all of their farmers' coffee together and sell it practically as a fungible commodity. Fair traders and other co-op defenders insist that this is completely false. The truth on this count does not so much lie in the middle as depend on the co-op. "There’s hundreds and hundreds of cooperatives around the world, and they don't all abide by the same practices," explains Mr. North, "but more and more they are segregating their coffee just like plantations do." Many co-ops divide the coffee by varietal, by growth elevation, by certification, by producer, sometimes even by micro-lot, and weigh some or all profit disbursement accordingly. Indeed, there are also many co-ops that quite disregard the individuality of member farms, and prefer to simply mix all the coffee together. It depends on the co-op's rules, just as a farm's quality depends on the individual farmer's practices.<br />
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Other issues abound as well, some real and some imagined, but I will not dwell on them here. It is extremely easy to get distracted from a comparison of direct trade and fair trade with a discussion of the co-ops, but it does not behoove this article to digress any further. What is important to remember about co-op downsides are two key points.<br />
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The first is that a co-op's policy is generally the result of democratic voting among the member farmers. Whatever its practices may be, they reflect how the majority of members themselves see best, or at least safest, to arrange their organization. Roasters and consumers in the developed world may look at a co-op and think of a million ways that the farmers could do better business, and maybe even a few such ideas would make sense. But the farms and communities are their own, and so are the rules. It is no longer an ethical issue.<br />
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The second is a series of questions, none of which can be answered categorically; just a collective grain of salt that I offer up for the sake of level-headedness. What if Mr. North, et al., protest too much? What if the picture is not so cut and dry everywhere? What if, indeed, at least in some cases, we infantilize and romanticize the farmers, indulging our "save the world" instincts at the expense of realism? No doubt, for the majority of small farmers in the third-world, the co-op has been nothing less than a life-saving institution over the past few decades. But is it such an absolute rule of thumb that the story we have heard is necessarily always how it goes and always how it will go? Could it be that, whatever the origin of the co-op's popularity in farming communities, we can ascribe a large part of its remaining popularity to the simple fact that that is where fair traders typically channel their premiums? Could it be that the co-op is not the only choice for coffee farmers to build a decent life for themselves and their communities? Could it be that at least in some communities, and at least in some cultures, the co-op is at best a historical stop along the way to independent wealth (of the honest kind) for coffee farmers and their communities? With the continuing evolution and innovation of trade models, do co-ops not face very legitimate competition for the hearts and minds of small farmers? And what if the analogy about the South Side slums fails to do justice not only to the value of a coffee’s quality but also to all that is put into creating it, and to those who would like not just to <u>get</u> more but in fact to honestly <u>earn</u> more?<br />
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<u>How Co-ops Fit with Direct Trade & Fair Trade</u><br />
For the longest time, fair trade certifiers would only certify coffee sold through co-ops. And the logic was as reasonable as it was obvious: co-ops were the only reliable, consistent way for the goals of fair trade to be realized. Build a better life for the farmers; move away from the plantation model; allow people, families, and communities to flourish; remove economic barriers to environmental protection; and make these improvements sustainable. Looking at the macro picture of a few decades ago, it was clear enough that a premium here and there for a lucky handful of planters was not going to get the job done. The fair traders found a solid ally in the co-op model, and stuck by it.<br />
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But controversy quietly ensued over whether there is a non-sequitur in there somewhere. The co-ops were (are) means to a larger end. By exclusively institutionalizing one particular mean, some argued, the fair trade system would ultimately constrain those whose best chance to reach the common goals lie elsewhere. In other words, few people were outright hostile to the co-ops, but many remained unconvinced that they alone held the key to salvation.<br />
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Still, co-op defenders continued to implore that we beware the results that may come from loosening co-op ties; that what seems like an innocuous, even promising open-mindedness may in the end spell the undoing of the co-ops and all of the progress that they have heralded.<br />
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In 2011, Fair Trade USA, the predominant American fair trade certifier, parted ways with its erstwhile associate, Fairtrade International, the major global fair trade certifier headquartered in Germany. The reasons for this were various and manifold, but of particular interest here is that, post-schism, Fair Trade USA began to certify not only co-op products, but estate products and non-co-op small farmer products as well – all along the same standards and guidelines.<br />
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This is not to say that the co-ops have been eschewed or marginalized; quite the contrary. Co-op connections have been maintained, and are in fact encouraged through a number of programs. However, plantation owners now have material incentive to improve their treatment of workers, and small farmers who do not wish to abide by the majority rule of their local co-ops are not forced out to a cold isolation. Anybody may partake of the promise afforded by fair trade principles, and co-ops must compete harder for both members and customers. And, it is only fair to note, Fair Trade USA's business has expanded quite concurrently with its scope.<br />
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It remains to be seen how this will affect the various stakeholders and institutions in the long run.<br />
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As for direct trade, it is unclear how it ties into the co-ops, for the simple reason that there is disagreement over whether a roaster going "directly" to the co-op even counts as direct trade. Direct trade purists believe that only going to the actual farm can count. They point out that cutting out all middlemen, literally landing straight at the source and working only with exactly those people who grow the coffee, is the supreme way to ensure quality, oversee investments and innovations, form close and long-lasting relationships, and properly allocate rewards. Co-ops may be good when there are a few layers of the value chain separating everyone, but, according to the purists, they are no more than obstructions in the direct trade model. There is nothing they can offer that the roaster and farmer together cannot offer better, and in any event, a middling layer is added. To involve the co-ops, the purists declare, can be called anything we want, but it cannot be called direct trade.<br />
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Others disagree. There may be situations in which contracting directly with a farmer makes sense, they counter, but there are also situations in which the farmer has a vested interest in thriving communally via his local co-op. These non-purists identify situations in which the roaster heads to a farm, bonds with the farmer both personally and professionally, reviews his practices, identifies a winning lot… and then performs the actual purchase through the co-op, which guarantees precisely the lot desired. Any investments into the farm's own infrastructure may be made either around the co-op or through it; in the latter situation, the co-op guarantees the intended improvement to the farm's production. What, the non-purists ask, is so wrong with all of that? Just which of the benefits that the farmer, roaster, and consumer expect from direct trade, they would like to know, are compromised?<br />
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As it happens, some direct trade roasters deal only with farms, others only with co-ops, and still others with both. It generally depends on the roaster's convictions, options, and goals for the venture.<br />
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<b>WHAT'S IN A NAME? USERS, ABUSERS, & REFUSERS</b><br />
We have begun to see that neither direct trade nor fair trade is a monolith; indeed, each takes a variety of forms not only on paper but also in practice. Some of these manifestations perform the vital function of allowing us to observe different ideas in action and learn from all that ensues; others, unfortunately, allow us to observe nothing but bunk.<br />
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<u>Fair Trade</u><br />
What does it mean to buy fair trade coffee? Well, ostensibly, the consumer approaches a café counter or grocery shelf; sees a fair trade label on a coffee; understands that all sorts of institutional processes, audited by good authority, have been in place along the production chain to protect the most vulnerable, pay the most to the neediest, and safeguard the environment; and based on that understanding, chooses the fair trade coffee. (Presuming, of course, that the consumer is not a schmuck.)<br />
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But wait! We have not yet begun to understand. You see, with direct trade, my more astute readers will have surely noticed, there is no certification or other third party assurance of legitimacy. More on that later; for now, suffice it to note that consumers, when confronted with direct trade coffee, are naturally curious, perhaps even suspicious. Knowing that they are being given an unverifiable story, they begin to scrutinize facts. But quite the contrary with fair trade. With the vague knowledge that fair trade is supposed to imply some sort of audit process, consumers, in the face of the fair trade logo, actually let their guard down, and become vulnerable to deception. There are, in fact, many questions to be asked upon encountering a fair trade logo.<br />
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First question: Who certified the coffee as fair trade? What are their standards and guidelines? Did the same organization travel and do the auditing, or was that outsourced, and to whom? In other words, what, exactly, is the certification certifying? Things to look for include the guidelines for what kinds of places their coffees may come from (not to mention what kind of place the coffee in front of you actually came from), how the workers may and may not be treated, how the audit process works, and under what framework the organization oversees everything.<br />
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Second question: Money. What are the prices being paid for the coffee? Some fair trade organizations institute one floor price and one premium for an entire geographic region or even for the whole world; depending on the amount, it may suffice just fine, or it may only make sense for a couple of places. And, of course, when it comes to money, it is not only the certifier to be scrutinized, but every buyer along the chain.<br />
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What counts is to not assume that "fair trade price" necessarily equals "enough". It does most often, to be sure, but a little investigation is worthwhile. That is more true nowadays that it used to be, because in recent years major retailers (e.g. Starbucks, Walmart) have begun marketing fair trade products. That says a lot of wonderful things about the average American consumer, but at the same time we must be wary of the effects. Some such retailers use their bargaining power against both their suppliers and some certifying organizations to reduce the price that they pay. That is not to claim that large retailers always pay less than a price that will work for the fair trade system; that would be a categorically false and unfair statement, and in any event, if a contract is signed, it usually means that everyone is willing to accept the terms. But still, the consumer's guard should be up.<br />
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Just as importantly, of course, we must ask: How is the money distributed down the chain to the co-ops, to the farms and farmers, to their employees, to their communities, to the environment, and so on? It is the age-old question: <i>Cui bono</i>? The details count more here than anywhere else.<br />
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And when it comes to money, there is more still. "A big part of it is not just how much you pay but when you pay," Mr. North tells us. "And that's one of the things that drives us up the wall is this fixation just on 'what price did you pay?'" He explains: "As you can imagine, with coffee producers… generally you get one harvest a year… which means one paycheck a year. And that makes it really hard to do the budgeting, especially if you are the cooperative and all your farmers are more or less bringing their coffee in at the same time. Where do you get all the cash to pay them?"<br />
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Indeed, the farms' and co-ops' accounts payable encompass substantially more expenses and debts than only people's paychecks. The bills pile up. That is why some organizations (including Mr. North's Equal Exchange) offer credit, or other forms of monetary commitment, in advance of harvest time. Here I asked how local roasters and other small businesses, who are fair traders but hardly sitting on piles of disposable cash themselves, can be held to such a standard. Mr. North sympathized, and then told of a few small roasters who themselves formed a buying cooperative. With their resources so pooled, those small roasters were able to fulfill this facet of the fair trade promise.<br />
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Such extraordinary criteria may not reasonably make or break a purchase decision about a cup of coffee; or perhaps they may. But in any event, they are certainly worth asking about.<br />
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Question three: When was the coffee certified? That is not to ask on what date, but rather, at what point in the value chain it was certified. People take for granted that the certification process is a step ahead of things, and usually it is, but not always. Mr. North sheds light on a particular maneuver that would probably surprise most fair trade consumers: "There is a practice in fair trade where Company X needs beans, they go to the broker, and the broker goes, 'Well, I've got this coffee from Co-op Q. I didn't buy it on fair trade terms, but we can retroactively get it certified.' So big Company X has not made these commitments in advance, but they need a few more containers that have to have the right certification. So then the importer says, 'Well, I will do the paperwork, and I will pass more money down the chain back to Co-op Q.' Bingo! Now, regular coffee has become fair trade coffee. So it's true that now the co-op got more money than it would have. But it's not just about the money. It's about these long-term relationships where the co-ops can make plans."<br />
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Most people, including many fair trade advocates, may wonder why they should get worked up about a co-op getting what seems a whole lot like a bonus. They expected to sell standard coffee, they got their money for it, and the next day they find out that extra money is coming their way because a retailer or roaster in the US wants to put a fair trade sticker on it when they sell it. And indeed, this may be among the least problematic quirks of the fair trade system.<br />
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It is certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, no doubt. But it must be repeated: They money is not the point. Money is a means to an end, and that end necessarily includes a sustainability and prosperity in business and community. If it had known ahead of time about those extra containers of coffee being fair trade, the co-op may well have made radically different decisions about how many people to hire, how much to pay them, how much to tell the farmers and their families to expect in compensation, and so on. That, in turn, would have affected not only household spending decisions across an entire community, but also large-scale investment decisions about farm equipment and irrigation, community institutions, environmental work, etc.<br />
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It is not, in other words, like leaving a diner and then returning to tip your waitress a little more after you get back to your car and reconsider her service. Entire communities, usually with comparatively small and fragile economies hinging on a once-a-year crop, rely very heavily on financial foresight and planning. Fair trade's mission is to support and aid them in that, not pop in with a surprise handout.<br />
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"If people later, sort of 'just-in-time' – and this is a bad application of 'just-in-time' management – if they 'just-in-time' get their coffee fair trade certified," sums up Mr. North, "it's not doing anything for the stability or the predictability that the co-op needs."<br />
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If the above discussion looked a lot like direct trade talk, then do not be alarmed; it was not a mistake. What you just read was indeed a description of fair trade that emphasizes the importance of cooperation, connections, sensitivity to the needs of other players in the value chain, and holistic relationships among all such organizations. There are many businesses and consumers who see fair trade as an expensive marketing device; as a price tag and a logo sticker. But we are beginning to see that the spirit, the true essence, of fair trade goes profoundly deeper than that.<br />
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Also critical to take away from it all is that, while fair trade may reflect some of the best intentions that human nature has to offer, the logo's presence in a retail situation is, in and of itself, nothing more than a "supposed to". Logos do not create reality. People do. And people are… people. The certifying organizations do a great job of staying on top of things and keeping everything legitimate and transparent, but sometimes something slips through the cracks. It happens. So when buying fair trade, hope for the best, which so far remains a likely enough scenario – but be ready to ask questions anyway.<br />
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<u>Direct Trade</u><br />
If you think that fair trade has many different forms, wait until you consider direct trade. Talk about people being people! "Because there is no entity governing the use of the term 'Direct Trade' there is no guarantee of what is meant by that," explains Mr. Streetman. We already saw one way in which direct trade takes on different forms vis-à-vis the co-ops. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are nearly as many iterations of direct trade as there are practitioners of it. We can divide them (very roughly) into three categories.<br />
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First, there are the honest practitioners of direct trade. Details will always differ, but the principles will not: regular travel to farm; elimination of middlemen; close, reciprocal, and long-term relationships; bilateral planning and communication; mutually beneficial arrangements, including price, terms, investments, and more; and high quality coffee. Key concerns for all players include entrepreneurship, sustainability, quality, distinction, and cooperation.<br />
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Then there is opportunistic direct trade. There are different degrees of this, but the story usually follows the same format: A roaster heads down to a farm, looks at how pretty the fields are and how cool the equipment is, snaps a photo for his customers to see, maybe cuts a check for a few bags of coffee, and heads out before lunch, no more likely to return than to forget the name of the farm before he even gets to the airport. Obviously, this is not exactly evil, but it really misses the point in a way reminiscent of the retroactive fair trade certification. A fair trade purchase would have in fact been better in this scenario, so that the farmer could be better protected from the aloofness and caprice of the roaster, and income could be more stable and sustainable. Of course, then the roaster would not get to take a totally awesome trip to a coffee farm.<br />
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Finally, there are your hucksters – those who, though they sell "direct trade" labeled coffee, cannot honestly claim to have ever visited their local petting zoo, much less a third-world coffee farm. This is rare, thank goodness, but it does happen. I have verified the story about one coffee roaster (who shall remain nameless) who boasts on his/her website all about his/her direct trade travels and credentials – but, in the picture accompanying the narrative, the featured sack of coffee has the importer's name clearly printed on it. Whoops!<br />
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So, this must surely raise some concerns. You walk into your local coffee shop, see a picture on the wall of the owner shaking hands with a farmer somewhere exotic-ish, and note that the coffee is labeled "direct trade". How do you know if it is legitimate or not?<br />
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You don't.<br />
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Except that you do, or at least you can. The obligations imposed on the consumer in either of these trade models are rather minimal, but they play an important role. Because really, in either case, but especially in direct trade, the consumer is asked one simple question: Do you trust the people who provide you your coffee?<br />
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Do you trust them? Do you know them well enough to know that, whatever trade model they employ, they are honest, competent people seeking in earnest to make a positive difference in the world? If so, then go forth and patronize; if not, then what are you doing there?<br />
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Formal research into the roaster or retailer may shed some light onto its reputation, but there is a much better way to learn whether to trust them: get to know them. There's a crazy idea! But it is the best one. Let's review some of the principles that we have come to know and love: connection, relationships, communication, two-way streets. The consumer who would exempt himself from these principles has no business evaluating the adherence of others on the value chain.<br />
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And make no mistake: the consumer is not only a principle player on the chain, but is ultimately responsible for its existence.<br />
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Really, it is not such a burden as it may sound. Getting to know the people in your local coffee shop is no different than becoming chummy with the proprietor of your local watering hole, being familiar with the gentleman running the hardware store you frequent, getting buddy-buddy with the guys at the gym, or what have you.<br />
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For example, on Long Island, the community of craft roasters is burgeoning, passionate, and highly talented; but still small. There is exactly one in my town of Long Beach, and the town is lucky to have one. It is not just that I am on a first-name basis with the folks who run the Gentle Brew, kibitzing with them regularly. It is everything I have picked up on in general: the extent (and type) of locals on a first-name basis with them; the way they treat strangers; the no-charges when out of a customer's first choice; the popping out of the back with a new muffin recipe fresh from the oven for customers to try; the participation in local events around Long Island; and a million more tiny facets of the nature of their relationships, both informal and professional. Co-founder Bryan Baquet was a philosophy major in college; his father told me, while tending the shop for Bryan during the Costa Rica trip, that his passion for such studies is what led to the name of their first proprietary blend, "Proletariat". After Super Storm Sandy in 2012, while Long Beach lay completely demolished, unmetaphorically awash in debris, despair, and utter ruin, most of those stores left standing were empty for weeks while the workers looked after their personal business and the owners argued with insurance companies. But the Gentle Brew, having been a part of the community for only three months at that point, gathered a generator and a propane tank, and opened its doors after only a few days – just to convert the entire place into a food and clothing drive, and to offer cups of hot coffee for a dollar.<br />
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So when the Gentle Brew excitedly announces that it is dedicated to a positive, sustainable relationship with the farm they visited in Costa Rica, I have no problem believing them. It is not about doing a personal audit of their financials and investigating their travel itinerary; I could do that, but it would be beside the point. I <u>know</u> them, just as they are embarking on a path to <u>know</u> their partner on the farm. Direct trade is about that kind of knowing: engagement, familiarity, unity, community, even a type of intimacy and affection.<br />
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There is one last iteration of direct trade that needs to be mentioned here, and that is the direct trade importer. You read that correctly. Direct trade, done by an importer. A middleman-less model operated by a middleman. How can this be? Surely it must be bunk.<br />
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Depends whom you ask. Some say yes, based on exactly that description; others see a lot of good to be had.<br />
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It works exactly the same way as standard direct trade described above, except that the person visiting the farm or co-op, forming relationships, signing contracts, and all that jazz is not going to actually roast the coffee; instead, he will sell it to roasters. Mr. Streetman gives a great synopsis: "It is fairly popular especially among quality focused very small roasters. When you are a single operator it is very hard to leave your [roasting operations] and go to origin for 2 weeks, so the ability to have someone travel on your behalf is a big service. It also helps them recruit clients as they invite them on the trips and connect them with their contacts. It represents a small segment of the industry but it does seem to be growing."<br />
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So the importer goes to origin; fulfills (ideally) the direct trade promise on that end; brings the coffee, and story behind it, back to the roasters; the roasters then have assurance that the farmer and his coffee is worthy; and the roaster may even give feedback that the importer can bring back to the farm to improve the coffee.<br />
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This is not to exclude the roasters or their customers from themselves fulfilling the promise of connection and community. Mr. Streetman describes one intriguing function of these direct trade importers: "facilitating relationships with the producers." He explains: "[The importers] bring [the roasters] into the relationship by being the conduit for communication, and many times by initially connecting, or bringing the roaster along after they have been buying the coffee for a couple of years."<br />
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The middleman will take his share. And the roasters have every opportunity to buy the beans without caring a whit about where they came from. Those are undeniable downsides. But there are upsides, too. One is that, if the importer does his job right, a single relationship between him and the farmer can turn into multiple relationships between the farmer and a whole slew of roasters. Another is the elimination of risk.<br />
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One of the biggest problems that roasters have with direct trade is the risk of traveling to the farm just to find that the farmer is not a good partner to have, either because of crop quality, trustworthiness, or anything in between. A lot of time and money is spent on researching the farms, but there is only so much reliable information floating around. One roaster I heard from complained that they went all the way across the Equator just to find their hosts to be swindlers. Tours of the farm were restricted, cupping opportunities were limited to "pre-selected" beans, and the trip ended with a surprise bill charging them for the room they slept in and the food they ate.<br />
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Such things happen, and for a small business especially it represents a very substantial risk. Frankly, a farmer hosting a roaster faces a sort of mirror-image risk.<br />
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And let's not forget the invisible but tremendous risk faced by both roaster and farmer in direct trade: What if the contract is signed, things go great, and then one of them wakes up one day to discover that the other has gone out of business? There's a bad position to be in! The roaster may be suddenly left without any inventory or way to recoup his investment; the farmer may be left with custom-grown beans and nobody to sell to. (A farmer doing direct trade through a co-op is moderately protected from this risk, but still, it may cause a couple of sleepless nights.) Having an importer in the middle makes things that much safer in this regard.<br />
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I ask Mr. Streetman if he considers direct trade importers to be a legitimate offshoot of the direct trade model. "Yeah," he says. "I think the service is great for the industry. They bring more great coffees to market, and mitigate some risk for roasters and producers."<br />
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Law professor Seth E. Lipner, a wise man indeed, once said, "You can't have contracts that have no risk. You can only have contracts that allocate risk." The same goes for business models in general. Sometimes – often, in fact – risk is most safely allocated if orthodoxy is compromised. Direct trade importers certainly offer an arrangement with risk safely spread about. Is the compromise worthwhile?<br />
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There can be no doubt that a crucial element of intimacy is delayed at best, and often neglected. Even assuming that the importer is honestly dedicated to direct trade principles, the opportunistic and huckster retailers are still given an opportunity to do what they do. But does the offering of just another avenue for such people to be who they are anyway, really outweigh the opportunity that is offered to numerous small roasters and farmers who lack more viable options to embark upon direct trade?<br />
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These, much like most of my other questions in this treatise, are not for answering. Just think.<br />
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<u>By Any Other Name</u><br />
Among the questions I had for Mr. Streetman was one about the popularity of the two trade models among consumers. His answer shed light on something much more crucial. "Basically, these programs are popular wherever they have been successfully marketed," he began. "In the 'mass' market, [fair trade] certified coffee has a large popular appeal in almost all consuming countries, as a way to differentiate the commodity. In the specialty niche, roasters have moved away from wanting to promote the certificate marks, because there is not a way to differentiate between one certified coffee and another, so promoting certification becomes a commoditizing trap when you are selling a product that is differentiated by quality."<br />
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Take it from me: The importance of differentiation in any business can hardly be overstated; in today's artisan foods industry, it is arguably the most crucial element of the offering.<br />
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Mr. Streetman mentions that he and other roasters are frustrated by "people not wanting to buy coffees that [we] paid high prices for because they were not 'Fair Trade', or [we] were unable to certify because they were not from a co-op model." He clarifies: "We do not participate in marketing the Fair Trade label, even though we purchase Fair Trade coffees. This is mostly an administrative and marketing decision. We determined that is not worthwhile for us to market a mark which is used by other companies to promote our coffee. We decided this because, we generally found that promoting some of our coffees as Fair Trade, and not others led to confusion about the ethics behind the purchase decision for all of our coffee. For this reason, we found it better to focus on our holistic purchasing ethics, and promote brand loyalty through differentiation."<br />
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That may be one man protesting too much; or, it may indicate a critical weakness in narrowly defining how organizations ought to achieve larger goals. Whatever the case, the efforts of the ethical sourcer must necessarily be able to improve the popularity and marketability of his coffee.<br />
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Make no mistake about it: The roasters and retailers, and their commercial success, all count. Big time. Those who care about the farming communities and their prosperity should not for a moment doubt that the concurrent prosperity of those buyers who ethically support them is paramount. Just ask the farmers themselves.<br />
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But wait – there's more. Mr. Streetman adds further: "We are firmly committed to the idea that farmers should receive a minimum fair price for coffee, the underpinning philosophy of Fair Trade and that has always been a part of our commitment. We decided in 2011, that moving towards long term commitments with our producers would benefit us, because we would gain access to better coffee, and create a feedback loop between ourselves and the producer to work towards our common interest/goals." So, Irving Farm has decided against a strictly fair trade model because it ends up working against him and many other coffee roasters on the other end of their business. And yet we know that they ethically source from origin. So that would make them direct traders, right? Not necessarily, no.<br />
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"With the proliferation of the term 'Direct Trade' as a marketing tool, it can diminish the value of it as a point of differentiation," explains Mr. Streetman. He goes on, after adding a word about direct trade importers, to say, "For these reasons at IF, we don't explicitly talk about 'Direct Trade' even if it is implicitly understood/assumed that is what we do, instead we emphasize the relationships that we (as IF, not our agents) have with our producer partners, and focus on adding value to the coffee experience through the information provided to the customer about the coffee (this is difficult to do)."<br />
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So direct trade, as an institution, has reified itself, and fallen into a similar commoditization trap as fair trade. Therefore, the label is eschewed.<br />
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Direct trade, not having concrete and auditable guidelines, may be so broadly definable as to include Irving Farm by default. But on the other hand, the ethos of independence that direct trade bestows upon its practitioners surely ought to allow a roaster to exclude himself from that group as easily as it allows him to include himself in it.<br />
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In any event, here we encounter an insight of great moment: direct trade and fair trade are not the end of the story. They are but two fish in the sea, two stars in the sky. The universe of ethical sourcing has room for many more. "Over the time that IF has been roasting coffee (since 1999)," says Mr. Streetman, "there has been a large shift in transparency, and connectivity throughout the coffee supply chain. This has led to increase awareness about how to achieve certain goals. For us, our goals have always remained constant, buy the best coffee, and ensure that the environment and people are protected through-out that entire process. How we have tried to achieve those goals has changed as we learned new ways to achieve them."<br />
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<b>CHOICES</b><br />
Consider how we have come to understand fair trade as meaning more than a price tag and a logo, and how direct trade means more than a sojourn and a purchase order. "Both have their place as an attempt at bettering the economic, community and growing conditions at coffee origins," Mr. Closson reminds us. Indeed, the things that matter are the same, are they not? They are, in just about every profound respect, entirely identical.<br />
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"Sometimes, there's a lot of the same stuff going on," notes Mr. North. "Real direct relationships, working with co-ops, paying high prices, maintaining steady relationships, doing a lot of work on quality… That's where Equal Exchange and Counter Culture [a direct trader] have more in common with each other than we do with some of our ostensible counterparts in the fair trade and direct trade sectors." The best practitioners of each are certainly much less distinguishable than the opportunistic practitioners of each, are they not?<br />
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Sometimes such "best practitioners of each" are, in fact, one and the same organization, as we have seen with Irving Farm. It is also true of Roast Coffee & Tea. "As a coffee roaster that specializes in sourcing coffee from all over the world we work with both Fair Trade coffee and Direct Trade coffee," Mr. Closson explains. "Although no trade certification is perfect we believe the mission of Fair Trade is an admirable one and are happy to support it when using such coffees. … Our mission is to help guide coffee drinkers in their exploration of the world of coffee. This requires that we use many sources and trading approaches throughout the world in acquiring coffee. In all of our trading we stay true to clarity in our supply chain. … While there is no official Direct Trade certification and/or definition we do consider our direct farm relationships Direct Trade. The principles that guide us in Direct Trade are the ones that we adhere to for all of our business-to-business relationships. We consider them partnerships and in order for partnerships to work both parties must benefit in a sustainable way. The best partnerships benefit all parties in their personal, economic and community growth. ... Over the years as we build more direct relationships with farmers we increase the amount of Direct Trade coffees that we offer. We fully expect to continue offering Fair Trade coffees as well."<br />
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Mr. North gives us yet another example of how direct trade and fair trade are so marvelously congruous. Equal Exchange, a quintessential fair trader if ever there was one, offers a product line perhaps more thoroughly direct trade than anyone else. "I think it matters that Equal Exchange actually helped to pioneer not only Fair Trade coffee but also the core practices of direct trade – that is a coffee company trading directly with growers, not with importers or exporters," says Mr. North. "To this day we are one of the few to import all of our own coffee, and to do all of it directly."<br />
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Ms. Meinshausen points out that direct trade "re-enforces the original fair trade approach of a trader/coffee brand working long term and very closely with one or many producer groups and making all efforts possible to support the suppliers and continue buying meaningful quantities from them." Indeed, we have come to associate those principles, beautifully spelled out by Ms. Meinshausen, with both models. That is because the two models both equally embody them. The looks may differ; the details may differ; the true spirit does not. At all.<br />
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"The real 'dichotomy' that exists between Fair Trade and Direct Trade (if there is one), is that they compete in the market for finite consumer dollars to funnel into their respective supply chains," declares Mr. Streetman. "The ideal solution to this would be that the market should reward supply chains which are the most efficient at producing the product, and maximizing value to all stakeholders."<br />
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Here is the bottom line: The real issue has nothing to do with choosing between direct trade and fair trade. It is of course possible to "choose direct trade" or to "choose fair trade", but <u>those are just two options among infinite ones, subordinate to a larger choice</u>. The most basic, most important choice for a roaster or retailer to make in this context is whether to commit to connecting with farms and coffee growers, investing long-term in the sustainability of their enterprises and communities, and fulfilling the larger promise that has loomed over this entire discussion. Once that choice is made, the rest is just details.<br />
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To be sure, the details do matter, on the organizational level. It is frivolous to choose such an important path if no attention will be paid to how, exactly, it will be trodden. But to get caught up in the labels and dogmas of two relatively specific means is folly – not least because they are, after all, twins.<br />
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Every roaster, every retailer, every importer, every co-op, every farm, every plantation, every worker, has different resources, goals, opportunities, commitments, relationships, and capabilities. Each should evaluate for himself how best to use his circumstance in the coffee value chain to make the world sustainably better and more connected for all parties, including himself. It may or may not be direct trade; it may or may not be fair trade; and it may or may not include a trendy label.<br />
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Who cares?<br />
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<b>SPECIAL THANKS</b><br />
A special debt of gratitude is due to the people and organizations below for their very generous attention and their keen, candid insight, without which you would most certainly have been spared from reading this interminable treatise.<br />
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Mr. Marc Chiusano, Lead Barista, <a href="http://www.gentlebrewcoffee.com/">The Gentle Brew</a><br />
Mr. Evan Closson, Founder, <a href="http://www.roastcoffeeandtea.com/">Roast Coffee & Tea Trading Company</a><br />
Ms. Jenna Larson, PR Manager, <a href="http://fairtradeusa.org/">Fair Trade USA</a><br />
Ms. Florentine Meinshausen, Scheme Manager, <a href="http://www.fairforlife.org/">Fair for Life</a><br />
Mr. Rodney North, The Answer Man (Information for the Public & Media), <a href="http://www.equalexchange.coop/">Equal Exchange</a><br />
Mr. Dan Streetman, VP of Wholesale & Green Coffee Buyer, <a href="http://www.irvingfarm.com/">Irving Farm</a><br />
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-29201144176438210382014-01-26T01:49:00.002-05:002014-01-26T01:49:32.876-05:00Wine & Advertising: Turning a Principle on Its Head<div style="text-align: justify;">
I would like to open this article with a disclaimer: My conclusions will not apply to every wine maker in the world. No strategy or concept could apply universally to all companies in a given field. As will be obvious, Lafite Rothschild will have no use for this; and, equally obvious but for different reasons, a brand new winery that can only fulfill orders for a handful of cases per year may also wish to demur. But I am confident that to the vast majority of wine makers, as well as wine importers, distributors, and retailers, the conclusions that I reach are very apt and important to consider.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiveDkmbptZSRHDKLDL4ZX_RfF3DuweVroPgZO4N5z89AFs_GVsACS99iaFQKMpaZWAVEogfYkaaY5m7gm89xVrWWMClGygVLGmgA_cUpoD8YgO3bZPrOGbJ5bXoF6VgeJrm0WJ04YHpXtq/s1600/VitianoAd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiveDkmbptZSRHDKLDL4ZX_RfF3DuweVroPgZO4N5z89AFs_GVsACS99iaFQKMpaZWAVEogfYkaaY5m7gm89xVrWWMClGygVLGmgA_cUpoD8YgO3bZPrOGbJ5bXoF6VgeJrm0WJ04YHpXtq/s1600/VitianoAd.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Riding on the Long Island Railroad last summer, I saw a poster advertisement for <a href="http://www.falesco.it/00USA/prodotti_vitiano.html">Vitiano</a> wine. I soon noticed a few such posters around various stations and train cars. And being both the oenophile and the astute marketing student that I am, I came to thinking: "Why is this the only advertisement for a wine that I have seen in as long as I can remember?"</div>
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In many cases the answer borders on the anthropological. The Spanish wine business expert <a href="http://barrerayportillo.blogspot.com/">Juan Luis Barrera Portillo</a> was kind enough to grant me an interview a while back. When I asked him why so few Spanish wine labels engage in marketing or advertising, his answer was clear: Spanish wineries are generally hereditary proprietorships owned by major families, which have entire portfolios of business interests of which a winery is but one item, and which tend to assign management positions based on familial, social, or political considerations, resulting in leadership that may not either know much or care much about wine – or about business, for that matter. There are upstart exceptions, but they remain mere exceptions.</div>
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No doubt that is the predominant situation in Spain, and probably elsewhere, too. But there must be other reasons. There are too many wine labels, including young ones, in too many locations around the world for that to be the only explanation. Many wine labels are only a few decades old at most, and come from places with major traditions of marketing, such as the western USA. And what about importers, distributors, retail chains, trade associations, and other organizations that one would expect to boost marketing efforts? Some importers are small, local sales- and operations-based outfits, but others, such as Pernod Ricard, Diageo, and Kobrand ought to be churning out more brand images and concurrent communications than students like myself would know what to do with.</div>
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Am I being unfair? Am I noticing a lack of TV commercials and train billboards, and blowing it way out of proportion? Let's consider how I may be off base. I believe that wine companies would generally defend themselves with two key points.</div>
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Firstly, they would say that they do engage in plenty of promotions, such as point-of-sale material and/or wine store tastings, PR work with relevant magazines and other media, cooperation with restaurants, hosted events at the winery, participation in group tours (and of course availability for individual visits), perhaps some social media, and the occasional brand ambassador. Many wineries regularly feature restaurants at their facilities, or at least a kitchen capable of servicing the needs of concerts, workshops, and other such on-site events. Baiting Hollow vineyard on Long Island even has horse stables.</div>
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All of this is great stuff. Wine drinking is, by and large, a personal and intimate experience. Engaging the customers, well, personally and intimately is not only a good idea but an essential one. Reach out to them at the stores by having a real, live person offer a glass and a conversation. Pop up with some news as they browse the latest stories and information in their magazines and Twitter feeds. Meet them at a tavern for a sip with like-minded aficionados. Invite them into your home, show them around, offer them a glass of something that they can watch being made, and show them a good time. It all makes perfect sense.</div>
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But that cannot be the end of it. Intimate promotions, social media, and PR are all key tactics, but another layer of marketing and advertising must take place, too. For every person who buys wine because he/she loves knowing everything about it, there is a person is buying wine despite not knowing anything about it. For every person buying wine for him/herself, there is a person buying wine for someone else. And for every wine drinker who is social about wine, there are wine drinkers who do not actually care too much. It is the same as with other products: some people go to car shows, others say they like cars but would never bother; some people read tech reviews for fun, others claim to be interested but do not even know what model computer they have; and so on. Wines, I assert, have to brand themselves and engage in broad advertising if they want to succeed in capturing the attention and patronage of this second half of the market.</div>
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And to that assertion, as well as to my earlier ones, I believe wine companies would respond with a second point that is, ironically, a major marketing trend – in fact, marketing <i>principle</i> – championed by industry moguls and industry gurus alike, and which a peon such as myself must surely have some gall to address so directly. Basically the concept is to market not less but less broadly; to find a niche and cater to it in a personal and direct manner. For those familiar with the diffusion of innovation model, the principle points to the innovators at the beginning of the bell curve and identifies them as they key targets of marketing efforts; by capturing them, the brand establishes itself as analogous with the product category, generates the best buzz, and sets itself up for eventual popularity among the majority.</div>
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As the famous marketing expert <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBIVlM435Zg">Seth Godin has put it</a>, promoting "average products for average people" is something to avoid. The same old things for the same boring people – the market is saturated with such products, and nobody is inspired by a message that reflects such things. "Be remarkable," Godin sums up.</div>
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I do not know if Godin, and the other marketing experts who adhere to this principle, had the wine industry in mind when they came up with it, but it is surely a case study in avoiding average products for average people. In most product categories, at least mature ones, expensive premium brands are a small percentage of production, and most money is made by selling to the majority – not necessarily by selling "average products" with average features or average brand images, mind you, but by acquiring a majority of people to the feasible pool of consumers by rejecting the aura of expense and exclusivity. Wine is a rare category of product (diamonds are another) in which both appearing as expensive and hoity-toity, and backing it up with as premium of a product as possible, is seen as the natural way to sell to most people.</div>
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And yet, so many wineries and vineyards continue with so many of the same methods of demonstrating superiority, that an ironic paradox has arisen in which they all blend in with each other again. It is as if there were a crowd of people, and, hoping to escape the crowded conditions, the people decided to move away – but each and every one of them ended up moving to the exact same place. The tactic failed to serve the principle.</div>
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Consider just one aspect of an average wine's image: the label, which I bring up advisedly for a reason soon to follow. What can be less remarkable than a wine with a fancy label on the bottle; with a story about some old aristocrat, lucky wayward adventurer, or bored millionaire; with a picture of an estate worth more than my entire ZIP code; with tasting notes that illuminate little in return for reading so dense it feels like homework; and with excess script lettering and a fine line between legitimate information and faux verbiage? Sure, such a bottle looks extraordinary sitting in the average wine drinker's kitchen, but on the shelf at the liquor store it is quite conspicuously unremarkable.</div>
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Some wine labels try certain tricks, but seeing modern art on the label, or the words "Fat Bastard" next to a hippopotamus, may make me notice the bottle, but does little to illuminate its contents, and rather misses the point about why wines appear unremarkable. They appear unremarkable because, for the average person, <u>all that there is to know about them short of having drunk them already is to stare at the sea of bottles flooding the aisle in the store</u>. And that is the fault of the wine makers, importers, distributors, and retailers. It is also an opportunity for some to jump ahead of the rest by making the masses think of their wines before even entering the store.</div>
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Godin and his intellectual ilk were almost certainly not talking about advertising when they developed their ideas; in fact, Godin explicitly condemns old-fashioned, basic advertising. But if we distill their work into a principle and apply it to wine, then what we have is the need to push remarkable products to average people through mass media. In order for the principle to be served, it needs to be turned onto its head.</div>
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Now, a caveat here, to address what I think many readers may be shaking their heads about: For people who are into wine – sommeliers, connoisseurs, aficionados, and adventurers – the label means little, and advertising would not mean much more. They already know what to look for with a wine. If anything, mass advertising would appear crass. It would make the wine seem like it aims for the lowest common denominator, like it were some modern manufactured product instead of an authentic historical tradition. Those predisposed to extreme sentiments may even feel that no self-respecting wine maker would engage in advertising, and no self-respecting wine lover would appreciate it. Forget for a moment that advertising has not detracted from the grandeur of diamonds, whisky, and other fine products. Wine is different, is it not?</div>
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To say that advertising would ruin it, of course, would be to diminish the importance of what is ultimately inside the bottle. If the advertising would mean nothing to many people one way or another, that is fine – it is true for most product categories, in fact. I see advertisements for dish detergent all the time, and I do not care because I intend to stick with the brand I already use. That hardly means that dish detergents should not advertise. Similarly, people who are really into wine already know what to expect from different regions and varietals, maybe even from different years. Advertising is not for them. But what about everyone else? Remember, for every wine drinker who already knows what he/she likes, there is someone buying a bottle for a friend, or looking to experiment, or simply not sure what to get.</div>
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A wine brand (maker/importer/distributor) should want the customer to walk into the wine store already confident about wanting to buy that brand, about what will be found in the bottle, about what it will mean to him/her when drinking it or what it will say about him/her when gifting it, and about how he/she will feel afterwards. Needless to say, the quality of the wine itself is what is paramount, but aside from that, as with any other product, the brand image already planted in the consumer’s mind has its own huge role to play in the experience. Intimate promotions, PR, and social media all are important. But frankly, the best way for a wine maker to have its brand image and product stand out and be remarkable in a segment nearly devoid of advertising is to engage in advertising.</div>
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How would this work? Well, I, no average dope myself, saw that Vitiano poster ad, and… bought some. I probably would not have otherwise, having been at the time in the midst of surveying various French wines. But I saw the ad, and I thought, "A wine I haven’t heard of? It might be nice for a casual evening? Sure, I'm game." It may sound trite to talk about "raising awareness," "educating the consumer," and all that. But when the customer goes into the wine shop and looks for a certain wine already in mind, then it will definitely stand out from the rest just by virtue of that fact. The sale is mostly made.</div>
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Alright, you get it. Enough. About the Vitiano, by the way: Both red and white are Umbria IGT, and made by Falesco. The 2010 red was a little disappointing. It shows its youth still, and while the aroma is pleasantly sophisticated and in fact quite promising, the palate comes off a little harsh, abrasive, overly-acidic. Breathing helped, which means that there is potential. But the wine needs another 18 months in bottle to mellow out before it can be given a fair assessment; for now, it is not great.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjAqPYS4RuoyheYilf2ASi3Vh0oMCxEwTTDxk45KuPyfdyqnYyZBsAo_h8Q0YckSUgENA4qxHZyf_r6Fh_C-Sj-UQLoFTX6EbzO9OhRT0oiCjGZVbAvEaoM2BRtLUDLQXNOBFbMnYhyHTE/s1600/Vitiano2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjAqPYS4RuoyheYilf2ASi3Vh0oMCxEwTTDxk45KuPyfdyqnYyZBsAo_h8Q0YckSUgENA4qxHZyf_r6Fh_C-Sj-UQLoFTX6EbzO9OhRT0oiCjGZVbAvEaoM2BRtLUDLQXNOBFbMnYhyHTE/s1600/Vitiano2.jpg" height="400" width="108" /></a>But the 2012 white – that one I like. The aroma offers a crisp bouquet of florals and fruits. Specific notes include apple, lychee, snapdragon, and an umbrella of citrus under which the other notes frolic. I say frolic, because the personality that comes about is the best feature. It is vivacious, while still balanced, and enticing. It knows what it is doing, it knows what it wants, and it is going to have a good time going to get it. Kind of like a lovely cougar getting up to dance.</div>
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The palate is, in a keen twist, much more mellow than the aroma, but still quite delightful. There are notes of honey, apple, and florals, and the wine is a bit buttery. The citrus has all but disappeared, and the lychee remains around the edges. All in all, it is a cornucopia stretching from spring until autumn. The body is even and balanced. The wine is ever so slightly acidic.</div>
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Falesco is typical of wineries today: a decent spot of land, fair business, a variety of wines to offer. Many would say that the principle business of such a winery – or any winery, for that matter – is to continue to strive to improve their wines and produce the very best libation possible. That "R&D", let’s call it, and production, are certainly crucial focuses for a winery. But as with any business, it is also important to be proactive in bringing in customers. It is the right thing to do for the employees, for the vendors, for the viticulturists and viniculturists and their work, even for the industry as a whole – for all stakeholders. The work has to mean something, it has to have a chance at success, and it has to be underwritten. Advertising is the best way, in the context of the wine world today, to set a wine apart from the rest and get the customer’s attention. Look again at the poster from the train. There is nothing about it to detract from an image of authentic bucolic tradition; on the contrary, it is a lovely depiction of a pleasantly romantic scene, perfect for wine. Falesco and <a href="http://winebow.com/">Winebow</a>, the importer, did well to take the simple step of putting up some nice posters. Other wines should follow suit.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-25312654947690363232014-01-06T01:04:00.001-05:002014-01-06T01:06:34.107-05:00Organic Darjeeling Selimbong 2013 First Flush<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzYo97m8mDumlbIhCLkd4-exwI13V3P6D5uDmGcH7h36XWk6uc3U1_71Uxh0SaRF-Jjh44rbjMxY_UC8trmk4SAKgw20-xdVppPDRu7Ia2YibsatWvPWzkobDX5LygqAY-t5wD5hoPqJG/s1600/DarjeelingSelimbong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzYo97m8mDumlbIhCLkd4-exwI13V3P6D5uDmGcH7h36XWk6uc3U1_71Uxh0SaRF-Jjh44rbjMxY_UC8trmk4SAKgw20-xdVppPDRu7Ia2YibsatWvPWzkobDX5LygqAY-t5wD5hoPqJG/s1600/DarjeelingSelimbong.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Name</b>: Organic Darjeeling Selimbong</div>
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<b>Origin</b>: Selimbong Garden, Darjeeling, India</div>
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<b>Flush</b>: First Flush</div>
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<b>Harvest Year</b>: 2013</div>
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<b>Type</b>: Black Tea</div>
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<b>Purveyor</b>: McNulty's</div>
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<b>Preparation</b>: One teaspoon steeped in about eight ounces of boiling water for 3 minutes, sipped plain</div>
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Has this ever happened to you:
You learn, you practice, you learn and practice some more, you start to master,
you work very hard and devote a ton of energy, maybe you even teach a little
(or, perhaps, you really just pontificate to however many of your friends will
listen), you build a reputation, you exhaust countless nooks and crannies of
whatever the subject is, and then, when you think you are finally approaching
the pinnacle, you stumble almost mistakenly into a big pile of knowledge or
understanding that you never even thought to consider might be an existent
phenomenon. It happened to me recently. Not that I ever thought I knew
everything about tea, I promise. But the “insights” into which I tripped and
fell head first were so simple that it is absurd I should never have thought to
consider them. Some people emerge from the scenario above knowing that they
have discovered new, uncharted depths and forever altered their fields of
inquiry; in my case, on the other hand, the word “duh” is quite apt.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There were two new items of
information revealed as I read up on Darjeeling tea. The first is that Darjeeling
tea has a protected designation of origin, or “GI tag” (“geographical
indication tag”), as the <a href="http://www.teaboard.gov.in/">Tea Board of India</a> calls
it. Tea certified to have been legitimately grown in the Darjeeling region and
processed properly receives a seal (seen below) from the Board to certify
its authenticity, and no other tea may call itself “Darjeeling” or receive the
seal. Wine and spirits of course have such things, and I learned last year that
coffee does, too. I never even asked if tea might, and shame on me for that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-ioL1Jvx8VUkNH4Oco44S3mt-jDKB6jEev9dWNDSwTxEuCGUzROt4Vf6fVzacWd4BbNxu9aFnrnD2hxmW6nZ1-RcnY4zgFQiDU6Z99edoBhcd4jlihX0iarLxuFEeDn5qTWTUAYkQfFu/s1600/DarjeelingGITag.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-ioL1Jvx8VUkNH4Oco44S3mt-jDKB6jEev9dWNDSwTxEuCGUzROt4Vf6fVzacWd4BbNxu9aFnrnD2hxmW6nZ1-RcnY4zgFQiDU6Z99edoBhcd4jlihX0iarLxuFEeDn5qTWTUAYkQfFu/s1600/DarjeelingGITag.gif" height="199" title="" width="200" /></a>India has a few GI tags for tea,
actually, including Assam and Nilgiri (as well as a handful of tea-growing
regions without such commercial protection). But Darjeeling tea was the first
to get a GI tag, and for good reason: people who drink tea have long thought it
the best. As with most protected designations of origin, Darjeeling tea’s came
about because there was a major problem with fraudulent labeling; that is, a
significant amount of tea being sold around the world was labeled as Darjeeling
but, in fact, contained little to no legitimate Darjeeling-grown tea.
Naturally, this was because the “Champagne of teas,” as Darjeeling tea is known,
was simply the most preferred among paying customers. Consequently, it became
the first ever Indian product of any kind to receive a GI tag. To this day, Darjeeling remains the darling of the Tea Board
of India, as any perusal of its website will show, and it is one of the very
few single-region teas that mega tea brands (Bigelow, Twinings) market
to t<span style="background-color: white;">he masses. Darjeeling tea’s fame and popularity endure, and for good
reason.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The world’s producers of tea would do well, I think, to invest
more time and energy into getting their products protected designations of
origin, much as Darjeeling has. It is expensive and time-consuming, yes. But
consumers generally are more informed about their products than they have ever
been, and the legions of tea aficionados specifically are growing rapidly. The
drink’s importance, once upon a time, used to be the fact that tea – any tea –
was in the cup on such social occasions as tea time in Buckingham palace, a
knitting club meeting in the American Midwest, or anything in between. The
details of the tea were rarely a matter of comment, and if they were, it had to
do with outside flavoring, such as with Earl Grey. Such things are still of great import,
of course. But they are not the future. In the face of plateaued interest in
tea as a centerpiece of formal gathering, tea is experiencing increased
technical interest: Where is the tea from? What kind of tea is it? Is it
authentic? How was it processed? Is it organic and/or fair trade? How much
caffeine is in it? What are its health benefits? What is the history of this
variety? What else can I learn about it? These are the questions that people
are asking, and a designation of origin, though certainly no simple or direct
ticket to fame and fortune, is precisely the kind of thing that gets consumers’
attention and tells them what they want to know. And of course, it protects
legitimate tea producers from fraudsters intruding upon their market share. It would
only be a boon for consumers, </span>producers, and merchants alike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The other item I learned – and it
really is preposterous th</span>at I never even thought of this – is that teas from
different years’ harvests taste different. Not radically different by any
means, but naturally different, according to the differing weather patterns,
soil conditions, etc. that accompany the advance of time. This got me thinking:
Why are teas, and coffees for that matter, not labeled with a harvest year?<o:p></o:p></div>
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With wine, it has always been
standard procedure to list the year on the bottle, even for blends. But with
coffee and tea, that was never really how it worked. There are craft coffee and
tea movements aplenty, but consumers and professionals alike are so accustomed
to the mass-produced blends, designed to reduce taste variation over time to
practically zero, with which we all grew up and which we still encounter with
great frequency, that it has not really been demanded of anyone to label coffee
or tea as being from a particular year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To the coffee and tea
connoisseur, there is a better explanation for this that will occur immediately
and appear quite obvious. Wine, you see, ages. It can be kept on the shelf for
a few years, a few years more, decades perhaps, and either drunk, sold, or
stored yet longer. Furthermore, wine is not even distributed before it has aged
for a long while, usually a year at bare minimum. What with most serious wine
consumers, collectors, and merchants having hundreds or thousands of bottles of
wine on hand, procured after being stored at the winery for years in the first
place, a harvest year on the label is a most convenient datum. Coffee and tea,
on the other hand, are not meant for that. Tea may last a while in brick form,
or if kept in airtight containers, but it is intended for more or less
immediate distribution and foreseeable consumption. Coffee especially has a
brief shelf life, being ideally drunk within a couple weeks of being roasted.
But let’s be generous and stipulate that the mass-produced coffee that sits in
warehouses for up to months on end is somehow legitimate. Still, after a year
or two, coffee or tea would almost certainly be no good unless kept in the very
best of conditions. Which begs the question: what producer, merchant, or enthusiast
would store coffee or tea away for so long in the first place? So why even bother
with a year on the label? The coffee or tea is between one week and two years old,
and either it tastes properly fresh or it does not. Isn’t that all that counts
in this discussion?<o:p></o:p></div>
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My response to that is to return
to the consumer profile described above. Casual imbibing of coffee and tea is
as popular as it has always been, but not growing very much. It is not where
the potential is in the market; it is not the future. Aficionados, on the other
hand, are on the rise. More and more consumers are switching from major chains
to craft coffee roasters and fine tea purveyors. More than ever before, they
notice origins, processing methods, taste profiles, and numerous other data.
They read the literature, and look for the new. Key here is that they record
experiences more than ever: Is it only the emergence of the Internet that gave
rise to Steepster and Coffee Review, or is it also the fact that people are
there to take interest and participate in the first place?<o:p></o:p></div>
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By including a harvest year among
the data for tea and coffee, merchants would not necessarily distinguish it
from other tea and coffee sitting next to it on the shelf like with wine, of
course. But, they would:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>Confirm the freshness of the
product.</li>
<li>Give consumers a sense of
something new, thereby keeping up interest (“Oh, the 2014 Assam is here,” as
opposed to, “Oh, Assam is here again.”).</li>
<li>Create the likelihood that
reviewers will mention harvest years in their reviews. This sudden
consciousness of a new variable would make them increasingly interested in
continuing to consume from the same region to observe firsthand the differences
and similarities among the years, as any good aficionado would be. It would
also mean that readers of reviews would be drawn back into that product by
becoming conscious of the new variable. (“Oh, is that what there is to taste from
the 2014? It’s different than what I tasted that other time,” as opposed to,
“Oh, is that what this guy tastes? It’s different than what I tasted that other
time.”). Finally, producers and merchants can mine the data for all it is
worth.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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Maybe it is the old product data
manager in me (my old position when I had a day job, before I switched to a
full-time school schedule), but I really do think that more attention to
authenticating and publicizing the variables of tea and coffee is the best way to draw people
in to the product.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyhow, on to the good stuff:
It is time to explore the tea that finally got me to learn and think. <a href="http://www.mcnultys.com/">McNulty’s</a>
was kind enough to confirm for me that this tea was harvested in 2013. The dry
leaves of the Selimbong garden’s first flush are rather pastel hued, dark, all
twisted tightly but alternately curled up or straight and long. Packed into the
glass jar, the visual texture is akin to that of a Van Gogh painting. In stark
contrast to the <a href="http://thenicedrinksinlife.blogspot.com/2012/08/first-harvest-darjeeling-tea.html">Darjeeling leaves that I reviewed in 2012</a>, which had an aroma
like wine and fruit, these leaves smell like a rainforest. There is some
caramel, some tannins, some traditional florals, but mostly the rich maltiness
that one might expect from, say, a huge mouthful of the dry leaves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The brewed Darjeeling tea has a
rich, smooth, brown color, like a deep, dark honey. The aroma is of sweet,
sweet florals. Specific notes are smooth and include principally honey and
flowers, with light hints of toffee and caramel as well. The palate offers a
light body, although I was not confident noting that at first because there is
such a thoroughly generous symphony of flavors that together with the malt they
actually make the body of the tea seem rich! It took a little while before my
mouth was able to sort it all out. Truly it is a most impressive, sophisticated,
and unique tapestry that is woven, and I was reminded yet again why Darjeeling
tea is my favorite black tea. (Well, some would say it is an oolong, but you
know…)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Could it be that in my prior
Darjeeling tea review, when I thought the tea was rich and thick, I was deluded
by a similar phenomenon? I suppose it is quite possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The tea is not too acidic, not
too tannic, not too malty (although the malt augments some as it cools), and not too
brisk: just enough of each. The prior Darjeeling tea had some fruit flavors
that are absent from this year’s crop. The 2013 offer<span style="font-family: inherit;">s good floral notes,
though they are not quite as sweet as in the aroma. The flavor notes are of
toasted things: toasted toffee, toasted caramel, even toasted marshmallow.
Again, the body of the tea is light. It has a light body and constitution, even
a light heart and soul – the flavors are bright, sprightly, and numerous. It is
really curious how such a light body flatters the swirling bouquet of spirited
tasting notes. The palate is balanced and even throughout, but it smooths out
as the tea cools. The finish is of caramel and florals, with a drop of honey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I recommend to all of my kind readers to get some Darjeeling tea –
authentic Darjeeling tea, that is – and compare it to teas past and teas
future. It will make for an exciting, and delicious, adventure.</span></div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-31594412969750586972013-10-25T16:35:00.002-04:002013-10-25T16:52:15.041-04:00Hawaiian Coffee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNmTzSHkuX_ux0l37gu6jfrAkXCj4Ogq1DgCtwFQb3zmOfNptgihaHF4mp4xKmb1LSoxE8ZtR9ayojG7Zfd-dMmkdXkk_N8rGWHtFuX2rLqnJulrhjKcpyB-h7-S2suSoIaPulLeTXrUSK/s1600/HawaiiMap2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNmTzSHkuX_ux0l37gu6jfrAkXCj4Ogq1DgCtwFQb3zmOfNptgihaHF4mp4xKmb1LSoxE8ZtR9ayojG7Zfd-dMmkdXkk_N8rGWHtFuX2rLqnJulrhjKcpyB-h7-S2suSoIaPulLeTXrUSK/s320/HawaiiMap2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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No, alas, I did not actually taste any Hawaiian coffee. It is difficult to find freshly roasted samples where I live. But I did write a research paper about the economics of it.</div>
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Just to give proper context: The paper was written for my MBA class at Baruch College called "Global Competitiveness of the US Economy," and the assignment was as follows:</div>
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<i>Select a large exporter or product / commodity that is being exported from the United States. Analyze the historic background of this exporting business, its current strengths and weaknesses in its main overseas market, how is it hurt or hindered by government regulations, tariffs, currency and culture in expanding its overseas sales. Include also its main international competitors and the advantage those competitors have from government regulation, currency, etc. The paper must include a relevant “review of the literature.” (1,750 – 2,250 words)</i></div>
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Needless to say, in 2250 words I cannot produce a comprehensive analysis of everything to do with Hawaiian coffee. It ended up being a mere broad overview. Nevertheless, this paper is relevant to The Nice Drinks In Life, and now that it has been submitted, graded, and returned to me, I would like to share it here with my kind readers. The text, notes, and appendices are not changed from what I handed in to the professor other than one redaction (when I interviewed a source, he/she was not told that I might ever publish this). I have not expanded upon it for this website due to the same factor that keeps me from publishing more often in the first place: I simply lack the time.<br />
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Should anyone have any further insight into the matter, or any factual corrections, I would love to hear about it in the comments section below.<br />
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And for the incurably curious, I received an A- on the paper.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 40.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Hawaiian Coffee<o:p></o:p><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 25.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Governmental & Market Conditions</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 25.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 200%;">A Brief Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 30.0pt; line-height: 200%;">W</span>ithin the world of coffee
there are two principle types: “arabica” (<i>Coffea
arabica</i>) and “robusta” (<i>Coffea
canefora</i>).<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Arabica, preferred for
drinking, has many sub-species, or varietals: Typica, Caturra, etc.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Coffee is cultivated
in over fifty tropical nations.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> </span><span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Brazil grows more coffee than any other
country, producing about a third of the world’s coffee.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> </span>In aggregate,
coffee is traded globally more than any other commodity besides oil.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Much as with
wine, both a coffee bean’s varietal and its region of origin are of much interest
to coffee consumers and professionals.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
Therefore, <span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">coffee as a
general category is not strictly fungible. In fact, one given region’s coffee harvest
may trade at a different discount or premium than other regions’ coffees.</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Hawaii first saw
coffee planted in the early 1800s<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
and is the only US state to grow it (although Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth,
grows it, too).<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Many different varietals
of arabica are planted there.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
Most Hawaiian islands grow coffee, although it is Kona, a thin strip of a
region in the Big Island of Hawaii,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
that has the most popular crop.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The region has a unique
micro-climate that lends a certain quality to its coffee, whereby it has come
to be known as the “coffee belt”.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> </span>That is not to
sell the other Hawaiian regions short; some professional coffee roasters are in
fact negative on Kona, preferring different Hawaiian coffees such as Ka’u.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span> International Coffee Organization. “Botanical Aspects”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></span> Ibid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[3]</span></span></span> National Coffee Association USA. “Coffee from Around the World”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[4]</span></span></span> The Economist Editors. “Brewed Awakening”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[5]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Black Gold Movie. “Economics of Coffee”.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[6]</span></span></span> National Coffee Association USA. “Coffee from Around the World”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[7]</span></span></span> IntercontinentalExchange. “Coffee C® Futures”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[8]</span></span></span> Hawaii Coffee Association. “Coffee History in Hawaii”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[9]</span></span></span> Huffington Post Editors. “Hawaii Coffee is the Only American-Grown Coffee”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[10]</span></span></span> Bittenbender & Smith, 2008, p3.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[11]</span></span></span> Please see maps in Appendix 1.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[12]</span></span></span> Huffington Post Editors. “Hawaii Coffee is the Only American-Grown Coffee”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[13]</span></span></span> Bittenbender & Smith, 2008, pp5-6.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[14]</span></span></span> Personal interview.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><u><span style="background: white; color: #141414; font-size: 13.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Governmental Conditions<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; font-size: 30.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I</span><span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">n the same way that many wine regions’ names are protected by
regulations forbidding any wine not produced from certain varietals and within
specific borders from using them, the phrase “Kona coffee” is protected.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Only the “Kona typica” varietal
grown within the Kona region may refer to itself as “100% Kona”.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> This has generally
succeeded at nixing sales of fraudulently labeled Kona coffee.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> However, there is one key
caveat: any blend containing as little as ten percent Kona coffee may refer to
itself as a “Kona blend”.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">No other Hawaiian zone has a protected
denomination; however, many other coffee regions do. The Marcala region in
Honduras famously became the first in Central America to be awarded such a
status.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Starbucks made some waves
when it traded on the good name of Costa Rica’s Tarrazú region to sell $7 cups
of coffee.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The US federal government provides subsidies to
Hawaiian coffee farmers.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Some competing
coffee-producing nations, such as Brazil<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[22]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> and Colombia,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> also provide such
subsidies, and more are considering it.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[24]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> The federal government also
provides crop insurance to Hawaii’s coffee farmers,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> however, this does not necessarily
benefit them. Between 1995 and 2012, they in aggregate paid $103,072 more into
the program than they took out of it.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[26]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The State of Hawaii provides some assistance to
the coffee farmers, but it is rather negligible. In June 2013 Governor Neil
Abercrombie signed a bill offering a collective total of $550,000 over two
years to help combat a pest.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The US federal government does not restrict the
amount of coffee that may be imported,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[28]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> nor does it charge import
duties on the crop.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[29]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> It does inspect imports
for quality,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[30]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
increasing consumer confidence in imported coffee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">According to a recent agreement between Japan
and the US, each will officially recognize the other’s organic certification beginning
2014.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[31]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> This is important,
because many Hawaiian coffee farms have that certification, and Japan, in
addition to being Hawaii’s main coffee export market,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[32]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> is a growing coffee
market generally,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[33]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> its traditional tea
culture notwithstanding.</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[15]</span></span></span> Kona Coffee Farmers Association. “About Kona Coffee”.</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn16">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[16]</span></span></span> Ibid. <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">The Kona Coffee Council has a seal of approval to certify that a coffee is 100% Kona (</span>Kona Coffee Council. “The Seal Program”) <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">or the Hawaiian state government, which actually owns that trademark, may certify coffee itself (</span>Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation. “Kona Coffee History”). <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">Any coffee that is going to carry the 100% Kona mark must be inspected and certified before ever leaving the region (</span>Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation. “Kona Coffee History”).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[17]</span></span></span> MakeGoodCoffee.com. “Asian Coffee”.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn18">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[18]</span></span></span> Kona Coffee Farmers Association. “About Kona Coffee”. Blending different coffees is a standard – in fact, artistically important – practice among roasters and purveyors.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn19">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[19]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Café Marcala. “Denominación de Origen Café Marcala”.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn20">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[20]</span></span></span> Mencher, 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn21">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[21]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Environmental Working Group: Farm Subsidy Database. The database is searchable by ZIP code. I entered a randomly selected ZIP code encompassing Hawaiian coffee farms, and searched through the results. All farms whose information I browsed have received federal subsidies at least once in the last ten years. The subsidies seemed minimal at first, but not after considering the relatively small acreage of typical Hawaiian coffee farms.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn22">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[22]</span></span></span> Kayden, 2013. <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">What with Brazil’s tremendous coffee production, keeping up with subsidies is no minor factor.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn23">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[23]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Delgado, 2013.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn24">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[24]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Garcia, 2013.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn25">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[25]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Environmental Working Group. “Crop Insurance”. The insurance </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">covers indemnities, reimbursement for lost administrative and other expenses, and so on.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn26">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[26]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Environmental Working Group. “Crop Insurance Total Costs by Crop in the United States”.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn27">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[27]</span></span></span> State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture. 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn28">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[28]</span></span></span> U.S. Customs & Border Protection. 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn29">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[29]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Duty Calculator. “Import Duty & Taxes for Coffee Beans”.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn30">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[30]</span></span></span> Lister, Jonathan. “Regulation of Coffee Retail Market in USA (eHow.com).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn31">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[31]</span></span></span> Bishop, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn32">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[32]</span></span></span> Krishnakumar & Chan-Halbrendt, 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn33">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[33]</span></span></span> International Coffee Organization. “Imports of All Forms of Coffee by Selected Importing Countries from All Sources” (updated June 2013).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn34">
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span style="background: white; color: #141414; font-size: 13.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Market Conditions<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; font-size: 30.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">H</span><span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">awaii produces relatively little coffee. Coffee exporting
countries produced roughly 145 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee, or over 19 billion
pounds, in 2012.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[34]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
Hawaii grows less than 10 million pounds per year,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[35]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> between one-third and
one-half of it coming from Kona.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[36]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
A small
percentage of Hawaii’s coffee gets exported, mostly to East Asia, especially
Japan.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[37]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
Japanese-Americans are strongly represented in Hawaiian coffee production, and easily
establish rapports with Japanese customers.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[38]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
But exporting elsewhere has proven to be challenging, despite a dearth of
import duties and restrictions for coffee in most countries.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[39]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
Price is the major reason for this.<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pricing is principle among Hawaiian coffee’s
competitive disadvantages: it is so expensive that many professionals and
aficionados do without it altogether.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[40]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> In markets with low
disposable incomes, it is a deal breaker.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[41]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> The cause of Hawaiian
coffee’s high price is multifaceted. One item is the cost of farming in the US.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[42]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Another is that every
competing coffee-exporting nation has much cheaper currency than the US.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[43]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Still another is the pattern
of small farms with relatively low yields (see below). Finally, there is the
need to maintain the image of exclusive, high-quality coffee associated with Hawaiian
beans. Selling them cheap might ruin that image.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hawaiian coffees have more disadvantages than
just price. For example, Fair Trade certification is a popular item among
consumers,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[44]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
but Hawaiian coffees must compete without them.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[45]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Another disadvantage is
the regulation permitting blends with 10% Kona coffee to be called “Kona
blends”. Many consumers, not knowing any better, purchase such products
thinking that it is legitimate Kona coffee, ultimately profiting competing regions
at Kona’s expense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hawaiian coffee has advantages, too. The Kona
region’s protected denomination is one of them, the caveat notwithstanding.
Another is its high quality, in terms of both integrity and flavor. In June
2013 it was reported that “the Board of the Kona Coffee Farmer's Association
unanimously voted to adopt and support Hawaii County Bill 79 to prohibit GMOs<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[46]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> on the island;”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[47]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> public support of such
ideas does much to inspire confidence in Kona’s, and by extension all Hawaiian
coffees’, commitment to quality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Furthermore, Hawaiian coffee’s taste is
outstanding. Indeed, one cause of its high price, often overlooked when
searching for institutional causes, is huge demand for a very scarce product. Even
Kona naysayers have other Hawaiian coffees that they recommend.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[48]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> There is one downside here,
though: the growers get attached to the reputation. If they were open to
producing lower-grade, cheaper products, such as coffee for instant
preparation, they would likely do better in emerging coffee markets around the
globe.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[49]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Interesting is the rarity of Hawaiian coffee. It
causes higher prices and an air of exclusivity, each of which circles back to
the other. Small acreage imposes natural limits on the extent to which Hawaiian
coffees can claim market share; however, the percentage of harvested coffee
sold is generally high. In deciding whether the small yields are beneficial or detrimental,
it helps to consider whether the farmers would like to augment them: As it
turns out, at least a few farmers are frustrated at the low yields that poor
weather has caused in recent years.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[50]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> Certainly, the low yields
mean the region cannot benefit from economies of scale, further raising prices
– thereby furthering exclusivity, in an encore of the unending cycle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another item of note is the dearth of exports
to Europe, especially Italy and France. None of them has import duties,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[51]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> they have strong coffee
cultures preferring dark roasts,<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[52]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> and Kona is especially well
suited to being darkly roasted.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">[53]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span> This may be a simple
matter of marketing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[34]</span></span></span> International Coffee Organization. “Total Production of Exporting Countries” (updated July 2013).</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn34">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn35">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[35]</span></span></span> Exact estimates differ across reports, but the Hawaii Coffee Association puts the number between 6-7 million pounds (Hawaii Coffee Association. “Coffee History in Hawaii”).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn36">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[36]</span></span></span> Krishnakumar & Chan-Halbrendt, 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn37">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[37]</span></span></span> Ibid.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn38">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[38]</span></span></span> Ibid.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn39">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[39]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Duty Calculator. “Import Duty & Taxes for Coffee Beans”. Japan is hardly the only coffee consuming nation without an import duty, and most of the nations that do charge one grow their own coffee anyway.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn40">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[40]</span></span></span> Personal interview.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn41">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[41]</span></span></span> Krishnakumar & Chan-Halbrendt, 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn42">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[42]</span></span></span> Rubinstein, 2008. <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">American farms are quite capital-intensive.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn43">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[43]</span></span></span> The top ten countries by production are Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Honduras, Mexico, Uganda, and Guatemala (International Coffee Organization, “Total Production of Exporting Countries”).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn44">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[44]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Fair Trade USA, 2013.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn45">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[45]</span></span></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">Fair Trade certification is not available for American produce</span> (Fair Trade USA. “Global Reach Map”). <span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;">So, although Hawaiian coffees come from farms equally fair to workers (as per American labor laws) as Fair Trade proponents demand, they lack the certification and must compete against coffees that have it.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn46">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[46]</span></span></span> “<span style="background-color: white;">GMOs, or ‘genetically modified organisms,’ are plants or animals that have been genetically engineered with DNA from bacteria, viruses or other plants and animals. These experimental combinations of genes from different species cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding. … [A] growing body of evidence connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage and violation of farmers’ and consumers’ rights.” —</span>Non-GMO Project, “GMO Facts”.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn47">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[47]</span></span></span> Unsigned. “Protect Kona Coffee from GMO: Kona Coffee Farmers Association Supports County Bill 79” (<i>Hawaii Reporter</i>).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn48">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[48]</span></span></span> Personal interview.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn49">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[49]</span></span></span> (Unsigned). “Planning to Export” (<i>Business Beyond the Reef</i>, December 13, 2011).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn50">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[50]</span></span></span> Rubinstein, 2008.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn51">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[51]</span></span></span> <span style="color: #221f1f;">Duty Calculator. “Import Duty & Taxes for Coffee Beans”.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn52">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[52]</span></span></span> Europeans’ notorious antipathy towards American coffee refers to American preferences vis-à-vis brewing and consuming it; it has nothing to do with bean varietals or origins (Askin, 2013).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #141414;"><o:p><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt;">[53]</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent;">Personal interview.</span></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span style="background: white; color: #141414; font-size: 13.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Outlook & Conclusions<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #141414; font-size: 30.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">H</span><span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">awaiian coffee deals with a variety of competitive problems,
but is hardly set to capitulate. Not all of its disadvantages are unique, and
some of them (low yields, pricing) are arguably advantageous in certain market
conditions. Hawaiian coffee growers have access to US federal subsidies and
insurance, and enjoy the benefits of a capital-intensive agricultural community.
They are organized into associations that benefit all members. Also, very few
other coffees enjoy the prestige of Hawaiian coffees; the “Kona blend” issue is
surmountable by educating consumers, pressuring officials to change the rule,
and other basic methods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141414; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hawaiian coffee, after two centuries of history,
is set to enjoy two more.</span><span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Appendix 1:
Maps<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Map 1: Political
map of the Hawaiian Islands, with Kona marked on the Big Island of Hawaii<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvpilHvcpaqdr8En12oAB-yLBSWG9r9yttZi0xe2e6g_GxKyqtq2bWwGNiwe624xGnbBGlW8kHuvesuJUzDXmGatMFCIEAVRg6qlTZEfW76ynarP31q0mnvgd59gIt5eQf3vHk-IOvPU6L/s1600/HawaiiMap.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvpilHvcpaqdr8En12oAB-yLBSWG9r9yttZi0xe2e6g_GxKyqtq2bWwGNiwe624xGnbBGlW8kHuvesuJUzDXmGatMFCIEAVRg6qlTZEfW76ynarP31q0mnvgd59gIt5eQf3vHk-IOvPU6L/s400/HawaiiMap.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.konaearth.com/Visit/about.php">http://www.konaearth.com/Visit/about.php</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Map 2: The Kona coffee
belt & other coffee regions in Hawaii (marked in green)<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY-8EVdweHKRE2bqeqPidHQco4zKwO17udxSo5bT___XTugeRPDXKPXaJO0NJCdRsB1QMd2X4WSEtr1pqpjdqBPl78jR7AFUXOXFBgOVBHt0ZeVMhBBULpJrIoOv49XaFjU4SgMDXBOen/s1600/HawaiiMap2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY-8EVdweHKRE2bqeqPidHQco4zKwO17udxSo5bT___XTugeRPDXKPXaJO0NJCdRsB1QMd2X4WSEtr1pqpjdqBPl78jR7AFUXOXFBgOVBHt0ZeVMhBBULpJrIoOv49XaFjU4SgMDXBOen/s400/HawaiiMap2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Source: <a href="http://konagirlcoffee.net/kona-history/">http://konagirlcoffee.net/kona-history/</a><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Textual Sources<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Askin, Jennifer. “Starbucks Set to Rock Italy’s Café
Culture”. <i>ABC News</i>. April 30, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bishop, Hunter. “US-Japan Trade Pact Boosts Organic Ag”. BigIslandNow.com.
September 26, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bittenbender, H.C. & Smith, Virginia Easton. <u>Growing
Coffee In Hawaii: Revised Edition</u>. Manoa: <span lang="X-NONE" style="color: #221f1f; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">College
of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources,</span><span lang="X-NONE" style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span lang="X-NONE" style="color: #221f1f; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">University
of Hawaii at Manoa</span><span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Black
Gold Movie. “Economics of Coffee”. </span><a href="http://blackgoldmovie.com/economics-of-coffee">http://blackgoldmovie.com/economics-of-coffee</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Café
Marcala. “Denominación de Origen Café Marcala”. </span><a href="http://www.cafemarcala.com/">http://www.cafemarcala.com/</a>.
Accessed October
2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Delgado,
Diana. “Colombia Hikes Coffee Subsidies, Calls for Coffee Strike to End”. <i>Reuters</i>. March 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Duty
Calculator. “Import Duty & Taxes for Coffee Beans”. </span><a href="http://www.dutycalculator.com/dc/256181/home-garden/groceries/coffee-not-roasted/import-duty-rate-for-importing-coffee-beans-from-brazil-to-united-kingdom-is-0/">http://www.dutycalculator.com/dc/256181/home-garden/groceries/coffee-not-roasted/import-duty-rate-for-importing-coffee-beans-from-brazil-to-united-kingdom-is-0/</a>.
Accessed October 4, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environmental
Working Group. “Crop Insurance”. </span><a href="http://farm.ewg.org/cropinsurance.php">http://farm.ewg.org/cropinsurance.php</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environmental
Working Group. “Crop Insurance Total Costs by Crop in the United States”. </span><a href="http://farm.ewg.org/cropinsurance.php?fips=00000&summpage=TC_BY_CROP&statename=theUnitedStates">http://farm.ewg.org/cropinsurance.php?fips=00000&summpage=TC_BY_CROP&statename=theUnitedStates</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environmental
Working Group: Farm Subsidy Database. </span><a href="http://farm.ewg.org/search.php?fips=00000&regionname=theUnitedStates">http://farm.ewg.org/search.php?fips=00000&regionname=theUnitedStates</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fair
Trade USA. “Fair Trade Certified™ Coffee Imports Hit Record High in 2012”.
April 10, 2013. </span><a href="http://www.fairtradeusa.org/press-room/press_release/fair-trade-certified-coffee-imports-hit-record-high-2012">http://www.fairtradeusa.org/press-room/press_release/fair-trade-certified-coffee-imports-hit-record-high-2012</a>.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fair
Trade USA. “Global Reach Map”. </span><a href="http://www.fairtradeusa.org/what-is-fair-trade/global-reach-map">http://www.fairtradeusa.org/what-is-fair-trade/global-reach-map</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Garcia,
David Alire. “Mexico to Mull Spending Around $200 mln to Help Coffee Farmers Battle
Leaf Rust”. <i>Atlantic Specialty Coffee,
Inc.</i> September 26, 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hawaii Coffee Association. “Coffee History in Hawaii”.
<a href="http://www.hawaiicoffeeassoc.org/History">http://www.hawaiicoffeeassoc.org/History</a>. Accessed October 2, 2013.<span style="color: #221f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Heiss, Mary Lou. “Review of <u>A Cup of Aloha: The Kona
Coffee Epic</u> by Gerald Y. Kinro”. <i><span lang="X-NONE">Gastronomica:
The Journal of Food and Culture</span></i><span lang="X-NONE">, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Fall 2004), pp124-125</span>. University of California
Press.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Huffington Post Editors. “Hawaii Coffee is the Only
American-Grown Coffee”. <i>Huffington Post</i>.
September 29, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
IntercontinentalExchange. “Coffee C® Futures”.
<a href="https://www.theice.com/productguide/ProductSpec.shtml?specId=15#">https://www.theice.com/productguide/ProductSpec.shtml?specId=15#</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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International Coffee Organization. “Botanical Aspects”. <a href="http://www.ico.org/botanical.asp">http://www.ico.org/botanical.asp</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
International Coffee Organization. “Imports of All Forms of
Coffee by Selected Importing Countries from All Sources”. Updated June 2013. <a href="http://www.ico.org/prices/m4.htm">http://www.ico.org/prices/m4.htm</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
International Coffee Organization. “Total Production of
Exporting Countries”. Updated July 2013. <a href="http://www.ico.org/prices/po.htm">http://www.ico.org/prices/po.htm</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kayden, Marley DelDuchetto. “Coffee Rises as Brazil
Subsidies May Curb Supply; Cotton Rallies”. <i>Bloomberg
Businessweek</i>. July 11, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kona Coffee Council. “The Seal Program”. <a href="http://www.kona-coffee-council.com/Default.aspx?pageId=692167">http://www.kona-coffee-council.com/Default.aspx?pageId=692167</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kona Coffee Farmers Association. “About Kona Coffee”.
October 19, 2010. <a href="http://www.konacoffeefarmers.org/kona-coffee-heritage/about-kona-coffee/">http://www.konacoffeefarmers.org/kona-coffee-heritage/about-kona-coffee/</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kona Earth. “About Us”. <a href="http://www.konaearth.com/Visit/about.php">http://www.konaearth.com/Visit/about.php</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Krishnakumar, Jyotsna & Chan-Halbrendt, Catherine. “Consumer
Preferences for Imported Kona Coffee in South India: A Latent Class Analysis”. <i>International Food and Agribusiness
Management Review</i>, Vol. 13, Issue 4 (2010), pp97-116.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Lister, Jonathan. “Regulation of Coffee Retail Market in
USA”. eHow.com. <a href="http://www.ehow.com/about_6886008_regulation-coffee-retail-market-usa.html">http://www.ehow.com/about_6886008_regulation-coffee-retail-market-usa.html</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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MakeGoodCoffee.com. “Asian Coffee”. <a href="http://makegoodcoffee.com/asia">http://makegoodcoffee.com/asia</a>.
Accessed October 3, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mencher, Daniel. “Costa Rica Tarrazú Asoproaa”. <i>The Nice Drinks In Life</i>. December 20,
2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation. “Kona Coffee History”. <a href="http://www.mountainthunder.com/kona_coffee_history.php">http://www.mountainthunder.com/kona_coffee_history.php</a>.
Accessed October 3, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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National Coffee Association USA. “Coffee from Around the
World”. <a href="http://www.ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=75">http://www.ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=75</a>. Accessed October
2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Non-GMO Project. “GMO Facts”. <a href="http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/">http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Personal interview. September 29,
2013. <o:p></o:p><i>[Source redacted by author]</i></div>
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Rubinstein, Alexis. “The Hawaiian Gem: A One-of-a-Kind Bean
with the Setting to Match”. <i>Tea &
Coffee Trade Journal</i>, Vol. 180, Issue 5 (May 2008).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Specialty Coffee Retailer. “Pest Torments Hawaiian Farmers”.
M2Media360. March 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture. “Governor Signs
Measure in Support of Agriculture”. June 26, 2013. <a href="http://hdoa.hawaii.gov/blog/main/governor-signs-measures-in-support-of-agriculture/">http://hdoa.hawaii.gov/blog/main/governor-signs-measures-in-support-of-agriculture/</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Economist Editors. “Brewed Awakening”. <i>The Economist</i>. July 13, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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U.S. Customs & Border Protection. “Importing Tea, Coffee
and Spices for Commercial Purposes”. Updated August 14, 2013. <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/337/~/importing-tea,-coffee-and-spices-for-commercial-purposes">https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/337/~/importing-tea,-coffee-and-spices-for-commercial-purposes</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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(Unsigned). “Planning to Export”. <i>Business Beyond the Reef</i>. December 13, 2011. <a href="http://kekepana.com/blog/2011/12/13/new-export-plans/">http://kekepana.com/blog/2011/12/13/new-export-plans/</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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(Unsigned). “Protect Kona Coffee from GMO: Kona Coffee
Farmers Association Supports County Bill 79”. <i>Hawaii Reporter</i>. <a href="http://www.hawaiireporter.com/protect-kona-coffee-from-gmo-kona-coffee-farmers-association-supports-county-bill-79/123">http://www.hawaiireporter.com/protect-kona-coffee-from-gmo-kona-coffee-farmers-association-supports-county-bill-79/123</a>.
Accessed October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><u>Graphic Sources<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
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Kona Earth. “About Us”. <a href="http://www.konaearth.com/Visit/about.php">http://www.konaearth.com/Visit/about.php</a>.
Retrieved October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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KonaGirl Coffee. “Kona History”. <a href="http://konagirlcoffee.net/kona-history/">http://konagirlcoffee.net/kona-history/</a>.
Retrieved October 2, 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-66757335819866699212013-08-27T11:27:00.001-04:002013-08-27T11:27:20.604-04:00Organic Sencha from A New Leaf Tea Co.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Name</b>: Organic Sencha</div>
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<b>Type</b>: Green Tea</div>
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<b>Purveyor</b>: A New Leaf Tea Emporium</div>
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<b>Preparation</b>: One teaspoon steeped in about eight ounces of 180-degree water for 2:30, sipped plain</div>
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I just might be the worst Long Islander ever. Having lived here for my entire life, I nevertheless continue to get lost on the Nassau Expressway, confuse Woodbury and Westbury, say nice things about the Long Island Railroad, wonder where on earth the Bethpage Parkway goes to, not get what's so great about the Walt Whitman Mall, misspell Hauppauge, mispronounce Quogue, and balk at going to the outlets. It is a small miracle that they have yet to sentence me to permanent residence in Queens.</div>
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Here is another way in which I am just the worst sort of person to call himself a Nassau County local: up until a few weeks ago, I had never been to Garden City. Oh, sure, I was familiar with Roosevelt Field and all that jazz. Beautiful mall if you are not too picky about the ZIP code in which you park. But I mean, I had never been to the part of Garden City along Franklin Avenue: beautiful tree-lined streets, quaint shops with wonderful wares, cafes and bistros and restaurants, sidewalk eating in warm weather, bustle without hustle, a quiet ambiance... One would never guess that eight or nine blocks south lies the unfortunate neighborhood of Hempstead.</div>
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Right off of Franklin, on Seventh Street, where the shops and bistros wrap around westward and continue along for a ways, is <a href="http://www.anewleafteaco.com/">A New Leaf Tea Emporium</a>. I have to admit, when I entered the shop, I wondered about the looks of the place, which center around "warm, rich colors, wood décor, and ample light," as their website accurately describes it. I thought that it was a bit much, a little too self-conscious; that the decor, by insisting upon itself, was too distracting from what is important in the shop. It seemed like their angle was to go for the look and feel of a fancy Victorian tea shop and stand out that way.<br />
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I also have to admit that my concerns were wholly unfounded. If the look is overdone, the tea itself is covered even more thoroughly. New Leaf's selection is very nice, both diversified and ample. More than that, the young lady behind the counter knows her stuff wonderfully. The staff may look young, but do not let that fool you; they are very clever, very bright, and all about the tea. After she aced the softballs I threw her to test the waters, my server nailed the hard questions as well. Their website actually decries other companies that rely on superficial visuals to replace quality tea expertise, and I am pleased to report that they are willing and able to back up their words.<br />
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I was in the mood that day for a simple Japanese green, and was glad to see that their Sencha is organic, so I picked up a small package of that. The leaves are not rolled up at all; they are flaked and shredded, brittle looking although not to the touch. They are deep in color - remembering my Crayola crayons, I am thinking "forest green". The dry leaves are very pungent, tannic almost. They are so malty that the texture of the aroma is analogous to the texture of Play-Doh in the hands. They are also sweet, but like luscious, verdant greenery, not like fruit or pastry.<br />
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Brewed, the Sencha appears to be on the yellow side of lemongrass. It looks mellow, smooth, not quite limpid, and subtly delicate - the word "timid" comes to mind, although on second thought that is not quite fair. It has a malty nose with a modicum of sweetness, but structurally the aroma is the opposite from that of the dry leaves: mild, gentle, smooth. Upon sipping the tea I must confess that the first impression I had was, simply, "pleasant." It is verdant and brisk on the palate, without too much malt. The liquid is a tad light, but then again, it is not packed with a ton of flavors to carry; this is a simple and straightforward tea, smooth and easygoing. Soon one begins to notice a tannic sweetness in the back of the mouth that rounds things out quite nicely. Malty and brisk notes from the palate linger in the throat for a long couple of seconds to perform the finish.<br />
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This Sencha admittedly tends towards the nondescript, but frankly I enjoy the tea very much, for a couple of reasons. One is that often I am in the middle of a million things and seek to sip tea without putting much mind to it, for which situation this is ideal. But even more than that, the other reason is that just as often, I seek to sip tea and think about it, and let my mind settle happily upon the tea and its qualities, and from there drift slowly, almost stealthily onto something else, and again onto another thing, digging deep and playing the whole thought out until it connects to a new series of thoughts, and continue this quiet rambling, until the next thing I know forty minutes have passed, I have spent them staring at the wall and holding the half-full mug of tea without actually drinking it, and a dozen loose ends in my life are suddenly tied up nicely in a bow. This tea is ideal for that, too. Head on over to Garden City to pick some up today, and enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-69495828827323268782013-08-19T16:02:00.001-04:002013-08-19T16:02:14.920-04:00Down Among the Long Island Vines<div style="text-align: justify;">
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In my family, family comes first, just as it ought to. Blood is thicker than water, and even than wine. Yet I cannot help but notice: friends tend to give much better gifts than family. Gifts from both are thoughtful and loving, but they are still wholly distinct. There is what one wants to have, and then there is what other people want for one to have. Family and friends each are aware of both; yet they have different priorities. Family will get you what it thinks you need; friends do not waste birthdays on such things.</div>
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Having the blessed life that I do, I can count more than a few people as both family and friends. Most began as the former and soon became the latter; one family, in particular, began as the latter. I can still remember the first day I hung out with my best friend, Mike, back in the Little League days. "Hi, Camille!" I greeted his mother as I entered his home.</div>
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"Uh, excuse me, there, bud, you can call me Mrs. Kennedy," came the reply in a tone that was simultaneously stern enough to scare me and sweet enough to spoil me, a perfect combination that comes as naturally to this particular matriarch as cooking and hosting, and that I have yet to hear successfully replicated by anyone else on the planet. So "Mrs. Kennedy" it was, until one day about seven years later, when I walked in and greeted her, "Heya, Mrs. Kennedy."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCd7MRoVOsSVWm5HvOFAC0SqZw1F7qzakpflIoTwpAJTuvooRfrpRfxwiJM9SUENoi-qzzLsPueEuuL092NHiwc6naDZVAAZFDNnNuT6oSx1V21oxo7ahhcNcn_H-rACe5xEjW2wOVLKWP/s1600/Ma2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCd7MRoVOsSVWm5HvOFAC0SqZw1F7qzakpflIoTwpAJTuvooRfrpRfxwiJM9SUENoi-qzzLsPueEuuL092NHiwc6naDZVAAZFDNnNuT6oSx1V21oxo7ahhcNcn_H-rACe5xEjW2wOVLKWP/s200/Ma2.jpg" width="160" /></a>She looked at me. "You know, I hate that you call me that."</div>
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"Uh, I, oh, but, I think, wasn't it your idea?"</div>
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"Yeah, I remember," she replied matter-of-factly. "I just hate that you call me that, that's all."</div>
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There are three centers of human knowledge: the mind, the heart, and the gut. The latter two did not need to be told twice that we were well past strangerhood and formalities; indeed, we had barely ever been there in the first place. But the mind, well, as usual it proved itself a little slow on the uptake. "Oh, well, okay, so what should I call you?"</div>
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"Uh, gee, I dunno," came the sarcasm, which, when rooted in southern Italy by way of Brooklyn, is affectionate by more than mere implication. "Mom." Her look had two layers. One was was saying, "Duh," the other, "I love you."</div>
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From then on, Mike's parents have been Mom and Dad, which he calls my parents as well. But of course, Mike and I had adopted each other as brothers long before then. Thankfully, he did not, during that whole process of becoming family, lose the friend's intuition for gift giving.</div>
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This past week was my birthday. Never mind how old I am; it is old enough for me to groan about it, but young enough that nobody else wants to hear about it. I have not only survived the past year, but also gained, during that time, the best companionship a man can have, that of a consummately lovable woman who loves me back. So I count it as a win, ignore the number, and carry on. But first, I have had to indulge those around me who have wished to mark the occasion with various fripperies. That has meant packing my wine rack, depleting spare space on my bookshelves, schlepping out to restaurants, grinding craft roasted coffee, consuming enough calories to fill a freshly baked pie, transacting input with the bank, expanding my wardrobe, snuffling scented candles, and sitting through an entire gosh darn day of luxury bus rides and free wine tastings at vineyards on Long Island's North Fork. Sheesh, the things I do to humor my loved ones.</div>
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<a href="http://www.hamptonluxuryliner.com/">Hampton Luxury Liner</a> runs a wonderful service. I have no idea how Mike found it, but I am glad that he did. The tour covers three vineyards: Pindar and Duck Walk for an hour each, and then Baiting Hollow for a little over three hours. At each vineyard, each person is allotted between three and five complementary half-glass tastes of (almost) any wines. After that, time can be spent buying more to drink, lounging around a patio, shopping for things to bring home, and strolling among the vines - people took advantage primarily of the first two. The bus picked up my lovely lady and me (Mike and his fiance did not attend) in Nassau County at 9 in the morning and got us back by around 7 in the evening, making for a long day. Most people had gotten on the bus in the Boroughs. These were no idle afternoon time-killers; they were in it to hit the wines good and hard. Nobody became so inebriated as to fall ill or cause trouble, but short of that people tossed off limitations for the day.<br />
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The average age was around thirty, and everyone came as either a couple or a group of women, which is hardly a surprise given trends in the market lately. Those with a mind for marketing will not marvel at the fact that neither the tour nor the vineyards bother much about how lovely the rows of vines are, or how interesting the winemaking process is. In fact, quite as most of the clientele would have it, the tour does not bother about much of anything other than efficiently shuttling people in luxury from one tasting room to the next, where the vineyards concentrate on serving their selections of tasty spirits.</div>
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<a href="http://www.pindar.net/">Pindar</a> was first. We began with a couple of whites. The 2012 Riesling has a citric nose with tones of apple, while the palate is sort of the inverse: a sweet, crisp yellow apple with hints of citrus. The 2012 Chardonnay is curious on the nose, with notes of crisp pear, quince, and lychee. The palate is lighter, of pear. Both are alright. Next came the reds, beginning with the delightful Isabella NV. It has a rich, luscious nose of blackberry and redcurrant, and tasting notes of cherry and strawberry, shockingly lighter than the nose, though not in a bad way. In fact, from the whole trip, we brought back with us only four bottles: three whites for Mike (one from each vineyard) and an Isabella for me. We also had the 2009 Cabernet Franc, which, I am disappointed to report, is decent on the nose with dry notes of cherry and rhubarb (almost Tempranillo-like), but ranges somewhere between bitter and nondescript on the palate. Finally I tasted the Sweet Scarlett blend, which is alright: strawberry nose and light rhubarb on the palate. I almost opted instead for the Pythagoras blend (a review of which is The Nice Drinks In Life's first post), as it is a favorite Long Island red of mine, but I drink that often enough, and preferred to try new things. I will say this about Pindar: of all the wines we tasted that day, Pindar has the single worst, the Cabernet Franc; but is otherwise positively ahead of the rest.</div>
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After sipping wine, my majestic mate and I bought a couple of bottles and then took a stroll around the building. The place is just lovely, and the vines looked great. Unfortunately, the day was more hot than warm, and instead of subjecting the bottles to the heat, we chided ourselves for not waiting a little while longer to buy them, and then sat under the shade on the patio, enjoying all that there was to see. What a beautiful day it was!</div>
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It took a little while to coax a certain group of ladies into putting their glasses down and getting back onto the bus, but soon enough we got them settled, and off we went. Next came <a href="http://www.duckwalk.com/">Duck Walk</a>, which is owned by the same family as Pindar, and located right down the road. The tasting room, as you can see on the left, was absolutely packed. Well, actually, that is not quite right: the tasting room, which is open and spacious (and which, I noticed, has lovely art on the walls), was mostly free of crowds. But the bar in particular, well, that spot did not allow for any degree of easy access for a little while.</div>
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But we did get up to it soon enough, and began again with the whites. The 2012 Sauvignon Blanc has a grassy nose with crisp citrus; the palate is more mellow, almost tropical, with notes of citrus and white table grapes. It is a pleasant wine, and I note that it is not at all a carbon copy of the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc Cuvée Select by Duck Walk that I reviewed here back in May; it is independent, its own find. We also sipped the Southampton White blend, which is absolutely perfect for the Pinot Grigio lover: dry and light on the nose, with tones of grape, citrus, and perhaps a hint of sea air; and crisp on the palate with citrus and pear tastes, and plenty of terroir to go around. Having a sweet tooth, I personally find Pindar's 2011 Riesling to be the yummiest white of the afternoon; but by any objective merits, Duck Walk far and away has the best whites of the three places.</div>
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At this point my comely companion, being in infinitely numerous ways an infinitely better soul than the average person on this trip (and anywhere else), put down her glass, having found both her limit and the wherewithal to respect it. My soul, on the other hand, leaves a great deal to be desired, and in any event I am blessed with a hepatic tolerance that will not come back to bite me for at least another twenty or thirty birthday celebrations to come. So I proceeded with some reds. First was the Gatsby Red blend, whose aroma of cherries and pomegranate is somewhat sour - not in an obviously delicious way, but subtly quite attractive and beckoning. The taste is sweeter, and of red apple, and was served chilled. I immediately pictured myself and some companions lounging around outside on a hot day, in the mood for some wine, nothing serious, with taste buds preferring red but the rest of the mouth and body preferring white, and this Gatsby Red humoring all. (It is not a rosé, but it does drink like one.) I also went for the Windmill Red blend, which is alright: a Tempranillo-like nose of cherry, plum, and cedar, and a spicy plum palate. I noted that it comes off a bit young, though not terribly.</div>
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At this point began the only true downside of the trip: we got hungry. The bus had food in the back; I have no idea what it was, because we did not think to eat at first, and it was just about gone by end of the second stop. Each gift shop has chips and crackers, but they are expensive, and not good to eat without other types of food, as it will just increase hunger in short order. Better to let the metabolism stay at rest for a little while longer. But Duck Walk did have a food truck out back, just next to the vines. So, after taking some goofy pictures among the foliage (did you notice in the picture above that there are not actually any grapes in my hand to be pondering?) we split a small, mediocre, greasy grilled cheese sandwich. It turned out to be all that we would eat all trip.</div>
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After going back inside to purchase some Southampton White for Mike (we learned our lesson!), we were right on time to get back on the bus. It was a longer ride to <a href="http://www.baitinghollowfarmvineyard.com/">Baiting Hollow</a>, perhaps about a half hour or so. The driver said twenty minutes; maybe, because we were a little weary from the alcohol, heat, and growing hunger, it only seemed longer. But in any event, we arrived soon enough. Baiting Hollow is a little different than the other two. Whereas Pindar and Duck Walk have bona fide tasting rooms, with the merchandise and other things to buy off to one side, Baiting Hollow has a regular gift shop with a small tasting bar in the corner. However, aside from all that, it boasts the most outdoor space, and the most complete outdoor experience to go with it: patios, lawns, tents, a couple of tables whence more wine samples are served, scores of tables at which to sit, a couple of live bands, and horse stables. Yes, horse stables: Baiting Hollow is very active in horse rescuing, and they keep some of the lovely creatures at the winery. The horses are quite personable; one can, and may, go up to the fence, talk to them, pet them, and so on. It is a fantastic experience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2nI4BB1pdyWklXzzd3l2pNAtEz4IU_lXznxH4qMIBpOKbxA15rn_z11BRnuKLraTmB2fyfwOg0mCvf2nhk_zpS1CnKhufkh8XepqUJFR-vyb9gypTJmWxy839vNywNAd09EQW6lXirRsv/s1600/LINF13.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2nI4BB1pdyWklXzzd3l2pNAtEz4IU_lXznxH4qMIBpOKbxA15rn_z11BRnuKLraTmB2fyfwOg0mCvf2nhk_zpS1CnKhufkh8XepqUJFR-vyb9gypTJmWxy839vNywNAd09EQW6lXirRsv/s320/LINF13.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Except, of course, that in short order we were starving. At least I was. In fairness, there was the opportunity here to buy a real lunch. But, well... perhaps I am too persnickety for my own good, but I really think that a lobster roll with the size and apparent quality of a street vendor's hot dog, yet the price of an actual lobster, deserves to be turned down. You know what I mean? I probably should have sucked it up and picked one of the half-dozen similar items on the menu. But I simply could not justify it, and my divine date was content with a bottle of fruit juice. So I told myself that after eating, the previous evening, fully half of the pumpkin-pecan pie that she had baked for me (in my defense, it was not a full-sized pie, even before I got my hands on it), I deserved to go a little hungry, and forewent the food.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSI4Uatr4V61xW49XM2ss_vs6c1vMWW1EGbPtL2N4xr94SFV6ychNAKl3PdGvjWF-SCuj6cBkPJ3RA1CE9aNjJHoa-HmgilQ5WkJgATDbIXGUv9gNswb6gzeL31qwjrXjOysKzZcHdw07L/s1600/LINF3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSI4Uatr4V61xW49XM2ss_vs6c1vMWW1EGbPtL2N4xr94SFV6ychNAKl3PdGvjWF-SCuj6cBkPJ3RA1CE9aNjJHoa-HmgilQ5WkJgATDbIXGUv9gNswb6gzeL31qwjrXjOysKzZcHdw07L/s320/LINF3.JPG" width="320" /></a>What I most certainly did not forego was the wine. I stopped to consider if I was feeling alright, and indeed I was. Besides, there was no driving to be done any time soon. So I had another four tastes, beginning as usual with whites. The 2011 Riesling is quite good, having a complex nose of pear, quince, and citrus; it is at once sharp and sweet. The palate is apple and tropical melon. Next, I asked which wine would be good for Pinot Grigio lovers, and was directed to the 2011 White Satin blend. I suppose it is as close to a Pinot Grigio as anything in their selection comes, but in truth it is more like a Sauvignon Blanc than any other varietal. It has an aroma of pear and kumquat, and a mellow, grassy tasting note of pears. As for the reds, maybe I should have tried a simple varietal, but I was intrigued by their two main blends, Mirage and Red Velvet. The 2010 Mirage has a nose of strawberry, redcurrant, the Portuguese ginja berry (Espinheira makes such a wonderful cordial out of that stuff!), and soy sauce; the palate tastes of creme de cassis and plum. The 2010 Red Velvet is sweeter and a bit more put together, but the notes on the nose and palate are exactly - I mean, one hundred percent - the same as those of the Mirage. I saw the staff get the bottles correct when I asked for each, so there was no mix up to explain things, and the overall quality is markedly better in the Red Velvet, which is the more expensive of the two. But the complete and utter similarity is astounding.<br />
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Afterwards, my pulchritudinous partner and I split the remaining time between the porch (the building is a converted house), the horses, and the grounds. At one point a staff member got onto one of the horses, rode it to where the tables and band were situated, and had it trot about in such a way as to make it appear to dance along with the music. It was all very well done, very clever. Less clever was the young lady who, wanting to pet the horse's nose, made a wrong turn somewhere and walked smack into the (unmoving) horse's rear, bouncing right off and finding herself entangled with some hedges. I am not sure if anybody then cut off her supply of wine; security did, though, respond by cutting off access to the animal.<br />
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We also took a stroll through the vines. They were absolutely beautiful. I thought perhaps that we were sneaking around, but no: an employee saw us walking through the vines in a spot nowhere near the shop or patio, simply advised that we be careful, and left us alone. It was basically the same way in all three vineyards we visited, and probably countless others. Should I be worried that they were so completely open? The question struck me at first, but after considering the matter, I doubt that there is any cause for concern. It is not only that my seraphic sidekick and I ourselves resisted the temptation to pluck some grapes and munch on them (which, given our hunger, was not easy). It is also that nobody else was causing any trouble. In no place did we see guests messing with anything at all. Consider: at Baiting Hollow alone there were two full coach buses' worth of drunken, hedonistic yuppies hell-bent on throwing caution to the wind (our tour), four or five private limos, an equal number of larger luxury limo buses (one of which chauffeured a bachelorette party, an institution hardly renowned for its promotion of prudent forbearance), and a couple score individual cars carrying young couples, old couples, young children (I do not know why), and mingling singles. Even the six or seven perpetually unattended toddlers failed to lay a finger on so much as a single grape. Besides, the vineyards have all been doing this for decades at this point; if people needed to be kept out, they would be.<br />
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What a wonderful day it was! The weather was stunning, the bus ride was luxurious, the vineyards were gorgeous, the wines were delicious, my companion was an angel sent from heaven, and the whole thing took on an extra special air because it was a gift from a friend and a brother. Thank you Mike, and everyone else who has been so kind and generous this past week.<br />
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I recommend any of those wineries to people looking for a nice trip out East on the North Fork; or, even better, go get some tickets for the Hampton Luxury Liner and make a whole driving-less day of it. If only you remember to pack a sandwich and some snacks, you are practically guaranteed to enjoy. Cheers!</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-16239096328370762812013-08-15T16:23:00.001-04:002013-08-15T16:23:36.533-04:00Taltarni 2007 Shiraz<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphLs3m5yIp7eJs8lTHR_Tb_q2eP0XziCIjuiz_UBkim1WTi-hQLJif_78ZMnWN0LdQVphaOfZ2fGitESRnfdlly27cnLYaKpiqb3iAAC3G9u632vMWXeIFvHk7fiW24_z4SiT7yv5CXK8/s1600/Taltarni.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphLs3m5yIp7eJs8lTHR_Tb_q2eP0XziCIjuiz_UBkim1WTi-hQLJif_78ZMnWN0LdQVphaOfZ2fGitESRnfdlly27cnLYaKpiqb3iAAC3G9u632vMWXeIFvHk7fiW24_z4SiT7yv5CXK8/s400/Taltarni.JPG" width="243" /></a><b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Taltarni</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Shiraz 2007</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Varietal</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Shiraz</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Region</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Pyrenees, Victoria, Australia</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Vintage</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 2007</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tasted</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: August 6, 2013</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ABV</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 14%</span></div>
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At my day job, there used to be a woman named Donna who managed the Data Department. Donna has since passed away, but her memory lives on, not least because of her keen wit and fondness for pithy refrains. One in particular stands out: Altogether too often, she would receive a complex question, email back a complete answer, and receive a slew of follow up questions that quite suspiciously dealt with only the material below the second line of her answer. Donna would reply: "Read <u>all</u> the words!" usually with smiley face emoticon or a chuckle in her voice.<br />
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It really is sound advice. I find evidence countless times every week of people blowing by the written word, not only in my capacity as Donna's successor, but in fact as the actual transgressor in my everyday life. How often I have skimmed a food label, skipped through a newspaper article, neglected the instructions in filling out a form, even ignored completely the words on my own parking ticket! We are all guilty of failing to read all the words, gaining a modicum of convenience now in exchange for a much larger degree of inconvenience later, and we all pay for it in ways large and small.<br />
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In the case of my skimming the <a href="http://www.taltarni.com.au/">Taltarni</a> 2007 Shiraz label, it is, let us say, a muddled issue. On the back label it says that the wine can be either drunk now or else cellared for a decade. I did read the words without urging, but not until after I had drunk the wine, and of course it turns out that drinking the wine anyway was allowed, but maybe I would have preferred to wait if only I had known. Whatever. Let's just blame me and move on.<br />
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The wine, in any event, came off exceptionally young. It should be about ready to drink now, but it is not, at least not without breathing for a while. It has a very young, purple-garnet look to it. The liquid is dark, almost opaque. It flirts with non-purpley tones on the outermost edges, but still, it looks like it was bottled last year. The nose offers luscious, pungent, dark reds: pomegranate, black plum, dried cherry. Rosehips and cedar perform a duet, adding not so much another aroma as an extra element to each of the others. But the sweetness is predominant, and luxuriously so.<br />
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On the palate, this Shiraz is rich, thick, and heavy. It is as spicy as it is sweet, which is a lot. The dark fruits are out in droves: black cherry, dark berries, and even balsamic. The same spicy/herby underlayer of rosehips and cedar as we had in the nose appears again here in the palate. The tasting notes are pungent. Presently one notices notes of pomegranate pushing out from underneath the rest. Is that oakiness I taste? The wine is smooth, though rather too heavy for itself. It finishes sweetly and strongly (though without pungency or spice) with notes of black plum.<br />
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This wine really shows its youth, which is surprising for a wine as old as this. However, I will say that I just love how the fruit notes pass off the baton to one another: fluidly, but not linearly or directly; in rapid fire yet effortlessly; consistently yet not repetitively; with excitement and liveliness; and brimming with personality. Each hand-off is a dance move, an example of art, a unique, creative, kinetic gesture that adds a crucial element of sophistication and maturity to this wine. It is excellently executed on each and every pass, quite remarkably well done.<br />
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Even better is this: after breathing for twenty minutes, the wine is a brand new beverage! Aeration really does work miracles; the difference is like that of night and day. The fruits in the aroma have lightened up big time. The nose catches light strawberry, redcurrant, cherry, and pomegranate notes. Of course the wine does not smell super-mature, but it is much more appropriate. The pungency is gone, but the sweetness remains sophisticated - in fact, it is easier to pick up on the complexities now.<br />
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The tasting notes are much lighter, too, and perhaps best of all, the body has lightened up. It is still rich compared to many wines - not really light or thin - but no longer heavy or viscous. The fruits lightened up: pomegranate in front, and cherry, strawberry, and berries behind it. The spice is there, but lighter and more fluid, like the rest of the notes. That whole thing about how the various notes interact so wonderfully is even more outstanding now. The finish is delightful, with notes of plum and pomegranate, lasting nice and long without actually overstaying its welcome.<br />
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The aeration of this wine produced one of the largest turns-around that I have ever experienced, and it was fantastic. I encourage everyone to try this wine, but not right away. Patience is definitely a virtue here, whether you wait for twenty minutes or for half a decade. Enjoy.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-1862669622250741452013-08-05T15:58:00.000-04:002013-08-22T14:34:38.457-04:00Balcones Baby Blue Corn Whisky<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZMDE2hwv0bWmjySP-JOgC5DYSv933brSPvmODdbEAclOW0Y2I5tuZKReGJ_mQMzVwUg3ugDr27-c5c2JemHWr_NcsVeKf__GyIl4TtoSEngRu9VHY3TqZW6VhfaJ8mMP80QzdNuIgLav/s1600/baby-blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZMDE2hwv0bWmjySP-JOgC5DYSv933brSPvmODdbEAclOW0Y2I5tuZKReGJ_mQMzVwUg3ugDr27-c5c2JemHWr_NcsVeKf__GyIl4TtoSEngRu9VHY3TqZW6VhfaJ8mMP80QzdNuIgLav/s400/baby-blue.jpg" width="156" /></a></div>
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<b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Balcones Distillery</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Baby Blue</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Type</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Corn Whiskey</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mash</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Blue Corn (Atole)</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Region</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Texas, USA</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ABV</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 46%</span></div>
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My aunt lives in Dixon, New Mexico. It is a small town sloped gently along some foothills of the Rockies, abutting the eastern bank of the Río Grande between Taos and Santa Fe. Dixon has one road, two wineries, a cafe, open walking trails that rank among the most scenic in the country, and that rare simultaneity of frequent hospitality with zero crowds. It is, without a doubt, a New Yorker's perfect getaway.</div>
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Another of Dixon's rightful boasts is its locally grown produce. "Large" farms and individual gardens alike are absolutely everywhere, and the people there lack for nothing when it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables. One delight to which my aunt introduced me on my first visit there was a grain that she called <em>atole</em>. I could not help but remark, amusedly, that the hot cereal she was making from it was blue. "Isn't oatmeal supposed to be tan or something, tía?"<br />
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Shame on my younger self! Shame on me now, for ever having been such a foolish child! First and foremost, it was not oatmeal at all; it was cornmeal. It is common in the Southwest to prepare ground blue corn, or atole, into a hot cereal for breakfast, and one mouthful will make quite clear why. To describe its unique flavor is a bit difficult, like describing what turkey tastes like, or what a strawberry tastes like; how can just using words possibly meet such a task? But I can tell you that it is a rich, energetic, giving grain. It is not sweet, but to eat it satisfies a demand for sweetness. It is savory, and fulfilling, like a hot piece of chicken or a crisp, lush apple. Atole was far and away the best hot cereal I had ever tasted, and remains so to this day. Whenever I visit, I ask for it daily; and whenever my dear aunt comes to New York, I beg her to bring me a couple of bags of the Dixon-fresh delicacy (which she is, of course, kind and loving enough to do).<br />
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While we are at it, there is another "shame on me" item over here: shame on me for never having considered that atole would make a dynamite whiskey. I say dynamite not only because it tastes great, which it does, but also because it is a vibrant spirit, with the flavors ebbing and flowing about, and a spiciness adding its own degree of kinetics. At least, that seems to be the case with Baby Blue from <a href="http://www.balconesdistilling.com/">Balcones Distilling</a>.<br />
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First, a note about <a href="http://www.maysvillenyc.com/">Maysville</a>, the whiskey bar in Manhattan at which I sampled the spirit. It is only fair to mention this, but I do so eagerly: the servers there are both knowledgeable and patient, to great degrees. They were out of one or two other items that I had wanted to try, and the poor young lady offering me suggestions was met with more than a couple of interruptions and refusals, not at all due to the inadequacy of the whiskey being offered, but simply because I was being more picky and fickle than any mere mortal has the right to be. (A fourth "shame on me," and by far the most shameful.) Still, her confidence and fluency with whiskey won me over, and soon enough I was coaxed to try the Balcones Baby Blue, made in Texas. And I am very glad indeed that it worked out that way.<br />
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The whiskey has a deep, rich amber color to it. It looks syrupy to the eye, though it is actually of a standard viscosity. It shimmers in the glass cleanly, smoothly, calmly, as though it enjoys the movement but is no hurry about it at all. Of course, this glimpse of inner tranquility shares a trait with many other sights: it is deceiving.<br />
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The nose is piquant; not overbearing, but powerful. The notes are a grand conglomeration of toasted confections and related aromas: toffee, toasted caramel, maple, molasses, black tea, and vanilla. The piquancy and the sweetness are opposites that attract quite nicely, though after a little while, the nose does mellow out some, which is just as well.<br />
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The palate contains some varied hints of smoke, but not such that deliver a burned quality to the whiskey; it is more, naturally enough, like a toasted type of thing. I noticed right away that it is spicy. Some of the toasted caramel notes remain, as do the black tea and vanilla; added is popcorn. Halfway through, the sweetness emerges as the principle theme, and distinct notes of toasted caramel and toffee also appear.<br />
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However, the spice has by no means subsided. The sweetness may grow to define the body of the whiskey, but the spice is its spirit. It is not spice in the sense of picante cuisine, and it is not an herbal spice. It is, rather, a piquancy of both the alcohol and what I am comfortable assuming to be the local <i>terroir</i>, resulting in a play of the drink about the mouth. Quite as in the nose, the spice and sweetness get along real well on the palate; they float and shimmer and undulate around and through each other simply, basically, easily - and they do so right through the finish, which lingers for a long two seconds.<br />
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The result is a delicious, dynamic whiskey that is sophisticated without being complicated; rugged without being harsh; and sweet without sacrificing spice. Quite like the state from which it hails. Have a dram or two this evening, and enjoy.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-67149623447914477592013-07-29T15:19:00.001-04:002013-09-22T09:47:22.011-04:00Ethiopia Amaro Natural Coffee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4DSYP_R4Tpt5gcfTpBWJYnlpTR33FJb4_ysazi8-KNPrt-fLBU396IXRIEWZf5_6gHIACMzVcvWAZAec1aGUE5nWmc9IZY2p0yWbEIOnG_Y2Iv8acIbU2AcXDsOZkgd5Yt73ft3goGRxY/s1600/orenslogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4DSYP_R4Tpt5gcfTpBWJYnlpTR33FJb4_ysazi8-KNPrt-fLBU396IXRIEWZf5_6gHIACMzVcvWAZAec1aGUE5nWmc9IZY2p0yWbEIOnG_Y2Iv8acIbU2AcXDsOZkgd5Yt73ft3goGRxY/s320/orenslogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Ethiopia Amaro Natural</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Origin</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Yrgacheffe, Ethiopia</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Roaster</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Oren's Daily Roast</span></div>
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<b>Preparation</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Freshly ground, French-pressed, sipped black</span></div>
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It is not too uncommon to encounter a coffee that has a distinct personality like a nice wine, or that is elegantly refreshing as a cup of tea. But to find a coffee that is both things as once, as well as deeply sophisticated as a coffee in its own right, is a rare treat indeed. We have that here with the Ethiopia Amaro Natural from <a href="http://www.orensdailyroast.com/">Oren's Daily Roast</a>.</div>
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The coffee brews into a dark brown liquid, not ebony, but a true brown. It is solid and deep, which speaks to a certain maturity. Indeed, that is the key word in describing this coffee's personality: mature.</div>
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There is plenty of fruit in the nose, as though a bouquet of berries is hanging off the tip of my nose, danging in front of me. There are some florals around the edges. There are also the beginnings of spice notes without the actual spice - would that perhaps be herbiness? The aroma is smooth and robust.</div>
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The fruits are forward in the tasting notes as well, as one would expect from an African coffee. But it is less of an in-your-face kind of thing here in the palate than it was in the aroma; here it is more of a delicate, elegant delight. In this way, the coffee seems to take on the leisurely, aristocratic mannerisms of a fine tea; in fact, in my mind's eye I am transported to a Victorian tea garden. Nevertheless, the complexity and depth are most reminiscent of a mature wine. There is a little bit more of an "amaro" air to it than with the standard Ethiopian coffee, but generally speaking it is still rather negligible. In addition to the fruit, there is some nuttiness, some florals, and just a smattering of earth. The coffee is light, slightly tannic, slightly acidic (increasingly so as the cup unfolds), and in all candor, just exquisite. The notes interact in such a way that the whole is considerably greater than the sum of the parts. The fruits and florals follow through to the finish.</div>
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I was expecting, especially after experiencing the aroma, for a rich, syrupy, luxurious fruitiness to punch me in the face. Something as light as this, with the air of a tea, could easily have been a disappointment. However, this Ethiopia carries on confidently, naturally, with poise, not oblivious but without any regard to the fact that it might have had a different profile. It is mature, subtle, sophisticated, remarkably graceful, and last but not least, very tasty. It won me over completely, with ease. Pick some up today, and enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-37959332973313847742013-07-26T10:50:00.000-04:002013-07-26T10:50:39.486-04:00Fernández de Piérola Rioja Reserva 2004<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR06I6H4wah2E8xe0Fjgo4vut8XPUKgX41YQYv9BESVryNE3EJbh8DtNIYtNqI-PFJvgN7MsdkKqWLUIUfxcMWtSAEoa7cq12WyCKZafOVT9pucj_II2ECA8QxMy3eDsVHWoBi35sEBwSx/s1600/pierola.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR06I6H4wah2E8xe0Fjgo4vut8XPUKgX41YQYv9BESVryNE3EJbh8DtNIYtNqI-PFJvgN7MsdkKqWLUIUfxcMWtSAEoa7cq12WyCKZafOVT9pucj_II2ECA8QxMy3eDsVHWoBi35sEBwSx/s320/pierola.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
<b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Bodegas Fernández de Piérola</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Name</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Rioja Reserva 2004</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Varietal</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Tempranillo</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Region</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Rioja D.O.C., Spain</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Vintage</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 2004 Reserva</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Tasted</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: July 22, 2013</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">ABV</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 13%</span></div>
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Who could not love a Rioja? It really is something special. And unique. More than just its flavors, its style and attitude are all its own. Even its feel on the palate is unique; no other red does dry quite like a Rioja. It is more like another dimension than simple dryness. It is palpable yet not overbearing; distinct yet not distracting; layered yet not uneven; sophisticated yet not cumbersome. The dryness may hint at spice or at texture, and it may be added among other notes or enhance each of them in their own rights. It supports the Rioja, augments it, makes it what it is, makes it special. What it never does is take away from the sweet fruits in the tasting notes - yes, there is sweetness, too - which thrive in leisurely prosperity, mellowly lavishing epicurean luxury upon the palate. This sweetness is also unique; have you ever noticed that Riojas rarely, if ever, offer specific one- or two- fruit analogies in their profiles? The notes appear as medleys of reds with at least five or six fruits vaguely hinted at and exactly zero fruits identified with any semblance of precision, even relative to the subjective art of wine tasting. The brilliant marriage of this fruity sweetness, at once mellow and dynamic, with a dryness that actually sparkles and shines, is what makes a Rioja unique and so keenly delectable. At its best, it is really hard to beat.</div>
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The 2004 Reserva by <a href="http://www.pierola.com/">Fernández de Piérola</a> is an excellent example of all of that, and a wonderfully aged one at that. Interestingly, its color is a light garnet hue, so that while the aroma and taste betray the wine's age, the color does not quite do so. It looks a tad younger than it is; not spunky or inexperienced or oblivious, but simply stronger and livelier, as though rounding out its prime. But in the aroma, it becomes clear that the wine is appropriately mature. The notes are light red fruits such as strawberry, redcurrant, cranberry, and others. A vague hint of pear wafts gently around the periphery. The aroma is light, perfumy but not strong. It has the same "oomph" as a spring flower (without any floral notes).<br />
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The wine sports a great dryness on the palate. It is a bit tannic and betrays a sense of oak (the wine has aged in both American and French oak barrels). But for the most part the tasting notes are of such red fruits as strawberry, redcurrant, cranberry, red table grapes, and a few vague others. The wine is full-bodied, but not bold or strong. In fact, it is mellow. It just is not fragile or airy, is all. The finish is not dissimilar from the palate, being mostly strawberry and cranberry.<br />
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After aerating for twenty minutes, the Reserva is a smidgen more on the ripe side of things (naturally). In the aroma, the hint of pear has given way to a hint of McIntosh apple, but the reds still form the hegemony: strawberry, redcurrant, cranberry, etc. It is more pungent now, but not boisterous, just less shy. Curiously, it has acquired a bit of plum on the nose. On the palate, the body is lighter (by exactly one notch), and so are the reds in the tasting notes. The fruits are the same as before - strawberry, redcurrant, cranberry, red table grapes, and all that - and it is still a bit tannic and oaky. The palate has acquired a slight kick to it, a sort of cedar-like spice which is the dryness evolved. The finish, very nicely performed about the throat and palate, is of strawberry and balsamic.<br />
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The Fernández de Piérola 2004 Reserva is a cool, calm wine. It is no slouch, but really what it enjoys more than anything is hanging out and relaxing. The fruits glide gently, suavely, carefree, about the mouth; the dryness offers a depth of character and sophistication of manner; and the body, from the background, holds it all together brilliantly. It is everything a wine should be, and every bit a Rioja. Get some today, and enjoy.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-82763149799303926962013-07-19T15:28:00.001-04:002013-07-19T15:28:30.963-04:00UvaViva Italiana di Poli Immature Grape Brandy<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0z_3o0sNhnUxASuAfzeDbaIW5EPh9YpDVoc_XkvqTuaNDoixknnm2V9N0YtmQJHhcV8skf0ZQObiXr_oy1FCqg4fVmQgGuGXiBp-wQYnn5L6MOEjPjYhvJ18MMYs2BxFHKBPuv2MGojrH/s1600/Uvaviva2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0z_3o0sNhnUxASuAfzeDbaIW5EPh9YpDVoc_XkvqTuaNDoixknnm2V9N0YtmQJHhcV8skf0ZQObiXr_oy1FCqg4fVmQgGuGXiBp-wQYnn5L6MOEjPjYhvJ18MMYs2BxFHKBPuv2MGojrH/s400/Uvaviva2.jpg" width="232" /></a><b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Poli Distillerie</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: UvaViva Italiana</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Type</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Immature Grape Brandy</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mash</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Moscato Fior d'Arancio & Malvasia Bianca di Candia grapes</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Region</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Colli Euganei, Veneto (Moscato) & Rauscedo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Malvasia), Italy</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ABV</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 40%</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Serving 1</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: In a snifter</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Serving 2</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: On the rocks</span></div>
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I tell myself that it has probably happened to everybody. Maybe I am playing mind tricks on myself to rationalize a silliness of youth; but maybe, on the contrary, this really is a normal growing pain. Perhaps my kind readers can tell me if they identify with this: when I first began drinking spirits, and for as long as I continued not paying attention to what was in my glass, all clear brandies tasted just about the same to me. I mean <u>all</u> of them: kirschwasser, slivovica, grappa, everything. The utter strength and pungency of the alcohol, coupled with an uneducated, oblivious palate, brought the distinctions to nearly zero as far as I was concerned.<br />
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It has therefore been especially gratifying, as I started to pay attention to, and learn about, the nice drinks in life over the past couple of years, to discover how complex and fascinating brandies are, and what makes them unique. The UvaViva Italiana by <a href="http://www.poligrappa.com/">Poli</a> is a great case study in such sophisticated grape spirits. It is made with Moscato Fior d'Arancio and Malvasia Bianca di Candia grapes from the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (two of the Tre Venezie) respectively, and one gets to know the lands there quite intimately, as the <i>terroir</i> of these regions really comes to the forefront. It was a great choice, this blend.<br />
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In a snifter, the UvaViva Italiana has light, fruity, and fun aroma. The pungent scents are, interestingly, those generally associated with red wine: plums and red berries. There is also a strong pear presence. On the palate, it goes down easily, nicely. There are some white wine tasting notes here - lychee, almonds, vague citrus, and emphatic pear notes - that meld together seamlessly with the red wine notes, which remain from the aroma. The brandy is thick and viscous, but it turns to vapor quite easily in the mouth. The finish is mild - it could do a bit better in terms of vigor - but comes off a lot like grappa, which is nice, especially with these ingredients.<br />
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On the rocks, the UvaViva Italiana has pears all over the place, in all phases of the experience. The aroma is almost exclusively pear, although it is a bit on the light side. The brandy makes for very easy sipping, with pleasantly middling intensity and viscosity, and a certain crispiness to it. It is quite wonderful. The pear continues its hegemony, though it does here deign to admit other notes into the mix: plums on the periphery and an undercurrent of nuts. One cannot taste the citrus, but still knows it is there. The finish, still a bit too light, is mainly pear.<br />
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The brandy does not have any floral tasting notes, but in my mind's eye, while sipping it on the rocks, I am transported to a meadow with trees and brush and rolling hills that are just at the point when flowers are budding and the world is a light green. Obviously, then, this is an ideal springtime beverage, although one can hardly go wrong with it in the summertime. I encourage my readers to get Poli's UvaViva Italiana for themselves, and explore the great depths to which a craft-made, sophisticated brandy can take a willing passenger. Enjoy.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-11156038005459904362013-07-17T16:12:00.000-04:002013-07-17T16:12:18.679-04:00Suavia 2009 Soave Classico<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: currentColor;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-g-IPd7mGcBdvtMu8ILfL9JgvsWr8774berf_kLk1rzWOU1JPU0Xltp_eP4CSOVl5OCX165lKNPYJXvDz1NNbjAbXt9p46siE2inrP2lNyxiUJf5hs18KHricBdquDRgerG9l5J34kMyL/s1600/Suavia1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-g-IPd7mGcBdvtMu8ILfL9JgvsWr8774berf_kLk1rzWOU1JPU0Xltp_eP4CSOVl5OCX165lKNPYJXvDz1NNbjAbXt9p46siE2inrP2lNyxiUJf5hs18KHricBdquDRgerG9l5J34kMyL/s400/Suavia1.png" width="121" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>: </b>Suavia Azienda Agricola</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Soave Classico</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Varietals</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: <i>(unknown)</i></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Region</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Soave Classico D.O.C., Italy</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Vintage</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 2009</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tasted</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: July 11, 2013</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ABV</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 12.5%</span></div>
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I thoroughly hate to give a negative review, I really do. It is not a nice thing, and for all I know it may make me an enemy or two. In fact, even if I personally dislike a beverage, as long as objective criteria show it to be of good quality, and a fair amount of people like it for what it is, then I will put my own taste buds aside and write about what the beverage has to offer in its own right.</div>
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In the case of the Soave I had the other evening, I really wanted to like it. I was in the mood for a nice white, Soave Classico is a great region and 2009 was a good year there, and this was set to hit the spot. A nice wine, a nice review, badda-bing, badda-boom. Unfortunately, there was not very much to like about this wine once it hit the palate, and I simply refuse to say otherwise here. Sometimes a positive review is just a flat out lie, and in those cases I will not pull a verbal two-step and make the beverage sound good. I cannot, in good conscience, cross that line, however much I may find it convenient to do so.</div>
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When reviewing a drink, I like not only to discuss aromas and flavors, but also to study history and tradition, production and industry, and other things that make the world of beverages, and the world as a whole, exciting. For the 2009 Soave Classico by <a href="http://www.suavia.it/">Suavia</a>, what we have to learn ties in directly with its flaws, which are both blatant and unforgivable.<br />
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Which is not to say that they are all-encompassing. The first thing that one notices is quite nice: an aroma of tropical citrus, mainly orange and kumquat, and maybe a touch of lychee. It is crisp like a Sauvignon Blanc, fruity like a Chardonnay, and piquant like a Pinot Grigio. The intensity is moderate, respectable. It was all so promising.<br />
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The palate is different. The fruits are the same, but now joined by notes of toffee and nuts, especially almonds. There is also a note of apricot and a hint of a whiff of a mist of vanilla. The texture is even, but not smooth - let's say consistent ridges.<br />
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But those ridges are nothing more than the alcohol hitting the tongue. It is not verve, spunk, movement, or any other aspect of personality. It is neither give nor take. In fact, the wine is very conspicuously flat in such respects. It lacks that certain something, an aliveness. Perhaps this Soave Classico is not completely a corpse, but it is quite listless. It is almost as though it were not really into being a wine; it just goes through the motions, and quite unconvincingly at that. I found myself not so much enjoying a glass of wine as drinking an alcoholic beverage flavored like one. Even the color, though tinted nicely straw, lacks any and all distinguishing characteristics. It is not so much limpid as boring.<br />
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The finish gets even worse, by the way: the wine loses even its taste. Other than a basic, perfunctory note of white grape, there is barely anything there to report.<br />
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I dared not hope that a short while of breathing would jolt this sleeping drink awake, but I stuck around to see what would happen, out of curiosity if nothing else. I probably should not have bothered. After twenty minutes of aeration, the wine is pretty much the same as before except without the ridges. The aroma is still pretty nice: smoother, more mellow, full of tropical notes minus the citrus. It is more mellifluous, easygoing, a fun bouquet - the olfactory equivalent of a varied palette of bright, vivid pastels. But then when sipped, the wine has the same issues as before. It offers a pleasant combination of tropical fruits, and the offering stops dead right there. This wine completely lacks presence. I cannot talk to it, much less hear anything from it. The finish does attempt an improvement, offering notes of grapes and nectarines, with a tad of lychee to round it out. But this is way too little, way too late.<br />
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They say that one does not appreciate what one has until it is gone. I like to think that I have been attentive to, and appreciative of, the personalities offered up by the wines and other beverages that I have been fortunate enough to taste over the past year and more. But tasting a wine like this, so completely devoid of personality, definitely does help me to understand just how important personality is, and in what ways it is so. A wine is more than just fermented grapes, in the same way that a person is more than just carbon and water. People are awake, alive, active, conscious, and endowed with unique characters and qualities pertaining precisely to that consciousness. In the same way, the flavors and features in any wine worth the name ought primarily to serve as highlights alongside the qualities associated with being alive and having a personality all its own. This 2009 Soave Classico certainly has all of the ingredients, but nothing to let us know that there is anything behind them. And what a shame that is.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-69333454298526962602013-07-08T15:56:00.001-04:002013-08-22T14:34:33.002-04:00Clear Creek Kirschwasser<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21HsoVNNA190EGBon9x4d5y4y9Lq7AIRGxAfZYPQNk3hbTcBCuogkEY0mSZ431QLw1-7F5kgDwAm-INJaw87aD8bBcE0FVUUeqZicHobbwdadFOi1ewzOKNfK9BTmot7569wlyAWNKDGC/s1600/Kirschwasser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21HsoVNNA190EGBon9x4d5y4y9Lq7AIRGxAfZYPQNk3hbTcBCuogkEY0mSZ431QLw1-7F5kgDwAm-INJaw87aD8bBcE0FVUUeqZicHobbwdadFOi1ewzOKNfK9BTmot7569wlyAWNKDGC/s400/Kirschwasser.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
<b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Clear Creek Distillery</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Kirschwasser</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Type</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Cherry Brandy</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mash</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Oregon & Washington Cherries</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Region</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Oregon, USA</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ABV</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 40%</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Serving 1</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: In a snifter</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Serving 2</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: On the rocks</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We are lucky in the United States to have a vibrant, thriving craft beverage market. Micro-brewed beer is as popular as ever, and it is only looking up. Not only are some of the finest wines made here, but artisanal wines also abound. (Quite often, of course, that is a distinction without a difference.) Craft coffee roasting is everywhere. Increasing numbers of people are doing increasingly wonderful things with whiskey. Even juices and ades are being made better.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Then we have brandy. Small though it may be, there is indeed a craft brandy presence here in the States. What really sets it apart from its sister movements with other beverages, more than just its size, is the fact that it is not juxtaposed against any major, mass-market domestic versions of the same. There are some European ones, but none from this side of the Pond. We make and consume a zillion gallons annually of cheap, industrial-scale beer, wine, coffee, whiskey, juice, and what have you, with varying degrees of quality. But brandy? The entirety of American brandy production is as pristine as can be. Anyone making it is doing so in no small part out of simple talent and passion</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="http://www.clearcreekdistillery.com/">Clear Creek Distillery</a> in Oregon may trace its inspiration for brandy back to Europe, and its distillation techniques as well. But the importing ends right about there. The ingredients comprising the heart of this brandy are all grown Stateside; and the marriage of opportunity, talent, resourcefulness, and enthusiasm leading to Clear Creek's success, which comprises the brandy's soul, is itself a particularly American phenomenon.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The Kirschwasser is perfectly limpid and colorless; it could easily be confused for water. As is my wont with spirits, I tasted it in a snifter and then separately over ice cubes, so as to experience both its fiery passion and its calm collectedness, and glean all sides of its profile and personality. In the snifter, it emits a pungent aroma of deep cherry notes. There are vague hints of red berries, but they do not break up the nose; the aroma is even and consistent throughout. The palate is less pungent, but bold fruitiness certainly dominates. There are hints of black plum and dark berries. One oddity, of which I cannot make heads or tails: there is no note of nuts to my discernment, and yet I pick up an unshakable impression that if there were such a note, it would have to be of almonds. I have no clue what that is about; my dear readers may make of it what they will. The </span>Kirschwasser's finish, which lingers for a moment or two, but not three, is of cherries. It has medium viscosity, and is smooth, mature, and fruity. It comes across professional with a touch of enthusiasm.<br />
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Served on the rocks, the Kirschwasser offers a bright red cherry aroma: fresh, crisp, refreshing. The palate is of cherry and red berries, sweet, with hints of plum and grappa overtones. The body is solid, and the intensity, while moderate, has major lasting power. Those fruity notes, when they hit the throat, do not change or diminish in the slightest; they waft right up to the back of the nostrils as pristine as ever, and even gently cool the sinuses along the way. The finish is of a cherry flavor with a grappa feel to it.</div>
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This Kirschwasser would be great any time of year. In the winter, served in a snifter, it can warm up even the iciest evenings with its smooth, viscous pungency; in the summer, served on the rocks, it can make for a great evening with its crisp, fresh fruitiness. Get some today, and experience American artisanal beverage making at its best. And, enjoy.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-59945881224129772682013-07-03T12:16:00.000-04:002013-08-21T23:02:26.201-04:00Organic Honduras Marcala<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMMeC4tYnynQPPzsuoh6TeOrliDvyID9Iwx431XBSeIBVMZnMkP7bG7vLsclpZiu37Uw1CHH7YntFzbnEC_wj1oyYEEi0IXGlRb1_OrKElIY0oXSthhMFfvSoolS7zvfUPLz1AZEmZemsK/s268/GBlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMMeC4tYnynQPPzsuoh6TeOrliDvyID9Iwx431XBSeIBVMZnMkP7bG7vLsclpZiu37Uw1CHH7YntFzbnEC_wj1oyYEEi0IXGlRb1_OrKElIY0oXSthhMFfvSoolS7zvfUPLz1AZEmZemsK/s320/GBlogo.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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<b>Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Organic Honduras Marcala</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Origin</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Marcala, Honduras</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Roaster</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: The Gentle Brew</span></div>
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<b>Roast</b>: Medium-Brown<br />
<b>Varietals</b>: <em>(unknown)</em></div>
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<b>Preparation</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Freshly ground, French-pressed, sipped black</span><br />
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This is true of most types of stores, but wine shops are famous for it: One of the benefits of going into a good one is that the shopkeeper can recommend something for anything. Customers will be indulged in their zaniest, most preposterous fancies. Want a sweet red with personality, but maybe not the same old California Cabernet, but still not a radical departure from it, but you really are looking for something different, but not too different, but not the same either? Just ask, it is yours. Hosting someone who is crazy about Loire wines, and you are quite intent on making your famous chicken fricassee that evening, and the wine and chicken must meld together absolutely perfectly, and no you will absolutely <u>not</u> divulge what you put in it to the shopkeep or anyone else outside of the family, and by the way you hate Loire wines so it cannot be too Loire-ish, but it has to be something that this Loire fanatic friend of yours will appreciate along with his mystery meat? Ask, and ye shall receive. Karen MacNeil, author of <em>The Wine Bible</em>, once asked for a wine with the personality of Robin Williams - and was duly directed to one.</div>
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I, for the record, am not interested in imbibing any beverage whatsoever reminiscent of <em>Jumanji</em>. However, I do enjoy being able to bounce my more complicated requirements off of expert ears and get good direction. This is true not only of wine but of all things, including coffee. I have found that most of the good craft roasters are glad to oblige such discussion in their stores, and <a href="http://www.gentlebrewcoffee.com/">The Gentle Brew</a> is no exception. As the only craft roasters local to me, they have borne the unenviable burden of indulging more of my questions, dithering, and pure indecisiveness than any mere mortal ever should have to. But what can I say? Some days I know what I want; others, I have no hope of independently thinking through the slightest trifle until I have had some darn coffee in the first place.<br />
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Recently I asked one of those patient souls to recommend some beans to take home and brew for a review. "Something organic," I specified, "that would be well brewed with a French press." There was little hesitation; my expert friend knew right away what I would want: the Honduras Marcala. It was a brilliant choice.<br />
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The Marcala region, by the way, claims a unique bragging right. Nestled in western Honduras - right in the heart of a part of the world with more than a few competing coffee regions - Marcala has the distinction of being the first ever protected denomination of origin for coffee in Central America. The region has taken pride in its coffee production for generations, and continues to be at the forefront of that sector. When roasted properly, its beans can be quite an experience.<br />
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The beans from The Gentle Brew were roasted medium-brown, but there is nothing very dark about the liquid in the press. Neither orangey nor blackish, it sports rather a chestnut hue. There were, however, two tones to it, or rather two layers to the one tone: a lighter cloud in the middle is surrounded by an amorphous frame of slightly darker brown. The coffee is not actually separated; that is simply how it looks.<br />
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The Marcala's aroma is nutty, with notes of toasted marshmellow, and florals around the edges. It has many notes of a dark roast, but not the feel, texture, or personality of one. As it cools, tannins become more apparent, as does a certain wininess along with it. The palate is moderately tannic, with plenty of fruity notes, but also fairly buttery with an underlayer of light toast. The actual acidity is under control, but flavors of acidic things are dominant. The coffee is light bodied, but smooth and rich in flavor, really no more than a notch or two short of bold - and yet the light body does not seem to mind it very much at all, holding all of those notes just fine. The finish is of white table grapes and toasted marshmellow, an unlikely yet pleasant combination. It is a light and easy finish, wispy almost, quick.</div>
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The Marcala straddles the line between medium and dark profiles. It is almost as though the roast did not meet in the middle of medium and dark so much as mix and match elements of each, and discover harmony among them. For such complexity and sophistication to appear in an unblended coffee is rare, and speaks to a true roasting expertise.<br />
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The next time that you are out to pick up some coffee (or tea, wine, whiskey...) think ahead of time just how you would like it to be. By no means should you ask for a cup full of your favorite big screen comedian, as that will likely backfire in more ways than one. But think about what makes your usual preference distinct. What else may you be looking for this week? Anything? Why? Ask an expert about it. Learn something about what is out there. Experiment a little! You may find the greatest new thing on earth right under your nose, or you may discover more than you ever knew about why you love your old standard. Either way, it will make coffee better for you, more intimate, more fulfilling. Enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-38068393067978639422013-06-26T11:39:00.000-04:002013-08-22T14:34:22.604-04:002009 Flor de Viseu Tradition<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Flor de Viseu</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Name</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Tradition</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Varietals</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Alfrocheiro 50%; Tinta-Roriz 25%; Touriga-Nacional 25%</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Region</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Dão D.O.C., Portugal</span></div>
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It was all my fault. I could just chalk it up to a rookie mistake, sure, but it really was poor form, and I ought to own it. You may rest assured that I locked away all of my toys and sat myself in the corner to think about it. The lesson is learned, and the foolish negligence shall not be repeated. Now I know better.</div>
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And yet, at the same time, I cannot wholly regret what I did. In addition to learning a valuable lesson, I got to spend some rewarding time with a delightful young wine sporting a keen personality. The transgression, you see, was opening and tasting a wine first, then checking the vintage charts second. Vice versa would have been sensible, an attribute that I have never been accused of having.</div>
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By the time that I saw in the charts that the 2009 Dão reds are highly rated but not quite ready, it was a redundant discovery. Upon first sipping - indeed, even upon first gazing at - the Flor de Viseu Tradition, its quality was apparent, but its youth was even more so. The color is well on the purple side of things. The heart of the glass sports a smooth, even melding of ruby and garnet hues, though it takes a moment to discern that because the liquid is very, very deep, dark, opaque.</div>
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The nose, too, gives away the wine's youth. At first it is an indiscriminate medley of dark reds, but distinct notes of plums, prunes, and a little bit of cherry emerge. It is tannic. There is also a smack of rhubarb wrapped in spice. In fact, spice-wise, it is like strolling through a forest of cedar and sandalwood. The nose does, however, also betray plenty of latent sweetness.</div>
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The palate is of black plums, cherry, and other dark reds. It is rich, sweet, tannic, full-bodied, and undoubtedly fresh. The spice is still there, though understated somewhat. Peripherally, there is some pomegranite and more of that rhubarb. The finish is quite interesting, as the reds lighten up: cherry and strawberry.</div>
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But all of this, I fear, may serve to obscure the important qualities of the Tradition more than to illuminate them. The personality, you see, is a distinct pleasure. Here we have a wine like a strong young lad. He is not silent, and not unconfident, but we must be patient in seeking a conversation with him. We get wisps of youthful strength here and there, but they disappear as soon as they ever came about; the wine avoid excess, not out of any utilitarianism, but out of simple habit. Then, when he is ready, this he just starts showing his stuff - the same stuff we always knew he had, but in unexpected places and at unexpected moments. The randomness is almost goofy. And, it is a pleasure to be a part of it. Of course, with all of this give, there is not as much take - the conversation is a bit one-way - but that is not at all inappropriate for a boy. There is plenty of growth yet to come.</div>
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Which begs the question: Will all of that growth occur with a little while of breathing, or does the wine need more time in the bottle? Alas, after twenty minutes of aeration, we are met with the bane of every adult's existence: adolescence. The wine is just a tad off the wall now. The nose at first seems plausibly mellower, but then bam! We are back to the spice. The reds may have lightened up, but only a little. The tannins are out in force, and there is a bit of acidity. I note alpine strawberry, plum, dried cherry, and a whiff of watermelon. It really is quite spicy. And, the palate has evolved in quite the same manner. The fruit pulled back a little bit, leaving spice, tannins, and acidity. Not that the fruit disappeared, of course - rhubarb, pomegranite, and strawberry are still there. The finish, astoundingly, is incredibly mild: a tiny dab of spice, some vague fruitiness, and not much else.</div>
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So, the wine grew up, but only a little. These are the teenage years. He is still strong, still seeking to charm, and indeed he is well equipped to do so, with occasional success. However, he is less sure of himself, less sure of his identity, of what he wants to be, of how he ought to present himself. He can be recalcitrant at awkward times; at frustrating times. There is dynamism, of a type that is attractive on the surface, but that can be a bit much at intimate levels. But the wine has, at heart, a good personality, and some patience - admittedly, more than may be tasteful (no pun intended) - will yield great reward.</div>
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Many wine drinkers prefer to let wine age in the bottle at least a moderate amount before opening and enjoying. Such people should have this wine in about two years, at which point it ought to be absolutely outstanding. In fact, I bought another bottle of this same wine, and taped a note to it saying, "Drink In 2015". But if you cannot wait so long, or are not the type to bother about how mature a bottle of wine is, then there is plenty of joy to be had now. Pair the wine with red meat, heavily herbed fowl, or the cheese of your choice, and enjoy this keen young lad's company.</div>
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Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-79480563725126033352013-06-10T17:02:00.001-04:002013-08-21T23:05:13.330-04:00Starbucks Reserve Cameroon Mt. Oku<div class="separator" style="border: currentColor; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ65cUb1KcZATrzwMIQRshkbpROxJj45lANL5RRkRMeFyNTJu97F4WbcxaicdPYmYVhQ224vx4MSz1RmLJA_5ZV5CO7vlnw87lB_8spGR9i1TZNixWHWuj9kH1ZDGer9GOF65gxn3nCbxs/s1600/SBCameroon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" cya="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ65cUb1KcZATrzwMIQRshkbpROxJj45lANL5RRkRMeFyNTJu97F4WbcxaicdPYmYVhQ224vx4MSz1RmLJA_5ZV5CO7vlnw87lB_8spGR9i1TZNixWHWuj9kH1ZDGer9GOF65gxn3nCbxs/s320/SBCameroon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Name</strong><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Starbucks Reserve Cameroon Mt. Oku</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Origin</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Mt. Oku, Cameroon</span></div>
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<b>Roast</b>: <i>(unknown)</i></div>
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<b>Varietals</b>: Bourbon; Java</div>
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<b>Preparation</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Freshly ground, French-pressed, sipped black</span></div>
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Well, that time has come. It is hardly inevitable, and yet it has a way of seeming inevitable. To the American coffee reviewer, nothing else could seem like such a trite capitulation to the baser forces of our culture, and like such a keen opportunity to air some strong opinions about an important facet of that same culture, both at the same time. I refer, of course, to a review of <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/">Starbucks</a> coffee.</div>
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Let me say, I do not dislike Starbucks coffee generally. It is certainly palatable, and indeed I frequent a Starbucks near my day job. It affords a welcome cup of warm caffeination as well as a pleasant atmosphere in which to pass my lunch hour with a book or some homework or what have you.</div>
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But see, there is the thing. As much as anything else, what Starbucks has to offer is a coffee atmosphere. It is an ingenious hybrid of Beatnik coziness and corporate professionalism, bringing all types together with what is perhaps the world's most complete menu of coffee preparations, along with treats to eat, a slew of serving options and conveniences, and a consistency both ubiquitous and universal. And the coffee is alright.</div>
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But it is not gourmet. It is not craft. Nor could it be. There cannot be corporate efficiency and artisanal roasting in the same ethos. Such huge quantity demanded cannot be satisfied with small-batch crops. The masses cannot be all appealed to with rare, exotic flavors. Certainly, all of that cannot be brought to fruition at Starbucks level profits. Somewhere, sooner or later, something has got to give. Where will the compromise be?</div>
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I should have gotten my first clue before even taking the bag off of the shelf. There did not seem to be much point in reviewing one of Starbucks's standard blends, but I noticed lately that they have a line of "Starbucks Reserve", presumably their attempt at craft coffee. I picked up a bag of the Cameroon Mt. Oku. Most bags of gourmet coffee list the date on which the contents were roasted; this coffee had a "use by" date, and let's just say that it was many months in the future. Strike one. The bag also failed to list any varietals other than to assure that it is <em>arabica</em> (the website has the varietals listed), and it does not state any roast profile. Strike two.</div>
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Here, I might have thought, "Eh, forget it." If I were just out to get myself something to sip at home, then I certainly would have. But I was determined to see it through with the Starbucks experiment, and this was as good a chance as I was going to get to find a decent bean from them. Best to let it happen. So I brought it home and brewed it. Strike three.</div>
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What came out was the most charred coffee I have ever had. One would think that with all of the ado about their "Reserve" coffees, Starbucks (or whoever is roasting it for them) would have at least attempted to find a roast profile that flatters the beans. At least a try. But that did not happen here, at least not with the Cameroon. I can only infer that somebody decided, somewhere along the line, that it would be alright to fall back to the tried-and-trite darker roasting for which Starbucks is known, and then somebody accidently set the roasting machine to "rocket booster" and pressed "take off". It was like brewing and sipping what is left on the underside of a grill's grate soon after a barbecue.</div>
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This is a shame, too, because I swear I detected some potential, though it is not easy to say for sure. Sneaking out from behind the rich, mealy charcoal, which utterly dominates 99% of the coffee and all but obliterates any trace of <em>terroir</em>, are: a whiff of florals and nuttiness on the nose; a dab of spice on the tongue; and a hint of fruitiness that, by the finish, is just full enough to identify as white grape. It would not be unlike an Ethiopian if it were roasted properly, and frankly it might well be a very good coffee at that, for all we know.</div>
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But it was not roasted properly; it is like a super dark roast except without the usual tannins, smokiness, nuttiness - any flavor at all, really. It is barely identifiable as coffee, even less so as <em>arabica</em>. I would rather have Starbucks's Pike Place, or trendy Verona, or whatever, any day of the week.</div>
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But then, unless I am looking for any old convenient coffee while I pass an hour's lunch break, I would rather not go to Starbucks in the first place. The place is not so much for coffee people as for coffeehouse people, because it does not do coffee as well as it does coffeehouses. It does coffee creatively, it does it efficiently, and it certainly does it profitably, but it does not make the actual coffee much better than average. This attempt at putting a pretty label with a fancy tagline on a poor, poor product, and calling it craft coffee, is a shockingly blunt reminder of the fact.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-26334810072429888462013-05-30T16:06:00.001-04:002013-08-22T14:34:10.694-04:00Duck Walk 2011 Sauvignon Blanc Cuvée Select<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Duck Walk Vineyards</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Name</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Sauvignon Blanc Cuvée Select</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><strong>Varietal</strong><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Sauvignon Blanc</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><strong>Region</strong></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Long Island, USA</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Vintage</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 2011</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Tasted</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: May 13, 2013</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">ABV</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 12.5%</span></div>
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How often have we heard Sauvignon Blanc described as "crisp"? Other adjectives are negotiable: Sauvignon Blanc may be sweet or dry; grassy or tropical; spunky or reserved; light or rich; mild or profound. To be sure, those dichotomies are legitimate, having to do with where the grapes are grown, how the wine is made, and no small dose of chance. But "crisp" - well, one who spends enough time in the wide world of wine will be excused if he comes to think that a picture of Sauvignon Blanc appears next to "crisp" in Merriam-Webster's. There is no escaping the phrase. Wine reviews, wine surveys, wine labels, wine advertisements - they all, without fail, are sure to explain just how crisp this or that Sauvignon Blanc really is. It is no less fundamental a description of the wine than "white".</div>
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But what do we mean by "crisp"? It is not easy to describe. As with any other adjective whose implication people take for granted from a very young age, to define it without resorting to mere lists of examples and roundabout categorizations is a most mischievously exacting task indeed. (If unsure what I mean here, try to define "red".) To simplify for the sake of convenience and brevity, I find that "crisp" generally refers to a distinct, even sharpness, or else the palpable potential thereof. This phenomenon is most commonly associated with the senses of sound and touch, such as with apples, paper, and autumnal air, but may certainly apply to any of the other senses as well, in this case taste via the olfactory nerves. (Most of what people taste in wine, coffee, and a hefty menu of other foods and drinks, are in fact sensed through the olfactory nerves, not the taste buds.)</div>
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The next question is, if a wine is to be called "crisp", what does that mean about the wine? Is it the flavors that are crisp? The texture? Does the liquid itself slice about the mouth? A Sauvignon Blanc may have any or all such aspects of crispness. The 2011 Cuvée Select by <a href="http://www.duckwalk.com/">Duck Walk Vineyards</a> on Long Island, New York, displays a smooth body, but a distinct sharpness of flavor that exemplifies what a Sauvignon Blanc is known to be.</div>
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Before it ever occurred to me to dissect the word "crisp" as above, I made the following note on this wine's color: "Clear, crisp, medium goldenrod. A bubble or two, but otherwise smooth." The first aromas are of melon: sweet, smooth, and deep. After a few seconds, it opens up a little, and citrus appears, but in an easygoing sort of way. It is not acidic. The entire aroma, even the citrus, is rather tropical.</div>
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In the mouth it is quite different. Riding on a full body, the citrus is much more dominant here, with notes of lemon zest and quince. An emergent acidity gives the wine a spark on the tongue. The remaining melon flavor, and a new note of nectarine, are very subtle. The texture here is smooth, but the flavor - fruity, but not tart so much as tangy - is not. By no means spicy, it is just as strong as though it were. It is pungent, in a sharp sort of way. It is - crisp. The finish is of lemon zest and pears, and it, too, is strong and pungent.</div>
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After aerating for twenty minutes, the wine is mellowed out some. The aroma is still of tropical fruitiness. Disappeared from the nose, the citrus is still dominant in the mouth, though the melon and nectarine have grown in prominence. The flavor as a whole has smoothed out to match the texture. It is still strong, but not pungent; maybe "full". My notes say "swirls of fruit". The finish now has added to it some melon.</div>
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As anyone familiar with Sauvignon Blanc has likely discerned by now, this wine can pair with a wide variety of foods. Like many whites it is also good, if chilled a bit, for simply sipping in the sun now that the warm weather is upon us. You will probably sip it among friends or family, in a backyard or similarly intimate venue to relax as a group, all convened after an busy Sunday of brunch, errands, baseball, and crossword puzzles. As you start to realize that it is almost dinner time, someone will right away reach for the wine, and someone else will get the glasses as the bottle is opened. The first glass will be about halfway finished before somebody serves snacks, then barbecue. Then the sun will signal that it will be setting any hour now, and some dessert will be served, maybe a strawberry shortcake, or a melon carved into a funny shape. Be sure, as you sip the wine, enjoying its rich texture and complexity of fruits, to take a brief moment - a pause in the conversation, a shifting of seats as someone gets up, or, best yet, a momentary retreat from the gossip for just long enough to glance over to where the lower ridge of the big, red sun is shimmering and shaking and digging the hole in the horizon into which the entire orb is about to descend - to truly enjoy it.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-32445733705127822072013-05-04T12:13:00.001-04:002013-08-22T14:33:58.501-04:00Organic Bai Mu Dan<div class="separator" style="border: currentColor; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZ3gM9jScC23vG-gymOUHJhyphenhyphenW5mt8-sCh26qiYJwFwQe1mJq7RavZwn-4N_3VL3XbcDEtkS_f6cgJxX2mrxhwReqmu_F38pTE3Sm4fQUeeOR7QkVb3Buk45oNsn0mWeA73axiakrSjRO6/s1600/BaiMuDan_YMT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" lua="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZ3gM9jScC23vG-gymOUHJhyphenhyphenW5mt8-sCh26qiYJwFwQe1mJq7RavZwn-4N_3VL3XbcDEtkS_f6cgJxX2mrxhwReqmu_F38pTE3Sm4fQUeeOR7QkVb3Buk45oNsn0mWeA73axiakrSjRO6/s320/BaiMuDan_YMT.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Name</b>: Organic Bai Mu Dan<b> </b></div>
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<b>Type</b>: White Tea </div>
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<b>Purveyor</b>: You, Me and Tea</div>
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<b>Preparation</b>: One teaspoon steeped in about eight ounces of 180-degree water for 4:30, sipped plain</div>
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<em>Bai mudan</em> means "white peony" in Chinese. The Chinese have other words for "peony" in addition to <em>mudan</em>, among them <em>fuguihua</em> ("flower of riches and honor") and <em>huawang</em> ("king of the flowers"). We might reasonably expect, upon learning this, that if they were to name a tea after this important symbol, they would reserve it for a premium variety. And indeed they have: whereas the other main grade of Chinese white tea, <em>bai hao yinzhen</em> ("white hair silver needle"), is made just from leaf shoots, <em>bai mudan</em> is prepared from shoots with young leaves on them. <em>Bai hao yinzhen</em> is very popular for its lighter, gentler flavors, but <em>bai mudan</em> takes no back seat with its more robust flavor profile, which, because it is robust only relative to white teas, results in a delightful beverage that offers nice, light tasting notes without devolving altogether into a glorified cup of barely flavored water.</div>
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The dry leaves of this organic Bai Mu Dan from <a href="http://www.youmeandtea.com/">You, Me and Tea</a> are hazel colored. They are sizeable, and really do not appear terribly withered or curled up. The leaves smell very much of citrus - sweet citrus - maybe with the slightest wisp of white table grapes. They brew into a light, gentle, sprightly beverage that shakes about playfully as the vessel gets moved around. It is not at all unlike the color of a white peach.</div>
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The aroma is sweet and malty, smooth, with clear notes of citrus and melon, along with a side of very mild tannins. The first thing noticed upon sipping it is the light body, followed immediately by the delightful citrus and the practical absence of tannins. The beverage is not brisk, but one can discern that if there were a few more tannins about, then it would indeed be brisk, and that would not be such a bad thing. After a few sips, one notices a maltiness beginning to poke its way about, sneaking up from the back of the palate. It never overpowers, but with each sip it becomes felt further and further up the mouth, until soon malt is forming an underlying context in which all of the other tasting notes, heretofore independently frolicking about, are now playing together.</div>
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Thinking about it for far longer than anyone with something useful to do ought to spend thinking about it, I have found that this organic Bai Mu Dan bears a vague resemblance to a first flush Darjeeling tea.</div>
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In fidelity to the traditions of elegance and beauty that brought this tea about and have tended to its continuing prosperity, the tea has a lovely finish that rewards those who explore it most thoroughly: florals emerge for the first time, and form a lovely scene on the palate in which, if one waits just a moment or two extra, light notes of citrus and melon pass through with a breezy flourish.</div>
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Despite being lighter and more energetic than traditional tea-time teas, which tend to be deeper, smoother, calmer, and more thoughtful, thusly lending themselves to relaxation and quiet contemplation, this Bai Mu Dan is recommended more for the afternoon than for the morning. It is caffeinated and will work just fine for a chemical wakening agent, yes. However, its personality is much better suited for someone who is already about the day. The Bai Mu Dan is playful, energetic, almost cute in its childlike get-up-and-go. To get the most out of it, one should approach it already awake, in good humor, excited at the very thought of unshouldering the burdens of the day and expending the rest of one's energy in sweet recreation. Have an extra few minutes on the way to your kid's baseball game after work? The Bai Mu Dan is eagerly waiting to accompany you along the way. Done with your chores and errands for the weekend and looking forward to yoga class? This BMD just wrote your name on itself, and in your favorite font at that. Come to think of it, morning sipping may work after all: if you are one of those lucky devils who continues to spring out of bed with bountiful verve every single morning, and find yourself having just finished your jog at sunrise and now preparing to tackle the preposterous challenges with which a phalanx of bosses and coworkers has schemed to bombard you before you have even traversed the office parking lot - then a little Bai Mu Dan on the way there is just what the doctor ordered.</div>
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Pick some up today, and enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-54970797316239647842013-04-17T16:22:00.000-04:002013-08-21T23:10:19.944-04:00Guadalupe El Salvador<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2LlKiEuP6b0k2R57RxXE-zjWaYfTlyJQaLF_S6-zHqROV_npyISsSS_w4RmUhpis8DJ6BCWtdUdBpzDDycY7USUPZhHUsfldcozfxFywRpoTLeR5ZjE8lmXhJyC9nUy-71BVwwWH9Bcu/s1600/GuadalupeElSalvador.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2LlKiEuP6b0k2R57RxXE-zjWaYfTlyJQaLF_S6-zHqROV_npyISsSS_w4RmUhpis8DJ6BCWtdUdBpzDDycY7USUPZhHUsfldcozfxFywRpoTLeR5ZjE8lmXhJyC9nUy-71BVwwWH9Bcu/s320/GuadalupeElSalvador.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Guadalupe El Salvador</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Origin</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Ahuachapan, El Salvador</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Roaster</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Irving Farm</span></div>
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<b>Roast</b>: <i>(unknown)</i></div>
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<b>Varietals</b>: Bourbon; Catuai</div>
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<b>Preparation</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Freshly ground, French-pressed, sipped black</span></div>
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There are elitists who cannot help it, and there are elitists who do not want to help it; I am of the latter variety. I often eschew trendy things - which, much like celebrities, seem to exist merely for their own sakes these days - just because they are trendy. This is not to say that I am under the illusion that more obscure things are necessarily better; to avoid something just because it is trendy involves no more rigor of thought than to gravitate towards it for the same reason. But setting myself apart from the masses does feel good - great, often - and so I continue upon that path. It is a habit, in other words, based on aesthetic, not philosophic, convictions.</div>
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It is therefore rare indeed to hear me ask, "What's popular these days?" But in a craft coffee roaster's shop, there is no avoiding the fact that that is a wise question to pose. Firstly, if the roaster is a good one, it is hard to go wrong with just about any variety. Secondly, anybody inside the shop, in all likelihood, posseses faculties of epicurean discernment well above those of the unwashed masses. So if it does so happen that an elite clientele with inevitably diverse preferences is generally congregating around one or two beans in particular - <i>id est</i>, if there is something popular or trendy - then it is hard to avoid the conclusion that these beans are receiving so much attention for good reason. And indeed, I have never visited a gourmet roasting house in which this did not prove to be true.</div>
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I had the pleasure of conversing with Dan Streetman of <a href="http://www.irvingfarm.com/">Irving Farm</a> lately. The timing coincided with a favorite season of his, the arrival of Central American harvests. So, while congratulating him on his recognition by the SCAA, I took the opportunity to ask him what some of Irving Farm's popular Central American coffees are. The answer: Santa Isabel Guatemala and Guadalupe El Salvador. Sounds pretty good! I picked up some Guadalupe beans the next time I was in the store, and brought them home to brew.</div>
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What emerges is a coffee of a light oaken color. There is no specific orange tinge, but much like a blend reviewed here some months ago, it is of such a hue as to remind us that brown is really a shade of orange. Most remarkable about the coffee's appearance, though, is the complexity of its opacity. It is perhaps the most obscure translucence possible without abandoning translucence altogether. At first glance it appears opaque, but not quite viscerally so, and upon closer inspection one sees that, if one were to travel through a great body of the liquid, one would not at all be hard pressed to expect to find a light to guide one to the surface.</div>
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The Guadalupe El Salvador opens with an aroma of earthy notes, but soon expands into fruit and spice, and remains smooth throughout. There is some sweetness, but one has to dig deep to get to it. The moderate level of acid works well here. When sipped, the coffee is smooth, with simultaneous notes of earthiness and sweetness at first. There is some chocolate there. Slight florals and citrus appear over time, but they do not compete for dominance, simply complementing the primary earth and sweetness. Tannins are moderate, and acid is low. The coffee rides a fine line between rich and medium-bodied, and continues to flow smoothly down the throat. It is alive on the tongue and palate, but that is not to say jumpy; it is just that one can feel the freshness. As the sips go on, more and more citrus surreptitiously slips into the flavor, as does a vague scattering of spice. Are these notes beginning to compete for primacy after all? Compared to their counterparts a few minutes earlier they are certainly aggressive, yes - and yet, generally speaking, they are no threat to the earthiness and sweetness, which have a comfortable hold on the positions of principle flavors. The coffee's finish bears mention here: rather unexpectedly, it offers notes of white table grapes and chocolate.</div>
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It is not altogether mysterious that this fresh, dynamic coffee should be popular among clientele at Irving Farm. Far from yet another obnoxious example of silly nonsense being popular just for being popular, we have in the Guadalupe El Salvador an exemplary instance of high quality and prime taste rising above worthy competition on the merits. Trend-followers, trend-setters, and even my fellow crotchety, haughty trend-eschewers would all do well to pick some up and learn from the example of what popularity really ought to be about. In the process of all that, enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-67337784007666975522013-04-09T16:32:00.000-04:002013-08-22T14:33:32.991-04:00Aiace Riserva 2007<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulTh9BCo3zIHE_p5Aainw5DKmtTe-BbpjXbUsDQlwYr3ta_oIdir9KCp7Af57av-CvPp6ZevDtGUwzikw5s8In8kjXwAGnQAfrh1MPjhaq-N2mquRVK2lufx4jpT89a1DURN1OQ5x2s-f/s1600/AiaceRiserva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhulTh9BCo3zIHE_p5Aainw5DKmtTe-BbpjXbUsDQlwYr3ta_oIdir9KCp7Af57av-CvPp6ZevDtGUwzikw5s8In8kjXwAGnQAfrh1MPjhaq-N2mquRVK2lufx4jpT89a1DURN1OQ5x2s-f/s320/AiaceRiserva.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>
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<b>Producer</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Castello Monaci</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Name</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Aiace Riserva</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><strong>Varietals</strong><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Malvasia Nera 20%; Negroamaro 80%</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><strong>Region</strong></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Salice Salentino D.O.C., Italy</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Vintage</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 2007 Riserva</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Tasted</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: April 1, 2013</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">ABV</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: 14%</span></div>
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It really is interesting how much history of culture and civilization there is to be divined from a single word. For example, a principle grape of Salice Salentino D.O.C. is negroamaro. On the face of it, the word breaks down simply enough: <em>negro</em> derives from "black," <em>amaro</em> means "bitter," ergo "negroamaro" refers to a dark, bitter grape. And indeed the wine is often so; maybe that is all there is to say about the etymology here after all. A little snooping around outside the box, however, turns up the interesting fact that the suffix <em>-maro</em> is rooted in the Ancient Greek, and modern Salentine, word for "black." "Black-black," perhaps the grape is really called. Heck if the color does not approach such dark depths, and besides, while negroamaro does ferment into wine that includes notes of earth and herbs that may be considered on the bitter side (among many other notes), that would be an odd way to name a beverage that is, in totality, one of the sweet and pleasant drinks in life. The Ancient Greeks, furthermore, planted grapes in most of the motable wine regions around the Mediterranean before the Romans took over such tasks, including in Salento, the peninsula forming the heel of Italy's boot, towards the bottom of which Salice Salentino D.O.C. is located. Snooping around yet further, we find that before even the Greeks arrived in Salento, the Illyrians got there and made a wine called "merum." Mention of this merum is found here and there among Mediterranean literatures for the better part of a millenium, up through the days of the Romans. Technical records, to the poor extent that they exist, are sketchy, but it is plausible that negroamaro was used to make merum. In that case, then, we may have nothing less than "black merum" comprising eighty percent of this beverage here before us today. And who knows what the philologists, anthropologists, and ampelographists will discover next? Absent proof one way or another, we may consider it plausible that any number of civilizations brought negroamaro to Salento at almost any point over the last seven or eight millenia.</div>
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Fascinating, really. It is truly remarkable how a single word often contains more history and wonder just waiting to be discovered than an entire sentence that spells something out.</div>
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<a href="http://www.castellomonaci.it/">Castello Monaci</a> named this estate bottling after Telemonian Ajax, Ajax the Great, cousin to Achilles and hero of the Greeks in the Trojan War. A blurb in Italian on the back of the bottle discusses how Ajax "distinguished himself time and again" with his "inherent strength and great valor. Powerful, imposing, and quite handsome, he remained calm and collected." (Translation mine.) Ajax was, generally, an intense person, as his falling out with Odysseus and mortal derangement illustrate. But Castello Monaci does well to remind its patrons of the hero's almost superhuman ability, on the battlefield, to keep his abundant energy away from his nerves, housing it instead within his massive limbs. He was thus a paragon of both strength and poise where it counted most. In that respect, it was very keen indeed to name this wine after Ajax.</div>
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The Aiace Riserva is a deep red wine, more garnet than ruby. The 2007 has just the absolute slightest hint of orange around the edges. We can certainly get the maximum out of it by drinking it now, without worry that it is not quite ready - but, were we to leave it until 2014 to open, we would be forgiven for looking at it then and thinking that we just hit the beginning of peak drinking age.</div>
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The aroma is full of sweet reds, primarily cherry and strawberry, and some purples, principally dried plum. There is even a fig come over to play. Not as heavy as most aromas with so many components, this aroma does lack any sign of the oak casks in which the wine has aged.</div>
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The first thing one notices when tasting the wine is how smooth it is. There are some initial notes of vanilla - <em>there</em> are those casks - and some redcurrants and plums. After a couple of sips, the vanilla fades away, and the fruits take over. The Aiace Riserva is medium bodied. It thereby is strong enough to have bold flavors, but it does not allow those flavors to run rampant about the mouth; rather, it keeps them to a gentle, easy glide as they flow smoothly down. The finish is cherry and plum, and I wish it lasted longer.</div>
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After breathing for twenty minutes, the wine drinks optimally. In the nose there are some purples and darker reds: plum, cranberry, pomegranite, fig. Still, though, the aroma does an impressive job of staying light. A couple of vanilla and toffee notes are to be found, but the fruits dominate. The palate is slightly richer than it had been earlier, though the tasting notes have not shifted too much at all. The redcurrants have morphed to slightly lighter reds, but they carry the depth of darker reds. The finish has not changed, nor, sadly, learned to endure longer.</div>
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Does this wine have an undercurrent of explosive emotions just waiting for a good reason to pop to the forefront of tales and adventures recounted and examined by laypeople and scholars all over the world for millenia to come? Probably not. After even a couple of hours, the wine remained cool and composed. But on the other hand, any time that I am drinking it is a time that counts - precisely the type of situation in which the warrior Ajax would have been the last to even flinch. Beautiful, powerful, poised - and with ends that come way too soon - Ajax the wine and Ajax the hero have an extraordinary amount in common. Open a gripping narrative of his exploits, pour a glass of the good stuff, sit back with both, and enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-58486318255602337312013-03-27T23:34:00.001-04:002013-08-22T14:33:18.024-04:00Jasmine Petal Tea<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Name</b>: Jasmine Petal Tea<b> </b></div>
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<b>Type</b>: Green Tea </div>
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<b>Purveyor</b>: Two Leaves Tea Co.</div>
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<b>Preparation</b>: One tea bag steeped in about eight ounces of 180-degree water for 3:00 (as recommended), sipped plain</div>
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It is hardly a secret that tea is an absorbent product. It absorbs moisture, of course, but more perniciously, it absorbs scents, aromas, flavors, and just about any other such compound, making careful storage of dry leaves an indispensable task for tea drinkers. Anyone who has ever, from a cavalier attitude or simple laziness, just tossed an unsecured bag of tea into the cabinet or (even worse) the 'fridge, knows precisely of what I speak.</div>
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Of course, it is not all a bad thing. The good Mr. Richard Rosenfeld, founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.twoleavestea.com/">Two Leaves Tea Co.</a> (formerly Two Leaves and a Bud), is said to take tea that he finds sub-par for drinking, and use it in place of baking soda as an odor absorber in his refrigerator. It works quite the same.</div>
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Another, perhaps more appreciable way to put tea's absorbent qualities to good use is to produce scented tea. This nifty category of flavored teas is produced by drying tea leaves among whatever is is that we want the tea to taste like, and letting the scents and flavors get absorbed. Then the tea leaves - and only the tea leaves, not the scent-producers - are gathered and sold.</div>
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Scented teas are hardly rare, and comprise a tradition many centuries old going back to China, but all too often these days tea is flavored by throwing it together with other objects and packaging them all together. The flavors become overpowering, the tasting notes and health benefits of the tea become diluted, and even calling the product "tea" becomes rather more a convention of convenience than one of precision, as actual tea may comprise a rather small percentage of what gets brewed.</div>
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With scented tea, on the other hand, the flavors are discrete, balanced, in harmony with the tea instead of clashing against it. Two Leaves Tea has done a keen job with Jasmine Petal of scenting green tea with jasmine. By no means should my kind readership just take my word for it: trust some experts. This tea has brought to Two Leaves Tea first place prize at the 2012 North American Tea Championship in the Jasmine Scented Green Tea category of the Packaged Single-Service class (a new class in the competition). Very nice!</div>
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The tea brews into a strong, yellow beverage - not fluorescent, but not pale or translucent, either; just a deep, rich hue of yellow. In the aroma, jasmine opens like a lotus as it ascends into the nose. There are slight - very slight - fruity notes as well. The aroma is rich, but discreet. Also, smooth.</div>
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Most people who have tasted jasmine are familiar with its occasional tendency towards astringency, but this jasmine here, on the contrary, is quite sweet. Some malt underlies the flavor, but comes off more as a textural note than as a tasting note. As the sips go on, the green tea's own notes come out from the woodwork: leafy, sweet, slightly tannic. But the jasmine maintains the spotlight, right through to the finish. Conveniently for this flavor combination, the tea is medium-bodied and very smooth, even silky.</div>
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The flavors really do blend well together. The green tea notes make for an excellent platform on which the jasmine sits high - elegant; solid yet supple; strong yet gentle.</div>
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The Jasmine Petal tea works for breakfast inasmuch as it is caffeinated, but it would be most ideally suited for the afternoon. The rich flavors and easy smoothness make for an excellent vessel by which to return oneself to a state of calm, focus, and clarity after one of those busy days in which, between the mind and the body, each seems to be more wound up than the other.</div>
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Enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7998870212867954760.post-48905098781658694602013-02-26T15:19:00.001-05:002013-08-22T14:33:06.982-04:00Blue Batak Sumatra<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZvM6cSq7-fWZQ1FN8xQD590Xjpx3WiJvIptp_NkC-Ajyab6lzobyOJ4p923aWbgWQgbYBnzl71DW0tSLDhC7HOcUPuFNujriCUeUX2JVwBNEI9TkCkHhgrdrvCOARtNldrGTAeqc-9Qee/s1600/if-shield-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZvM6cSq7-fWZQ1FN8xQD590Xjpx3WiJvIptp_NkC-Ajyab6lzobyOJ4p923aWbgWQgbYBnzl71DW0tSLDhC7HOcUPuFNujriCUeUX2JVwBNEI9TkCkHhgrdrvCOARtNldrGTAeqc-9Qee/s1600/if-shield-small.jpg" /></a><b></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: bold;">Name</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Blue Batak Sumatra</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Origin</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Lintong, Sumatra</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Roaster</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Irving Farm</span></div>
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<b>Roast</b>: <i>(unknown)</i></div>
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<b>Varietal</b>: Catimor; Java; Jember</div>
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<b>Preparation</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">: Freshly ground, French-pressed, sipped black</span></div>
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Ever since coffee was first brought from the Horn of Africa to Indonesia in the late 1600s the Batak people have been growing it in the Lintong region of Sumatra, around Lake Toba. The high elevation, hearty rainfall, and volcanic soil make for superb conditions to grow the crop.</div>
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The coffee in Lintong, as in most of Indonesia, is wet hulled, also known as semi-dried or, in Indonesian, <em>giling basah</em> ("wet grinding"). This means that for a little while the seeds are partially dried while still in their parchment before finishing drying outdoors with the parchment removed. That initial step allows all of the sugars, alcohols, and other compounds of the fruit to be absorbed into the bean itself, creating a sweet and immensely flavorful coffee. During this process the beans turn from a light green to a darker, bluish green, ergo "Blue Batak".</div>
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Of course, the beans are not blue once they have been roasted - they are quite as brown as roasted beans should be. They brew into a busy brown; dark and complicated, but not opaque or self-absorbed. The aroma has notes of fruit and herbs everywhere. It is somewhat light in impact, but still absolutely chock-full of flavors. It is not tannic or acidic; the word "vegetal" comes to mind.</div>
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The palate offers earthy notes at first, but only at first. The acidity is a non-factor, moderate at most. As the coffee cools, the acidity remains low, but the flavors turn into fruit, vegetables, herbs, and spices, and to say that they are many and varied is a gross understatement. There are notes of green pepper, red pepper, and bay leaf, along with peripheral notes of smoke, florals, black pepper, and walnut. <a href="http://www.irvingfarm.com/">Irving Farm</a> is also right on the money with the tasting notes that they have printed on the bag: "Heavy, oregano, green tomato" - that is, assuming that the first comment refers to the gargantuan complexity, the absolute <em>mélange</em> of flavors with which the coffee is dripping (literally, I suppose), and not to the texture, which is medium bodied. It is just substantial enough to carry all of the flavors, but nothing further; the body does not even try to interfere with its own effect on the tasting notes, as even knowing where to begin would be a Herculean task for it in this case.</div>
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So, there is certainly an epic smorgasbord embodied in the <em>terroir</em> here, but whence the <em>terroir</em>? Am I on an Indonesian plantation or in a Mediterranean garden? And either way, may I please stay a while longer?</div>
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Often, when I am done reviewing a coffee, wine, or tea, even if I liked it, I move on. "Time for what's next," I think to myself. But not this time. I may not quite have a handle on where, exactly, in the world I am, but that will not stop me from hanging around. I am off to have another cup of Blue Batak Sumatra, and my kind readers ought to have one as well. Enjoy.</div>
Daniel Mencherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165489162840681653noreply@blogger.com0