Marc Gunther, a seasoned journalist with past bylines in Slate, CNNMoney, FORTUNE and elsewhere, has turned his professionally unbiased lens towards the specialty coffee world in two fascinating new features this week. First, Mr. Gunther provides some birds-eye overview on the recent split between Transfair (now Fair Trade USA) and FLO, or Fairtrade Labeling Organizations, an international heading for fair trade operations.

“This is an exciting moment in the Fair Trade movement’s history because it’s a chance to revisit our purpose, our goals and our practices,” says Ben Corey-Moran, the president of Thanksgiving Coffee Co. , a socially-conscious artisan roaster in northern California. (Its slogan: “Not Just a Cup, But as Just Cup.”) “But it’s also a very dangerous moment. We could confuse or alienate a lot of consumers.”

Mr. Gunther also interviews Paul Rice, president and CEO of Fair Trade, along with Rodney North of Equal Exchange, the most vocal opponent of this split between FT USA and the FLO. It’s beyond refreshing to read coverage like this provided by Mr. Gunther, who approaches these issues with the cool levelheadedness of a proper business reporter, without a dog in the fight or a pre-formed opinion. This article is a fair, even-handed must-read for your week.

Marc Gunther – A schism over Fair Trade.

There’s another piece on Mr. Gunther’s blog that deserves your perusal. In it, he compares ethical sourcing, social and environmental practices preached by two specialty coffee companies: Thanksgiving Coffee, a family-owned roaster in Mendocino County, CA, and Starbucks, who you may have heard of before. Turns out there’s a common thread uniting both:

The big coffee company and the little one share a couple of important goals. First, they want to win the trust of their customers and, of course, their own employees. One way to do that is by showing them that their coffee is ethically-sourced. Starbucks talks about responsibly grown coffee, citing its Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) Practices, a set of social, economic, environmental and quality guidelines. Thanksgiving’s slogan is ““Not Just a Cup, but a Just Cup.”  Reputation matters, whether you are big or small.

But, even if reputation didn’t matter (and to most customers, it probably doesn’t), Starbucks and Thanksgiving need to devote their attention to the social and environmental practices of their growers, upon whom they depend for a reliable supply of high-quality coffee. If their coffee farmers run into trouble–because of low coffee prices, poor environmental practices or climate change–Starbucks and Thanksgiving will struggle, too.

We suggest you spend time with this feature as well. Can we nominate this guy for next year’s SCAA Symposium?

Marc Gunther – At Starbucks and Thanksgiving Coffee, it’s not just a cuppa joe.

Marc Gunther – A schism over Fair Trade

Boston Globe reports:

The founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., who was ousted as chairman for a stock sale that violated company policy, said the transaction was triggered after he was caught off-guard by a swift drop in the coffee maker’s stock price.

Robert Stiller, who also dumped his $50 million stake in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., said in an interview Wednesday that he did not expect Green Mountain’s shares to fall so steeply last week. The decline forced him to sell the shares on a margin call, which happened to occur during a blackout period in which the company prohibits the sale of its stock by insiders.

Weak! No telling what’s become of Mr. Stiller’s shares in the E-Z Wider Rolling Paper company (we’re not making this up). Bob’s major sell-off was reportedly due to his using a stock portfolio as his his main source of income. Then some bankers cruelly harshed his mellow:

Stiller said he received a call from Deutsche Bank on Friday about an hour and a half before the market closed, telling him that he needed to come up with cash or sell shares.

Stiller, who founded Green Mountain in 1981 and served as its president and chief executive until May 2007, said that he is retired and that his stock portfolio is his main source of income. As for reports that he leads a lavish lifestyle, he said he bought a yacht five years ago because he enjoys traveling and being on the water with friends.

“Maybe I shouldn’t do these things, but I’ve worked all my life building this company and it’s been successful,’’ said Stiller, 68. “I want to enjoy it.’’

It’s safe to say that Mr. Sorenson’s first foray in the food and cocktail world, The Woodsman Tavern, has been a smashing success, having been named one of the 10 best new restaurants in America by GQ, given a full-service love-on by The Oregonian, and endlessly slobbered over by the folks at Eater PDX. Sprudge.com lead writer Jordan Michelman profiled their Campari and burnt cedar take on a classic Old Pal cocktail for Serious Eats on November 22nd, for which he was woefully underpaid, while their innovative vacuum pot hot toddy received an artful, thorough Strand job on November 25th. It all adds up to no shortage of fawning press, and sets the bar pretty gosh darn high for whatever Mr. Sorenson has planned for his new playspace down Division.

More from “Eat Beat” blogger Karen Brooks, who calls Duane an “indie coffee lord” and rightfully points out The Woodsman Market next to the restaurant as a destination unto itself:

For years, Lauro Kitchen and the ramshackle-chic Pix Patisserie stood like mirages in the foodie oasis of car-zooming SE Division Street. Then Pok Pok’s wild success drew attention to what is now Portland’s booming Eat Street, where rock ‘n’ roll ramen, eclectic food carts, Mexican street food, and reimagined family meals mingle with modestly priced stylish eateries.

Sorenson is now among the high-profile and rising star talents making Division a compelling destination.“I’ve lived over here for years,” he says. “I love investing in the food scene on Division. I’m excited to be part of Portland’s food world.”

Mr. Sorenson is currently in Europe, researching concepts for this new restaurant space, but we feel safe in predicting that fine Stumptown coffees will be a component part of whatever he’s cooking up. Stay tuned.

Is it time you “Found A Job”?

This is an awesome time to be armed with a specialty coffee skill set, as some of North America’s top coffee concerns are in need of man power, gal strength, and general industry know-how.

Joe NYC and Verve in Santa Cruz are now hiring. If you have aspirations of living and working in Vancouver, BC, well, there’s a job there too with the fine folks at Revolver Coffee.

In fact, if you want to stay abreast of all the myriad hiring going on in NYC, there’s a handy dandy website doing the hard work for you. New York Coffee Jobs currently has listings for Stumptown, Kaffe 1668, Sweetleaf, and Toby’s Estate, among others. You officially no longer have an excuse to sit around all day, reading this website. Unless of course you worked your way up to a marketing job in specialty coffee, in which case, you’ve earned every right to sit around all day reading this website.

Now Hiring:

Joe, New York City

Revolver Coffee, Vancouver, BC

Verve Coffee Roasters, Santa Cruz, CA

Craft Coffee, NYC

Cafe Imports, MPLS

Additional resources:

New York Coffee Jobs

“Reclaimed lumber”, “reusable tote-bags”, “recycled cardboard”, and a little family business coffee cart selling brew to folks out front of the library. Sounds good, right? Not to mayor of Encinitas, California or the no-doubt overeducated jugheads who run the town’s library. They want Global Grind, a small business out front of the library, to stop selling upcycled tote bags – because who needs extra revenue, right? Life is SO much easier when city and state taxes pay your mortgage, especially when your state is like 69 billion dollars in debt.

Global Grind’s lease is in jeopardy. Help stop this travesty in Encinitas! Save Global Grind!

Call the library directly:
1-760-753-7376

Channel your inner grandpa and send some critical mail to:
Save Global Grind
c/o Encinitas Library Jugheads
540 Cornish Drive
Encinitas, CA 92024

Or hop on the Facebooks and express your displeasure:
https://www.facebook.com/encinitaslibrary

An enterprising young New Jersey coffee entrepreneur has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal’s blog. Mona Pryor is a bit of a legend in the city of Camden, just across the river from Philadelphia, where her bustling (if uncreatively named) City Coffee cafe is a one-stop-shop for drinks, tax preparation, paternity tests, and a great place to rub shoulders with the judge you might be seeing in Community Court for your traffic infraction.

“I just came in for the green tea but I stayed for the financial planning,” said Joseph Tull, a local fire inspector and regular customer at City Coffee.

‘I do the DNA swabs and the drug testings,’ said City Coffee’s Mona Pryor. ‘But I also make a perfect latte.’

If you’re a native of Camden, or live in the South Jersey / Philly metroplex, you may be running out of time to order a coffee from Mona Pryor herself:

As of last week, City Coffee had brought in a new manager to oversee the coffee operations so Pryor can focus on launching the shop’s latest venture: Hoarders Express.

Her plan is to send teams of cleaners into distressed homes to clear the mess and sell the stuff. Pryor said she would tap City Coffee’s customers for referrals.

“The lawyers all know people being evicted from their homes that need the cleaning and their clients all need some extra cash,” Pryor said. “This is going to be a good one.”

Mona Pryor. On a good one in the Wall Street Journal.

Ritual Coffee wants to make your unbridled home coffee service fantasies a reality, by auctioning off a steamy coffee escort to offer some “professional” help delivered to your door. Ritual is raffling their services along with nine other local Bay Area businesses in a silent auction supporting non-profit SFMade, which aims to build a vibrant manufacturing sector in San Francisco.

From Ritual’s eBay auction:

Ever wish you could have a barista right in your home? Well, here is your chance! If you win you’ll have a Ritual barista come to your home, with coffee, and teach you how to brew better coffee in your home. So put down that average cup of joe, and make your coffee dreams a reality!

Yes, please. Auction ends May 12. Bid now.

In response to the recent controversy surrounding their use of beetle-based food dye, Starbucks head honcho Cliff Burrows blogs:

After a thorough, yet fastidious, evaluation, I am pleased to report that we are reformulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible. Our expectation is to be fully transitioned to lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract, in the strawberry sauce (base) used in our Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino® blended beverage and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. Likewise, we are transitioning away from the use of cochineal extract in our food offerings which currently contain it (Raspberry Swirl Cake, Birthday Cake Pop, Mini Donut with pink icing, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pie).

Mr. Burrows’ blog post is a huge step forward for transparency in Starbucks’ varied and disgusting use of controversial animal products*, which include bat guano coagulate as a Frappuccino thickener, donkey foreskin as a flavoring agent in their matcha base, and their newly-launched Abattoir Crunch™ line of breakfast granola. We eagerly await the next vegan blog compost-storm surrounding these and other, equally vile products.

*For more information on why we can’t be sued for saying these horrible things about Starbucks, all of which are obviously meant as parody, please consult here.

Another trend we noticed among new products on the floor is consolidation of features. We think it’s awesome that companies have taken note of coffee bar trends and the tools baristas use to push coffee forward. This year we noticed a couple of pieces of equipment that accomplish tasks which previously took two or three different tools.

Last year, both Hario and Bonavita produced electric kettles with goose-neck pour over spouts. Collectively, the coffee industry slapped their foreheads: “duh, why hasn’t anyone done this before?” This year, Bonavita has upped the ante: they’ve created a pour over kettle with incremental temperature control and one-hour hold time with a ridiculously small temperature variance. This is the first commercial UL listed electric kettle, so its designed to be used behind the bar. But at $79 retail (!!!!!), you know darn well you’d love one on your countertop. It’ll be out in July.

Hario, purveyors of fine glass and ceramics used daily by baristas all over the world, is soon to release another consolidated bar tool: A combination scale and timer that is purpose-built to support a beautiful drip-stand. Sold separately but usable together, the scale/timer/drip-stand is the first all-in-one single-manufacturer package for the V60. When it finally comes out – “soon”, we’re told – this scale/timer/drip-stand dream triumvirate may well clear the clutter from your bar or countertop, with the elegant simplicity that Hario is known for. Count me in.

Matthew P. Williams is a longtime informal contributor to this website. He lives in Portland, Oregon and works for Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

Part One of a series, in which our newest contributor Matthew P. Williams takes you inside the showroom at SCAA 2012.

This year on the tradeshow floor we spotted several trends among new products, but I want to start first with a commercial urge that seems to reflect one base desire: to develop a brewer to supplant the Technivorm as our market’s best, most consistent automatic coffee machine for the home.

Because the Technivorm Moccamaster is a great product, no shade, there’s now a push from all directions of the market to release new machines and usurp Technivorm from the catbird seat. I think this trend is so prevalent right now for a variety of reasons: the demand that Technivorm’s quality has created; the fact that many coffee professionals (both old and new guard) take quality batch brewing quite seriously; market reflection from batch brewing manufacturers, whose new products keep getting better and better to meet demand (both for the home and cafe); and affordability, seeing as how the Moccamaster is really pretty expensive – close to $300 retail. Now there are several affordable options available to take that kind of quality home, and here’s some we spotted at SCAA 2012.

Bona Vita BV-1800

We’ve seen Bona Vita explode into the market within the last year, and we love their strategy of developing quality products for the professional and the consumer at very accessible price-points. The BV-1800 features a battery of top-of-the-heap features: a 1400 watt heating element to bring the water temperature up to 205ºF; an optimal-flow shower screen that evenly saturates the bed of coffee; and German engineered stainless-steel construction. The Bona Vita is only the third consumer brewing machine to obtain SCAA certification, and available now.

Behmor BraZen

Behmor, Inc., best known for the Behmor 1600 home coffee roaster, is launching a feature-loaded consumer batch brewer this summer. Behmor have gone out of their way to develop components that are within extremely high tolerances, so that each brewer has a combined tolerance of as little as 1/2%. Not only do the tolerance of the components contribute to this, but the BraZen features an auto-calibration mode and altitude corrections to compensate for environmental and material variations that may happen over time. The dispersion head has been designed to evenly saturate the flat bed of coffee, and the Brazen has a non-volatile memory that recalls settings that include pre-soak time and water temperature, which is also variable.

Further Reading: Brazen Press Release (PDF)

Bodum E-Bodum Pourover

Bodum’s new home batch brewer is a new addition to their Bistro Powertools line, which means it’ll match your Bistro Toaster, electric mixer, and other kitchen tools for a tres chic Bistro experience at home, or something. Bodum’s goal with the E-Bodum Pourover is to provide a French-Press-like taste profile in a pour over style. This is achieved in part by Bodum’s etched metal filter basket, which provides the texture that you would expect from a French Press. The bubble pump delivers pulses of 200-205ºF degree water to a removable showerhead. As it turns out, all of the removable parts on the E-Bodum Pourover are machine washable, with the exception of the stainless-steel carafe. Expect to see the E-Bodum in four colors later this spring, along with a matching stepless conical burr grinder.

Further Reading: Gizmodo – Bodum’s Automatic Coffee Machine Isn’t Just Prettier Than Yours, It’s Better Too

Bunn Trifecta at Home, Phase Brew

Bunn is making some serious headway into the discerning consumer market with a handful of new brewers.

The Phase brew is different from most consumer batch brewers, in that it heats all of the brew water in a tank, so that only temperature stable water is being gravity fed over the bed. This is mechanically very different than flash heating cool water and relying on water vapor to drive a bubble pump. Because the water heats as a batch, the brew process is a little longer; roughly 5 minutes to heat the water, then another 5 minutes to brew. The added time, though, assures temperature stability, all of which has been vouchsafed and backed up the Phase’s SCAA certification.

Many of you may already be familiar with the Trifecta, Bunn’s in-cafe single cup machine focused on variable bubble agitation and minute control over temperature and extraction time. Trifecta at Home inherits a similar interface of variable extraction times and agitation in a stable temperature environment. The variable agitation settings, A-F, correspond to the desired perceived acidity of the cup: One setting may be appropriate for a chocolatey, earthy Indonesian coffee, while F setting may be what’s appropriate to highlight the acidity of a Kenyan or washed Ethiopian. A coffee can be infused for 40, 45, or 50 seconds, and the combination of time and agitation are replicable recipes that Trifecta at Home users can share for individual coffees. The fine stainless steel mesh filter endows the cup with a velvety cup more like siphon than French Press. The Trifecta at Home will make a cup at a time, very close to back to back. Expect to see it available by summer.

Matthew P. Williams is a longtime informal contributor to this website. He lives in Portland, Oregon and works for Stumptown Coffee Roasters.