Bourbon vs Caturra

[Steve]

With the holidays I've done "A LOT" of reading on the net which has been great fun. I came across a piece at www.portafilter.net talking about an experiment, which put the Bourbon variety of the coffee plant against Caturra (a close family member). Caturra has more branches so it is much more productive. However, most people find Bourbon is better in the cup, so the question was asked why?

They got coffee from Caturra and Bourbon plants from a single farm, picked on the same day, processed the same way, roasted the same way. When cupped they found that the Bourbon coffee was better. They repeated the experiment. This time, they removed some of the Caturra's flowers so it produced the same amount of coffee as the Bourbon. This time, there was no difference in the cup from the two varietals.

Sounds easy doesn't it, less quantity more quality, but this means less money for the farmer. Its tricky when for years and years people have told the farmer its to do with soil and altitudes and now we turn round and say and while your at it produce a little less and lower your yeild.

A Great piece of work that really improved my coffee understanding, thought it would be nice to share.

Steve

[Steve]

Also foud this which was quite cool reading

http://allafrica.com/stories/200604170762.html
and
http://allafrica.com/stories/200604170093.html

[Beanie]

Excellent info/find, Steve. Thanks for these

*must catch up with pf dot net*

[CakeBoy]

Interesting stuff Steve. I suppose it is like all plants, the more strength avalable to each "fruit", the stronger that fruit will be, so less is more. Though that principle is usually considered to create a smaller number of stronger and/or bigger products, but in this case it clearly yields enhanced flavour qualities.

That beings up an interesting question. Would more Caturra variety coffee have been cultivated if we had known about stunting the production per plant? After all, coffee plants are historically judged on the flavour of whatever quantity of beans they produce naturally and the Caturra was found to be of less quality than the Arabica. However, if it had become apparent before now that by reducing the yield per plant a bean of equal (or similar) quality to the Arabica could be produced, how would that have worked out? Too much extra work "picking out" the unwanted flowers? Is it a more disease resistant variety than Arabica or does it possess any other advantages?

[MKSwing]

This is exactly what is done with wine.
Farmers have a choice to do :
Quality or Quantity.

[BazBean]

To throw something else into mix... if a producer is given a cost per yield under the fair trade banner why would they want to reduce crop size and improve quaility..... Btw before sharpened knifes are thrown, i think in principle the FT idea is a good one.

[CakeBoy]

Imo, your point is spot on Barry - and fits perfectly with the reason Relationship/COE schemes that yield (much) higher prices than Fair Trade to the farmer in return for quality are championed by Steve

[Steve]

can only concur with barry and cake monster, high yeilds apear to be bad for the cup quality.

steve

[espressomattic]

Again, this bolis down to mass consumerism, Fair Trade sells, OK so it make the farmers a little more, but what about the end product retailers. The more they get, the more they sell. It's all about playing on people conscience again.

We live in such a consumer society that we are not encouraged to buy quality products such as CoE coffee. We are told that our past mass consumerism has harmed the farmer (Which it has!) and now they are geeting a Fair Deal, but are we getting a fair deal as the consumer. We are blinded by our own guilt as per my previous comment above.

Unfortunatly I think this country is beyond educating in the CoE way and it will remain a strictly and largely unkown specialist market.

Am I being cynical again...Hell yes!!!!!

*Hands Soapys box back...*

[Gouezeri]

*Hands Soapys box back...*

Rent is due 1 month in advance and there's a deposit of 3 months... I have a coffee habit to feed you know, and it is hard to get a fair price for soapbox rental in these consumerist days of takeaway plastic boxes.

Beyond that, I agree with much of what Breako has said, to which I would simply add that this is a consequence of society having completely lost touch with any form of production, especially food and drink produce. Most people buy what they are sold and are simply happy if they can get something for cheaper. I'm happy buying relationship and CoE coffee, because I feel I have a better grasp of what I am paying for and where the money is going... I don't think that is paying a premium. It's not as if we are paying for a brand name as the whole emphasis is placed on the quality of the coffee and nothing else.
D

[CakeBoy]

Totally agree Soapy - it's about the quality. For us quality is far more important than having what is available from supermarkets. As for most people, they assume that the "premium" supermarket brands are the state of the art without giving much thought to it at all. Like the song goes "The public wants what the public gets"