How High Prices Are Exposing the Hollow Promises of Specialty Coffee (Part two)
The Reorienting of the Specialty Coffee Movement
In part one of this two-part article, I explored how the specialty coffee movement positioned itself as a transformative force in the global coffee market - leveraging the low-price era as a means of distancing itself ideologically from traditional market forces.
This led to a conflation of price premiums with ethics and widespread misinterpretation of the market as purely a value-extraction mechanism that specialty coffee could supposedly operate outside of.
In truth, specialty coffee’s proliferation has been driven largely by the ambitions and innovations of the Global North. From barista competitions and the rise of lifestyle brands, to advancements in technology that streamline supply chains.
Through these developments, the movement has cultivated a powerful subculture of consumption and identity. However, its ethical dimension has been shaped by broader industry trends, particularly the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives which permeate everything from fashion to food.
Specialty coffee is not unique in attempting to align products with ethical values - it is simply one piece of a much larger puzzle.
Recap: The specialty movement as direct trade
In its eagerness to claim the ethical high ground as a point of differentiation, the movement capitalised on the low-price era of the 2010s. This created fertile ground for a race to dominate the moral narrative. One of the unintended consequences was the distortion of supply chains and the oversimplification of the roles played by intermediaries.
The direct trade narrative, once a bold and progressive approach, has morphed into a dogma that indiscriminately vilifies middlemen. Instead of drawing nuanced distinctions between the 'good' and 'bad' actors within supply chains, specialty coffee has painted all intermediaries with the same brush. This has demonised the very entities that often enable producers to access markets and resources.
The reality is more complex. Many intermediaries play essential roles in coffee supply chains, particularly in regions where smallholder producers lack the resources or logistical capacity to bring their products to market.
Not all intermediaries are exploitative. Many provide critical services such as financing, agricultural education and infrastructure development. Indeed, intermediaries are regularly responsible for bringing to market the very coffees celebrated by the consuming elite.
Specialty coffee’s direct trade narrative has largely failed to differentiate between those who create value and those who extract it. This binary framing not only perpetuates misinformation but also obscures the need for collaboration across all levels of the supply chain to build a genuinely sustainable system - an omission that has real-world implications for price discovery.
Specialty as a singular dimension of quality
Another significant challenge for specialty coffee lies in its narrow definitions of quality, which have become synonymous with price and ethics. These definitions frequently overlook the economic drivers of broader consumer preferences, such as the larger lots required by roasters to meet mass-market demand.
While boutique lots of exotic, high-scoring coffees captivate the imagination of the Global North, they represent only a fraction of the volume necessary to create meaningful economic impact for producers.
And, the obsession with prime cherry selection as a prerequisite for such lots has led to inefficiencies that outstrip returns for producers - diverting focus from more fundamental ways to produce clean, diverse coffees.
Compounding this issue is a contradiction within the specialty coffee market regarding post-harvest techniques. Global North elites often dismiss as inauthentic or unethical progressive methods such as using exogenous catalysts for fermentation.
This stems from a misinformed fixation on terroir - the belief that coffee should exclusively reflect its geographic origin without intervention. While terroir is a valid concept, it is not inherently incompatible with post-harvest innovation.
Exogenous fermentation techniques, far from being 'cheating', can profoundly enable producers to create value, enhance quality, and differentiate their products in competitive markets.
The Overripe Fermentation Series and the Henry Bonilla Pink Bourbon are explicit demonstrations of the power of these methods. And those familiar of our work with Canephora (Robusta) will recognise its potential as a specialty product through innovation.
By rejecting post-harvest innovations, the specialty coffee movement risks stifling the very ingenuity that could empower producers and drive sustainability.
Aligning ethical aspirations with operational realities requires embracing a broader definition of quality. A definition that validates post-harvest techniques as legitimate tools for economic impact and value creation.
Doing this requires time, care and attention given to educating consumers and redefining ethical production in ways that prioritise practical solutions over elitist constraints.
Evolve or dissolve - a fork in the road
Specialty coffee faces a pivotal choice - evolve or become irrelevant. There are three solutions for the former.
1 - Redefining quality
The industry must broaden its definition of quality to include both terroir-driven approaches and post-harvest innovation. Progressive techniques that empower producers should be embraced as integral to creating value.
2 - Decoupling ethics from exclusivity
Ethical practices must permeate supply chains, instead of being limited to marketing narratives which are tied to exclusivity. Exoticizing ethics alongside aspirational premium goods obscures the reality that high prices often reflect supply chains shaped by financially privileged actors and not inherently ethical practices.
The desire of the consuming elites to attain symbolic status via proximity to said actors are, as of late, driving the more obvious trends in elite consumption.
True ethics lie in fostering systemic change by channeling buying power into supply chains that prioritise inclusivity in value creation rather than exclusivity tied to luxury aspirations.
3 - Redefining supply chains
There must be investment in systems which enable producers to meet diverse market demands, from niche specialty lots to larger commercial volumes.
This requires the celebration of the contributions of intermediaries and stakeholders often dismissed under the direct trade ideology. Technological innovations in navigating supply chains have revealed the extent to which coffee buyers depend on the work of others.
As Christopher Feran, owner of Ohio-based roaster Aviary Coffee, aptly noted - "At the end of it all [coffee buying], I was surprised to learn just how much of this job is actually done by everyone else. I just play with my phone".
There is a fourth solution. The specialty coffee movement could abandon the 'specialty coffee' concept altogether and let the market determine which brands resonate based on ethics, quality, and relevance.
Consider the immense buying power of brands categorically deemed 'non-specialty' by the consuming elite. The ethical commitments of multinationals like Nespresso and Starbucks, for example, are often overlooked by specialty coffee purists.
From a price perspective, take the recent purchase of 240,000 tonnes of Brazilian coffee by the Chinese chain Luckin Coffee at prices equal to - or higher than - those which specialty brands claim to pay.
Nowhere does Luckin use ethics as a thread in their brand story, yet their scale of impact dwarfs the ideological efforts of many specialty frameworks.
To survive, the specialty coffee movement must remain adaptive. With rapidly evolving traceability systems, the industry can no longer hide behind ideological frameworks. If it fails to define its true identity in meaningful ways, the market will render it obsolete.