My story with coffee is fairly short, I started to drink it last August, never before. Of course I tried...but I could never understand what people like about this dark, bitter liquid. And then on one sunny Saturday morning I was sitting with some good, old friends in a café in Kragujevac, Serbia, and ordered tea. I was the only one, everyone else asked for ice coffee. They brought them on a round tray in these extremely long glasses. Black coffee with ice cubes, whipped cream on the top, nothing else. I could see the whole scene as a slowmotion short movie, how the waitress put all the glasses, one by one, in the front of each of my friends, except me. The movie stopped, and I asked: did you already make my tea? No, not yet- she answered. Great, then bring me a coffee, just like these, please.

I don't know what happened, but since then I drink coffee, just as if I was drinking it in my whole life. I am not drinking Kopi Luwak every day, (By the way I tried it like a month ago, and it was good. I mean good, very bitter, but very good. However, I am never going to pay that amount of money for a cup of anything.) but I kind of dug into the subject. Coffee does not grow in the westernized world, it comes from Brazil, Vietnam, Columbia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Tanzania, India....and in many other countries more or less around the equator. It is the third most common beverage (after water and tea) and the second most traded product in the world. I think we should care about, who and how is producing our coffee?!

Fairtrade Coffee Infographic 201801

I went to Tanzania this summer to work with coffee farmers. Probably I had the best cup of coffee in my life in village Ngulelo. Right next to the mainroad, sitting on a dirty bench in a so-called "café" with a portuguese guy, sipping this dark liquid from a porcelain cup. The water has boiled in this old kettle over the camp fire, and Mamma Afrika poured it over the coffee ground. It costed 0,19 euros. For both cups. No fuss, no sugar, no almond milk, no caramel syrup, no whip, no swirl, no cinammon or pumpkin inspired whatever, but coffee.

Farmer Gideon introduced me to the whole production of coffee making. I was picking, grinding, fermenting, selecting the beans. Then it goes to the roastery (none of the farmers can afford to make by themselves) comes back and the farmer sells the packed coffee. For the five of us, -absolute begginers in coffee-picking- took about four hours to fill up one bucket, which was about fifteen liter. It means, that in a full day we could pick two buckets of coffee beans. So, if you are a worker you earn 1,1 euro for filling up one bucket. Of course the professionals were picking faster. But still. Oh, did I forget to mention, that the planation is like 30 minutes walking uphill, because coffee likes to grow on the hillside? So count an extra hour of walking up and down the hill, which sounds easier than walking up, but no, because you carry what you picked. Better if you do not fall.

So after picking, you have the red berries. Not good, you want them without the red coat, so you have to grind them. With an automat machine, or in worse case with a mechanical one. We had the automatic, and on that day the electricity as well, so we could easily grind. And listed Mamma Gideon, who tried to sing louder, than the machines, while cooking dinner. We repeated several times, until we only had the beans, which we washed, and left in water, which is called the fermentation. After a couple of days, we dried them on huge sieves, and selected them. The good ones, from the "second class" beans. It turned out, the second class beans are buyed up by Starbucks. Do not judge them! They mostly buy beans from organic and fairtrade producers. But they buy the lower quality, and sell it for a lot of money, and you pay for it, because your name is on the cup. Funny, isn't it? 🙂

I asked this farmer what does he think about fairtrade coffee production. He told me, that is the only way of letting the farmers live a normal life. That is how they can afford proper food everyday, school for their five kids, and work the fields on an organic way, and pay the workers a salary, from which they can also live a higher quality of life. He also told me, they can do it, because there are people, who pay for the price of his coffee.

So, next time, when you run out of coffee and go to the coffee-store or most likely to the supermarket, choose the fairtrade coffee! Think about those people, who go uphill everyday, for six months, pick your coffee, and then walk downhill again, with all those buckets of red berries...For you, it does not really matter, if it is two euros more for a bag of coffee. And if it does, do not drink three cups a day, but only one, which you really paid for. Because that is the real price of coffee. Behind the low price there is poverty, slavery, hunger, child labor which words I would not use to describe life. It is not the big corporation's or the world economy's fault...because we are the economy, and the big corporations are in our hands. They produce coffee, because we want coffee. If our demand is fairtrade coffee, there is going to be fairtrade coffee in the shops. Can you follow me? It is up to you, it is your choice. It is my choice. It is our choice.

 

https://youtu.be/OsRFTWLiP9g