I had a great discussion about appellations with Jonas, a sommelier and barista from Stockholm. Over a few beers we pondered whether appellations could be adopted into coffee. He had some interesting insights in the wine world and how the appellations work there.
It certainly is a fascinating idea, to certify coffee either by origin or characteristic. It could result in areas that are known for producing coffee with certain distinctive aroma, style or just high quality. I don’t see how this wouldn’t be a good thing for the producer as it most likely would raise the prices. From the buyers perspective – you would always know or expect what you’ll get, both taste and quality wise. A bit like Champagne – they also produce good sparkling wine just outside the region but when you’re buying the C bottle you can be sure to get certain quality wine.
Of course there would be downsides, too. Managing the certification could be somewhat difficult in corrupted and disorganised countries like Rwanda. Some producers in the wine world have opted for dropping out from the certification since basically everyone can get it.
Any thoughts? I would love to hear you opinions.
2 Comments
Hi. Appellations is an interesting idea for the coffee world, meaning that defining specific regions and styles would benefit the consumer, supplier and farmer commercially.There is definately a point in doing this but one should also be very careful with putting rules and regulations on cultivating a living product like coffee or wine. In the wine world the original wine laws date back to 17th century and is still the basis for todays appellations. One could argue that the system hasn´t evolved enough and limits small or innovative producers from getting good wines a recognition on the market.
On the other hand “newly” established laws like WO ( wine of origin) that applies for USA, Australia etc. maybe are not strict enough in comparison to the french wine law. This could result in products that really doesn`t differ a lot from each other but only fits the current market demand, lack of personality according to some…
I think as a coffee community we should focus on not putting too much labels on our coffees and allowing them to showcase their terroir as much as possible. The more specific we can get when dealing with origin, the better and we should encourage diversity of style and uniqueness. Anyway, this topic is very interesting and too big to fit in a comment box right now
Looking forward to more thoughts… / Daniel
I agree with Daniel, and I do believe that sometimes the Appelations in wine are there for appelations sake. What about extending the region of Champagne to meet demand from the Russian and Chinese consumers?
But I also think that compared to wine, coffee is a such vast area of expertise that isn’t yet categorized to be able to grasp properly. And that itself might be characteristic for the nature of coffee. Should we look at varietals or terroir first? Or is it altitude; the 1500 above sea-level-club?
But definitely an interesting question…