Along a beans journey, from the plant to your cup, there is a long trip it must take to make it there. And the only reason it is in your specific cup, is because a lot of different people had to source that bean to you.
Coffee farms are rather unique in they way they source their product; mainly because they don’t! More often than not, they use some of their own seeds to plant. And for their fertilizer,they use their beans shell to heat the furnaces. To power their mills, they use water from the stream at the top of the hill! But after a lot of digging, we found that some growers do have to purchase some special added fertilizers. But the biggest purchase that they source is labor. About 80- 90 percent of the labor is sourced from Nicaragua depending on the location of the farm.
The next step along the chain is the coffee mills. For many of the big farms, they have their own mills but some work as part of a cooperative. For the cooperatives, they can set their own standards for how they source their beans. Some, like Dota, can be very strict in what they want out of their suppliers. Some others may have lessor standards.
The coffee roasters are similar in the way they choose beans. They have a set of standards that they expect their coffee beans to meet. If their beans do not that standard, they will look for other growers that can. Roasters often source their packaging and roasting equipment from abroad.
The next step is the retail stores. Some of these stores are run by the roasters and others are simply retailers. Retailers differ on what they buy depending on their target market. If they are selling to tourists, they could sell a different type of bean with a different level of roasting. Some of the more local coffee shops really focus on the tastes of the locals. For instance, 1820 makes a roast that the professional taster may not like, but that the Tico’s will. That is something many of the retailers in the local market will look for where as retailers that sell to tourists may look for a larger variety of roasts.
The final step is the customer. When looking for a a coffee to buy, they will look for the best bean, the best blend, and the best roast. Which one is the best? Well, if I have learned one thing through this research, I have learned the best roast is the one you like the best. So through out the supply chain, when looking to buy at any stage, all firms and individuals should consider just that, the best is what you believe it is.