Wow, $80 a pound for Starbucks coffee. Don't think I would pay that for any coffee, let alone Starbucks.

Starbucks scoops up pricey beans in high-end coffee world

But I think the real concern is what impact this arms race could have on pricing and access to high quality CoE coffees. Curious to get others perspective and thoughts on this.

Id be curious about the roast level on these.

I'd be curious if they will have roast dates OR best by dates...

CoE coffees are sold at auction, to the highest bidder. In the past Archer Farms, aka Target has purchased CoE lots, I'm not sure I see the issue. You can't really turn away the highest bidder at an auction, and if it's incentivizing an increase in the quality of the coffee produced I don't see a problem. Much more coffee is sold outside the CoE auctions that gets moved through the auction.

keno wrote:But I think the real concern is what impact this arms race could have on pricing and access to high quality CoE coffees. Curious to get others perspective and thoughts on this.

The de-commodification of coffee is a good thing - it ensures more money for the farmers (the biggest issue - Fair Trade is not enough), encourages better farming and processing practices, ultimately leading to better quality coffee. Does this mean coffee will be more expensive? Yes. But that will happen anyway, and good on Starbucks for paying farmers top dollar (because ultimately that is the best thing for the farmers, not whether it's purchased/roasted by Starbucks or Stumptown or whatever our personal boutique roaster is ).

Farmers deserve more money for the product they are producing - and paying more for top lots ensures the continuation of farmer's livelihood and promotes the future of the coffee growing industry and overall coffee quality.

This will end up being good for the industry though there will be short term losers. It may mirror what happened in the wine business in the 80's and 90's. The overall price (not adjusted for inflation) increased, but there's way more wine available and much of it is very good at decent prices.

Maybe. But Starbucks coffee is already overpriced, for what one gets from it. This inflation only benefits the industry if Starbucks follows through.

If expensive Starbucks coffee tastes like regular Starbucks coffee...well...

Oakeshott wrote:This will end up being good for the industry though there will be short term losers. It may mirror what happened in the wine business in the 80's and 90's. The overall price (not adjusted for inflation) increased, but there's way more wine available and much of it is very good at decent prices.

COEs prices, as all specialty-auctioned coffees, have spiked in the last three years. Starbucks jumping into the fray is merely another player. Asian companies have entered high end auctioned coffees and dominate the trade. More than once the importer I work with or I have dropped out as an upper threshold has been shattered. The demand for high-end auctioned coffee seems insatiable and is driving prices way, way out of bounds relative to quality.

It's a free market and part of the game.

Do you believe, when we look back ten years from now, that we'll think these were golden days of good to excellent affordable coffees?

I remember being in the wine business in 83-85 and finding the occasional bottle to sell at 3.99 that was truly excellent. Equivalent to most of what was available at 10 bucks or more a bottle. By the 90's, that was impossible. Taxation played a big role in that, but it was also a function of more interest in good wine and better educated buyers at all parts of the distribution chain.

Oakeshott wrote:Do you believe, when we look back ten years from now, that we'll think these were golden days of good to excellent affordable coffees...

Not at all. I believe better coffee lies ahead.

Direct relationship coffee (genuine, sincere relationship, not superficial "me-too" importers) will keep bringing more and better beans to our table. 1,000s of varieties of coffee exist in the fields of Ethiopia. Those heirlooms offer promise and will be grown out in ag schools and in test fields of large producers, just as was Gesha during the '30s and then the '50s. Climate change, disease such as rust, and economic incentives will bring more serious efforts to identify, test, and farm these heirlooms.

http://imbibemagazine.com/heirloom-coffees/

I see greater coffee ahead. Obviously, a ton of room for discussion on this.