Best Coffee Last Year Review

By Claudia Strasbaugh

2010 Coffee Review

What would you think to be the best selling single origin Coffee of this past year?

Coffee lovers, unite. Methods of evaluating only those single-origin coffees is complete for this year. That includes beans that sold best all year 2009.

Following the study, it includes: Coffees which consistently made up the basics for most roasters' single-origin sales programs, along with coffees they absolutely needed for bags, bins, and tins, in order to keep consumers happy.

It was important to bypass those recognized as precious or extraordinary, tiny lots flown in by air. The same for a single bag of green coffee competition winners that are only available to consumers for a few weeks. Did we entirely succeeded? Probably not, but we are certain we came close.

Fair Trade certification has been on a small roll lately. It continues to expand both at origin as well as at the marketplace.

Fair Trade's "Producer" programs have expanded from their original base in Central America to other far-flung origins like Ethiopia and Sumatra. Fair Trade certified coffees are currently being sold in volume to at least one big box retailer, Sam's Club. Fair Trade additionally shows up in smaller quantities at Target.

Meanwhile, newer smaller roasters continue to make Fair Trade, bundled with organic certification, their main market differentiation. Big points, because Fair Trade has managed to produce company-growth as well as good coffee without abandoning anyone...

There can be no doubt India is considerably a better-known coffee origin when one considers Europe, far superior to the United States. Alas, even in Europe there tends to be a source whose profound coffee originality is hidden inside that of other blends rather than fore-grounded when we're talking single-origin or trophy coffees.

A perfect example is that India provides some of the planet's most valuable types of coffee for espresso blends. Still, these same exotic coffee types are seldom offered as single origins.

Boiling it down to basics, they are too intense for American tastes. Our palates remain accustomed to high-grown mountains. The clean bright profile, of classic Latin America produces what we treasure. Yet without question, heavily forested old India coffee estates produce beans accepted well in Europe, far more so than we coffee lovers of America.