Global academy course 300 B ethical sourcing and origin

Heirloom

Old-time" varietals handed down over generations from farmer to farmer or growing wild. There are thousands of heirloom varietals growing in Ethiopia that coffee researchers are learning more about every day.

Open source

Open-source agronomy entails making research and findings available to the coffee industry. Starbucks shares the latest research, tools, best practices and resources with growers around the world, whether or not they sell coffee to the company.

Agronomy

Pairing Token: 60c7-4892

Fermentation

Processing stage in which the sticky pulp is loosened from the coffee beans by natural enzymes while resting in tanks.

SCS global services

SCS is the third-party verifier for C.A.F.E. Practices. It promotes environmental stewardship and social responsibility by providing trusted third-party certification and auditing.

Micro estates

Smaller coffee farms with on-site micro-mills for processing. Typically, farms of this size have one de-pulper and one small fermentation tank.

100 million trees

Starbucks initiative begun in 2015 as the One Tree for Every Bag program that helps combat the plague of coffee leaf rust in Latin America. Coffee leaf rust makes it nearly impossible for farmers to produce high-quality coffee

Farmer support center

Starbucks offices dedicated to supporting coffee farmers and their communities. FSC agronomists and quality experts work with farmers to develop responsible methods to grow better coffee, improve the quality and size of harvests, manage cost of production and help implement C.A.F.E. Practices. There are currently nine FSCs in key coffee-growing regions.

Core collection

The 100 most genetically diverse strains of arabica coffee in the world, sourced more than 50 years ago from Ethiopia. Starbucks, one of the first recipients of the Core Collection, uses the strains at Hacienda Alsacia to study genetic diversity in arabica with the goal of developing more resilient hybrids.

The Starbucks foundation

The Starbucks Foundation supports farming families through vocational training and increased access to clean water, sanitation and health services. It also promotes leadership opportunities for women, helping break down barriers to education and increasing economic opportunities.

Global farmer fund

The Starbucks Global Farmer Fund is a $50 million commitment to provide financing to coffee farmers. Through these loans, farmers—even those who do not supply coffee to Starbucks—are able to support agronomy, restoration and infrastructure improvements.

Honest processing

The honey process is a variation of the pulped natural method and is found commonly in Costa Rica and other parts of Central America. It skips the fermentation step and leaves the mucilage on the parchment to dry with the bean. The honey process is classified by color, depending on the amount of mucilage on the bean and other factors.

Terroir

The local combination of soil, topography and climate that makes a significant impact on the quality and flavor of coffee.

Outer skin

The outermost skin of the coffee cherry.

Ethical sourcing

The practice of making sure a product is acquired in a responsible, sustainable way.

De pulping

The process of removing the outer fruit from the coffee bean.

Processing

The process of removing the ripe coffee cherry's layers of fruit and protective skin from the green coffee bean.

Dry milling

The process that removes the parchment layer from the green bean. Dry milling is the final step before coffee is bagged and made ready for transport, and occurs after beans have been de-pulped and dried and have rested for a period of up to two months.

Mucilage

The sweet, sticky honey-like substance that coats the green coffee bean.

Micro climate

The temperature, amount of sunlight and rainfall of a small area. Microclimates can be as small as a few square feet and as large as many square miles. With coffee, microclimates can help a unique flavor profile appear within even a relatively small area.

Pulp

The thick sweet layer just under the outer skin.

Parchment

The thin white parchmentlike layer of the bean, similar to the papery skin on a peanut.

Green bean

The unroasted coffee bean (seed). Most coffee cherries have two flat-sided beans inside, "face" to "face."

Washed (wet) processing

The washed method is used most widely throughout the world. As its name suggests, access to clean water is required for this processing method.

Semi washed processing (wet hulled)

The wet-hulled method is used primarily by smallholder farmers on the islands of Indonesia. It differs from washed in that mucilage is only roughly removed, there is no fermentation, and beans are hulled in a semi-wet state.

Natural processing (sun dried)

This method allows the fruit of the cherry to dry right on the bean, infusing it with flavor. No water is used in the process.

Pruning

To cut off branches from a coffee tree so that it will grow better in the future. Farmers may take this opportunity to prune the trees to 5-6 feet (1.5-1.8 meters). This increases productivity and makes harvesting fruit comparatively eas

Selective harvesting

When harvesters revisit the same tree several times to ensure they are picking only the ripest cherries.

Bloom

When the white, jasmine-scented flowers appear on the coffee trees. These flowers are replaced by clusters of green cherries.

Seasonal workers

Workers who follow the ripening fruit from farm to farm throughout harvest season. This can be within a particular country or between countries.

Resting

Dried parchment coffee is bagged and transferred to a warehouse to rest for up to two months.

World coffee research

nonprofit organization that is creating the future of coffee by focusing on the genetics, molecular biology, and sensory science of coffee, working to get the best coffee varieties into the hands of farmers and improving the quality of coffee, seed to cup.

Fly crop

second yearly coffee harvest following the main harvest. Fly-crops occur in a handful of equatorial countries, including Colombia and Kenya.

Pea berry

single, round bean—as opposed to two flat-sided beans—found in 5-10% of coffee cherries.

Silver skin

thin, almost translucent final protective layer on the green bean.

Hacienda alsacia

working coffee farm since the 1970s in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Purchased by Starbucks in 2013, the 240-hectare farm with wet and dry mills is also the site of Starbucks Global Agronomy Research and Development Center.

CAFE practices

Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices, a holistic program created by Starbucks in partnership with Conservation International and one of the coffee industry's first set of sustainability standards verified by third-party experts.

Small holder farms

Coffee farms between two and five hectares in size, smaller than micro-estates. They are where most of the coffee Starbucks sources is grown.

Shipping container

Coffee is loaded onto cargo ships in 20-foot (6.1 meter) containers for shipping to a seaport near one of our roasting plants.

Varietal

Coffee made from a single cultivar of coffee tree. The coffee term "varietal" is also used to describe coffee from a single region or country. Visual differences in varietals can be seen mostly in leaf structure and how the cherries grow in clusters on branches. Some trees are tall and lanky; others are compact and dwarflike.

Self pollinating

A flower that pollinates itself to produce a cherry. The coffee tree is self-pollinating.

Coffee buyers

A small team of partners with deep expertise in both coffee and trading commodities. Our buyers purchase coffee at prices based on quality, offering sellers reliability and price stability.

Starbucks coffee trading company

Affiliate in Lausanne, Switzerland, responsible for managing Starbucks global green coffee purchasing.

Hulling

After coffee rests, the parchment is removed from the beans by hulling machines. This process leaves the green beans in their final state before roasting.

Drying

After processing, the beans, still in their parchment layer, are thoroughly dried.

Agronomist

An expert in coffee agriculture and processing who works collaboratively with farmers and suppliers around the globe.

Cooperatives

Associations of smallholder coffee farmers who organize into groups to promote and sell their coffee. Cooperatives vary in size and can include 100-15,000 farms.

Starbucks global agronomy research and development center

Facility located on the Hacienda Alsacia farm in Alajuela, Costa Rica, devoted to helping coffee farming communities around the world mitigate climate change and support long-term crop stability.

Coffee estate

Farms on more than 50 hectares of land that are large enough to support coffee farming and processing in one location. After the coffee is picked, everything done to prepare it for shipment can happen on the estate.

Pulpled natural processing

Found most commonly in Brazil, this method shares characteristics of both the washed and natural processes. After harvest, cherries are de-pulped and partially demucilaged, with some mucilage left to dry on the parchment. There is no fermentation process.

Harvest

Harvesting is when the ripe cherries are picked from the trees. In many countries, high-quality arabica cherries are picked by hand.

Sustainable coffee challenge

call to action led by Conservation International to make coffee the world's first sustainable agricultural product.

Coffee leaf rust

devastating foliar disease of coffee plants caused by the Hemileia vastatrix fungus.

Drupe

fruit, such as a peach, cherry, plum, etc., that has an outer skin, a usually pulpy middle layer, and a hard inner shell that usually encloses a single seed. A coffee cherry is a drupe.