Understanding Value | 25, Issue 16
We’ve written quite a bit, recently, about the value of coffee.
From the white paper Towards a Definition of Specialty Coffee: An Attributes-based Understanding, to the Coffee Sensory and Cupping Handbook—even stretching back to the Price Crisis Response Initiative’s Summary of Work—we’re only just scratching the surface of how, why, where, and when value is created (and distributed).
For better or worse, our modern world is one of market economies: alternative organizational methods either haven’t succeeded or are yet to be tried on a large scale, leaving us dependent on a system of economic value creation that relies on what the purchaser values. If we seek to equitably distribute value, we must first understand its construction.
Issue 16 brings additional perspectives to our ongoing efforts to deepen our understanding. Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee’s Spotlight, a brief history of coffee in Korea, reminds us that coffee brings more than just economic value to the table: there is cultural and emotional value, too. Research (Professor Carlos Carpio and Katie Jane von der Lieth), Viewpoint (Janica Anderzén and Professor V. Ernesto Méndez), and Origin (Deogracias Kalima) offer corresponding reminders that there is still so much more for us to collect and consider around calculating or articulating coffee’s value: labor dynamics, cost of production, and market subsidies, to name a few. And, in Nizam Abdu’s Insight, we get an early glimpse of understanding what consumers value—and are willing to pay for—when it comes to products advertised as ethical and environmentally friendly.
There’s a lot more to learn (and quantify and articulate); we look forward to continuing this journey with you here next year.
JENN RUGOLO
Editor, 25
We hope you are as excited as we are about the release of 25, Issue 16. Both the print edition and the availability of these features across sca.coffee/news wouldn’t have been possible without our generous underwriting sponsors for this issue: Pacific Barista Series, BWT water+more, and Brewista. Thank you so much for your support! Learn more about our underwriters here.