What is organic coffee? what are the criteria for defining organic coffee? is organic coffee healthier and better to drink?

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The definition of organic coffee:

1. Sustainable utilization of environment

Use natural planting methods to maintain biodiversity, do not overdo deforestation to protect animal habitats, try to avoid burning organic matter to clean up land, take relevant measures to avoid soil erosion, prohibit excessive consumption of water resources, and so on.

two。 Reduce the risk of chemical / toxic residues in vivo

Organic is not equal to health, but it strictly controls the use of chemical drugs from growth to harvest, so compared with non-organic food, it can reduce the probability of chemical drugs remaining in the human body and alleviate the impact of toxic chemicals on human health.

3. Physical / biological fertilizers, pesticides

Organic does not use pesticides, but replaces chemistry with physical and biological fertilizers and pesticides. Organic concepts avoid [chemistry] rather than drugs.

4. Inspection and supervision by a third-party certification body

Pesticides can be called organic without the use of chemical fertilizers. It can only be called organic if it is tested regularly and irregularly by a third-party certification body for water quality, soil, environment, medication, etc.

Certified coffee: that is, coffee certified by a credible unit, the common ones are organic certification and fair trade coffee.

Organic coffee: coffee produced by organic farming, whether certified or not. It should be noted that some farmers who take the certification approach sell coffee during the three-year organic transition period, which is not organic coffee in terms of certification.

Boutique coffee: according to the definition first put forward by Ms. Erna Knutsen: "the special climate and geographical conditions produce coffee beans with unique aroma (Special geographic microclimates produce beans with unique flavor profiles). "

Are "organic" and "certification" really tenable? Consumers usually only care about "authentication" rather than quality when buying certified coffee. Certification has become a way to market organic agricultural products. Therefore, it has an impact on the boutique coffee industry, that is, the quality-oriented coffee industry. Because as long as you wear organic certified coffee, the price per pound is 10 cents higher than the market price (about 454 grams of raw coffee beans are 3.14 Taiwan dollars higher than the market price). And the so-called certification does not guarantee its flavor, because certification only "meets certain standards".

In addition, the author puts forward three difficulties in organic coffee farming.

Get certified. Because the organic transition period is at least three years, they also have to pay for certification and examination, which is a burden for farmers to get into financial crisis.

Another problem is that farmers' mistrust and gains caused by misuse of certification cannot support organic production models.

Finally, there is a lack of knowledge. In most coffee-producing countries, organic work research, promotion and education are far less than traditional commercial farming, and farmers who do not have access to organic coffee can only choose commercial farming. In addition, most studies on organic farming are focused on temperate climates, which are not feasible in tropical climates where coffee is grown.

Since certification has these problems, but I also want to drink good coffee, what should we consumers do?

What consumers can do is ask more questions and think for a few minutes before buying ──. We have the right to know what we are drinking and to ask for more information to solve the information inequality. Today's high-quality coffee has sufficient information about the name, producing area, secondary producing area, treatment method, variety, producer or cooperative, harvest time, bean baker and flavor description of these beans. We have to think about this: do we just want "certification" or more? If you can't provide enough information for consumers, why are these coffee beans worthy of "certification"? Or is this certification credible?

As far as operators are concerned, on the other hand, their practitioners are also consumers, but they must consider many factors of cost and income. If they can consider another way when selecting or importing raw beans, such as selecting high-quality raw beans and conveying their ideas to consumers, it can also create a win-win situation. At present, many operators adopt the method of "direct trade and technical support," that is, working with farmers from the producing areas to produce better quality coffee raw beans year by year, on the one hand, they can reduce unfair exploitation in the middle, on the other hand, they also get high quality coffee raw beans.