Course:HIST104/Starbucks Christmas Blend Coffee Beans

Starbucks Christmas Blend

Starbucks Christmas Blend Coffee Beans

Development of Coffee

Origins

Coffee is said to have originated from the ancient lands of Abyssinia, also known as modern day Ethiopia. There is a legend where the discovery of the plant was attributed to Kaldi where he witnessed dancing, energetic goats that has consumed coffee beans or leaves. Though coffee tea and other drinks were documented by a couple of Arabian physicians, the actual roasting and grinding of beans for the purpose of drinking was first commonplace in the fifteen century in Sufi monasteries in Yemen. However, coffee is very likely to have been cultivated much earlier than the fifteen century. It's also possible that coffee was adopted when Ethiopians ruled over Yemen.

Coffee was then exported through the Yemeni port of Mocha. Though the Turks guarded over the coffee plant very closely, not letting any plants or seeds out, during the 1600s, a Muslim pilgrim by the name of Baba Budan smuggled out seven seeds to India. By 1616, as the world's dominant shipping trade, the Dutch was able to transport a tree to Holland from Aden. From that tree, the Dutch was able to grow coffee in Ceylon and by 1699, Trees were transplanted from Malabar to Java. Coffee also began to spread to Italy, the rest of Europe, to Indonesia and then to the Americas. During the 1700s Java and Mocha became the most famous and sought-after coffee and still synonymous to coffee today. By 1750, coffee was grown on five different continents and European powers utilized African slaves for cheap coffee cultivation in their colonies.

Introduction to North America

During the colonial period of North America, coffee was not as popular as tea and other alcoholic beverages. However, during the Revolutionary War, dealers took advantage of scarce supplies to hoard coffee beans and mark up prices which gave coffee more value. Furthermore, during the War of 1812, coffee became even more popular due to the temporarily shut down of access to tea during a time when French things like drinking coffee/tea were stylish. In 1830, per-capita consumption of coffee increased to three pounds a year, five and a half pounds by 1850 and then eight pounds by 1859. Coffeehouses also started being established in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

Starbucks

One of the most well known coffee chains in the world was created by three men in Seattle as a small coffee shop within the Pike Place Market . Named after a character from Moby Dick, the founders aimed to serve premium quality beans with premium machinery. After its creation, Starbucks goals of providing high quality coffee increased demand for it’s product and fueled the opening of several additional locations. The humble beginnings of Starbucks as an independent coffee shop in 1971 can be sharply contrasted with the mega corporation that exists today. Four decades have transformed Starbucks in a global enterprise, operating nearly 17,000 stores in nearly 60 countries.

Manufacturing Method

A large component of Starbucks’ success has been rooted in their specialty coffee blends. Based on the specific blend, beans are cultivated from certified fair trade farmers throughout Latin America and Africa. The growing conditions in each region produce a vastly different flavor in the bean, therefore, Starbucks uses each different region to compose a blend with a very specific type of flavor. For instance, Starbucks claims that darker nuttier flavors that are seen in blends such as Pike Place come from Colombia where the growing conditions dictate this type of flavor. Growing such an array of beans means that Starbucks grows in several diverse environments and subsequently interacts with several different cultures. In fact, this concept of diversity determines how they do produce their coffee. Their corporate website claims that “Starbucks has made a business out of human connections, community involvement and the celebration of cultures. We're committed to upholding a culture where diversity is valued and respected.” Once a bean has been cultivated by the farmer, it undergoes a complex multi national process that takes the bean from the ground and into a brewed cup of coffee. From the farm, the beans are transported to one of Starbucks’ six roasting plants, located throughout the United States and Europe. At each of these plants roasters are operational 24 hours a day utilizing hundreds of millions of pounds of beans. The beans are cut, roasted and packaged into large bags where the are shipped to locations throughout the United States and across the globe. Starbucks claims that once the roasting process is complete the beans will be in store within three days. The beans are shipped whole and ground at local stores to ensure freshness.

History of the Christmas Blend

The Starbucks Christmas Blend was originally released in 1985. The blend is composed of Indonesian and Latin American coffee, and then is finished with “rare Sumatran beans” that are aged from three to five years. This particular blend has met enormous success and has become the company’s best selling seasonal coffee. The specific beans used for the Christmas Blend are Starbucks’ usual Indonesian and Latin American beans, mixed with beans of Sumatran origin. The exact recipe of the blend is kept secret. The name of the blend met some controversy in 1996, when Starbucks attempted to trademark the two-word phrase “Christmas Blend”. In doing so, they pursued legal action against two East Coast coffee companies that used the name, as well as a Vashon Island monastery. The case was eventually dropped due to public outcry against the trade marking of the word “Christmas”, a decision that was considered prudent on the part of Starbucks. From that point on, the blend has met little change until November 2010, at which point the company introduced VIA Ready Brew, a line of instant coffee, which included the Christmas Blend and Decaf Christmas Blend. Currently, the Christmas Blend (also marketed as the non-denominational Holiday Blend) is available worldwide during the holiday season, as well as online.

Starbucks and Cultures in Contact

The production of the Starbucks Christmas Blend involves numerous parties from around the world. Most significant of them all are the grassroots of the production process- the farmers. The Starbucks Christmas Blend sources its beans primarily from Indonesia and Latin America, with their interactions stemming primarily from a corporate social responsibility platform in the purchase and transfer of coffee from field to plant. Thanks to their poor conditions, developing nations such as these have relied heavily on coffee in fueling their economies , and as such, much controversy over exploitation and appropriate fair trade has circled their interactions with Starbucks for decades .

Starbucks' Fair Trade Practices and Other Ethical Interactions

Starbucks Scandal

In the 1990s Starbucks was at the focus of many activist movements over their role in unfair trade practices within their supply chain. In response, in 2001 Starbucks introduced their “CAFÉ” (Coffee and Farmer Equity) standards- guidelines by which Starbucks would abide in order to establish sustainable supplies of high quality coffee to meet growing demand, as well as develop a systematic response to increasing consumer awareness and concerns over product origins and the social and environmental dimensions of production . Under such guidelines, international suppliers must meet minimum requirements for both quality and economic accountability of their products, inclusive of requiring acceptable levels of “equity” in distribution of profit across the supply chain . The CAFÉ standards are intended to promote compliance with a range of socially and environmentally sustainable practices within the Starbucks supply chain in ensuring Starbucks coffee practices are ethical on a global scale. In April of 2012, Starbucks also announced that it will invest $1.3 million into providing long-term loans to farmers in developing countries in order for them to produce more coffee and crops. As the root of their supply chain, these loans will help farmers purchase new equipment and infrastructure, and will focus primarily on aiding farmers working under fair trade agreements. Starting in Latin America, this project is expected to expand on a broader scale in the coming years .

Controversies over Starbucks' CSR Practices

In 2007 Starbucks was under fire once again for their role in benefitting from the exploitation of Ethiopian and other third-world coffee farmers. After being told that they would be helped in growing their farming practices, many farmers were left without assistance and paid only $0.57 per pound of coffee sold by Starbucks (a 2.2% portion of the regular $26 markup price in the USA). In addition, it was found that 69% of Starbucks farmers (inclusive of those in Latin America and Indonesia) did not meet their own CAFÉ standards, including the requirements for fair and humane work conditions and minimum child labor practices . These near slave-like conditions caused an uproar regarding Starbucks’ lack of ethics and deceit behind their emphasis on corporate social responsibility, prompting a massive blow to the Starbucks reputation on an international scale .

Starbucks and Coffee Throughout the Ages: Has Anything Changed?

Historically, coffee production has relied on the labor of New World and imported slaves, and has always been rooted wherever labour is the cheapest. Latin America, Africa, and the Dutch East Indies have frequently been the center of coffee production even after slavery was abolished. Ever since, pioneers in the USA have relied heavily on these nations’ steady coffee production and have continued to manufacture their packaged goods domestically . While Starbucks and other coffee companies have since established various ethical standards and “practices” related to fair trade and the fair treatment of suppliers, and while coffee distribution has since expanded to an even larger scale than its beginnings, the question of whether much else has changed in terms of trade practices since coffee’s first introduction remains. The exposure of Starbucks in its involvement in borderline slavery practices in their farming countries, and the continued practice of using inexpensive labor in poorer countries and manufacturing domestically is large support for the argument that we continue to live in an exploitive society much like that which existed centuries ago. Indeed, while the resulting cultural contact between North America and Latin America and Indonesia has produced arguably one of the most popular seasonal coffee blends, spread the “coffee culture” throughout the world, and more broadly developed one of the most successful coffee companies, the cost to a more global society calls to question how far we have come in our trade practices since their beginnings.

References

• Pendergrast, Mark (2010) [1999]. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World (Revised ed.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02404-9.
• Ukers, William H. (1922). All About Coffee. New York: The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Company.
• The Story of Coffee. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
• Coffea arabica L.. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
• Meyers, Hannah (March 7, 2005). "Suave Molecules of Mocha—Coffee, Chemistry, and Civilization". New Partisan. New Partisan. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
• Rowenna Davis (2008). "The People vs. Starbucks". New Internationalist: 21–23.
• Betty Fussell (1999). "The World Before Starbucks". New York Times Book Review: 26.
• Louise Lucas (April 2012). "Starbucks Backs Farmers' Loan Fund". The Financial Times Ltd.
• Kate Macdonald (2007). "Globalizing Justice within Coffee Supply Chains? Fair Trade, Starbucks, and the Transformation of Supply Chain Governance". Third World Quarterly. 28: 4.
• Mattias Wondallek (2009). "Fairtrade Coffee in Indonesia- Improved Living Conditions for Coffee Farmers, or just a Higher Coffee Price?". Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Business Studies: 4.
• [<http://

mena.starbucks.com/en/article/about-us/diversity.html> "Diversity"]. Starbucks Middle East and North Africa. n.p. n.d. Retrieved July 23, 2012.

• [<http://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/

0e40b1ea48b34b82ae0a987175f1df25.pdf> "Starbucks Company Timeline"]. n.d. Retrieved July 23, 2012.