1. A geography of taste: fair trade coffee and spatialized tag clouds
Frank LaFone, Bradley Wilson, Trevor Harris
Department of Geology and Geography
West Virginia University

2. The Coffee Paradox
A ‘coffee boom’ in consuming countries and a ‘coffee crisis’ in producing countries
Paradox within the Paradox
International Coffee Market has too much ‘low quality’ coffee
Sales growth is in ‘high quality’ – fair trade, organic, etc
“Because of the importance of cup characteristics in evaluating the quality of coffee, market operators never really succeeded in collectively defining objective quality criteria and way of measuring them, although steps have been taken in this direction.” (Daviron and Ponte, pg. 69)

3. Taste and Place
Taste is subjective, personal, complex – yet taste is used to determine coffee quality and thus price
Important in rise of Fair Trade Coffee
Cup of excellence competition
New science of coffee quality
Codified by Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA)
Professional coffee quality evaluators
Combine subjective and objective sensory techniques
Identify unique flavor profiles of coffee from around the world

4. Cup of Excellence Compétition
Competitions held in each coffee growing country
Back link coffee flavor evaluation from cup to crop
Relationships between flavor, varietals, soils, climate, and farm practices

5. Cup of Excellence Competition
Spatial analysis of Alliance for Coffee Excellence quality competitions Central America
Explore spatial analysis of coffee taste
Link evaluations to regional geographic location (terroir)
Challenge to link textual descriptions of flavor to the geography of coffee production and Fair Trade

6. Wheel of Flavor

7. Cup of Excellence Competition Data Description – General Variables
Range, Examples
Year
Country
Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador
City
Citalá, Jinotega, etc
Region
Corquin, San Juan Sacatepéquez, etc
Coffee Variety
Bourbón, Caturra and Catuai
Processing Method
washed and sun dried, conventional, etc
Farm Name
Santa Elena II, Shangrilá, etc
Farmer
Julia Rosa Mena de Lima, Ernesto Lima Mena, etc
Farm Size
Hectares
Coffee Growing Area
Altitude
Meters
Certifications
Free Trade, etc

8. Cup of Excellence Competition Data Description – Competition Variables
Range, Examples
Rank
1 - n (n differs by country/year)
Score
80-100
Lot Size
Number of bags/boxes submitted
Cupping Number
Unique ID number
Price
USD in current year
2003 Dollars
Derived from above
Winning Bidder
World Coffee Co.,Ltd., The Rosterie Inc, etc.
Descriptors
Citrus, creamy, mellow, complex, chocolate, sweet, floral, melon, butterscotch, rich, orange, carrot, jasmine, honey, spicy, syrupy, licorice

9. Number of farms ranked above 80%
Honduras
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Guatemala
El Salvador
2003 37 31
2004 21 28 35
2005 41 17
2006 33 25 18 23
2007 24 34 19
2008 26 30 36
2009 39

10. Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis of Coffee Data
Environmental Variables
Competition Variables

11. Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis of Coffee Data

12. All farms ranked above 80% score for all years plotted against price 2003 Dollars by Rank
Clear relationship
Variability
Outliers
Question – what flavors
drive the higher ranking
and therefore price
Flavor descriptors
Text
Qualitative spatial analysis
Qualitative GIS

13. Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis of Coffee Data

14. Wordles
Fill in information about wordles and what they are

15. Wordle for All Countries, All Years

16. Comparative Wordles Highest Dectile of Rank Compared to Lowest Dectile of Rank

17. Comparative Wordles Lowest Dectile of Rank Compared to Highest Dectile of Rank

18. Comparative Wordles Highest Dectile of Price Compared to Lowest Dectile of Price

19. Comparative Wordles Lowest Dectile of Price Compared to Highest Dectile of Price

20. Nicaragua Comparative Wordles Highest Dectile of Rank Compared to Lowest Dectile of Rank

21. Nicaragua Comparative Wordles Lowest Dectile of Price Compared to Highest Dectile of Price

22. El Salvador Comparative Wordles Highest Dectile of Price Compared to Lowest Dectile of Price

23. El Salvador Comparative Wordles Lowest Dectile of Price Compared to Highest Dectile of Price

24. El Salvador ESDA Numeric Analysis vs Nicaragua ESDA Numeric Analysis

25. El Salvador Comparative Wordles Lowest Dectile of Price Compared to Highest Dectile of Price

26. Future Directions

27. Future Directions

28. Future Directions

29. Future Directions

30. Conclusions

31. Conclusion Qualitative GIS informs analysis
Text – descriptors, wordles, maps
Exploratory
Critique
Future work – tea, terroir, wine, spatial humanities