Is Starbucks Yirgacheffe Coffee Good? Flavor Characteristics of Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans

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Starbucks Reserve: Sun-Dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Xueletuo Coffee Beans

Tmall price: ¥198.00 per package

Starbucks: Ethiopia Sun-Dried Yirgacheffe coffee is processed naturally - the hand-picked bright red cherries are set out on raised drying beds, where the cherries sit under the sun, constantly being turned to ensure even and complete drying. After drying, the fruit skin is removed, resulting in Ethiopia Sun-Dried Yirgacheffe coffee beans rich in strawberry and red cherry fruit flavors.

Is Starbucks Yirgacheffe Good?

Starbucks' "Pour-Over Coffee" Yirgacheffe Xuelietu Sun-Dried is really fragrant! Actually, it's better than the Yirgacheffe I've had at some small shops outside. It's not too acidic and truly aromatic with a good aftertaste. As expected, the roasting workshop's technique is really impressive, but the price of 88 really makes my heart ache when drinking it.

Yirgacheffe

Yirgacheffe originates from Ethiopia in Africa, the largest producer of Arabica coffee in Africa and the birthplace of coffee trees. Its unique geographical environment and microclimate create richly diverse flavored acidic coffee, making it a favorite for acidity lovers and a must-try basic from African coffee regions.

Yirgacheffe is synonymous with Ethiopian specialty coffee. It should have been a sub-region of Sidamo, with flavors characterized by bright fruit acidity with notes of jasmine, lemon or lime, and berries. When you drink it, rich fruit and floral flavors fill your mouth, earning it high ratings in international specialty coffee competitions. It's commonplace for Coffee Review to give it ratings above 90 points. In the past, it had an international lawsuit with Starbucks because Starbucks used Yirgacheffe as a product name. The final result was a settlement with Starbucks, paying royalties to Ethiopia, after which Yirgacheffe became independent and became the country's most famous coffee region.

Ethiopia's Victory Over the Green Giant - The Secret History of Starbucks and Yirgacheffe

Ethiopia strongly mediated with Brazil, the world's largest coffee-producing country, to share research results on naturally low-caffeine coffee trees. Then, fighting for the rights of coffee farmers, it took on the world's largest coffee chain brand Starbucks, accusing the green mermaid of misappropriating Ethiopia's traditional coffee origin names Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Harar. It demanded that Starbucks cancel the trademark registrations of these three place names because they belong to Ethiopia and can only be used with the consent and authorization of the country concerned.

The dispute between the two parties erupted in March 2005 and once again became the focus of international media attention.

What interested the media was that Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, with coffee exports reaching 170,000 metric tons in 2006, generating $431 million in foreign exchange, accounting for 35% of the country's total exports. Among the country's 70 million population, 15 million people depend on coffee for their livelihood. In 2006, Ethiopia's gross national product was only $9.78 billion, with per capita income of less than $900, making it one of the world's poorest countries.

In contrast, Starbucks is a coffee chain giant, with 12,440 stores globally in 2006. Its powerful legal team is most adept at suing competitors for infringing on the green mermaid trademark, with total revenue reaching $7.78 billion, almost 80% of Ethiopia's gross national product. In 2006, Starbucks imported 150,000 metric tons of coffee beans from producing countries worldwide, accounting for about 50% of Ethiopia's coffee production of 300,000 metric tons in the same year. However, Ethiopian coffee only accounted for 2% of Starbucks' coffee imports in 2006 (Starbucks mainly focuses on Central and South American beans, following the historical trajectory of American coffee preferences). In the past, we only heard about Starbucks suing others, but now impoverished Ethiopia fought back against Starbucks, which is as rich as a country, using their own tactics against them. The lawsuit was certainly a spectacular battle.

Ethiopia played the sympathy card, with global media and humanitarian organizations almost unanimously siding with the weaker party. Ethiopia used Starbucks' best-selling "Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo" as an example to tell the hardships of coffee farmers:

In Fero village, Sidamo producing region in southern Ethiopia, farmers must pick six pounds of coffee cherries to produce one pound of sun-dried beans, exposing them outdoors for fifteen days, and turning them every few minutes to ensure even heating and drying, which is quite laborious. But farmers only receive $1.45 per pound of sun-dried beans, and this amount has to deduct generator fuel costs, bank loans, wages, and transportation costs for sending coffee beans down the mountain. What farmers actually pocket is less than $1. However, Starbucks stores sell "Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo" at a high price of $26 per pound...

The well-known international charity organization Oxfam visited Fero village in Ethiopia's Sidamo coffee-producing region and found that farmers wore ragged clothes, had no shoes, and lived in makeshift houses made of mud and thatch to shelter from wind and rain. They survived on fruits and vegetables they grew themselves. The farmers' heartfelt sentiment was: "We are very angry about being exploited, but who can we cry to?" Oxfam also did the math for the villagers: in 2006, 2,432 coffee farmers from Fero village produced a total of 300,000 pounds of sun-dried beans, with an average income of $123 per person. However, each person had to pay $20 to coffee cooperatives and unions to support related road construction and administrative expenses, leaving only $103 in each farmer's pocket to support a family of four for the entire year. No wonder hungry people begging can be seen everywhere. Starbucks was somewhat generous that year, donating $15,000 to reward villagers for producing high-quality coffee, giving each farmer an additional $6.2, but this was just a drop in the bucket, still not enough to make a living. Oxfam pointed out that 45% of the final selling price of specialty coffee in Central and South America goes into coffee farmers' pockets, but Ethiopian farmers only receive 5%-10%, which is clearly low.

Getachew Mengistie, director of Ethiopia's Intellectual Property Office, pointedly noted that farmers sell green beans for $1.45 per pound, while Starbucks sells them for $26 per pound in the United States, an eighteen-fold price difference. The reason is that Ethiopia doesn't know how to use intellectual property rights to create value for farmers. By simply marketing Ethiopian specialty beans, they can be sold in the United States at three times the price of regular commercial beans. It should be understood that simply investing in roasting, packaging, and marketing equipment in the American downstream supply chain cannot create such enormous added value, because most of the value comes from the coffee origin (if Starbucks didn't label it "Sidamo," it certainly couldn't be sold at such a high price). He emphasized: "Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, and famous producing regions naturally have enormous marketing value, but this has been overlooked by farmers, allowing excess profits to be easily earned by countries that know how to use origin prestige to create value!"

Ethiopia finally awakened and decided to learn from Western developed countries to master branding and value creation techniques to benefit hardworking farmers. In March 2005, it applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for trademark rights for the three famous producing regions: Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, and Harar. In the future, American businesses selling specialty coffee from these three regions must first obtain authorization from Ethiopia before using the origin names, allowing hardworking farmers to receive more reasonable compensation.

According to Oxfam's estimates, once Ethiopia obtains these three origin trademark rights, it will increase Ethiopia's annual income by $88 million, which is no small help. However, Starbucks objected to the US Trademark Office because Starbucks had already applied for Sidamo as a trademark as early as 2004. Although the case was still under review, the first applicant had the advantage. The Ethiopian ambassador to the United States negotiated with Starbucks and received the response: "Please talk directly to our lawyers." However, in 2006, the US Trademark Office approved Ethiopia's ownership of the "Yirgacheffe" trademark, while the two producing region names Sidamo and Harar were still under review. Starbucks hired a large legal team to strengthen its defense firepower, trying to prevent Ethiopia from controlling the trademark rights of the other two regions. In November 2006, Starbucks' newly appointed senior vice president Dub Hay even posted a video on "YouTube" openly challenging Ethiopia, criticizing that applying for trademarks with place names was illegal, and suggesting that Ethiopian authorities adopt an origin certification system, such as Jamaica Blue Mountain and Hawaii Kona coffee, which also provides protection to consumers. The video attracted tens of thousands of views within a month but angered American media and humanitarian groups, who thought Starbucks' behavior was unsightly. Roberta Horton, the lawyer representing Ethiopia, said: "Dub Hay is talking nonsense. Ethiopia's move aims to protect high-value goods and consolidate the intellectual property rights it deserves. Ethiopia is simply adopting Starbucks' strategy of protecting trademarks. Why should others face so many obstacles when doing the same thing?"

Director of Ethiopia's Intellectual Property Office, Mengistie, said: "The certification system suggested by Starbucks is not feasible because poor, illiterate coffee farmers don't have the capacity to execute additional certification paperwork. Moreover, doing so will only increase unnecessary regulation fees, and the selling price won't increase, which won't help farmers' income. Our purpose in applying for trademark rights is to give farmers better income, so they can sleep on mattresses instead of the ground, have at least one meal a day, and be able to send their children to school. Should even this humble request be suppressed?" American media overwhelmingly criticized Starbucks, even calling it "modern colonial hegemony, cleverly seizing Ethiopia's millennium-old传承 of quality coffee..." Although the language was somewhat excessive, under strong public pressure, Dub Hay finally apologized publicly and retracted his statement that "Ethiopia's trademark application was illegal."

In June 2007, the two-year trademark lawsuit came to an end. Starbucks acknowledged Ethiopia's ownership of the trademarks for Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, and Harar, and agreed that Ethiopia would authorize the use of origin trademarks, and also agreed to help Ethiopia market coffee from these three producing regions. In November, CEO Schultz personally visited the Ethiopian provincial government and donated funds to both parties.

To be fair, Starbucks' annual coffee imports are about 120,000-180,000 metric tons, which is insignificant compared to Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Sara Lee (brands acquired include Douwe Egberts, Chock Full O' Nuts, Hills Bros, MJB, also the coffee supplier for Dunkin Donuts), and Kraft Foods (main brand is Maxwell House). Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Sara Lee, and Kraft Foods are known as the world's four major coffee roasting giants, with coffee roasting divisions' annual revenues all exceeding $1 billion, and their combined annual coffee purchases account for half of the world's total production. Starbucks treats coffee farmers at least more generously than these four "powerful" super roasters. But it suffers from its fame, often becoming the target of criticism, and any misstep can easily lead to embarrassment. Interestingly, some businesses benefited from this case. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a well-known coffee company on the US East Coast, best understood the unfair treatment suffered by coffee farmers. In 2006, while Ethiopia and Starbucks were in a heated dispute, it preemptively signed an origin authorization contract with Ethiopia, effortlessly winning a corporate image battle.

As of November 2007, Ethiopia has applied for trademark rights for "Yirgacheffe," "Sidamo," and "Harar" in 36 countries worldwide, and has been approved by 28 countries. It has also signed origin trademark authorization contracts with 24 coffee companies in the United States, Europe, and Japan, and expects another 25 large coffee companies to sign contracts before May 2008. This will give Ethiopian coffee farmers and unions more power to set prices, no longer being controlled by others, with greater protection for farmers' income. Whether Jamaica Blue Mountain, Indonesia Mandheling, and Hawaii Kona will follow suit is worth observing.

Although Ethiopia won a beautiful victory, agricultural authorities also called on Ethiopian coffee farmers not to forget to improve quality while celebrating. In the future, higher standards should be adopted for sun-drying, washing, and grading to give consumers a sense of value for money. Otherwise, having only trademark rights will make it difficult to compete with specialty beans from other countries.

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