yearofplenty

This world map of coffee consumption per capita is making the rounds today on the . There are any number of fascinating aspects to the map, but for me what jumps out is that other than Brazil the equatorial ring of countries that produce the world's coffee beans are not big coffee drinkers. (The gray indicates no data, so the contrasts may not be as stark as they seem on the map.) I've heard that this can actually create challenges for aspiring growers of coffee in these regions because they aren't culturally equipped with the knowledge of what makes a good cup of java. When in Thailand in 2009 I was shocked that, for the most part, bad instant coffee was the only coffee available outside of the airport. According to some, the US became a bastion of coffee drinking because of the association of tea with the Brits back during the American Revolution.

I did a little investigating and found two other beverage maps of the world.

The above world map of beer consumption looks surprisingly similar to the coffee map. Texas should have its own designation. When I lived there I heard a legendary statistic that it accounts for 1/8 of US beer consumption.

Argentina comes out of nowhere to take the prize in the above wine consumption map of the world.

If I'm reading the map correctly France wins the award for most consistently gluttonous.

For an extensive map breakdown of life expectancy, food and hunger around the world go here.

I had a chance to stop by Roast House Coffee last week and get a tour of their newly opened facility. Dave Rier, formerly the master roaster for Thomas Hammer coffee, is manning the controls of their Diedrich small batch roaster, so you know the coffee is going to be good. I especially appreciate their emphasis on relationships, both with the Spokane community and the coffee growers who provide their beans.

They are focusing on private label business, meaning that they will roast coffee for your business to sell under your own brand. It's a real opportunity for Spokane area businesses to get a high quality, artisan product that helps extend their own brand. Their coffee is currently available at the Main Market Food Co-Op under the Main Market brand.

The owners of the business are big supporters of the local food movement in Spokane. I wish them well. Stop by their and say hi.

I hung out with Matthew Simpson of Wisdom Coffee in the Valley last week. He is roasting up some java goodness at his micro-roastery where he works wonders with a 12 kilo Diedrich coffee roaster. Matt is a computer programmer and he's put those skills to good use by retro-fitting his roaster to a computer to follow his own unique roasting profiles. I brewed up some Malawi about 30 minutes after it was roasted and it was as rich and complex a coffee as I've had.

Matt roasts to order so you have to go to his website and place your order and get this, the coffee is an unbelievable $7/lb. Look to hear a lot more about Wisdom Coffee in the coming years.

We visited the Doi Tung factory store today. There are many projects of the people started by the King's mother, and Doi Tung is the brand umbrella for high end hand made weavings, pottery, paper, and most importantly coffee from the mountains above Chiang Rai. The infamous golden triagle between Laos, Burma and Thailand which has been known historically for opium trade is in the very beginning stages of developing a decent coffee growing industry. Doi Tung coffee follows a crop substitution model, replacing opium and slash and burn farming with sustainably grown coffee beans.

At the beginning of our year we were hoping to get roasted coffee beans from Thailand, but we couldn't figure out how to transfer money and do shipping at a reasonable cost - so we settled on local roasters.

So far we have purchased Sunshine Coffee beans from a woman in Tathon who gets the beans from the second highest mountain in Thailand near Fang (Fawng). Today we bought some of the Doi Tung coffee beans, and better yet we got to see their processing operation in action. The picture above shows a man raking the green beans, drying them in preparation for roasting. It was basically a huge parking lot covered by black plastic, with a half inch layer of coffee beans settled on top. Below are more pictures from their location.