Product Labelling Convention
As we grow as a company and sharpen our curation of products from around the world, we will be revising how we name our products starting July 2024. While the philosophy behind our new convention should apply to both coffees and teas, we are considering this mostly for coffee rather than tea. Let us first discuss about coffee.
On this matter, we currently adopt two concurrent methods. In one convention, we identify the coffee by variety and processing method; in another convention, we identify it by the name of farm. For example, the popular strawberry coffee is identified in both conventions: On our website and in our product picture, it is referred to as "COLOMBIA JAIRO ARCILA - HONEY PINK BOURBON STRAWBERRY AND WINE YEAST" while the coffee label states "FINCA VILLARAZO". This creates difficulty and confusion in matching and identifying the coffees. Surely, this is not ideal.
Going forward, we will be adopting a hybrid mode of convention, to better document the traceability of our products. We will use location as the primary identifier, with the variants from the said farm as the group of secondary identifiers. The former allows geographical traceability, whereas the latter achieves product traceability. Using the same example, the revised coffee will be called JAIRO ARCILA FINCA VILLARAZO. The addition of the producer's name - JAIRO ARCILA - is to prevent confusion on farms with the same names, which are relatively common occurrences in the coffee world, especially in Spanish speaking Americas.
However, most of the world's supply of coffees comes from smallholders - 25 millions of them. For such coffees, they are either identified by their washing stations or regions, alongside mention of their country. In the former, the name of the station will be the main identifier. In this example, we have Ethiopia Guji Uraga. For regional coffees, the name of the region or sub-region will be the main identifier. Usually, there is an additional size or quality descriptor. In this example, we have Colombia Huila Supremo. In summary, the naming hierarchy for the primary product identifier for the sake of location traceability is:
> Producer and Farm
> Region and Washing Station, alongside mention of their country
> Region/Sub-region, alongside mention of their country
> The higher order region and the country will be stated immediately after above information if not already stated
Having identified the farm, the coffee in focus will be identified by a group of secondary identifiers which will be presented in a logical sequence, as follows:
> Species and variety
> Country grade if any
> Processing method
> Additional processing method, if any
> Year of harvest
Using the same example, the information would be recorded as: Arabica Pink Bourbon, Honey, Strawberry Maceration with Wine Yeast, 2024.
The main identifier - producer and farm's name - will be the title of the coffee label and the title of the page on our website. The secondary identifier plus flavour descriptors will be included in the coffee label as well as the information box in the coffee page. In a fully traceable coffee down to the farm, we will further include the latitude and longitude in decimal degrees. For example, the wet mill that processes the strawberry coffee is La Pradera in Armenia, Quindio. This is also the office of Cofinet HQ. Its grid coordinates are 4.47602, -75.70917. By entering this set of numbers on Google Maps, you can pinpoint its location.
What about coffee blends? The above discussion will apply as much as we can manage. Of course, we will give it a name of our own, and this name will synchronized across all references of this coffee in our company.
As we still have existing coffee labels printed using old names, it would take time to run them out. Information for new coffees will be presented using the new naming convention as described here.
This hierarchy mostly applies to coffee. Teas have a longer history than coffees and are often identified by their historical names, which are usually governed by local laws on their geographical boundary and the attendant production standards. The historical name of the product already carries prestige and value independent from the producer, who mostly remains faceless. Despite this tradition, we are working to showcase the producer, as seen in how we feature the tea master who made the Tieguanyin tea with us in May 2024.
We are revising our naming convention to sharpen location as well as product traceability. We hope to bring credits to the hardworking producers who supply us with their wonderful products.
Thank you for coming onboard Parchmen & Co!
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