The answer turned out to be a Tesla, a fully electric sports car. I had known about Tesla for several years, having followed the story of Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who started the company, and having heard him speak at an Inc. 500 conference last fall, when he discussed his new car company that he believed was going to revolutionize the automotive industry. Named after Nikola Tesla, the remarkable, prolific inventor known primarily for the invention of alternating-current power systems, the Tesla is a battery-powered sports car. I had read reviews about the car and the company but had never seen one. And then, the company opened a showroom in Boulder. And it was my birthday.  Sometimes, all the signs point in a certain direction, and in this instance it was northwest on the Boulder Turnpike.

The Tesla is tiny, and for someone my size, getting in and out is an adventure. I climbed in and maneuvered into the seat. Once ensconced behind the wheel, I looked around. The dashboard has two dials, one a speedometer and the other a gauge to measure battery life and usage. The car is powered by 6,831 individual lithium-ion batteries and is best charged by plugging into a 220-volt plug. Charging takes about six hours and yields a range of about 180 miles. Acceleration is astonishing, with 0-60 times of less than four seconds. It is the fastest car I’ve ever driven, and is it fun to accelerate!

I have been driving the car since January and love every mile and every kilowatt of electricity I use. I drove past a gas station yesterday and smiled. I haven’t been to one in months. I don’t know how much a gallon of gasoline costs anymore. But I am completely charged up by driving my Tesla.

On the surface, it makes sense to promote Fair Trade products as a way of trying to get more money back to subsistence farmers to help improve their lives and living conditions. And although there has been some success in getting people to consume Fair Trade products, particularly with strong marketing campaigns, the trick is getting people to continue consuming those products on an ongoing basis. However, that can be done only if the quality of the Fair Trade products is equal to or surpasses that of similar products that don’t have a Fair Trade insignia. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

I discussed this situation with one of my customers, a boutique coffee roaster in Belfast who focuses on cupping and roasting the best coffees he can find. He travels to origins to source beans, is an SCAA Cup of Excellence judge and is well respected by his peers.

As we talked about Fair Trade, he became animated. Many of his customers demand Fair Trade-certified coffees, and he is happy to comply. However, he is frustrated by the fact that he can find and source better-tasting coffees that are not certified Fair Trade due to the way Fair Trade works. If a coffee isn’t from a co-op, it can’t be certified Fair Trade, even if the producing farm meets all of the other criteria necessary for approval. These better coffees command a higher price than their Fair Trade counterparts, so more money actually goes back to the farms, and more money can go directly to the growers.

The paradox remains that Fair Trade is only an economic stamp of approval, with a minimum-price guarantee. It says nothing about the quality of the coffee, which can be inconsistent due to the nature of a co-op. And, according to this roaster, although Fair Trade sets a minimum price for coffee, it is very difficult to get a higher price than the minimum because of the inherent quality issues. So although he is willing to buy the Fair Trade coffee for those accounts that demand it, he is happy buying non-Fair Trade-certified coffee for a higher price that makes a better cup. He feels that he is making an even bigger difference in the lives of coffee growers who strive to produce the best beans and who receive an even higher price for their work without the third-party endorsement of Fair Trade.

At this year’s Coffee Fest in Las Vegas, I was just short of my $1,000 goal. I mentioned my challenge to one of my friends who works for Coffee Fest, and I told her the amount that I needed to put me over the top. She reached into her wallet and gave me the money. I was so excited that we had managed to pull this off. This was the beginning, and I’m proud that we succeeded in raising enough for the two cows. I will set up another goal soon and will post it here and hope that people participate. Next time, I hope we can donate even more.

I just finished my third new business presentation in as many days. Each company is a large, publicly traded, well-known household name. All are considered leaders in food service and are responsible for serving millions of beverages and meals annually. And each meeting had nothing to do with saving money or cutting costs. Instead, the conversations focused on sustainability, Fair Trade and social responsibility.

The buyers at these companies are acutely aware of the importance of their supply chain in ensuring that their stores have an uninterrupted supply of products. None of them wants to face the thought of running out of a popular menu item. And all place a huge burden of responsibility on their vendors to make sure that doesn’t happen. At the same time, they all understand that focusing solely on price is a destructive business tactic. They prefer to focus on longer-term investments by paying higher prices and knowing that a third party certifies where the crops come from. The certifications we discussed include organic, Fair Trade, UTZ and Rainforest Alliance. These buyers know that paying more money for products that are independently certified means the crop is generally better treated than its non-certified counterpart. Fair Trade products mean that farmers receive a premium price; Certified Organic means that the coffee or cocoa was grown without using artificial pesticides; UTZ certifies that all of the growing and processing is subject to strict regulations; and Rainforest Alliance means that the crops were grown to ensure that valuable rain-forest lands are not endangered. Each of these certifications costs the buyer more money, and each company was willing to accept that price premium knowing it would lead to a more sustainable supply.

The discussions I had were focused on how we could help these companies deliver products with these attributes. Now, the fun part — the Research and Development component — begins. The lab is now creating single-origin cocoa mixes, Fair Trade chocolate syrups and organic flavored syrups. And while it is always fun to develop new items, it is especially gratifying doing so and knowing that both farmers and consumers will ultimately benefit from what we make.  

One of the biggest issues facing companies that use coffee and cocoa is sustainability. How can we, as users of a commodity, guarantee a consistent, quality supply of the materials that we use to make our products? There are myriad issues affecting supply-chain sustainability, but many are directly attributable to the welfare of the farmer or grower. This post is an attempt to illuminate a few of the challenges that cacao farmers face.

First of all, the farming itself is basic subsistence agriculture. Essentially, most of the grower’s income is derived from the cash crop that he is growing, and he must use the proceeds from the crop to cover all of the expenses of raising and harvesting the crop, as well as living expenses for a family. With cacao, the average crop is harvested on a plot that is approximately two hectares, or one acre. In West Africa, farmers receive between $30 and $100 per year for their harvests, representing up to 70 percent of their total annual income.  

A second problem the farmers face is a lack of knowledge and skills, preventing them from maximizing their crop yield. Without training and equipment, it is difficult to get the most from the land.  

A third problem is a lack of credit and financial resources that could enable farmers to purchase fertilizers that would increase yields and decrease crop loss. Since the average crop size is so small, even a slight increase in productivity would greatly increase overall income. 

Some of these issues can be addressed by getting farmers more money for their crops. Fair Trade purchasing is one way to generate more income for farmers by getting buyers to commit to paying a premium for a more consistent, higher-quality product. Although some argue about the model, Fair Trade purchases and practices are gaining popularity as customers, like us, are willing to spend more money for a commodity in the beliefs that the end product will be of a more consistent quality and that by paying more, the farmer will benefit. We just introduced two new Fair Trade cocoa mixes, and I hope that our customers see the benefit as well.  

Coffee and cocoa are two of the most widely traded agricultural commodities in the world. As commodities, cacao and coffee beans provide income to millions of growers around the world. Sold as cups of coffee and bars of chocolate, these products provide an income and livelihood for millions of people involved in the entire production process. Yet as with all commodities, these crops are subject to the whims of nature, and a bad harvest or an outbreak of disease materially affects all involved. 

Mapping the genomes of these two plants not only will allow scientists to better understand their genetic composition but will enable them to try to develop hybrids and strains that are pest- and disease-resistant, have a higher yield and potentially even taste better. 

The task is enormous — the cocoa genome alone has 400 million parts that have to be sequenced, and coffee beans contain more than 200,000 strands of DNA. But the payoff is huge. Reducing crop loss by creating disease-resistant strains of seeds means huge savings for growers, the majority of whom eke out a meager existence. Higher crop yields mean greater income and help reduce a cycle of poverty that haunts subsistence farmers.

On a sensory level, once the genomes are completed, variations in aroma, flavor and other characteristics can be studied and altered. For example, imagine growing a naturally decaffeinated coffee bean, as the caffeine genes are removed before planting. Or creating a stronger-tasting, more aromatic chocolate flavor from cacao beans.  

The possibilities are fascinating. Using the cocoa and coffee genomes properly means that the lives of growers around the world can be profoundly affected, and the flavor of your favorite cup of coffee or chocolate bar will taste even better.  

Tetteh Quarshie’s farm is small, covering less than half a hectare, or about an acre of land. My family toured the farm recently and saw not just cocoa trees, but also other crops planted to provide a protective canopy for the cocoa trees while helping the soil and serving as secondary cash crops.

In addition to cocoa beans, plantains, bananas, mangos, papayas, and yams are all grown on the property. But it is cocoa that dominates.

Three varietals are grown on the farm: amelonado, Amazonia, and a hybrid. The hybrid flowers the fastest and produces the most beans. Our guide cut down a pod using a long handled pole that had a knife attached to the end.

After catching the pod, he cut it open with a machete to reveal the inside, where about 50 beans were resting in a milky white film. He scooped out some of the beans and gave them to us to taste. “Suck on them,” he said, “don’t chew them.” The texture of the pulp itself was smooth. The taste of a fresh, raw cocoa bean is not at all what one expects. They have a fruity, citrus flavor, with no chocolate overtones.

The guide then led us to the drying table, which is a narrow, wood table that holds a folded up wooden mat. First he placed some banana leaves on the ground. Next he scooped out the beans from several pods. He formed them into a small mound, and then covered them with more leaves.

“The fermentation and drying are critical steps to develop the flavor of the beans,” the guide explained. “Once the pods are harvested, the beans are fermented for two days by laying them on banana leaves and covering them. Two days later, we come back, stir them around to expose all sides to the air, and cover them again. Two days after that, we repeat the process.

“Then we do it a third time. Finally, after seven days of fermenting, we take the beans from the leaves and place them on the drying table where they dry in the sun. Once they have dried for several days, they are placed in sacks and sent to the factories for processing.”

Most of the cocoa made from Ghanaian cocoa beans is processed by major industrial producers in Europe. But my friend Steve Wallace, owner of Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, not only buys cocoa beans from Ghana, but his factory is in Accra, the capital of Ghana where he makes his cocoa powder and chocolates.

It was fascinating to see the cacao trees and eat the fresh, unfermented cacao beans, which are a unique taste that most people never get to try. Refreshing though it was, I still prefer the finished dark chocolate. And dark chocolate made from Ghana cocoa beans has a rich, cherry flavor that makes it quite unique.

A look inside a pod at the mucilage, which causes the cocoa beans to ferment, ultimately giving them their flavor.

The cocoa beans are placed into banana leaves to allow for the fermentation process.

After seven days, the bean are placed onto a drying table.

A look at the inside of a fresh cocoa bean and a dried cocoa bean.

Readers are asked to consider why, for example, Al Qaida is so powerful. How were they able to inflict such damage and emotional terror on Americans?  (As a frequent traveler, this is something I unfortunately think about every time I pass through security. The size limit on liquid and gel containers particularly impacts me since I can no longer travel with 12-ounce bottles of chocolate syrup samples for customers.  Since the gel ban, I think I have become one of UPS’s best customers.  And the last time I packed bottles in my checked baggage, all my syrups were confiscated.  In their place was a note from the TSA saying my bag had been examined. The business appointment that afternoon didn’t go so well!)

So the book looks at how decentralized, leaderless organizations with a strong sense of community can produce outsized, amazing results.  One of the examples is Wikipedia.  No real hierarchy, just people who want to contribute articles about myriad subjects and a self-policing community that ensures the articles are accurate.  One of the comments Beckstrom made in his talk was that, as organizations give up control, they have to increase their trust. When graphed, it looks like this:

As he spoke I kept nodding my head in agreement,; I realized how this applies to Mont Blanc’s business model. Because we use a number of regional production plants, our trust in the plants’ quality operations goes up and some of our control goes down. Giving up some control allows us to greatly expand our production capabilities.  But in the end, we still make and deliver on our promises.

Our unique business model has been key to keeping down costs and maintaining the same level of quality as we weather the current economic storm.

Maybe we are a starfish organization after all.

At Mont Blanc Gourmet, we are experiencing the same thing. Our lab is developing more and more private label products for our customers, and those products represent the fastest growing part of our sales.

We create private label products for well-known, well-established consumer brands, enabling these national entities to effectively extend their brand identity into more aspects of their operations.

One customer offers to consumers a private label retail bottle of chocolate syrup that is the same product they use for making their mochas.  Another client supplies its franchise partners with proprietary products to ensure consistency in drinks served in stores that they don’t operate.

CoffeeTalk, a major specialty coffee trade journal, published a private label article in its September issue entitled “Build Your Own Brand through Private Labeling.”

With both the foodservice and retail packages, Mont Blanc has experienced significant sales increases in the past year.  The private label trend is strong and growing.  In tough economic times, it makes sense to act on the strong trends.

I am a big believer in the fair trade system.  (Uncapitalized, in this context, and, unfortunately, always undercapitalized!)  However, in this instance, we are faced with one of the ironies of using the branded Fair Trade logo.  Namely, products can only be branded with the Trans Fair logo if they come from a cooperative.  One of our cocoa sources is in Ghana, and we have a very strong relationship with them.

Because of the governmental system in place in Ghana, farmers sell their beans directly to the government, and in return receive a reasonable price.  In Ghana, 9 million people make their living from growing cocoa, so it is in the government’s interest to ensure the price is as high as possible, and they have successfully done so for decades.  But this company is not a co-op.  So we can’t use their cocoa for this product.  Which is a shame, since we would be purchasing a significant amount of cocoa powder, the money would go straight back to Ghana, and make a significant impact on all of their lives.  It is a curious system.