The beginning

24th, February 2022.

We are having coffee with Michael Loos, our coffee roaster, and Fabrice Leseigneur, our photographer. It's a beautiful day on this terrace, and we're heading back to Paris in a few hours. 

We have spent two memorable weeks in Costa Rica and El Salvador, but this morning, there is a war in Europe; Poutine's war, and we wonder what will happen. After two years of Covid, a war. And so it begins in 2022.

 Christophe Servell and Michael Loos, Salvador | Photo credit : Fabrice Leseigneur 

This will be followed by a huge increase in the price of raw materials, transport, the depreciation of the euro against the dollar, and the consequent increase in the price of speciality coffees. 

And, if I look specifically at coffee, 2022 was a good year for Terres de Café, and a crucial year for the speciality coffee market. 

Terres de Café : New perspectives

Indeed, we have continued our strategy of sustainable sourcing and have initiated or consolidated good partnerships, in particular with the Ecuadorian farms La Soledad, Terrazas Del Pisque, La Josefina and Los Pirineos in El Salvador. 

Pepe Jijon Finca Soledad, Ecuador | Photo credit : Fabrice Leseigneur 

We have started a cooperation with Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza in Brazil on the tracking of coffees from their producer networks, and the measurement of the carbon impact of coffees from their farm.

"Coffee is seen once again as a noble, plural, local product, which deserves to be tasted and invites reflection and pleasure" Christophe Servell 

It was also the release of El Cuto coffee, the result of a 3-year project of regenerative agriculture and four farms unified around the project: 1500 trees planted, ponds created, water resource management, return of biodiversity, polyculture... also in El Salvador.

We also went to meet small Kenyan producers to promote this independent sector and make it the guideline for our 22/23 subscription campaign.

Gerald Estate, Kenya | Photo credit : Fabrice Leseigneur 

We also participated, with Norwegian roaster Tim Wedelboe, in the financing of a washing station for our dear Negusse Tadesse, Tatmara Farm in Ethiopia so that he no longer wastes cherries in very wet weather and increases the quality of his production.

And to finish on a high note, the consequent securing and increasing of our forest coffee supplies with our Ethiopian partner Khalid Shifa. 

Khalid Shifa, Ethiopia| Photo credit : Fabrice Leseigneur 

The future of coffee

A crucial year, because what is also emerging, with the increase in the popularity of speciality coffee among the public, and the general rise in coffee prices, is the change in people's perception of this product. Coffee is seen once again as a noble, plural, local product that is worth tasting and invites reflection and pleasure, by more and more informed consumers. 

And this progressive change of perspective is more than necessary when we know that world production will only decrease over the next thirty years due to global warming and that production must become more sustainable or it will no longer be. 

We need to drink less coffee but drink it better, and that is the direction of the wind in 2022. 

Terres de Café Seoul, South Korea

In Paris, Versailles, Carouge, Saint Denis de la Réunion or Seoul, customers don't come to our shops to drink a coffee or buy a packet, but to live an experience, to take pleasure, both sensory and intellectual, to discover all the stories that speciality coffee tells. That is the meaning of the story.

"A crucial year for the specialty coffee market" Christophe Servell 

As far as history is concerned, our Brazilian friends celebrated at length the victory of Lula, and even more so the defeat of the horrible Bolsonaro; the Republican tidal wave of the Midterms and its procession of regressions in the United States did not take place; Europe, faced with Poutine, may have finally become aware of its purpose, and our Ukrainian brothers are holding on to defend this purpose: freedom. 

All hopes are allowed for 2023. 

Happy New Year! 

Thank you to all the Terres de Café team. 

Special thanks to our two vice champions Marie Picoche and Jordan Tachnakian and to our Aeropress champion Pierre de Chantérac.

Support UA. 

Christophe Servell