In a no-nonsense vignette, Cliff Beecham captures the essence of what makes the best single-origin coffees market defining.

Let me tell you about coffee. Not the coffee you think you know. Not the coffee your father drank. Not the coffee that comes in cans and sits on supermarket shelves like dead soldiers. The other coffee. The coffee that tells you where it came from. The coffee with a pedigree. Here’s how it works. A realtor walks into a coffee shop. Expensive place. The kind where they don’t put prices on the menu because if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. You can tell salesman of some sort by the watch. By the shoes. By the way he thinks every transaction is a game of dominance. “Just coffee,” he says. Like coffee is simple. Like coffee is one thing. The barista lets it slide and starts in about single-origin Ethiopian something-or-other. The broker cuts him off. Doesn’t want to hear it. Doesn’t want the education. Just wants his coffee, black, like coffee’s supposed to be. Here’s what the broker doesn’t know: coffee’s like real estate. Location matters. Provenance matters. History matters. You’re not just buying beans and water. You’re buying altitude. Soil composition. Processing methods. You’re buying the story that justifies the price. The guy thinks seven bucks for a cup is insane. The broker sells condos for two million dollars because they’re in the right neighbourhood, but he thinks seven dollars is too much for coffee from the right mountain, the right farm, the right family who’s been growing it for three generations. That’s how markets work. First you resist. Then you understand. Then you become the effing expert. You know this (or you’re starting to understand). You sit there watching the broker struggle with the concept. Watching him learn what value means in a different market. The broker understands location when it comes to buildings. Doesn’t understand it when it comes to coffee. Not yet. So they give him the Guatemalan. Single-origin. Huehuetenango region. Tastes like something he’s never had before. Tastes like coffee’s supposed to taste, only he didn’t know it until now. The broker takes a sip. Then another. Something changes in his face. Something shifts in his understanding of what coffee can be. You watch this happen. See the moment when resistance becomes curiosity. When curiosity becomes appreciation. When appreciation becomes desire. Same thing happens in real estate. Same thing happens in every market. People learn to want what they’re told is valuable. Learn to understand why it’s valuable. Learn to sell its value to others. They don’t tell him about the Panamanian Geisha yet. That coffee costs more per pound than some cars cost per month. He’s not ready. You have to learn the language first. Have to learn the territory. Have to learn how to separate the lies from the truth, the value from the hype. Have to have had the experience that makes it taste better than you ever imagined. That’s what single-origin coffee is. Truth and lies mixed together like cream in coffee. The truth: it comes from one place, one farm, one moment in time. The lie: that this automatically makes it better. The bigger truth: sometimes it actually does. The broker orders another cup. Ethiopian this time. He’s learning. Starting to speak the language. Starting to understand the market. Starting to see how value works in a different world. That’s how trends happen. That’s how markets work. That’s how seven-dollar coffee becomes normal. Because someone convinced someone else it was worth it. Because someone learned to believe it was worth it. Because someone learned to sell it like it was worth it. Coffee. Location. Value. Price. Story. Truth. Lies. Market. Always the same crazy game. Just different players.

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