By Gina Gould, July 2008

As of three weeks ago, more than 25 specialty coffee shops were operating in Gainesville, nine of which are Starbucks. A new arrival to the scene, Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate, opened its doors on May 10 in the Downtown Parking Garage, literally. Located on the corner of southwest Second Street and southwest First  Avenue, Volta is one of three retail spaces built right into the garage. 

Owner Anthony Rue, in collaboration with local designer, Stephen Bender of Meta-Design Architects, created a lofty colorful environment in which to sample some of the most exotic coffees, teas, and chocolates that Gainesville has to offer.

Furnished with Cyprus counters and trim that were hand stained, using coffee brewed in the salon and decorated in the earthy colors of Matcha Green Tea (the powdered tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies), Kurtz & Sons’ cream (a local grass-fed dairy producer), and the color of the first drop of crema espresso, the reddish-brown foam that floats to the surface a cup of perfectly prepared espresso, Volta embodies the sustainable aspect that its products symbolize.

For those who are not coffee junkies, it is inconceivable that a town of 150,000 (including UF students) can support so many specialty coffee houses, as well as all the Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Crèmes, Waffle Houses, bagel and breakfast shops, bakeries and fast food places that also serve coffee (there are more than 100 of them listed in the local yellow pages). If we assume that a modest 50 percent of Gainesville’s population indulge in coffee daily (nationwide more than 75 percent of Americans drink coffee every day), then each one of these shops caters to at least 100 people a day. Although that may sound surprising to some, coffee is in fact the second most demanded commodity worldwide, second only to oil. Approximately 2.3 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day (400 billion a year), with the average American drinking about 3 cups a day (by comparison, the people of Finland drink 3.8 cups a day).

Coffee companies, such as Intelligentsia Direct Trade, which supplies Volta, are making profound differences in the coffee trade business because they have raised the bar of expectations: the products they purchase must exceed those of the Fair Trade Labeling Organization, must be organic and environmentally and socially sustainable, and they pay 25 percent more per pound then the current fair trade price. Because Intelligentsia buys from small farmers in smaller quantities, they are able to distribute a greater variety of coffee to their clientele then what is commonly served at larger coffee establishments.

In June at Volta, Rue was serving up Fazenda do Sertão, a pulped natural coffee from Brazil with hints of caramel, sweet orange, and fudge, Finca Matalapa from El Salvador that has a citrus acidity with notes of apple, grape sugar and vanilla, and Zirikana, a coffee from Rowanda that tantalizes the palate with the flavor of tropical fruit.

It has been rumored that the most expensive coffee in the world is the Kupi Luwak that comes from Vietnam and the islands of Java, Sumatra, and the Philippines and sells for $175 a pound. Of course the Luwak bean is quite rare, less than 450 pounds of it are harvested each year because the beans are hand picked from the droppings of the Asian Palm Civet, a small arboreal mammal that looks something like a cross between a raccoon and a monkey. As exotic as the Luwak coffee might be, having to be first digested by a mammal, it is an urban legend that it is the most expensive coffee in the world, or that it is the most delightful. In fact, according to Rue, the taste of Luwak coffee is reminiscent of its origin, the civet gut. This year, the most expensive coffee is a Panamanian geisha coffee (in this sense, geisha means cultivar, not a Japanese courtier) called Esmeralda Especial, which has a jasmine-like aroma, citrus and honey flavor, and is light bodied and apparently unlike any other (geisha coffee roaster.com). Esmeralda Especial has won top awards since 2004 and sells for $300 per pound!

Already, the demand for much more conscientious coffee is on the rise, fair trade/organic coffee is the fastest growing segment of the global food market and it is the industry’s new buzz phrase, everyone is getting on the bandwagon, including Dunkin’ Donuts, who now offers fair trade espresso. But what does fair trade really mean? Who sets the price? And what is that price? And if its all one price, then why can Dunkin’ Donuts sell a cup of fair trade espresso for $0.99, while at other establishments, the price runs the gamut between $1.45 (at Maude’s) and $1.59 (at Coffee Culture on 13th, which serves Boomerang Coffee, a local roaster) for a cup of organic fair trade espresso (Starbuck’s is $1.60 for non fair trade)?

A pioneer in fair trade coffee, Equal Exchange started offering fair trade coffee to their customers in 1985, since then the term fair trade has come to epitomize products that come from small plantations all over the world. It has also had the added effect of elevating coffee cultivation to an art form. That said, fair trade does not guarantee that the product is from small farms or fertilizer/pesticide-free, only that “producers are expected to continually reduce the volumes and types of agrochemicals used in production to the maximum possible extent.” This year, the price for fair trade coffee is $1.26 a pound for non-organic green coffee beans (or $0.63 cents a pound for roasted coffee) and $1.41 a pound for organic (green) beans.

With the opening of Volta it is possible to not only enjoy fabulous coffee, you can get informed about coffee you are drinking as Rue has made it a policy to be a steward of sustainable coffee.