How Fairtrade farmers and retailers rebalanced the scales
Sarah McCabe travelled to the coffee co-ops of Nicaragua and Honduras to see the difference Irish businesses can make when they buy fairtrade products
Harvesting coffee beans. Cristina Mittermeier
The coffee lined up in front of me in three rows of five cups, made from beans eventually destined for Bewleys, should taste of chocolate, Raul Talavera says. It is made from arabica beans, rather than the lower-quality, hardier robusta used in instant coffee. You will also pick up a clean sort of sensation, he adds.
Raul, master cupper at Nicaragua's Soppexca coffee co-operative and five-time judge at the country's Cup of Excellence competition, teaches us how to properly taste the drink - a quick succession of slurping and spitting, one cup after another.
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