certified coffee does not mean much, to say frankly. mostly, about 95%, it is marketing purpose. it is another way of "trying to differentiate your coffee from others" to sell them at higher pricing. certificate of organic costs you $25 per 100 lbs. fair trade is about $15 per 100 lbs. rainforest certificate goes by annual payment of about $10K. certificate of APCA (Asociasion de Productores de Cafe genuino Antigua) will cost you $45 per 100 lbs....etc (we have to pay these extra charges to Gov't and other related organization in our country)
let me give you simple example. Antigua coffee is the most famous coffee in Guatemala.
88 cupping point Antigua green coffee WITHOUT ANY CERTIFICATE will cost you RIGHT NOW about $3.80 per lbs (FOB Quetzal port in Guatemala)
But certain customers asked me to get all the certificates, organic, fair trade, certificate of genuine Antigua..etc.
then, it will cost them $5.00 per lbs, Fob Quetzal port.
Exactly same beans, same quality. Only difference is that the customers can charge more from their customers with the papers that I give them, saying that it is better and healthier coffee because it is organic, fair trade, genuine...etc.
all of these certificate will not guarantee the quality of the beans. it is purely marketing side of business and in order to protect their own interests, interests of gov't, organization, cooperatives..et
the most important thing about the export coffee (export standard coffee = quality standard) is from Beneficio Seco. this is the process they sort out all the defective beans, broken beans, quakers, fermented beans, small beans, ...etc there is ratio, such as 8 defective beans per 300 grams...and such.
because one quaker or fermented bean can ruin whole batch of beans.
after that, how it gets stored in the hands of customers. if it is too dry, if it is too humid, stored too long... it all affects the quality of beans.
So, basically, forget about the certificate this or that. that is just pc of paper for marketing purpose and for someone to make extra money.
expert or experience roaster : they should be able to tell "the characteristics of beans" high density beans, soft beans, humid beans, small beans, big size beans, which country they are from, which region they were produced...etc temperature control & time control...so many different factors for each different lot of beans,...etc there are so many different factors to roast coffee beans. it is an art/skill that needs practice after practice, handling all different kind of beans from different countries.
As example, an experienced roaster who used to roast Jamaica BM beans for 20 years will not be able to roast properly other beans from Guatemala or Honduras. Also an experienced roaster who used to roast "extra prime beans" in Guatemala (extra prime bean is bit inferior beans) for 20 years will not be able to roast properly Pacamara, Geisha that have very high density with different sizes & characteristics.
