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4 GENERAL NEWS Coffee Continued from PAGE 1 infrastructure to develop a market for the certified coffee in the United States "IWCA is active in Central and South America. We work hand in glove. They're the principal suppliers for the demand we're creating," Moore said. "While they continue to grow their chapters and build membership within coffee-producing areas, there will be more supply." A portion of the revenue that is generated by the premium pricing goes back to the IWCA chapters to fund community projects that improve the lives of the women who produce the coffee. "They have the program. They'll be handling the projects and the grant money. We're providing a revenue stream, so the grants are ongoing," Moore said. "If you value the women, then the whole community benefits. There's a tremendous amount of research in that area. It's not just the women that we're trying to help and grow—it's the whole community. But if you value women, it betters the community." Boyd's Coffee of Portland, Ore. has become the first American roaster to buy and sell coffee through the "Harvested by Women" program. Katy Boyd Dutt, a fourth-generation member of the family company, recently visited Guatemala in February of this year to tour some farms and learn more about coffee growing areas and to attend the International Women's Coffee Conference. At the Conference, Nancy Moore of Almana Harvest was a speaker, and Moore impressed Dutt with Truffle Continued from PAGE 1 the American culinary market as well. Once reserved in the United States only for the very wealthy, today one can find truffle products in most grocery stores and specialty shops, where truffle oil, truffle paté, truffle cheese and truffle butter have developed a loyal following. The mad dash by restaurants and specialty food companies to procure truffles begins every October 1, when the season for white truffles officially begins. This is the most highly prized variety of truffles, as they are the rarest and can never be cultivated. Truffle season carries on into the fall, as the black truffle becomes available in mid-November. In Europe, the harvesting season for truffles lasts until March. Buyers are often willing to pay anywhere from $300 to $1,500 for a single pound of the delicacy. "It's the rarity," said Vincent Jeanseaume, Vice President of Sales for Sabatino Tartufi, explaining why people are willing to pay such high prices for this unique ingredient. "It takes a lot of effort, a lot of human resources to harvest a few kilos of truffles, and we might have to buy 10 kilos of truffles to sell two or three decent kilos." Founded in Italy in 1911, Sabatino Tartufi has become one of the largest distributors of fresh truffles in the world and the single largest importer of truffles into the United States. In addition to fresh truffles, Sabatino produces a wide array of truffle products, including oils, GOURMET NEWS OCTOBER 2013 www.gourmetnews.com Café Femenino Café Femenino is a similar program cofounded by Gay Smith. Smith co-owned Organic Products Trading Company, one of the first organic coffee importers in the United States, along with her husband Garth. When fair trade came along, OPTCO was one of the first to join and promote the movement to the coffee cooperatives with which they worked. The company had already been paying additional premiums for the coffee that Smith and her husband were buying, as a way of providing extra revenue to help combat the poverty in coffee-producing areas. "Fair trade made that a lot simpler for us," Smith said. During her coffee-buying trips, Smith had also become aware of the horrific abuse being suffered by the women who were growing the coffee her company was buying. "Women are considered to have no value, no matter whether they're taking care of the children, raising the animals and taking care of the family gardens, the home and the coffee farm," she said. "My husband's and my company had a social mission to begin with. We were a part of organizing and promoting training to help the women with issues relating to self-esteem. What we learned from working with the women was that without actual change occurring, then the women's self-esteem did not change either." Encouraged by the discussions they were having in these training programs, a group of female coffee producers, led by Isabel Uriarte La Torre, formally came together in 2003. They decided to separate their production from that of the men, and they thus created the first official "coffee produced by women" in the world. This coffee became known as Café Femenino coffee. Café Femenino coffees are all organic and fair trade-certified. These certifications provided a third-party independent certi- fied audit trail to ensure that the coffee is produced by women and that women are directly receiving the premium funds for their coffee. The certifications also ensure that the social and environmental goals generally expected of fair trade products are observed. Café Femenino coffees are still imported and sold by OPTCO. Smith and her husband sold OPTCO in 2010, and she no longer works with the Café Femenino coffee program. However, she is a part of the board of directors for the Café Femenino Foundation. Established in 2004, the foundation is totally separate from the coffee import company. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with no ties to coffee production or sales. An open foundation, the Café Feminino Foundation benefits women in the coffee-producing communities around the world by raising funds in wealthier nations and channeling them into community programs in numerous coffeeproducing countries through grant requests. Among the projects funded by the Café Femenino Foundation have been schools, libraries, community gardens, animal breeding programs, water projects, health programs, micro-lending funds and emergency aid. "What the foundation does is to use the coffee association's infrastructure to organize women and to help them have a voice in what the needs are in their families and their communities," said Smith Donate to the Café Femenino Foundation and view current grant requests at www.coffeecan.org. For more information on Almana Harvest, visit www .almanaharvest.org. GN vinegars, sauces, salts, butters and prepared meals. All of the company's products sold in the United States are made with authentic imported Italian ingredients and manufactured in a state-of-theart 42,000-square-foot processing facility in West Haven, Conn. According to Jeanseaume, Sabatino Tartufi sets itself apart from other companies in the U.S. truffle product market primarily because of the quality and freshness of its offerings. "We bring products that don't get any fresher," he said. Still, Jeanseaume acknowledges that marketing truffles and truffle products in the United States is a completely unique enterprise, and Sabatino Tartufi has had to dramatically rethink its business model in reaching out to a U.S. consumer base. "We very much have been able to adapt to the demand of the U.S. market," said Jeanseaume. "We have that sort of flexibility and think-outside-the-box mindset that maybe the older Italian and French companies don't have. Sometimes you need to shake things up and do things a bit different. We make certain things different here than we do in Europe." One of the ways that Sabatino Tartufi has been successful in reaching a U.S. clientele that is particularly hungry for luxury products is to focus on fine packaging. "We have some very consumer friendly packaging, and we try to give the brand a very unique luxury look to it," said Jeanseaume. "We use the finest bottle companies out there. Being that we process truffle products—it's not a cheap product—our customers expect this kind of packaging." However, simply re-envisioning the packaging was not enough to bring Sabatino Tartufi products into the shopping basket of the average U.S. consumer. For that, the company had to develop new products that specifically target this market. Sabatino Tartufi came out with truffle couscous, risotto, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese that were specifically designed for American palates. "Basically the idea is to bring to the average consumer a very easy-to-prepare gourmet meal," said Jeanseaume. "The truffle mac and cheese is not something that would be popular in Italy, but it works here." Sabatino Tartufi is not the only company working to innovate the American truffle marketplace and bring truffle products into the kitchens of average food-loving consumers throughout the country. A number of specialty food companies are working truffles into their product lines in particularly creative ways. Squirrel Brand may be best known as a high end producer of nut products for the specialty food industry, but the company is no stranger to the truffle trend. The company uses truffles in two of its products: Italian Black Truffle Almonds and Italian Black Truffle Almond Butter. A true culinary innovator, Squirrel Brand may in fact be the only gourmet company marketing a truffled nut butter in the United States. "Let's just say I have a muse," said Squirrel Brand President and CEO J. Brent Meyer, explaining where the idea for the truffled almond butter originated. "My wife inspires many of our ideas. It simply made sense, and we did it. We have our Italian Black Truffle Almonds trademarked, so why not extend it further." Meyer recommends that consumers use his company's truffled almond butter in any number of culinary capacities. It is delicious by itself, slathered on a piece of crusty bread, or it can be used as an ingredient in recipes, imparting a flavor that particular compliments arugula, figs and other items. However, Meyer cautions that because the product has such a unique flavor, it is best to keep things simple. "There is something so beautiful about not trying to outshine the product," he said. As Squirrel Brand has slowly introduced its Italian Black Truffle Almond Butter to retailers and consumers, Meyer jokes that it has often been a challenge getting people to understand the product. "If people like truffles, the response has been energetic and very positive," he said. "However, we get the occasional person who sees the word 'truffle' and they think we are sampling chocolate truffles. Needless to say, they [are] in for a surprise." For Meyer, when it comes to successfully marketing truffles and truffle products in the United States, the answer ultimately comes down to finding the right audience with an appetite for the one-of-a-kind flavor of this luxury ingredient. "We believe people either get it, or they don't," he said. "Fortunately, most folks in our industry do get it." GN her presentation. Dutt went home to Portland and arranged to buy some of the Harvested by Women-certified coffee from a grower in Costa Rica. "We got the coffee," Dutt said. "Right now, we only have a little bit of it available, so the coffee will only be available while supplies last. We are hoping to continue on with the process and find other coffees that we like just as well." The coffee that Boyd's purchased is now being sold under the Cafe Libre brand. According to Dutt, it is a light to medium roast coffee, mellow but with full body and personality and good, rich flavor. Because only a limited amount of the Cafe Libre coffee was available, Boyd's offered most of it to its foodservice customers. A small amount of it is available for retail through a few Portland markets as well as through the Boyd's website. However, Boyd expects that it will most likely by available only through early September. For every bag that Boyd's sells, a 25-cent donation goes back to the Harvested by Women program. "We really believe in this certification, so we are retailing the coffee for the same price as the other coffees in our lineup," Dutt said. "A lot of people just don't understand how much women are involved in coffee growing. They're often the ones managing the farms, and they just don't get the credit for it."