gatodiablo
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What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 13, 2021 22:08:11 GMT
Coffee - it's the world's second most consumed beverage (after tea; not counting water). It's a plant, it's an industry, it's a commodity, it's a beverage, it's a culture - it's a way of life. This thread is for all things coffee. Coffee on stamps, coffee themes on covers, coffee-themed cinderellas, what have you. Heck, if you spilled coffee on your stamps, post a pic here  . I'll start off with a caffeine-laced offering by the USPS that just came out this month (April 9, 2021). Apologies to my friends down under that the Flat White was not included. 
This thread is brought to you by Gato Diablo (who happens to own a coffee roastery). |
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gatodiablo
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What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 13, 2021 22:11:31 GMT
Coffee grows in a wide band either side of the equator around the globe. While a tropical plant, it prefers high altitudes. These stamps are from El Salvador, Sc. C73-C77  |
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gatodiablo
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What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 13, 2021 22:14:58 GMT
This cover portrays coffee harvesting in Costa Rica. Harvesting coffee is labor-intensive, as it must, for the most part, be picked by hand. This is because the coffee fruits, known as cherries, grow all along the branches of the coffee tree, but do not ripen at the same rate. Therefore, the cherries must be selectively picked, and a given coffee tree will be picked over several times each season.  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 13, 2021 22:34:30 GMT
Prior to coffee's "First Wave (see below)," there were a lot of small roasters everywhere, ranging from small hand-turned braziers operated in the street to larger facilities serving their local communities. Many folks even roasted their coffee over the kitchen stove (often wood- or coal-fired). 
In 1900, R. W. Hills started to vacuum pack pre-ground coffee, and started coffee's so-called First Wave. Coffee's Second Wave came with the rise of Peet's and Starbuck's, two west coast US roasters that revised the coffee café experience, though roasting so dark that most of coffee's nuanced flavors are roasted away. We are now in the Third Wave (and perhaps even beyond), where specialty coffees reign supreme, are roasted much lighter and in a way to showcase the inherent flavors of different origins (think terroir of wine). |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 13, 2021 22:45:15 GMT
The International Coffee Agreement was enacted in 1962 as a means to stabilize coffee prices through a quota system. The ICA is still in effect today, with 42 exporting countries and 7 importing countries (but including all of the European Union members)-(The US regretably(?) exited in 2018).   |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 14, 2021 0:08:40 GMT
Yemen is widely thought to have been the origin of the coffee plant, though the stories of Kaldi the goatherd are probably more fiction than fact.  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 14, 2021 0:17:23 GMT
Since my name is Dan Miller, I couldn't resist adding this cover to my collection.  |
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chrischross
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What I collect: France, French Africa, FSAT, French Polynesia
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Post by chrischross on Apr 14, 2021 20:20:46 GMT
I immediately thought of Afrique Equatoriale Francaise, Scott 193, YT 236:  Engraved by the masterful Raoul Serres. There's a mini-French Colonial omnibus issue from 1956 that isn't listed in my Dallay, but there are three more issues that make up the set: Afrique Occidentale Francaise Cameroun Madagascar |
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Beryllium Guy
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What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Apr 14, 2021 21:55:01 GMT
I wanted to at least show them but I'm far too ill to be trying to gather every little bit of information on them. I will try to get more on these soon but I wanted to show you I'm still here and not dead quite yet! -I hope you understand? -Jeff 9th. May 1945
I was doing some looking around at old posts today, and I came across this one, which was originally made in the Postmark Calendar thread in 2015. Jeff ( I.L.S.) was one of the early members of the Forum, who sadly passed away not long after making this post. As soon as I saw the reference to coffee, I knew where this now belonged! I am making this post as a small tribute to him, and to keep his legacy alive on TSF. Thanks, Dan ( gatodiablo ) for starting this interesting new topical thread.... I hope it will thrive! 
The E.S. Kibbe Co.
Wholesale Grocers & Importers
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.I looked for additional info online about Kibbe Coffee, and the best I could find was this vintage postcard on eBay, estimated at circa 1896 by the seller.  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 14, 2021 22:25:48 GMT
Today I humped 10 bags of Coffea arabica into my micro-roastery. Each bag weighs 69kg or 152 pounds. I think I earned my beer tonight. Coffee is mainly comprised of two species - Coffea arabica and Coffea robusta. Arabica is the good stuff, and comes in a variety of cultivars. Robusta is higher in caffeine, has less flavor, and is generally quite a bit less expensive than Arabica. Thus, the two are often blended in "commodity coffee," i.e. the stuff you get in a can at the grocery. This stamp is Brazil Sc. no. 1366 from 1974, showing a branch of Coffea arabica. It shows all of the cherries as ripe at the same time, while usually some cherries are this color while other are still very green.  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 14, 2021 22:33:02 GMT
This stamp provides the chance to expound on a curious fact about Central American coffee - the best quality coffees are usually exported, so if you visit, say, Costa Rica, the coffee you might be served is generally the lower grade coffees.  |
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cursus
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What I collect: Catalan Cinderellas. Used Switzerland, UK, Scandinavia, Germany & Austria. Postal History of Barcelona & Estonia. Catalonia pictorial postmarks.
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Post by cursus on Apr 15, 2021 8:59:21 GMT
May, 27, 1941: parcel label from the village of San Carlos on the island of Fernando Poo (now Bioko, Rep. of Equatorial Guinea), then a Spanish colony. A shipment of 4.5 kg of "unroasted coffee beans". A treasure for the famine-ravaged Barcelona people of 1941. The Postwar, harsh was to last up to the mid 50s. I know it first hand from my closest relatives. My late parents, talked all their life about the hardship of the postwar years.
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hrdoktorx
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What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 15, 2021 16:59:02 GMT
I immediately thought of Afrique Equatoriale Francaise, Scott 193, YT 236: There's a mini-French Colonial omnibus issue from 1956 that isn't listed in my Dallay, but there are three more issues that make up the set: Afrique Occidentale Francaise Cameroun Madagascar In that case, let's show them all, for the sake of completeness:    |
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gatodiablo
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What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 16, 2021 2:27:41 GMT
If you think of coffee from Colombia, you might recall Juan Valdez and his mule, Conchita. Despite the fact that Juan was a product of advertising in the US, coffees from Colombia can be rated among the very best.  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 16, 2021 2:54:17 GMT
I am particularly fond of coffee from Costa Rica. Not only because I have had the opportunity to travel to CR several times over the last few years, and not only because it tastes great, but also because we have become friends with the owners of a coffee farm. We source and roast there coffee and it is a mainstay of the coffee shop with which my roastery shares space.  |
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Apr 16, 2021 12:49:07 GMT
I am particularly fond of coffee from Costa Rica. Not only because I have had the opportunity to travel to CR several times over the last few years, and not only because it tastes great, but also because we have become friends with the owners of a coffee farm. We source and roast there coffee and it is a mainstay of the coffee shop with which my roastery shares space.
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gatodiablo
Member
Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 16, 2021 14:35:26 GMT
Ethiopia is another country well known for its coffees. This series of stamps depicts several stages of coffee production: a single plant, a coffee plantation (with some shade trees), harvesting ripe cherries, drying the green coffee, and finally serving brewed coffee.  |
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Post by greaden on Apr 16, 2021 16:59:26 GMT
Here are a few from Nicaragua and Guatemala:
In 1985, I helped with the coffee harvest in Nicaragua (long story). As with the girl in the stamp on the left, I had a basket tied to my waist. I filled it with coffee berries, occasionally knocking a tarantula out of the way. The beans are the pit of a red berry.
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hrdoktorx
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What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 17, 2021 16:13:25 GMT
Another more recent Cameroon stamp about the coffee plant, part of a series on national crops:  |
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Post by smauggie on Apr 17, 2021 16:18:35 GMT
Fun fact, Arbuckles' is still in the coffee business.  |
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hrdoktorx
Member
Posts: 7,213
What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 17, 2021 18:49:48 GMT
The Guatemalan stamp shown earlier is part of a set about the coffee industry. I can show my own copy with two of its siblings:  |
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hrdoktorx
Member
Posts: 7,213
What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 17, 2021 20:10:29 GMT
Another coffee-growing country is of course Côte d'Ivoire, as shown here with this pair of stamps. I remember once my father, when we were staying at a rather fancy hotel in Cameroon, complaining to the waiter that he was serving us Ivoirien coffee   |
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hrdoktorx
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Posts: 7,213
What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 17, 2021 22:07:41 GMT
Speaking of having coffee at a fancy hotel, one of the fanciest places is of course the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, Austria, where it can accompany the world-famous "Sacher Torte" chocolate cake with some whipped cream on the side:  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 17, 2021 22:20:07 GMT
The Howard Spurr Coffee Co. strongly identified with Paul Revere, including using him in their trademarks and offering books about Paul Revere as premiums.  |
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gatodiablo
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Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 17, 2021 22:23:12 GMT
I grew up outside of Troy, New York, where this cover from Pasqua Coffee was postmarked. I've not found much about this company.  |
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hrdoktorx
Member
Posts: 7,213
What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Apr 17, 2021 23:10:01 GMT
From a French self-adhesive booklet, on the theme of "Tastes", coffee makes an appearance to illustrate the concept of "suave":  |
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Post by greaden on Apr 18, 2021 0:01:10 GMT
The coffee I picked in Nicaragua was rotgut to be sold to Japan after being dried in the sun. But the beans from the previous year's crop were wonderful, mainly because of the ambience. An old peasant woman brewed it each morning before dawn over a gigantic medieval-style wood stove along with our allotment of rice and beans (or, for variety, beans and rice, or rice rice and beans, or beans, beans and rice - cue the Monty Python tune about spam). I would drink that coffee while gazing at the Magellanic clouds before the sun rose. Then we would line up in rows, chant revolutionary slogans, and march off to our coffee rows and start picking. There were lots of deadly tropical bugs and snakes, but also butterflies, psychedelic lizards, and colorful parrots and toucans. Bananas trees gave the coffee bushes some semblance of shade. We would pick their leaves as plates for lunch carried in on the backs of donkeys - rice and beans, or beans and rice.
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Apr 18, 2021 1:49:23 GMT
Mmm, coffee. I'm down to my last bag, it's from Burundi. I just ordered another Burundi, an Ethiopian Sidama Ardi and a Nicaraguan "La Esperanza". All three very nice, medium roasts. I also cancelled my subscription for Jumping Bean Keurig pod coffee at Amazon as they are all out of that. So I just picked up a box of Van Houtte medium at the grocery store, for when I don't feel like grinding coffee beans and waiting to get it brewed. But these days with the drug regimen I'm on, I want coffee quick when I can, so I start with a Keurig and finish with a Trebilcock.
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gatodiablo
Member
Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 18, 2021 21:48:15 GMT
Here a some more from Colombia. In the first, the typical sacks of coffee can be seen - it looks like two strapped to the mule. For whatever reason, the standard bag is 69kg (152 pounds) of green coffee beans. Trust me, they are awkward to move by oneself.   |
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gatodiablo
Member
Posts: 456
What I collect: Places I've been, and places I want to go.
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Post by gatodiablo on Apr 18, 2021 21:59:55 GMT
"Guatemala produces the best coffee in the world" Some of my customers certainly thinks so.  |
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