But Colombian growers have to make a choice like anybody else with a product: deep down, are they a quality play or a quantity play? Going for both ends of the market at the same time is a recipe for failure, because finely-tuned competitors will ensure they cannot effectively fight a branding war on both fronts simultaneously.

The bag-in-box, coffee extract, Coke-distribution approach is not a quality play — especially when consumers have an ever-growing supply of coffee made from fresh bean stocks at the quality end.

So as a quantity play, they are going to butt up against the likes of the Vietnamese robusta growers. Because making cost-effective, flavorful coffee extracts is not going to require top-quality beans. This is coffee’s equivalent of Wolfgang Puck-branded frozen burritos: they do more to tarnish Puck’s image of quality than to elevate the frozen burrito.

Colombian growers seem to want to have it both ways. And the market inevitably proves that you can’t.

It was introduced at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago, and I was among the hundreds who met Juan and sampled the coffee . . . it was good, very good actually — full-bodied, with pleasing aroma and a smooth finish. Perhaps not the exceptional cup that barista snobs look for, but certainly much better than the typical coffee one gets on-the-go in foodservice.

The Colombian Coffee leaders would not risk their brand equity and reputation if they had not fully evaluated the quality standard of this brewing process. As for the thought of Vietnam Robusta surpassing Colombian Arabica — please. The market segments according to demand, and there will always be demand for better quality. Value is a relative perception, not driven just by a mass produced, low-cost alternative.