[Pic from BusinessWeek, December 5, 2005, via Brand Autopsy]

Turn off: Guys who make an illegal left in their SUVs into a Taco Bell drive-thru.

Soo wrong on so many levels. But what I’m wondering is — What makes drive-thrus so attractive to people?

It’s not just the junk food — It’s Starbucks, too. According to the AP, the mermaid opened its first drive-thrus in 1994 — in SoCal. Now we have 1,065 Starbucks drive-thrus in the US, in every state except Vermont and Wyoming. (via Starbucks Gossip)

Thinking about drive-thrus makes me sad. Not just cuz of the car exhaust and minimum wage jobs and urban blight and loss of walkable neighborhoods and the worsening “obesity epidemic” and the death of mom-n-pop shops. All important issues, but I’ll leave those for another day.

Drive-thrus make me sad cuz I think the people going thru drive-thrus are sad. In LA, many of us lead isolated lives, our spontaneous interactions limited to honking at each other in traffic jams. We get stuck in this drive-work-drive-thru-TV routine, eating alone at our desks and in our cars. We wake up depressed, and wonder how our lives became the way they are — with no idea how to break the cycle.

I’m speculating, of course. Perhaps people at the drive-thrus are as happy as the ones on McDonald’s commercials. I kinda doubt it though.

I once dated a guy who, after a bad day at the office, got chili cheese fries at some fave fast food joint. “I needed comfort food,” he said, poutily. Which I could sort of understand, but also found terribly depressing.

I dunno… I live the way I do because I don’t want to wake up at 40 and realize I hate my life. And I hope this blog’s helpful to others also trying to escape that fate in the next year –

Happy new year, everyone –

Update, 2/3/07: McDonald’s coffee wins out on a taste test against Starbucks.

Tags: starbucks, mcdonalds, fastfood, coffee, losangeles, cars

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One of my headlights winked out like 2 weeks after I bought my car. When I took Mut to the dealer, he asked me to pop the hood. “How?” I asked, and just started pulling on lever-like objects, successfully opening the trunk.

I’m not helping with the girls-don’t-know-cars stereotype. I’m a great map reader, however… And in high school, I was quite good at math!

But there’s still tons about my car that I just don’t know. For ex, in this month’s Kicking Asphalt, Better World’s newsletter, I found out that the 1995 Honda Civic is the #1 most stolen car! (The KA archives are here, but the December issue that this article’s from is not online yet)

Why? Why? And should I be worried? I hope to go car-free altogether in the next few years, so I don’t want any fancy expensive alarm type thing. But I’m wondering — should I be doing something in addition to simply locking the car — you know, like The Club — to ward of would-be-thieves?

Also, my tires are balding. I tend to just take Mut to the dealer for everything — even windshield wiper inserts and oil changes — cuz I don’t know much about cars (see anecdote above). But during my last oil change the guy at the dealer told me I needed new tires — and said they could do it there but I might wanna go where I usually go — which made me think that I could get a better deal elsewhere. Where? (And will anything bad happen if I just don’t get new ones? Cuz I’d rather spend it on the real necessities, like coffee and wine — But I have a feeling this replacing-balding-tires thing is not a practice I’m supposed to question, which is why the inquiry is in parens.)

I also know that keeping the tires properly inflated will gimme better mileage = saves gas = saves planet. What I don’t know is how one keeps one’s tires properly inflated. I don’t know how to use those air thingies at gas stations. And I’m afraid the dealer’ll get peeved if I drop in just to ask them to check my tire pressure. Is there a place I can go to get this done without feeling silly?

Also, I never wash my car. We have a lotta birds in the ‘hood that poop indiscriminately, so I feel it’s kinda pointless. But does this laziness actually harm the car in any way — aside from aesthetically?

C’mon readers — Show off your car savvy –

Update, 1/9-13/06: I got new tires locally, for cheap. Also, I got a manual! Thanks all for yr excellent advice –

Tags: car, travel

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The Grille, that is. Met Mok here for lunch today — cuz I have Joey again! Jack Sprat’s Grille has some outside seating and a bench for those waiting for a table, to which I leashed Joey.

This Westwood eatery brings out yummy soft salted pretzels as appetizers. Warning: The sweet and hot mustard is really quite hot.

Lots of vegetarian options — but I went for a charbroiled Ahi tuna salad, tossed in fat free red bell pepper vinaigrette — There’s really practically no fat here! And the service was sweet — Mok wanted a caffeine-free iced tea, and the waitress brought a decaf earl gray (hot) with a large glass of ice :)

You can get a KCRW Fringe Benefits discount at dinner, but not at lunch :( Ah well. It was all yum, and Joey made some new passerby-friends.

Jack Sprat’s Grille. 10668 W. Pico Blvd (@ Overland). Los Angeles. 310.837.6662.

Tags: losangeles, restaurants, jacksprat

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Somehow this family-owned and operated, fair trade licensed coffee shop’s been roasting and brewing for 10 years without my knowledge.

Look across the street from Sony Pictures in Culver City, and you’ll spot this lil gem. Every morning, The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa roasts its own coffee beans — which you can get by the cup, or buy by the pound to brew at home.

I asked if any fair trade coffees were brewing, was told the Italian Roast was fair trade, and had a yummy cup with a brioche. The Conservatory gets its pastries from La Dijonnaise up the street — a French restaurant / bakery that imports its butter from France.

No wifi, as far as I could tell — but they had cute jewelry and one-of-a-kind cards for sale — made by local artisans, I believe. Cute homey feel. The friendly women working the counter seemed to know everyone who walked in.

I get the sense the place gets super busy when the Sony people are working, but mid-day on the Friday before New Year’s was fairly leisurely. I lazed around skimming books — trying to work on that dissertation…

The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa. 10117 Washington Blvd. Culver City. 310.558.0436. M-Sa 7 am-6 pm, closed Su.

fair trade, coffee, losangeles

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Our response to the letter from Cindy of Starbucks follows. Look out for the new Starbucks Challenge, launching in the new year!

_______

Dear Cindy –

Thanks for your detailed letter! We really appreciate the time that you as an individual, and Starbucks as a corporation, have taken to respond to consumer concerns about fair trade coffee.

While we did hope for more detailed and concrete answers regarding Starbucks’ “break down in customer service,” it seems, from your letter, that Starbucks has heard our concerns, admitted to shortcomings, and promised to work on doing better. We look forward to successful, hassle-free, pleasant interactions, both for the baristas and the customers, during future Starbucks Challenges :) Thank you in advance for your work toward making this happen!

We also really appreciate your honesty, verifying that, indeed, a large chunk (41%) of Starbucks coffee is purchased through contracts without transparancy clauses — making it impossible to figure out if coffee farmers are getting a fair deal.

In light of this, however, we’re left wondering why Starbucks continues to train its baristas to tell customers that ALL of its coffee is “pretty much fair trade.” We’re more than a little concerned that the baristas are — for the most part, unknowingly — taught to believe and market ALL of Starbucks as fair trade, when clearly, that statement is untrue, as of now. This misinformation then creates confusion for the customers.

As you can imagine, inflated, exaggerated claims of the progress that Starbucks has made in terms of fair trade practices makes customers doubt ALL of the claims that Starbucks makes — even if Starbucks might do wonderful things! Worse, some of your baristas are already upset that they’ve been “duped” about Starbucks’ current trade policies.

Please understand that we sincerely applaud Starbucks for working towards the goal of making sure its farmers are paid a fair price — a goal that we wish more big coffee companies would work toward. We hope that your current efforts toward more transparancy will help you achieve that goal in the near future — And we do understand this work takes time.

Cindy — Would Starbucks instead let its employees and customers know that NOT ALL of Starbucks’ coffee is fairly traded as of now, although the mermaid is working towards that goal?

Also, if Starbucks is proud of its ethical coffee achievements, why not promote fair trade coffee — beyond just marking it up on the board when it’s brewing? Customers often do not even know fair trade coffee is available by request, which makes Starbucks look less than committed to gauging customer demand for fair trade coffee. A true measure of fair trade demand will only be possible when customers know about its avaliability.

We’re hoping that this proposed change will be a welcome one on Starbucks part — We’re especially encouraged by your statement that Starbucks’ “goal is to be as honest and forthright as possible.” Through its honesty, we hope that Starbucks will influence other biggies such as P&G and Nestle, perhaps poking those companies into shaping up.

Thanks again :) We look forward to hearing from you.

City Hippy, green LA girl, and many concerned customers

(Challengers — Please feel free to add your own comments, if you’d like to.)

Tags: starbuckschallenge, starbucks, coffee, fairtrade,

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Yey! Yey! green LA girl wins the $200 Vessel gift certificate. Thanks everyone for helping me out!

I haven’t received the actual gift cert yet, but will be buying 2 workplace dish sets to give out as prizes for future Starbucks Challenges, as well as a companion personal light pour moi to use while working on crossword puzzles in dimly lit cafes over fair trade coffee.

In other Siel news: San Francisco — get ready for green LA girl. I’ll be part of an “Environmental Blogging” panel at the Commonwealth Club, January 31st. Other Panelists: Nick Aster of Triple Pundit, Alex Steffan from Worldchanging, and Graham Hill (or Tim McGee) from Treehugger. Eric Corey Freed, aka Organic Architect, is the organizer and Gil Friend will moderate the panel. RSVP at the Commonwealth Club website — Nick says the event’s likely to fill up.

Also planning to visit Coffee to the People while I’m up there, as well as a Starbucks run by a fair trade advocate-manager that brews Cafe Estima every day. Suggestions for my itinerary are welcomed –

Environmental Blogging. 595 Market St., 2nd floor. San Francisco. Jan. 31, 2006. Reception 5:30 pm, Program 6 pm. $8 members, $15 non-members.

Tags: travel, sanfrancisco, environment, blogging

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Is it possible to fix a corkscrew?

Cuz I broke mine last night (pic left).

Determined not to let the wine win, I went at the cork with a screwdriver and other mysterious tools I dug up while cleaning out my mom’s garage last month. After the better part of an hour, I relaxed with a glass of wine in my angry, red hands.

Wine can be so cruel — See what it’s done to me over the last year (below, left).

Yes, those are all wine stains.

If it helps, they’re all ORGANIC wine stains…

But something must be done, cuz these’re like my fave shirts, and I don’t wanna throw them out. One’s almost brand new — You know, the moreTrees shirt I bought like last month.

I’ve tried washing them multiple times. I’ve tried white wine. I’ve even tried some of my roommate’s Shout. All don’t do shit.

I need eco-stain remover advice, and I need it now. And if you could throw in a corkscrew you’re not using…

Update, 6/2/06: I got the stains out with Oxy Brite!

Tags: wine, corkscrew, organic, shirt, stains

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Beyond the amazing celebrity-watching opportunities — Minnie Driver and Nicole Richie were there once when I was there — Urth Caffe gives angelenos yummy organic coffee and healthy vegetarian food.

But why isn’t the company fair trade certified? I wondered, and asked Shallom of Urth Caffe this, via email. His first reply:

We work directly with the 8 small farms that we buy our coffees from. Each farm is certified organic, and each is fair traded at an extremely high premium, and all are shade grown with sustainable agriculture…. 4 of the farms have received fair trade certificates, and 4 have received shade grown certificates as well as being certified organic.

And he added in a later email:

We work directly with our farmers, and allow them to claim the price that they want for their crop – this price ranges from $2.00 to $10.00 per pound – more than 3 times the market rate for coffee in their country.

Sounds fucking great to me. But why don’t Urth’s coffees have the fair trade certified sticker?

First Shallom said that certification the company to contribute money from ALL sales of coffee, even the un-certified stuff.

Huh? Feeling skeptical, I double checked this with TransFair, then wrote back saying that simply wasn’t true.

Shallom didn’t address this discrepancy, but wrote: “For me the certification does not mean much because I deal directly with my farmers – and they choose the price that they decide is fair…. I would rather spend more money on farmers than marketing or consumer awareness.”

Wait, but what about consumer involvement? I asked. At which point Shallom got peeved, and wrote “Any one who does not believe what we describe as our practices does not have to buy from Urth.”

Of course, Urth also promotes its fair labor practices on its website and in its brochures. I’m inclined to believe them. But my point was that — with biggies like Starbucks claiming, falsely, that ALL their coffee’s fairly traded — it’s tough for the consumers to tell the difference.

Still, I’m very touched that he wrote back personal, invested emails to a lone customer like me. And despite his inaccuracies about fair trade certification, at least he was honest about his reasons. Starbucks trains its baristas to say that their coffee — although fair trade (a lie) — isn’t certified because the farms can’t afford the fees — which is just silly, considering how much money Starbucks has to fix that situation, were it true. In contrast, Shallom clearly shows the choice not to certify IS a company choice — and honestly outlines the reasons why.

I’ve been going to Urth since high school, and don’t plan to stop anytime soon. The food’s yummy, the coffee’s superb, and — except during rush hours — the service is friendly. But I was wondering — what do you readers think of companies that seem to practice fair trade, yet choose not to get certified — where the customer has to take the company at its word for its fair labor practices?

Urth Caffe. 3 locations: West Hollywood. 8565 Melrose Ave. 310.659.0628. Beverly Hills. 267 S. Beverly Drive. 310.205.9311. Santa Monica. 2327 Main Street. 310.314.7040.

Tags: losangeles, cafe, coffee, fairtrade, organic, urthcaffe

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Trader Joe’s has run out of Bodegas Iranzo’s Finca Solano!

Luckily, they still had the organic Five Hills Blue wine, so I got a couple bottles of that.

As I drank, I mulled over Chris the Beer Activist’s comment about fair trade wine. By mulling over, I mean going to the UK faitrade site, finding the list of fair trade wines (PDF) avaliable, printing it out, and googling every single one of them.

Let’s just say that in terms of fair trade wine, the US is way behind the UK.

The good news is, California makes excellent wines — which really can’t be said for the UK. So although we can’t grow our own coffee, Angelenos can get their wine fix from close by :)

Except when one just must have organic Spanish wine — in which case, you might send a pleading email to Bodegas Iranzo…

A Cali organic wine list is in the works –

Tags: wine, organic, california, fairtrade

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Got a vegan friend in town? Check out Newsroom Cafe. It’s not purely vegan, but it’s got lotsa organic vegan options — with potential celebrity sightings :) Even the vegan straight edge Sean Bonner’s given it his blessing.

Also, its menu proudly describes its coffee as fair trade and organic.

I tried asking the waiter where they got their coffee, but he wasn’t sure — and it was the weekend, so the manager wasn’t in. But the place is so nice I kinda wanna trust the menu –

My sis, a strict vegetarian, loved the place — We dropped in while she was visiting during Thanksgiving. It’s also a yum place for organic beer — that foams and foams and foams.

In fact, this beer (right) foamed so much that the waiter took it off our bill. As a total non-beer-connoiseur who helped drink the bottle (my sis ordered this one), I’ll say I thought it was yum. And bubbly.

Newsroom Cafe. 120 N Robertson Blvd. Los Angeles. 310.652.4444.

Tags: vegan, losangeles, organic, beer, newsroom

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