A short list of my fave indie, fair trade coffee shops in San Francisco and environs, pics to come!

I’ve already mentioned Quetzal and Cafe Organica — where you can get computer time with your fair trade brew, but for those with laptops or who *gasp!* just want a nice warm place to chat and sip good coffee, try these out:

Haight
Coffee to the People. 1206 Masonic. 415.626.2435.
I found out about this new all organic, all fair trade coffee shop through its blog, Peace, Love, and Coffee, which has sorta been on hiatus since last year. Still, I dropped by and had a yummy vegan sandwich with a soy latte while watching my friend Melvin trip out a little. Hash: Not cool before coffee.

CttP has cushy couches for those hanging out for a while with free wifi, as well as wooden chairs with tables at the front for people on the go. In addition to a library, CttP boasts a wallful of political stickers and posters — which a cop vandalized not too long ago before fessing up.

Rockin’ Java. 1821 Haight. 415.831.8842.
Melvin would’ve loved this place, cuz this 100% organic & fair trade coffee shop has a pool table! But he went ahead to browse at Amoeba while I got another cup of coffee.

The interior’s cute and cozy — decorated in red, mainly, my fave color — but is also quite spacious to accomodate the pool table and players :)

There’s free wifi, and a couple macs for the laptop-free.

Hayes Valley
Blue Bottle Coffee Co. 315 Linden St. 510.653.3394
I found this place adorable, mainly cuz it’s not really a coffee shop — It’s more of a coffee stand, located next to a corset store on Linden, which is more of a sidestreet and easy to miss. I’m glad I got there though — BBCC makes a damn good — and pretty — soy latte. All coffee’s roasted and sold within 48 hours –

A couple chairs and a table are set up for people like me who like to sit down to drink their coffee. I also drank an organic apple juice there that was hands down the best apple juice I’ve ever had.

Mission
Ritual Coffee. 1026 Valencia. 415.641.1024.
The greener side’s Elsa and I met up at this all fair trade coffee shop, crowded with people on their laptops (yes, free wifi).

Can’t really review the coffee here, cuz it was raining, I was cold, and couldn’t taste properly. The baristas were super nice though :) Elsa and I did manage to find seats, before finding each other and setting off on our shopping spree –

Oakland
Gaylord’s Caffe Espresso. 4150 Piedmont Avenue. Oakland. 510.658.2877.
Everything you could ask for: Super yummy, all fair trade coffee, cute and convenient location, friendly baristas, and a real indie feel. Okay — everything you could ask for, except seats — but it was great to see an indie, fair trade shop super crowded :) And true to indie in Oakland’s word, Gaylord’s is right across the street from a Starbucks, which was pretty much empty when I went by.

Special thanks to Masha of the food snoop, Jeremy of SFist, and indie in Oaktown for their cafe recommendations –

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