Stopped by my mom’s place to pick up the mail — She’s travelling out of the country right now — to find 4-days of not 1, not 2, but 3 different newspapers piled on her doorstep. The LA Times, the OC Register, and the Korea Times.

Not so smart, cuz a huge pile of newspaper screams to would-be-thieves that the owner’s outta town. I’ll put all deliveries on hold tomorrow, but while I was there, I found another problem in the kitchen — Folgers coffee.

You’d think green LA girl would’ve broken her mom of this habit by now. Not only does the Folgers stuff perpetuate the coffee crisis, but it also tastes yucky.

Weirdly, this Folgers habit isn’t just tied to its low price — my mom pretty consistently buys Folgers, even when there’s a cheaper, Ralph’s brand coffee right next to it.

So why doesn’t she get fair trade coffee? The main reason — Packaging. No, I don’t mean that my mom’s only into the red Folger’s look — but, after like a half-century of coffee drinking, she’s used to getting coffee in an “air-tight” tin, pre-ground.

Now, I’m all for yummy coffee. I buy wholebean fair trade organic coffee, usually Ethiopian. But I’m not gonna convince my mom to do likewise anytime soon. My mom doesn’t even have a coffee grinder — and I doubt she’d use one if I got her one, even if I could demonstrate coffee tasted better freshly ground. It’s just too much trouble in the morning.

In fact, it’s too much trouble for her to even get it ground in-store. She likes to just pick a can of off the shelf and put a spoonful into her coffee maker every morning.

Which is why I was glad to find Cafe Altura’s Fair Trade Classic Roast at Co-opportunity. It’s fair trade. It’s organic. It’s just $7.99 for 12 oz. And, most importantly for my mama, it comes pre-ground, in a can.

My mom lives all the way in Anaheim, so Co-opportunity in Santa Monica won’t become her usual grocery store anytime soon. But at least now I can buy a fair trade coffee for my mom that she can appreciate :)

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