In time for Fair Trade Month in October, Tully’s Coffee is now serving all organic, fair trade espresso drinks — in compostable cups, on the off-chance you forget to bring your own to-go mug.
Note, however, that this organic fair trade deal goes only for Tully’s espresso drinks — meaning non-espresso drinks like a regular coffee are NOT organic or fair trade. The deal’s similar to Dunkin’ Donuts, which also has all fair trade espresso drink but conventional drip coffees.
In fact, fair trade company Equal Exchange points out that “the use of Fair Trade coffee at Tully’s and Starbucks is still much more the exception than the rule,” pointing out that only about 1 in 10 pounds of coffee for Tully’s and 1 in 17 pounds for Starbucks is fair trade certified.
That said, unlike Starbucks, where you have to specifically request and go through a lot of hassles for a fair trade cup of coffee, now you can just pop into any of the 140 or so Tully’s shops and simply order a latte or americano to get your fair trade coffee fix, fast.
Tully’s has locations in Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, with one shop in Santa Monica at 2425 Colorado Ave., which I’ll have to check out soon, especially as it has wifi. Apparently, Tully’s has compost and recycling bins too — plus eco-friendly lighting — at all stores too.












Too bad their coffee blows (including espresso)…
Comment by meg — September 21, 2007 @ 5:05 pm