- Starbucks loses taste test to McDonald’s less expensive coffee. Sez Starbucks: “Choosing a brand of coffee is a personal decision, as taste is subjective.” Of late, McDonalds has made bigger commitments to fair trade and rainforest alliance certified coffee than Starbucks. (image by Worsted Witch)
- Tim Harvey, human-powered travel guy who I wrote about here, talks about smelly whales.
- Dorkbake’s tonight! Baking with just a 100-watt bulb.
- Intelligentsia Coffee’s gonna open in Sunset Junction in Silverlake in April. The coffee roaster’s already taken over the coffee donations to KCRW volunteers –
Funny, Starbuck’s actually bought Seattle’s Best a little while back. Maybe they’ll have a high-level board meeting and swap roasting techniques.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/117808_starbucksww16.shtml
Comment by PDX Jim — February 5, 2007 @ 10:12 am
I’ve always WANTED to be in an EZ-Bake Oven bake-off!
Comment by Jasmin — February 5, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Hey PDX Jim — I knew that Starbucks bought Seattle’s Best, but am not sure what you meant by the comment — Was Seattle’s Best ranked higher than Starbucks too in the Consumer Reports?
Jasmin — You should move to LA for dorkbake! :P
Comment by Siel — February 7, 2007 @ 11:18 am
re: Intelligentsia, I wonder about their mission to discredit fair trade (both certified and non-cert). Intelligentsia, along with Counter Culture have been promoting their ideas of “beyond fair trade,” “transparent trade” and “direct trade” without addressing all the tenets of fair trade. Instead of building their image in association with fair trade, they should be clear that they are specialty roasters interested in the quality of coffee. They may be willing to pay more for premium beans, and sometimes that price may fall above the fair trade floor price, but the comparison ends there. They overlook many important aspects of fair trade such as building a direct trading relationship; sustaining long-term partnerships; and community reinvestment. We should all be talking about this effort to discredit the fair trade movement.
Comment by Amy — February 9, 2007 @ 2:25 pm
Hey Amy — I hear you, but I think the bigger problem at the moment is that fair trade certification itself often doesn’t address all the tenets of fair trade, as evidenced by FLO’s continuing reluctance to raise minimum prices for fair trade coffee. I feel like we sort of need to confront that problem first, before going after companies that’re pointing to that problem.
Comment by Siel — February 13, 2007 @ 9:53 am
Siel, I agree that there are problems with fair trade certification and that we must be critical of the current system. We do need to discuss the fact that the current floor price is too low and direct pressure from within the movement to not only raise the price, but also address other concerns re: certification. There should be a better way to distinguish fair trade companies and those that believe in the movement, from those that have a few fair trade certified products. There is a big difference between companies like Just Coffee and Larry’s Beans trying to push the dialogue toward improving the current certification system–while working within a democratic and transparent framework (ie. membership in Cooperative Coffees and the Fair Trade Federation)–and the efforts of Inteligentsia and Counter Culture to discredit the fair trade movement. The focus of the later is on paying a premium price for quality beans. While this is important, it does not constitute “beyond fair trade” while they are buying through brokers and neglect to address the other tenets of fair trade. My fear is that their efforts are causing great confusion to consumers that are trying to support fair trade and are manipulated into thinking that this system is somehow better. Many don’t yet fully understand fair trade and it is very dangerous to allow Inteligentsia and Counter Culture to discredit and sabotage the fair trade movement without being challenged.
Comment by Amy — February 20, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
Hey Amy — I think what I’m trying to say is that yes, I agree with you re: Intelli, but that I think that to really address that issue, we first need to address the fact that what’s dubbed “fair trade” — via certification — is actually not fair. Basically, this is the same charge you’re bringing up against Intelli — that what they dub better than fair trade is not actually even fair trade — which I agree with. But unless we beef up fair trade to actually mean fair trade, fair trade advocates chiding Intelli is like the pot calling the kettle black. Actually, more like the kettle calling the pot black –
Here’s an email I got from Geoff of Intelli a while ago, which you might find interesting –
Comment by Siel — February 20, 2007 @ 8:01 pm