This post was originally written Dec., 21, 2005, and last updated March 10, 2010.
Buy fair trade coffee to brew at home:
Independents
Artisan’s Exchange (Claremont). In addition to Peace Coffee and Monkey & Son coffee, this small gift shop features fair trade imports, art from the local community, and socially responsible products made in the United States.
The Coffee Cellar (Los Angeles). The Coffee Cellar specializes in triple-certified coffee — organic, fair trade and shade grown. Try a cup at the cafe then get a bag to take home.
The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa (Culver City). This cute local shop roasts its own beans, in store. Many of its blends are fair trade.
Co-Opportunity. (Santa Monica) This member-owned co-op offers fair trade coffee from Cafe Altura, Equal Exchange, and Green Mountain Coffee — along with fair trade cocoa and sugar! Buy from the bulk bins for the best bargains.
El Pueblo Folk Art & Specialty Gifts (Pasadena). This nonprofit store in Old Town Pasadena reportedly carries Equal Exchange’s fair trade coffee and tea, along with some other fair trade items.
Surfas (Culver City). Get Monkey & Son coffee, wholebean. All fair trade certified, all organic.
Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena. Choose from a nice selection of fair trade coffee from a variety of fair trade coffee roasters at this fair trade shop.
Chains
Among coffee shops, Java City offers a number of fair trade blends, while Borders, which usually has a few fair trade blends of Seattle’s Best Coffee (owned by Starbucks) for sale. Regular Starbucks stores and Peet’s shops both offer one fair trade certified blend.
Organic food-friendly grocery chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s offer a good number of fair trade, organic certified coffee blends.
All Costco brand coffee’s fair trade certified — though roasted by Starbucks. And at Cost Plus World Market, you can get World Market’s own fair trade certified World Village Coffee.
Lastly — Most major supermarket and discount megastores like Ralphs, Target, and Walmart do usually offer a few token blends of fair trade certified coffee.
Also: Fair trade coffee shops and restaurants in Los Angeles.
Photo by Audreyjay
This isn’t a local place, but I just found a place online called http://www.deansbeans.com/ … All fair trade and organic coffees, teas, cocoa. I ordered stuff from there last week and am waiting to receive it, so I can’t vouch for taste, but either way. Sorry if you already knew about it…
Comment by Russ — December 21, 2005 @ 5:23 pm
Amusingly, TJ also sells a FT Organic coco mix. . .
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — December 21, 2005 @ 6:47 pm
This is excellent. I’ve been thinking about trying to create a similar resource for Edinburgh, so people can find out where to go for all their ethical goodies.
It’s something bloggers everywhere ought to be doing, so lovers of Fairtrade/organic/local/independent stuff can always find out where to go – wherever they are in the world.
Comment by beev — December 21, 2005 @ 8:21 pm
Thanks men!
Where my girls at?
Comment by Siel — December 21, 2005 @ 9:12 pm
Sorry, just another guy and off-topic as well. But I’m tracking down every blogger who has been nominated for a Koufax Award to urge their readers to learn more about the Koufaxes here. This year, each award gets a $100 prize.
Comment by Meteor Blades — December 21, 2005 @ 11:36 pm
Hi Meteor :) Wish I’d written more lefty political stuff –
Comment by Siel — December 25, 2005 @ 3:04 am
I went with Higher Grounds http://www.javaforjustice.com as part of a delegation to Chiapas, Mexico, to visit the indigenous communities that actually grow the coffee they sell. The owners are great people. They sell FT coffee on their website.
Comment by Gordon — February 13, 2006 @ 8:00 pm