So Starbucks admitted it hasn’t lived up to its own policy to French press a cup of fair trade coffee for anyone who asks for it. And during meetings with and in letters to bloggers, the mermaid’s promised to work on fixing its “break down in customer service” — at least in the LA area, which is a great start.

So during this first week of ought-six, we’re starting easy. We’re wondering if Starbucks employees are aware which of their coffee blends are actually fair trade certified, as opposed to Starbucks’ own internal “fairly traded” “certification.” Considering that there’s only one fair trade coffee at Starbucks — Cafe Estima — it shouldn’t be that hard, as long as someone has taken the minute to let employees know that Cafe Estima’s the fair trade blend. And to make it even easier, Cafe Estima’s brewing as the coffee of the week this week (at least in the US & Canada)!

The Challenge
1) Visit your local Starbucks this week (Jan 2 to Jan 8 ) and ask: “Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee?” (Don’t specify Cafe Estima!)
2) Tell us what happened next. Ideally, the barista should immediately offer you a cup of Cafe Estima, which should already be brewing.

BLOGGERS: simply blog about what happened and tag it with “starbuckschallenge” (all one word) on del.icio.us (put the Starbucks location in the “extended” description). We’ll pull all articles into a feed. If you do not know about del.icio.us, then just mention the phrase ‘StarbucksChallenge’ as one word in your post, and we’ll catch it.

NON-BLOGGERS: tell us what happened by writing a comment on either City Hippy or green LA girl, or send an email to City Hippy or green LA girl, and we’ll do the rest.

Win a prize!
On Jan. 9, City Hippy and green LA girl will award 2 prizes: 1 to the person who takes the most challenges, and 1 to the person with the most interesting, entertaining, educational, insightful, or funny report.

The prizes? An enviro-friendly, reusable, and chic workplace dish set (right, a $39 value!), and fair trade yummies from Clipper-Teas.com, provided by City Hippy.

Challenge results
On Jan. 9, City Hippy and green LA girl will take the challenge results to Starbucks, either commending them on their progress on barista education efforts about fair trade, or asking them to, um, work on that.

Take the challenge, and please feel free to let us know what YOU think our next step should be as activists, and what you think Starbucks’ next step should be as a company that says it wants to be a leader in corporate social responsibility.

Have a fair trade day.
City Hippy and green LA girl

Some fun stuff –

• The original Starbucks Challenge launch post, 2.0, and 3.0.
• The Starbucks Challenge FAQ.
• Starbucks Challenge’s del.icio.us feed.
• Starbucks Challenge’s Google Map.

Update, 1/6/06: Want a smaller, yummier cappuccino at Starbucks? You can get one, but it’s not on the menu — just like fair trade coffee.

Update, 1/7/05: More than 200 blogs have joined the Starbucks Challenge!

Update, 1/8/06: green LA girl took 6 challenges during this week. The tally: 5 failures, 1 success. Only 2 of the 6 stores were actually brewing Cafe Estima.

Update, 1/10/06: Starbucks Challenge 3.5 awards! Congrats to Justin and Ardent Eden!

Update, 1/10/06: A conversation with Nicole, a former Starbucks employee, on how best to proceed with the challenge.

Update, 1/11/06: Keeping track of how long it takes Cindy to return our call about the results of the Starbucks Challenge 3.5…

Update, 1/18/06: The Worsted Witch, aka Jasmine, gives us a spiffy new illustration for the Starbucks Challenge! Please give her credit if you use it.

Update, 1/19/06: Greg, a green investment manager, says he found Starbucks’ talk at an investment conference — in which the mermaid claimed to be 100% “fairly traded” — misleading and confusing.

Update, 1/25/05: Why were so many stores NOT brewing Cafe Estima during the week it was scheduled as the coffee of the week? Due to more “corporate miscommunications.”

Update, 1/28/06: Another failure at the store where challengers met with LA Starbucks managers :(

Update, 1/30/06: Michael, a Starbucks store manager, goes out of his way to promote and brew fair trade coffee at his store every day!

Update, 2/3/06: The SF Bay Guardian reports on the Starbucks Challenge!

Update, 2/3/06: Claire, a Starbucks barista, blogs about her efforts to bring more fair trade awareness to her store in Rochester, NY.

Update, 2/18/06: green LA girl meets Cindy of Starbucks at the USFT conference in Denver.

Update, 3/1/06: Starbucks Challenge 4.0 will be pushed back to mid-April, due to more issues Starbucks is having getting Cafe Estima to its stores.

Update, 3/8/06: Starbucks settles with IWW Starbucks Workers Union.

Update, 3/7/06: The Times UK reports on the Starbucks Challenge

Update, 3/12/06: Starbucks Challenge success rate hits an alltime low: 44%.

Update, 3/30/06: One Starbucks manager in San Francisco has taken matters into his own hands, brewing Cafe Estima in his store every day.

Updates, 4/3/06: Christina, who advises Ideal Bite, tries to get some answers for us (here, here and here) from Starbucks.

Update, 4/5/06: Starbucks makes it onto a Global Green panel — that Starbucks sponsored.

Update, 4/10/06: College students with StartingBloc fellowships recommend Starbucks raise its commitment to fair trade.

Update, 4/11/06: The Santa Monica Mirror reports on the Starbucks Challenge :)

Update, 4/27/06: Instead of working to live up to its word, Starbucks just deletes from its website its promise to serve customers fair trade coffee.

Update, 5/1/06: Starbucks Challenge 4.0’s here!

FEED (del.icio.us/starbuckschallenge):

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