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10 February 2010
Posted in
4) Winter Wisdom
Fair Trade cafes again? Didn’t we do this last winter?
Yes. But now we have even more to help warm your heart and ‘soul’ respectively, with coffee, from Fair Trade suppliers, as well as some sustainable coffee commitment suggestions...
- More Fair Trade Cafes
- Sustainable Coffee Commitment
- Still Buying 'Non' Fair Trade Coffee
More Fair Trade Cafes
In last year’s Winter Guide to Sustainable Living (2009), we explored a theme of “Staying Warm for Winter” resulting in (among other things), a suggested list of local cafes.
Last year’s cafés list was actually generated as part of an in-depth look we took at Fair Trade, seemingly fitting since winter is not only the season that needs warming, but often chocolate too… to ‘warm’ your Valentine’s heart. :-)
We have a few more cafes to add to your list this year to further expand the reaches of your coffee drinking pleasure, as well as a list of suggested ‘Coffee Commitments’ for the sustainable java lover, to follow.
1. Humani-T Café (Agricola St. at Young intersection): Super Natural has recently renovated its health store location for the new Humani-T Café, a friendly café, serving Fair Trade and Organic coffees and teas, as well as many home-made snacks and lunch items.
2. Our Thyme Café (Portland St, up from Alderney Landing): This is a special business and project realized by the Elizabeth Fry Society. Our Thyme Café is not only unique because they serve Fair Trade coffee, tea and make home-made snacks and lunches (most of which they also cater). It is special because the café provides a back to work program for young women at risk, to help them learn skills to enter the workforce. See our CRUSISIS Everyday Hero for Winter 2010 to learn more.
3. Sawadee Tea House (1871 Granville St): Specializing in organic tea, Sawadee also boasts an inviting seating area where you can purchase fairly traded giftware from India.
4. The Almond Café (Bayer’s Lake Park): New owners and name to an old location, favorite to many young families. The Bean Sprout Café is now The Almond Café. Incidentally, the new owners also own Super Natural/ Humani-T Café (above).
5. Perks (Quinpool Rd, Halifax Shopping Ctr, Barington…): While Perks’ forte is not Fair Trade, we give it an ‘honourable’ mention since it is a locally-owned café with multiple locations in the Halifax area, which has many home-made snacks and deserts.
6. The Trellis Café (Hubbards, NS, Main St.): We came across this café in Hubbards NS, which serves fresh ground Fair Trade organic coffee. They seemed worthy of mention in case you live in the area, or in case you want to get out of the city. But also, we were struck by their obvious commitment to sustainable living including home cooked food, the use of fresh ingredients, local artwork and live music entertainment.
Sustainable Coffee Commitment
We couldn’t resist creating an Everyday Environmentalist list for our java lovers.
For such a simple pleasure, there are so many do’s and don’t’s associated with it that can make your indulgence more sustainable, whether it’s once per week, once per day, or once per hour!
Click here for our Everyday Environmentalist for Coffee Drinking, Sustainably (2010), and do a little something for your heart and soul by making sustainable coffee drinking choices.
Still Buying 'Non' Fair Trade Coffee
If you are still buying “non” Fair Trade coffee, GET A GRIP!!... and seek out Fair Trade options!
If you’re not savvy about Fair Trade practices, it’s easy to sip your non-certified java with comfort. But if you knew some of the atrocities that take place in creating that “non” Fair Trade coffee you are enjoying, the discomfort you’d feel might be more than just a wince, and may find you making your way to the nearest toilet.
In the coffee bean harvesting trade, there’s violence… abuse (yes, in children too)… and in general, a way of life that we here in North America would think is Hollywood derived, depicting a misguided portion of our history. See “Fair Trade: Why?” from last year’s Winter Guide ’09 for some disturbing statistics that will surely make you seek out Fair Trade coffee moving forward.
And if you are an addict of the iconized American institution coffee joint starting in “S” and ending in “bucks” (that we'll refrain from promoting), remember that most locations usually do have a Fair Trade blend. In fact, they seem to be venturing into their own brand of coffee they state is fairly traded. It’s not certified Fair Trade, but does have some ethical recognition, and certainly seems like a step in the right direction.
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