UPDATED: Support Fair Trade by asking for it.

UPDATED: I finally got my butt into the Starbucks across the street. Find out what happened in the extended entry...

We at hipandzen support fairly traded products, which can range from cool vases to handbags made from recycled plastic.

And coffee.

One of our favorite sites, City Hippy is issuing a little challenge and wants bloggers and non-bloggers to pitch in.

Seems Starbucks has stated [PDf...sorry] that you will be able to buy fair trade coffee in any of the 23 countries in which it is licensed to sell fair trade coffee.

And City Hippy wants to test the theory.

They're asking people to ask for fair-trade coffee on their next Starbucks visit and then to let them know what happened. Bloggers can blog about it and tag it (see the City Hippy post for deets on tagging.) Non-bloggers can email.

Although I'm not typically much of a Starbucks customer, I'm going to make a point of it at least once this week to find out what happens. Stay tuned.

(Oh, and if you too play along, please let City Hippy know, and come back here and comment on this post to tell me what happened! Thanks.)

UPDATE: Unlike my first commenter on this post, I did have to wait for a cup to be made via French Press for me. And I do have to say that the person behind the counter looked a little confused at first by my request, so I don't think she's been getting inundated with requests. Nonetheless, once she got that yes, I was actually asking for fair-trade coffee by the cup and that yes, I was willing to wait for her to French Press it...she proceeded to do so with only slight disdain. It took a while, though.

This is the Starbucks on Winchester and Payne in West San Jose, CA.

Oh, and as Green LA Girl notes, Estima, a fair-trade coffee, is the "Coffee of the Week."

Comments

[City Hippy]

Hey Elisa

Thanks for helping spread the word...must just say that I share the credit with my good friend the Green LA Girl - (http://greenlagirl.blogspot.com)

Namaste and thanks for your support - look forward to finding out how it went for you!

City Hippy

[Elisa Camahort]

Thanks for getting Green LA Girl's URL out there. Sorry I missed giving her proper attribution.

I will keep you posted :)

[Tree]

Success! I am pleased to report that when I went into Starbucks this morning to ask for a cup of their fair trade coffee they already had a pot all brewed up. I think it was called Cafe Astima. Very tasty and I was happy to see they were already serving it. The girl who took my order wasn't even aware that they had fair trade ready to go because she said they'd have to do a french press which I was willing to wait for. One of her co-workers heard what I wanted and pointed out that they had some all ready for me.

By the way, this was at a Starbucks in Watsonville, CA, just a little south of Santa Cruz.

[green LA girl]

Hey Tree -- Thanks for joining in! The real test will come next week -- This week, the featured "Coffee of the Week" on brew is indeed the fair trade Cafe Estima blend -- but that ends on Monday. At that point, I hope the barista will agree to individually French-press it for you --

[Elisa Camahort]

Well, coffee of the week or no, my Starbucks wasn't brewing Estima, so they did indeed French Press one for me :) Let's hope no one else has a problem with that.

[Alicia]

For those of you who are interested in the issue of Fair trade, there is a powerful documentary out called “Black Gold,” that documents the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers and clearly demonstrates why all of us should be asking for Fair Trade coffee. The film was recently released in the theater but is now available to the public on DVD via California Newsreel. You can read more about the documentary or pick up a copy of it here at http://newsreel.org/