The Results Are In...

My earlier post on Fair Trade coffee drew plenty of responses. Some readers were eager for guidance on tasty Fair Trade blends, and encouraged me to keep looking. Others provided tips of their own. All these suggestions were included in The Notion's Fair Trade Coffee Tasting Extravaganza, which was held on Sunday at the lovely Camaje restaurant, on Macdougal Street in Manhattan.

Our panel consisted of four tasters: Julia Azzarello, a chef and cooking teacher at Camaje, whose resume includes stints at the distinguished New York restaurants Chanterelle and Allison on Dominick Street; myself; Daniel Gross, former Starbucks barista who was fired for union-organizing efforts; Helen Hurwitz, a Brooklyn-based reference librarian and bec fin. Doug Henwood, Nation contributing editor and publisher of the Left Business Observer, handled the tasting logistics and compiled the results (and is co-author of this Notion report).

All coffees were freshly ground and identically brewed in a French press for four minutes, and presented with only letter codes, without milk or sugar. They were graded for body, acidity, and balance on a 1-3 scale, and for overall quality on a 1-5 scale (with 5 being the best). All the companies whose coffees we tested sell exclusively fair trade, and most of the coffees we tried were also organic.

The rankings, and some comments.

Gorilla Yirgacheffe 4.25 Broad consensus that this was the best of all ten coffees tasted. Rich & deep, with nutty, spicy, and chocolatey notes. Gorilla is Brooklyn-roasted, with an appealing logo, and the company also runs a lively cafe in Park Slope (at 5th Ave. and Park).

CounterCulture Yirgacheffe Ambessa 3.75 A close second (clearly, Yirgacheffe from any vendor has something going -- it's a tiny town in Ethiopia with climate conditions that are uniquely coffee-friendly). Also rich & deep, though not quite as much so as the Gorilla; winey, velvety, nutty, "a very nice cup of joe." Counter Culture is based in Durham, North Carolina; the company also has a shade-grown line, for those of us who worry about the birds.

Equiterra, from The Fair Trade Coffee Company 3.56 Some internal dissent on the panel despite the high overall score. Fans found it refreshing and fruity; detractors, chalky, and slightly muddy. Shows just how subjective coffee-tasting can be! Equiterra is a blend of Indonesian, Central American and East African beans, roasted inGarwood, New Jersey.

Dean's Beans Oromia 3.50 Well-balanced, complex, bold, with a good mouth-feel. One taster found it reminiscent of Guinness. Dean'sis a company worthy of notice not only for fine coffee, but for paying the farmers above the fair trade price.

Gorilla Nicaragua Segovia 3.50 One taster found it homey; another said it had no life. Perhaps these are two ways of saying the same thing.

Equal Exchange Black Silk Espresso 3.25 Spicy, cinnamon-y, chocolatey. Equal Exchangeis the oldest and largest fair trade company in the U.S., and also sells tea and chocolate.

Vermont Coffee Company Cafe Alta Gracia 2.63 Earthy - perhaps too much so; muddy, bitter even. The beans are from the Dominican Republic, roasted in Vermont. (In another illustration of the wild subjectivity of coffee tasting, the reader who recommended this coffee thought it was the best "in the world.")

Vermont Coffee Company Decaf 2.25 Mellow and bright were the kind words; others found it lacking in flavor, and one taster was put in mind of bile. Luckily, Roastmaster Paul Ralston doesn't want you to buy it unless you live in Vermont; he didn't entirely approve of our nationwide taste test because "readers should find a local roaster to support." (In fact, we did liked the Brooklyn coffee much better.)

CounterCulture Nicaragua decaf 2.25 Has more body than the Vermont decaf, but opinions differed on the taste: some found it citrusy and spicy, but one thought it vomit-like. Makers of specialty coffee -- and caffeine avoiders -- always insist that decaf is just as good as real coffee, but it ain't necessarily so.

No CO2, from Dean's Beans 1.88 Despite its high-minded intentions - this Peruvian coffee is produced with no net ozone emissions> - it was the stinker of the lot. Grades ranged from mediocre to awful; tasting notes included words like "metallic," "soapy," and "burnt toast."

While the devastating rout of No CO2 confirmed what we knew from our sad Cloudforest encounter -- that political sincerity alone does not a decent cup of coffee make -- we did learn that there is plenty of fine Fair Trade coffee out there. So if you've been holding out on this innovative, socially conscious sector because you don't think it will taste good, you're fresh out of excuses. We intend this report not as the last word on Fair Trade coffee, but as an incitement to your own explorations.

Comments (30)

1. Typical East Coast liberal bias! What about any roasters west of New York? Glaring in its absence, at least to this Portland booster, is Stumptown Coffee. Fair trade, organic, and good to its local employees as well. The company even put out a record album of bands with employee members. Not a CD, mind you, an LP. I look forward to further tasting reviews, perhaps with a broader scope.

   Posted by puffis at 08/16/2006 @ 7:26pm

2. What a waste of time and space.

   Posted by Len Mosse at 08/16/2006 @ 8:31pm

3. Such sophistication I find on this site. What this site needs DESPERATELY is a blogger (other than Nichols) who has anything to say about the world outside of the largest, bluest cities in the country.

   Down here we have one option: Newman's Own. It's drinkable. So I drink it.

   Posted by tjbehrens1 at 08/16/2006 @ 8:35pm

4. Either the Nation has too much money on its hands or Liza is some kind of workfare experiment.......

   unbelievable yawner..

   Posted by john maasch at 08/16/2006 @ 9:41pm

5. Snakes on a Plane? Coffee taste tests?

   Does politics make for too much anti-dem. blogging...from both sides?

   Eric

   Posted by Malcontent at 08/16/2006 @ 10:08pm

6. Preparing my Newman's Own, thinking of turtles. Not a pleasing taste combination, but it is very amusing.

   Posted by tjbehrens1 at 08/17/2006 @ 07:43am

7. I feel great sympathy for all of the commentors who are tied down several times a day, eyelids proped open with paperclips and forced to read the Nation's blogs while listening to Beethoven's Ninth at top volume...

   Oh, you say you weren't forced: oh then surely you're complaining so much about the content of this post because you paid good money for it dammit and you're not going to renew your subscription if they keep posting this frivolity...

   Oh wait, you actually browsed to the site for free, read the first paragraph of the blog, which describes the ensuing content, proceeded to read the rest of the post, and then complained because it's boring or not relevant. Lighten up, people...

   Go Fair Trade! Thanks Liza for testing the various brands for us. I haven't been able to find a good Fair Trade brand yet; I've tried a few from Trader Joe's. How does the Gorilla Yergacheffe compare to, say a good 100% Kona Medium Roast?

   Posted by twocinc at 08/17/2006 @ 08:39am

8. Seriously thinking of developing a "Wal-mart: The Video Game" game....just so Ms Featherstone will have something a BIT more political to write about than a coffee tasting!

   Posted by Mask at 08/17/2006 @ 08:56am

9. Oh, and ZERO (or any other cultured being),

   ...doppio longo?

   Posted by tjbehrens1 at 08/17/2006 @ 09:09am

10. (screaming) PEOPLE ARE DYING IN THIS STUPID WAR, THE ECONOMY'S IN SHAMBLES, PEOPLE ARE ALL IN SOUP LINES, THE RICH ARE GETTING RICHER, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WON'T BRING JON-BENET'S KILLER TO THE US UNTIL A FEW DAYS OR SO, WAL-MART IS REALLY MAKING A PROFIT DESPITE WHAT THEY REPORTED AND 'THE NATION'S' PUTTING STUPID STUFF ONLINE ABOUT SNAKES AND COFFEE?!?!?!!? OH, THE CHILDREN!!! OH, THE CHILDREN!!!!!! (sobbing)

    Posted by woodyee at 08/17/2006 @ 09:17am

11. Posted by TWOCINC 08/17/2006 @ 08:39am

    Well done 2c. A waste of time is reading something you already know is a waste of time. Then to take time to comment...

    If you don't like it, don't drink it, or read it. Pretty simple. Unless you are looking to make comments denigrating all libs/gourmands/city dwellers.

    (non-coffee drinker that believes in fair pay for a days work)

    Posted by crabwalk at 08/17/2006 @ 11:08am

12. The below article seems to suugest that the USA is losing THREE seperate wars...the "war" in Afghanistan, the "war" on terror (as heroin is their primary funding source) and Reagan's "war" on drugs. What an absolute shame that we diverted resources and attention away from the Afghanistan campaign and plowed them into the quagmire of Iraq.

    Afghan opium cultivation hits a record

    By FISNIK ABRASHI Associated Press Writer

    AP Photo/RODRIGO ABD

    World Video

    KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels - up by more than 40 percent from 2005 - despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money, Western officials told The Associated Press.

    The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave security situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight against Afghan and international forces.

    A Western anti-narcotics official in Kabul said about 370,650 acres of opium poppy was cultivated this season - up from 257,000 acres in 2005 - citing their preliminary crop projections. The previous record was 323,700 acres in 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

    "It is a significant increase from last year ... unfortunately, it is a record year," said a senior U.S. government official based in Kabul, who like the other Western officials would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive topic.

    Final figures, and an estimate of the yield of opium resin from the poppies, will be clear only when the U.N. agency completes its assessment of the crop, based on satellite imagery and ground surveys. Its report is due in September.

    The U.N. reported last year that Afghanistan produced an estimated 4,500 tons of opium - enough to make 450 tons of heroin - nearly 90 percent of world supply.

    This year's preliminary findings indicate a failure in attempts to eradicate poppy cultivation and continuing corruption among provincial officials and police - problems acknowledged by President Hamid Karzai.

    Karzai told Fortune magazine in a recent interview that "lots of people" in his administration profited from the narcotics trade and that he had underestimated the difficulty of eradicating opium production.

    Latest News Coalition bomb kills 10 Afghan police Gunmen abduct at least 15 in Afghanistan

    Afghan opium cultivation hits a record

    Al-Qaida suspect killed in Afghanistan

    Picture bleak for women in Afghanistan

    PHOTO GALLERY

    Afghanistan

    Buy AP Photo Reprints

    The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimate that opium accounted for 52 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2005.

    "Now what they have is a narco-economy. If they do not get corruption sorted they can slip into being a narco-state," the U.S. official warned.

    Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001. The former regime enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by threatening to jail farmers - virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.

    But Afghan and Western counternarcotics officials say Taliban-led militants are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy cultivation and using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.

    "(That) kind of revenue from that kind of crop aids and abets the enemy," Chief Master Sgt. Curtis L. Brownhill, a senior adviser to the head of the U.S. Central Command, during a recent visit to Afghanistan. "They count on having that sort of resource and money."

    Afghanistan has seen its deadliest bout of fighting this year since U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden. Officials believe the insurgency, most vicious in the south - Afghanistan's main poppy belt - includes die-hard Taliban, warlords and drug lords and smugglers.

    Fears of fanning the insurgency has constrained efforts to destroy the poppy crops of impoverished farmers - particularly in Helmand, where the area being cultivated for poppies has increased most sharply. The province now accounts for more than 40 percent of the poppy cultivation nationwide.

    "We know that if we start eradicating the whole surface of poppy cultivation in Helmand, we will increase the activity of the insurgency and increase the number of insurgents," said Tom Koenigs, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan.

    He said the international community needs to provide alternative livelihoods for farmers, but warned against expecting quick results. "The problem has increased, and the remedy has to adjust," he told reporters recently.

    Since the fall of the Taliban, the international community, led by the U.S. and Britain, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to combat the drugs trade.

    There have been some successes. Nangahar province, with the help of a strong governor and police chief, reduced opium output by 96 percent in 2005. Since March, anti-drug police units have raided 10 drug labs throughout the country, seizing 2,700 pounds of heroin and nearly 1,763 pounds of opium.

    Next week, the Afghan government will present a wide-ranging anti-drugs strategy. Officials are moving to amend laws, train judges and prosecutors, build high security prisons and establish special courts for drug barons and senior drug smugglers.

    This year's increased poppy cultivation follows a 21 percent drop the previous year, suggesting the government has not followed through on warnings to farmers against planting poppies. Although 37,065 acres of poppies were eradicated this year, according to the Ministry for Counternarcotics, a campaign by police to destroy crops fell short of expectation.

    Gen. Khodaidad, a top official at the ministry, said virtually all cultivated land in Helmand - including government-owned land - has been planted with opium poppies.

    "We expected a large number (crop) this year but Helmand unfortunately exceeded even our predictions," the U.S. official said.

    Posted by freedomplease at 08/17/2006 @ 12:09pm

13. FREEDOMPLEASE,

    Shhhhhhhhhh...We're focusing on the Ramsey case over here.

    Posted by tjbehrens1 at 08/17/2006 @ 12:39pm

14. Posted by FREEDOMPLEASE 08/17/2006 @ 12:09am | ignore this person

    FREE...don't go all "PLUNGY" on us....just post the link.

    Posted by Mask at 08/17/2006 @ 12:40pm

15. Fair trade coffee is political ... unfortunately that is one of the reasons while it will continue to be too small potatos to make a difference on the large scale, but better to use your own buying decisions to make the lives of coffee farmer better than using them to make their lives worse.

    Now, to get an impact at a bigger level, we'd need systemic change.

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/15/16397/4723

    Posted by BruceMcF at 08/17/2006 @ 2:39pm

16. Fair Trade Coffee is a wonderful thing - get over yourselves guys. Tell me you arent drinking coffee - or tea - or yerba mate - even as the Disaster in Iraq rages on. Dont be such bitter guys.

    Now, Fair Trade Coffee exists - what doesnt exist is anything called Produce that is Certified 100% No Illegal Immigrant Labor. Can you imagine Right Wingers getting together and coming up with a label that says "This product is certified to have been produced with NO illegal immigrant labor". No? Good for you - they never will.

    Liberals come up with things like Fair Trade, Organic, Non-GMO - Conservatives merely complain.

    Posted by LiberalPride at 08/17/2006 @ 2:48pm

17. Freedom: Don't give Liza any ideas. I'm almost anticipating a "Free-trade Opium" article in the near future.

    Posted by Sliver at 08/17/2006 @ 2:48pm

18. Posted by LIBERALPRIDE 08/17/2006 @ 2:48pm | ignore this person

    Actually, LP....the LEFT would protest the term....they'd want it to be "This product is certified to have been produced with no UNDOCUMENTED WORKER SEEKING A BETTER LIFE labor"

    Posted by Mask at 08/17/2006 @ 3:06pm

19. In another result, the Hon Anna Diggs Taylor declared unconstitutional the NSA warrantless spying program of the Bush administration and ordered its immediate shutdown.

    Posted by skeletonman at 08/17/2006 @ 3:09pm

20. Mask - ha ha.

    Again, Liberals take action: Fair Trade, Organic, Non-GMO, etc. Conservatives merely complain - there will never be a label that says "This product is certified to have been produced with NO illegal immigrant labor"

    If there was, who would buy it? Certainly not Conservatives - therefore there is no such thing - and never will be.

    Posted by LiberalPride at 08/17/2006 @ 3:31pm

21. Posted by LIBERALPRIDE 08/17/2006 @ 3:31pm | ignore this person

    Immigration issue not so "cut & dry" LP.

    What if La Raza came out and said "Such labels are RACIST and would cause undocumented workers, who are working hard and paying taxes, to lose their jobs!"?

    Posted by Mask at 08/17/2006 @ 3:34pm

22. We will never know what La Raza would say about it, because it will never happen.

    Posted by LiberalPride at 08/17/2006 @ 3:35pm

23. Posted by LIBERALPRIDE 08/17/2006 @ 3:35pm | ignore this person

    We might...e-mail them and ask them. I'd be interested in what they say.

    Posted by Mask at 08/17/2006 @ 4:04pm

24. I hope the Conservatives do get off their lazy ass and come up with a "Non-Illegal" certification for fruits & vegetables, then we can mock them for not supporting it. Of course, they never will, its easier to crack silly jokes and post hypothetical situations about what La Raza would say if they (the Conservatives) got off their lazy ass.

    Posted by LiberalPride at 08/17/2006 @ 5:16pm

25. Posted by LIBERALPRIDE 08/17/2006 @ 5:16pm | ignore this person

    Suppose that's a swipe at me....but again, what is the "conservative" view on illegal immigration and what's the "liberal" view?

    Seems the GOP House is for closing the border and arresting illegals...which seems as "anti-immigrant" as LP's labelling things "100% Non-Illegal worker".

    And who's for "more or continueing open borders"? Both the soft-hearted on the Left (and Latino activists) AND big, evil CONSERVATIVE Big Business.

    Posted by Mask at 08/18/2006 @ 07:24am

26. I would like to make a plug for Peet's Coffee which is consistently outstanding. Not all Peet's coffee's are certified Fair Trade but they state on their website,

    "Not all of our growers are eligible for Fair Trade certification; in all cases, Peet's strives to maintain long-term, sustainable partnerships with our growers. Premium coffees such as the ones we use command prices well above the Fair Trade minimums, and we actively work with partners such as Coffee Kids and Global Education Partnership to improve the quality of life in coffee-growing communities."

    I highly recommend giving Peet's a try.

    Posted by jmill at 08/18/2006 @ 12:54pm

27. Again, to those atleast willing to concede the existance of such things....

    Can there be any more of a "liberal boutique issue"....than "Fair Trade coffee"?!???!?

    Posted by Mask at 08/18/2006 @ 4:16pm

28. Posted by ZERO 08/17/2006 @ 2:46pm oh god, "kos" again. ick.

    Sorry, it has to be the dKos crosspost of that piece, ... I'm fairly sure that dKos is safe from the kind of loonies that sometimes hang about around here.

    Posted by BruceMcF at 08/20/2006 @ 10:25pm

29. Posted by MASK 08/18/2006 @ 4:16pm Again, to those atleast willing to concede the existance of such things....

    Can there be any more of a "liberal boutique issue"....than "Fair Trade coffee"?!???!?

    Organic lettuce?

    Posted by BruceMcF at 08/20/2006 @ 10:25pm

30. What a benighted set of comments.

    Raising workers' wages is not a boutique issue. Nor is finding a concrete way to that first world activists can organize easily to help third world workers. Free Trade Coffee in itself is a small step, like organizing a single. But it's a model, like Students Against Sweatshops. And the more these things can be made to work, the more they can be expanded. We all know globalization is the problem, we all know the old solutions don't work, and the point is to develop new ones. This is very new one, that has had a real impact. It's worth working with to see how much more can be got out of it and transposed elsewhere.

    As for focussing on New York, again, how badly can people miss the point? In the first place, you're supposed to support locals, and Liza is from here. But more importantly, as all the bellyachers point out, most Free Trade coffee drinkers live in cities (most of which are blue, even in the South. Conversely the countryside is red even in New York).

    If the point is how to expand the market for this product so as increase the number of extremely poor coffee-farmers who can benefit by higher wages, then the goal is to find best coffee that people who have access to it can buy. Not to bemoan that country folk can't buy it. You guys have lots of other things we don't, like fresh air, and you have lots of other ways of making an impact on the world.

    Lastly, I thought that not only was this a model of how run such a test (which is a great promotional idea and could be replicated endlessly in every other city where a bellyacher lives -- the internet is free), it was very well written. My favorite line was

    Gorilla Nicaragua Segovia 3.50 -- One taster found it homey; another said it had no life. Perhaps these are two ways of saying the same thing.

    A delightfully wry line from a first time work at home Mom.

    Posted by mpollak at 08/24/2006 @ 12:20pm