If you are dragging your butt out of bed and need a real kick start, try some Shock fair trade organic blend! This blend contains almost double the caffeine as a regular cup of coffee. They also carry an Energy blend contains even more caffeine (however, this is not made from fair trade coffee beans).

As Shock says: Whether you want to cram more stuff in your brain or add more hours to your day, you need some Shock therapy.

Admit it. Sleep is overrated. So brew up some Shock and crank it up a notch.

The taste is not overpowering and is certainly not bitter. I was half expecting something quite shocking, but it is quite smooth and enjoyable. If you need a rich creamy coffee, this is probably not for you, but it would be a great option for people that are looking for a more middle of the road, great tasting cup of coffee.

There are also gift sets for Christmas, canned iced latte drinks and for those that like to snack on their caffeine during the day (and who doesn’t), they have Shock-a-lots which are chocolate covered, candy-coated, hyper-caffeinated, Shock coffee beans.

All of their coffee is Kosher too.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars

Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee? Yes! Best tasting cup of coffee? You better believe it! http://www.shockcoffee.com

Enjoy

Ian

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“Fair Trade has given us the ability to grow coffee the way it should be grown – sustainably, organically and with great concern for quality.  Our families are fed, our children are in school, and now we can tend to the coffee and the environment.” – Luis Adauto de Oliveira

He produces award winning coffee beans, but had to dump them on the regular market, for a minimum return, for mass producers to blend into their house blends. Then in 2003, he became fair trade certified and now has a higher standard of living for both his family and community.

For the complete story please visit fairtrademonth.org.

Enjoy!
Ian

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In the coffee growing mountains of Columbia, there is a co-op of 270 farming families called APCO (Asociación Pequeños Caficultores de Ocamonte) that was formed back in 1994. The primary goal of the association is to assist members in improving their quality of life through the commercialization of coffee.

Cooperative Coffees is a roaster-owned (comprised of 22 Canadian and American roasters), coffee importing cooperative that has partnered with APOC and other farming cooperatives like them, in direct, fair trade relationships.

Cooperative Coffees works with individual farmers in APCO to help them achieve fair trade certification. They also buy beans from APCO at 9 cents / pound above the fair trade rate (which also has an additional premium for organic beans). This can work out to about 40 cents per pound premium for their coffee and if a small farmer produces 3000 pound that would work out to $1200 per year.

APCO farmers can then invest that extra money in diversification on their farms, such as raising chickens and cows and producing eggs and milk to sell at the market to earn more income. They can also invest in building and improving schools or healthcare to improve the next generation’s standard of living. Maybe they just invest the money in improvements to their own farm or house to improve production and provide better comforts.

Click the following for more information on Cooperative Coffees or the complete story of their visit to APCO.

All in all, for a few cents a cup, lives can be changed and brighter futures can be realized.

Enjoy!
Ian

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Fair trade coffee producers are required to farm with sustainable farming techniques. The rules are intended to improve the community and well being of the workers and less on the coffee product, which organic coffee’s main concern is. So fair trade is a little looser on the restrictions to their farming techniques than organic coffee.

Fair trade farmers are encouraged to farm organically, through a premium paid if they are organically certified. Every year fair trade certified farmers are converting over to be organic certified as well. I saw a statistic recently that suggested a little over half of fair trade coffee is also certified organic. From looking around online, it would seem like that is a close enough estimate.

I would think anything to get chemicals out of what we ingest has to be a good thing. If we can make it a cup of fair trade organic coffee, then even better!

Enjoy!
Ian

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Well, having a Bachelor of Mathematics, I couldn’t resist weighing in with some calculations of my own (apologies to any one out there who happened to do the same math that I’m going to do, its either purely coincidence or we’re both brilliant, tongue in cheek).

First off, since I am Canadian, I will do my calculations in grams, there are 454g in a pound and it just gives a larger number to decrease errors from rounding.

As a sample, I ground up 50g of William Spartivento Kona blend of fair trade beans (I just hate grinding more and letting it sit around). To the best of my ability, I determined that it produced about 10.5 Tbsp of ground coffee. Therefore, a pound of coffee should produce ( (454g / 50g) X 10.5 Tbsp ) 95.3 Tbsp of ground coffee.

For strong coffee (2Tbsp for 6oz of water) you will get about 47 cups of 6oz coffee (or 35 cups at 8oz).

For coffee a little less strong (1.5 Tbsp for 6oz or 2Tbsp for 8oz of water) you will get about 62 cups of 6oz coffee (or 47 cups at 8oz).

There are many answers out there that fall into the 32 to 40 cups of 8oz range, so our 35 cups seems fairly accurate. A tall at Starbucks is approx 12oz, so you can get about 24 talls per pound. That’s only approx 50 cents (depending on what you pay per pound) per tall.

Now that you are sipping on your 35th cup of the last bag in the house, maybe its time to add fair trade coffee to your shopping list.

Enjoy!

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Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Fair Trade is much more than a fair price though!

Fair Trade principles include:

• Fair prices: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.
• Fair labor conditions: Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages.
• Forced child labor is strictly prohibited.
• Direct trade: Importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to strengthen their organizations and become competitive players in the global economy.
• Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade premiums.
• Community development: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like health care, new schools, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
• Environmental sustainability: The Fair Trade certification system strictly prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), promotes integrated farm management systems that improve soil fertility, and limits the use of harmful agrochemicals in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers’ health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.

TransFair USA and Transfair Canada, are non-profit organizations, and are the only independent, third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the U.S. and Canada. They are two of the 20 members of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). TransFair’s rigorous audit system, which tracks products from farm to finished product, verifies industry compliance with Fair Trade criteria. TransFair allows companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on products that meet strict Fair Trade standards.

Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. and Canada for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, sugar, rice, and vanilla.

Fair Trade Certified label used in the U.S.

Fair Trade Certified label used in Canada

Fair Trade Certified label used in Europe. Note: The fair trade label used in Europe is spelled Fairtrade and was created in 2002 to unify the 20 member organizations, although they still allow U.S. and Canada to use their own labels.

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In the first half of the 1900’s there were many small movements and discussions about providing fair wages and working conditions for workers in some of the world’s poorer regions. There were efforts from church groups purchasing crafts directly from southern communities to world powers trying to manipulate commodity prices to sustain poorer countries.

Towards the end of World War II, Oxfam UK started to initiate projects where they purchased products directly from the people they were trying to support. In the 1960’s, United Kingdom and Netherlands became the main initiators of fair trade practices. From commodities like sugar cane, soon expanded to coffee in the early 1970’s.

In Netherlands in the late 1980’s, the first Fair Trade certification was started. It was named after a fictional Dutch character ‘Max Havelaar’, from a book (Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company) where he opposed the exploitation of coffee pickers in Java and Indonesia (both colonies of Netherlands). The Max Havelaar label soon stood for a standardized system of Fair Trade coffee.

Even though fair trade coffee grew in most European countries, it wasn’t until 1997 in Canada and 1998 in the US when those two countries first certified fair trade coffee for sale.

For more information about the history of fair trade coffee, please visit the TransfairUSA.org website or the transfair.ca website

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Many bags were purchased and our espresso machine was revving on high octane for a while!

Well, for those of you that would like to try some, they currently have booths until Sept 27th at the following Costco locations:
Mississauga Heartland, London North Wonderland, Montreal 300 Bridge, and Saint-Jérôme 1001 Boul J.Baptiste Rolland.

They currently have a promotion of free shipping in Canada with a $35 purchase.
Click here for more info on their roadshow or to purchase online.

Enjoy

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