Fair trade coffee explained..

[laklak]

Ah, trickle down economics. Don't worry mate, that's rain dribbling down your back.

Most of the people I hang out with are pinko hippy types, de rigueur for the Whole Foods crowd. You know the type, big fuck off house on the bay, "Feel the Bern" sticker on the Prius, Mexican garden boy and maid, volunteering at the homeless soup kitchen once a year. They're all about Fair Trade. I won't tell them, though, wouldn't want to spoil their morning espresso.

[Tero]

You must have met Unitarians. I know the type.

[laklak]

I figure most of the ones down here are some sort of Buddhist thingy, 'cuz all the women wear yoga pants and talk about being "mindful". I'll admit it's a difficult social circle for an old redneck to navigate. I think they invite me as comedic relief, all that talk of Social Justice and Income Inequality can get a bit dry after a while. Plus I bring the biltong. "You mean it's RAW MEAT?"

[Tero]

Yoga pants is good. Not maybe on Buddhists or Unitarians, in general.

Back to my propaganda links

Much of this coffee glut was cheaper robusta beans (Coffea canephora). Because they are bitter and considered low-quality, robusta has historically only been used as filler in blends or in cheap coffee. Now methods have been developed by the large coffee corporations to process green robusta beans to make them more palatable. These companies now use a much higher percentage of robusta in their coffees rather than buying arabica from smaller growers in Latin America, where production costs are much higher than in Vietnam. In this way, the oversupply of robusta also depressed arabica prices.

The big four are making tremendous profits while lowering the quality of the world’s coffee. Over ten years, the profit retained by coffee-producing nations went from about 30 percent of the purchase price to 8 percent.

[pErvinalia]

I figure most of the ones down here are some sort of Buddhist thingy, 'cuz all the women wear yoga pants and talk about being "mindful". I'll admit it's a difficult social circle for an old redneck to navigate. I think they invite me as comedic relief, all that talk of Social Justice and Income Inequality can get a bit dry after a while. Plus I bring the biltong. "You mean it's RAW MEAT?"

I thought you lived on a sand-fly infested island?

[Tero]

This can is not fair trade, but is probably arabica. The SB bag is all arabica. Most Folgers has some robusta in it.

[Svartalf]

any coffee that is dark roasted likely has either robusta or other defects, as excessive roasting burns the oils and destroys the aromas, one of the many reasons I hate to be shanghaied into having "coffee" at SB.

[Tero]

I only occasionally have the Verona. I mix it with House Blend about 1:1. I think Starbucks does not use robusta. I had some very similar dark roast in free samples. It was on the plantation. A tourist site.

Some claim caffeine content is a clue
http://worldofcaffeine.com/2011/10/21/c ... after-all/

[Svartalf]

I don't know if starbucks uses robusta or not, but that Italian roast they use is no way to treat an arabica worthy of the name... every time I go in one of their outlets and I see those black and shiny beans in the grinder's bin, I cringe.

[Tero]

Well, I have these choices
1 teader joe's
2 starbucks
3 dunkin donuts
4 Gevalia as cheapest grocery store brand

Trader Joe's is best as I get to grind it there. But it's the farthest away. I ride my bike to Target that has Star Bucks plus worse brands.

[laklak]

I thought you lived on a sand-fly infested island?

Nah, that's where I want to live. Though it does help to be very Zen about sand-flies, because there's fuck all you can do about the little bastards.

[pErvinalia]

Didn't you buy a house there?

[laklak]

Put an offer in on two different ones, but ended up buying the boat instead. I'm still trying to talk the missus into it, but she has this stupid idea that if we have a boat we don't need a beach house. Shit, EVERYBODY needs a beach house.

[piscator]

I thought you lived on a sand-fly infested island?

Nah, that's where I want to live. Though it does help to be very Zen about sand-flies, because there's fuck all you can do about the little bastards.

You'd shit yerself if you ever met blackflies.

[JimC]

Synthetic caffeine in pills will do the trick...