A Sultry Fair Trade Day

Fair Trade Day at the State Fair was a blast. We started off serving up iced samples of our specially crafted Yeti Cold Press Blend. We brewed up three batches of it the night before but with the intense heat and humidity all of it was gone by early afternoon. That didn’t stop people from coming by our booth to sign up to win a Summer Survival Kit or sample a cup of our hot brewed Twin Cities Blend. We did a brewing basics demo at the noon hour. We demonstrated five different brewing methods: stove top espresso, French Press, single cup Mellita, Toddy Maker and the Aero Press. Lot’s of people said they swear by the French Press for producing the most flavor cup of coffee. We agree with them! We also impressed people by adding heated Organic Valley whole milk to our cup of stovetop espresso. People lined up to sample this simple home latte!
Later in the day Etica Fair Trade Wines showed up with their award winning wines from Chile and South Africa. Unfortunately to everyone’s dismay they weren’t allowed to give out any samples, although they were handing out buttons that fittingly said “Drink Like You Give A Damn”. For a complete list of stores and restaurants selling Etica’s wine click here: Find the Wine. Also if you’d like to learn more about how this St. Paul based company got started check out our December newsletter story titled Fair Trade: It’s Just Not For Coffee Anymore.

Another great local fair trade company, Birch Clothing, is at the fair every day. They have a nifty informational and interactive booth in the middle of the Eco-Experience building. Birch Clothing, located on 50th and Penn in Minneapolis, offers fair trade and sustainable clothing and accessories. Many of the clothes they have on display are made from unique materials like bamboo, soy and hemp. One of their most popular items is a purse made from candy wrappers produced by women’s cooperatives in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil and India, who receive a fair price for each bag they produce.

By the end of the day we were all tired but happy to have shared with fair goers the benefits of fair trade for farmers and artisans around the world, as well as giving them a small taste of our locally roasted coffee goodness! We hope that folks will continue to look for ways to "Make Trade Fair" in every part of their life. We are here to help (and keep you caffeinated)!
-The Peace Crew