Published by Blending Magazine and Trazzler
On my way to my first Kitsch aperitivo, I was less than enthusiastic. I had tried aperitivo at a few places in Florence before—Ganzo, Moyo, La Dolce Vita—and though they were all delicious, all began to taste the same after awhile. Each place featured an Asian rice dish, pasta, polenta, bruscetta, etc. I was ready for something new.
Fortunately, Kitsch was one of those places that lived up to its hype. When I first laid eyes on the huge platter of roasted vegetables, my mouth dropped. Orange carrots, yellow bell peppers and green zucchini were all arranged on the plate like a multi-colored flower. This was how every aperitivo should be.
At first, I was so overwhelmed by the two-table spread that I couldn’t find the plates. When I finally located them, I didn’t know where to start.
I first saw juicy pieces of hot dog, chopped up like Mom used to do, surrounded by
seasoned cubed potatoes. A huge tureen of creamy cauliflower and broccoli, roasted brown, sat on a shelf above them. Fresh green beans in savory potato sauce, peas with onion, and couscous with veggies (the only typical aperitivo dish) lined up along the table. I couldn’t even resist the brussel sprouts; trying the vegetable for the first time, I was greeted by a creamy, though slightly bitter, taste. A good aperitivo will make a picky eater adventurous, which is how I knew Kitsch was one of the best.
Despite wanting to try new foods, I would usually prefer to know what exactly I am about to eat, but aperitivo provides a bit of risk in that department. I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into a casserole I took for chicken and tasted broccoli and potatoes. Yet when I tried another potato dish with tomato sauce, I got a mouthful of something fishy. I suppose I missed the obvious signal of baby octopus thrown in with the tubers.
For 8 Euro, I definitely got a good amount of delicious food. With the outside eating area lit pink and blue from below and a hip, old-meets-new interior, the atmosphere was just right for students.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Friday, August 27, 2010
Fighting for Food at a Playhouse in Florence
Published by Blending Magazine and Trazzler
First-time diners at Teatro del Sale be warned: pace yourself. I received the same piece of advice on my first night at the restaurant but promptly ignored it when I saw the platters of antipasti spread across a big table, surrounded by locals clamoring for a taste. Beans, hummus, salads, polenta with a hint of cinnamon and warm focaccia are only the beginning of the delicious home-cooked buffet. Every few minutes, a chef leans out the kitchen window, ringing a bell and shouting in Italian the names of the next courses- meatballs, pasta bolognese, chicken and roasted potatoes.
After the guests consume as much of the half dozen courses as they can, drink a few glasses of wine and top off their meals with espresso and chocolate tart, the wood-paneled dining room transforms into a theater. The night I attended, we enjoyed an hour and a half of Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan, courtesy of an Italian cover band. For 30 Euro (plus a 5 Euro membership fee), Teatro del Sale guests get the whole package: unlimited food, great entertainment and a fun, cultural experience.
First-time diners at Teatro del Sale be warned: pace yourself. I received the same piece of advice on my first night at the restaurant but promptly ignored it when I saw the platters of antipasti spread across a big table, surrounded by locals clamoring for a taste. Beans, hummus, salads, polenta with a hint of cinnamon and warm focaccia are only the beginning of the delicious home-cooked buffet. Every few minutes, a chef leans out the kitchen window, ringing a bell and shouting in Italian the names of the next courses- meatballs, pasta bolognese, chicken and roasted potatoes.
After the guests consume as much of the half dozen courses as they can, drink a few glasses of wine and top off their meals with espresso and chocolate tart, the wood-paneled dining room transforms into a theater. The night I attended, we enjoyed an hour and a half of Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan, courtesy of an Italian cover band. For 30 Euro (plus a 5 Euro membership fee), Teatro del Sale guests get the whole package: unlimited food, great entertainment and a fun, cultural experience.
Monday, April 20, 2009
All tied up over knotweed: Cambridge art gallery holds its own version of 'Iron Chef'
PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle
Cambridge —If you have a backyard, you’ve probably pulled annoying, bamboo-like weeds out of the soil before, but you may not know those weeds can make a tasty meal.
This past weekend, Gallery 263 held an Iron “Forage” Chef cook-off to showcase original recipes featuring this antioxidant-rich weed called knotgrass. The point? To celebrate the spirit of “foraging,” or searching for wild edible plants, said David Craft, Gallery 263 co-director.
Japanese knotgrass, possibly brought to America by Frederick Olmsted, is an abundant plant in New England that tastes crunchy and sour, like rhubarb, said Craft. Despite Cambridge’s efforts to kill this plant with pesticides, it grows plentifully along the Charles River and the Minuteman bike trail, he said.
“I love foraging this particular plant,” said Craft. “I was hoping to create a little of a buzz … I would like to see some creative people see different ways to make it.”
Craft said he usually stir-fries knotgrass, and there are few recipes for the plant on the Internet. Knotgrass can be harvested for about two more weeks before it gets too big to eat—the plant can grow to be eight feel tall in one summer, he said.
Craft would like to hold a contest each month featuring different plants, such as milkweed, he said.
Craft, who is a vegan, found out about foraging from a course offered at the Cambridge Center of Adult Education last year, he said. He did not take the course but wanted to find out more, so he began reading foraging books and learning to identify edible plants.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Craft. “It puts you directly in touch with the earth, something modern man is not too attached to.”
People may not like the idea of foraging in a city because of surrounding pollution or other contaminants, but common sense shows which plants are wild and untouched by pesticides, Craft said. Cities are a good place to begin foraging because they have fewer species to distinguish than a forest, he said.
Contestants picked up their knotgrass from the gallery at 263 Pearl St. on Saturday between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. They had until 5 p.m. Sunday to create a recipe and enter the contest, which will be judged by Craft and the gallery’s co-director Annie Newbold.
“One of our missions find creative ways to get people into the art space,” said Craft. “Music, art and film are obvious choices. This is a little bit of a stretch, but creativity includes cooking. It’s a big passion of mine.”
The winner of the first Iron “Forage” Chef? Eli Saltzman, an 11-year-old from the neighborhood. His recipe was Japanese knotweed puff pastries.
Cambridge —If you have a backyard, you’ve probably pulled annoying, bamboo-like weeds out of the soil before, but you may not know those weeds can make a tasty meal.
This past weekend, Gallery 263 held an Iron “Forage” Chef cook-off to showcase original recipes featuring this antioxidant-rich weed called knotgrass. The point? To celebrate the spirit of “foraging,” or searching for wild edible plants, said David Craft, Gallery 263 co-director.
Japanese knotgrass, possibly brought to America by Frederick Olmsted, is an abundant plant in New England that tastes crunchy and sour, like rhubarb, said Craft. Despite Cambridge’s efforts to kill this plant with pesticides, it grows plentifully along the Charles River and the Minuteman bike trail, he said.
“I love foraging this particular plant,” said Craft. “I was hoping to create a little of a buzz … I would like to see some creative people see different ways to make it.”
Craft said he usually stir-fries knotgrass, and there are few recipes for the plant on the Internet. Knotgrass can be harvested for about two more weeks before it gets too big to eat—the plant can grow to be eight feel tall in one summer, he said.
Craft would like to hold a contest each month featuring different plants, such as milkweed, he said.
Craft, who is a vegan, found out about foraging from a course offered at the Cambridge Center of Adult Education last year, he said. He did not take the course but wanted to find out more, so he began reading foraging books and learning to identify edible plants.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Craft. “It puts you directly in touch with the earth, something modern man is not too attached to.”
People may not like the idea of foraging in a city because of surrounding pollution or other contaminants, but common sense shows which plants are wild and untouched by pesticides, Craft said. Cities are a good place to begin foraging because they have fewer species to distinguish than a forest, he said.
Contestants picked up their knotgrass from the gallery at 263 Pearl St. on Saturday between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. They had until 5 p.m. Sunday to create a recipe and enter the contest, which will be judged by Craft and the gallery’s co-director Annie Newbold.
“One of our missions find creative ways to get people into the art space,” said Craft. “Music, art and film are obvious choices. This is a little bit of a stretch, but creativity includes cooking. It’s a big passion of mine.”
The winner of the first Iron “Forage” Chef? Eli Saltzman, an 11-year-old from the neighborhood. His recipe was Japanese knotweed puff pastries.
Monday, April 13, 2009
The Dish: Shabu Square and Shabuya
PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle
Cambridge —Harvard Square is full of food from all over the globe, but until recently, shabu shabu restaurants were missing. Now, the square has two spots for hot pot cuisine: Shabu Square and Shabuya. The restaurants opened within a month of each other last winter, offering the interactive Asian dining experience that is gaining popularity in Asia and the US.
Panja Lymswan, a Quincy resident and owner of Shabu Square at 97 Winthrop St., also owns two Thai restaurants in Harvard Square, Spice Thai and 9 Taste, but he wanted to bring shabu shabu to the area.
Kwanghyun Yoon, who owns Shabuya at 57 JFK St. with his wife, also owns Shilla, a Korean restaurant in the basement of the same building. Yoon said shabu shabu is “the future of cuisine.”
What is the weirdest thing customers have done when they don’t know how to eat shabu shabu?
Panja Lymswan, owner of Shabu Square: Not turn on the water, so it’s not hot, and try to eat it fresh and raw. People like food already cooked. [Shabu shabu] is convenient, but when people see it they say what is this? What do I do with this?
Can large groups order different kinds of shabu shabu?
PL: Four to five people order different meat and vegetables and mix it together. When you share, what is best to do it pick the food out and put it on your plate so it isn’t involved with the other food. The American custom is that they don’t like to eat from the same bowl.
What can customers learn from shabu shabu?
PL: Most food Americans consume has oil. If you get the French fries, if you go with the stir fry with noodles, it all has oil. [Shabu shabu] is all healthy; it boils the fat out of the beef. It has less calories.
What do you do when customers don’t know what shabu shabu is?
Kwanghyun Yoon, co-owner of Shabuya: They ask, and the wait staff is very good at explaining, and sometimes they show them how to eat it. There’s no definite way to have shabu shabu. I usually show them the best way to enjoy it.
It’s so colorful in here.
My slogan here is “be happy.” When you come in, it’s happy. When you have shabu shabu and sushi, you feel happy because it makes you full, but it’s light. When we designed this place, we asked our designers to make it happy. The theme is vegetables and meat: the green is the vegetables, the pink is the meat and the hanging beads are the noodles. The lights are different shapes and heights because when you cook it, bubbles come out.
Is it especially important to be happy these days?
KY: When you go out, you want a different feeling other than at home. I kept the price down so everyone can enjoy it. Dinner starts at $11.95, lunch is way down at $7.95. You get vegetables, meat, broth and happiness, which is the most important, for $7.95.
Watch the video!
Cambridge —Harvard Square is full of food from all over the globe, but until recently, shabu shabu restaurants were missing. Now, the square has two spots for hot pot cuisine: Shabu Square and Shabuya. The restaurants opened within a month of each other last winter, offering the interactive Asian dining experience that is gaining popularity in Asia and the US.
Panja Lymswan, a Quincy resident and owner of Shabu Square at 97 Winthrop St., also owns two Thai restaurants in Harvard Square, Spice Thai and 9 Taste, but he wanted to bring shabu shabu to the area.
Kwanghyun Yoon, who owns Shabuya at 57 JFK St. with his wife, also owns Shilla, a Korean restaurant in the basement of the same building. Yoon said shabu shabu is “the future of cuisine.”
What is the weirdest thing customers have done when they don’t know how to eat shabu shabu?
Panja Lymswan, owner of Shabu Square: Not turn on the water, so it’s not hot, and try to eat it fresh and raw. People like food already cooked. [Shabu shabu] is convenient, but when people see it they say what is this? What do I do with this?
Can large groups order different kinds of shabu shabu?
PL: Four to five people order different meat and vegetables and mix it together. When you share, what is best to do it pick the food out and put it on your plate so it isn’t involved with the other food. The American custom is that they don’t like to eat from the same bowl.
What can customers learn from shabu shabu?
PL: Most food Americans consume has oil. If you get the French fries, if you go with the stir fry with noodles, it all has oil. [Shabu shabu] is all healthy; it boils the fat out of the beef. It has less calories.
What do you do when customers don’t know what shabu shabu is?
Kwanghyun Yoon, co-owner of Shabuya: They ask, and the wait staff is very good at explaining, and sometimes they show them how to eat it. There’s no definite way to have shabu shabu. I usually show them the best way to enjoy it.
It’s so colorful in here.
My slogan here is “be happy.” When you come in, it’s happy. When you have shabu shabu and sushi, you feel happy because it makes you full, but it’s light. When we designed this place, we asked our designers to make it happy. The theme is vegetables and meat: the green is the vegetables, the pink is the meat and the hanging beads are the noodles. The lights are different shapes and heights because when you cook it, bubbles come out.
Is it especially important to be happy these days?
KY: When you go out, you want a different feeling other than at home. I kept the price down so everyone can enjoy it. Dinner starts at $11.95, lunch is way down at $7.95. You get vegetables, meat, broth and happiness, which is the most important, for $7.95.
Watch the video!
Friday, April 10, 2009
I love you ... P.S. I'm broke
PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle
Cambridge —With a recession and layoffs happening left and right, you probably don’t want to go all out this Valentine’s Day. But plenty of romantic, wallet-friendly date opportunities are happening around Cambridge this February, from stargazing to concerts to special dinner menus. Everything listed below costs $15 per person or less, so you could still spring for flowers or chocolate, too.
If you don’t have a date or a special someone, quite a few events are happening for those with broken hearts or disgust for half-naked cherubs. Laugh your loneliness away or rock out to playful ballads with the rest of the Cupid-haters—without feeling guilty about the cost.
Love is an Italian dinner
In honor of St. Valentine, enjoy a romantic Italian dinner beginning with Caprese salad and mussels, complimented by Italian brew and ending with tiramisu at Cambridge Common at 1667 Mass. Ave., Harvard Square. Reservations. $8-9 appetizers, $12-15 entrees.
‘Supershag’
Take your date to “Four on the Floor with Supershag” and learn to do more on the dance floor than bump and grind at Ryles Jazz Club at 212 Hampshire St. Lessons at 9:15 p.m. and dancing from 10-2 a.m. Ages 18+ Tickets are $15 and dress to impress.
‘Bugs Bunny Film Fest’
A special night of romance with the Looney Tunes cast, featuring Pepe Le Pew, animation’s most romantic skunk at “The Bugs Bunny Film Fest Presents Looney Love” at the Brattle at 40 Brattle St. If you’re looking for a more traditional lovefest, check out The Brattle’s traditional screening of “Casablanca” or their series of Great Romances. Tickets are $6.50-9.50. Showtimes available at www.brattlefilm.org.
Nothing says love like a burger
The burger at Mr. Bartley’s (1226 Mass. Ave.) is served “naked,” laying on a bed of spinach and topped with bacon, red onions, tomato, walnuts, chopped hard-boiled eggs and lemon vinegarette. Don’t forget the mints if you’re with that special someone! The entrée is $10.
A walk and hot chocolate around Harvard Square
The weather forecast is not as brutally cold as last week’s, but even if the temperature drops, you can warm things up with a stroll and a sweet drink from one of Harvard Square’s many cafés and coffee shops. Add a croissant and sit by the fireplace and voila! A cheap and cozy evening.
A Thorn-y kind of love
For those less than enthusiastic about Cupid and red roses, ImprovBoston’s comedians will make you forget about the heart-wrenching torture of Valentine’s Day in “Thorns” at 40 Prospect St. Tickets are $16 and $10 for students. Show starts at 10 p.m.
Gazing at the stars
What’s more romantic than at gazing up at the stars? Stargazing in the cozy indoor Charles Hayden Planetarium at Museum of Science. Check out the night’s stars without freezing to death for only $6.50 at 7 p.m. on Friday Feb. 13. Or, if you wait until 8:30 p.m., couples can view the stars for free at the Museum’s Gilliland Observatory.
An ‘alternative’ VDay
The Boston Secession Professional Choral Ensemble performs an “alternative” Valentine’s concert at the First Church at 11 Garden St. in Cambridge on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14. Tickets are $25 and $15 for students and seniors. Show starts at 8 p.m.
Single and ready to mingle
Full couples’ dinner and “Singles’ Mingle” in the Lounge with performances from local favorites The Underberry’s and Paranoid Social Club at The Loft at Tommy Doyle’s at 96 Winthrop St. Tickets are $12 at the door, show is 21+ and starts at 10 p.m., and everyone is encouraged to wear red, white and black.
Skating fun
With two beautiful skating rinks right off the Red Line, there’s no excuse not to take your date, hand-in-hand around the ice. Two places for perfect ice skating: Charles Hotel at 1 Bennett Street, Harvard Square, open from 4-8 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays on holidays. For adults, it’s $5 to skate and $5 to rent. Skating and renting is $3 each for children and $10 each for the whole family. Kendall Square Community Rink at 350 Kendall St. Rent skates here for $5 and skate for $4 ($3 for students and adults, $1 for children). For hours, check out www.kendallsquare.org.
Cambridge —With a recession and layoffs happening left and right, you probably don’t want to go all out this Valentine’s Day. But plenty of romantic, wallet-friendly date opportunities are happening around Cambridge this February, from stargazing to concerts to special dinner menus. Everything listed below costs $15 per person or less, so you could still spring for flowers or chocolate, too.
If you don’t have a date or a special someone, quite a few events are happening for those with broken hearts or disgust for half-naked cherubs. Laugh your loneliness away or rock out to playful ballads with the rest of the Cupid-haters—without feeling guilty about the cost.
Love is an Italian dinner
In honor of St. Valentine, enjoy a romantic Italian dinner beginning with Caprese salad and mussels, complimented by Italian brew and ending with tiramisu at Cambridge Common at 1667 Mass. Ave., Harvard Square. Reservations. $8-9 appetizers, $12-15 entrees.
‘Supershag’
Take your date to “Four on the Floor with Supershag” and learn to do more on the dance floor than bump and grind at Ryles Jazz Club at 212 Hampshire St. Lessons at 9:15 p.m. and dancing from 10-2 a.m. Ages 18+ Tickets are $15 and dress to impress.
‘Bugs Bunny Film Fest’
A special night of romance with the Looney Tunes cast, featuring Pepe Le Pew, animation’s most romantic skunk at “The Bugs Bunny Film Fest Presents Looney Love” at the Brattle at 40 Brattle St. If you’re looking for a more traditional lovefest, check out The Brattle’s traditional screening of “Casablanca” or their series of Great Romances. Tickets are $6.50-9.50. Showtimes available at www.brattlefilm.org.
Nothing says love like a burger
The burger at Mr. Bartley’s (1226 Mass. Ave.) is served “naked,” laying on a bed of spinach and topped with bacon, red onions, tomato, walnuts, chopped hard-boiled eggs and lemon vinegarette. Don’t forget the mints if you’re with that special someone! The entrée is $10.
A walk and hot chocolate around Harvard Square
The weather forecast is not as brutally cold as last week’s, but even if the temperature drops, you can warm things up with a stroll and a sweet drink from one of Harvard Square’s many cafés and coffee shops. Add a croissant and sit by the fireplace and voila! A cheap and cozy evening.
A Thorn-y kind of love
For those less than enthusiastic about Cupid and red roses, ImprovBoston’s comedians will make you forget about the heart-wrenching torture of Valentine’s Day in “Thorns” at 40 Prospect St. Tickets are $16 and $10 for students. Show starts at 10 p.m.
Gazing at the stars
What’s more romantic than at gazing up at the stars? Stargazing in the cozy indoor Charles Hayden Planetarium at Museum of Science. Check out the night’s stars without freezing to death for only $6.50 at 7 p.m. on Friday Feb. 13. Or, if you wait until 8:30 p.m., couples can view the stars for free at the Museum’s Gilliland Observatory.
An ‘alternative’ VDay
The Boston Secession Professional Choral Ensemble performs an “alternative” Valentine’s concert at the First Church at 11 Garden St. in Cambridge on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14. Tickets are $25 and $15 for students and seniors. Show starts at 8 p.m.
Single and ready to mingle
Full couples’ dinner and “Singles’ Mingle” in the Lounge with performances from local favorites The Underberry’s and Paranoid Social Club at The Loft at Tommy Doyle’s at 96 Winthrop St. Tickets are $12 at the door, show is 21+ and starts at 10 p.m., and everyone is encouraged to wear red, white and black.
Skating fun
With two beautiful skating rinks right off the Red Line, there’s no excuse not to take your date, hand-in-hand around the ice. Two places for perfect ice skating: Charles Hotel at 1 Bennett Street, Harvard Square, open from 4-8 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays on holidays. For adults, it’s $5 to skate and $5 to rent. Skating and renting is $3 each for children and $10 each for the whole family. Kendall Square Community Rink at 350 Kendall St. Rent skates here for $5 and skate for $4 ($3 for students and adults, $1 for children). For hours, check out www.kendallsquare.org.
Fighting for fair trade
By Katrina Ballard and Andrea Rodi
PUBLISHED by The Daily Free Press
Purchasing a $4 latte not only hurts American consumers’ wallets but also the pockets of coffee growers in developing countries.
Tadesse Meskela, manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said his farmers are only getting paid a little more than $1 per pound for coffee beans. Life is only sustainable when the minimum price of coffee is set at least $20 per pound, Meskela said.
“Farmers suffer through cultivation, picking the coffee, digging the ground, and they only get a dollar; it’s not fair,” Meskela said. “The price of coffee has to go up so that farmers can keep producing coffee, and it’s also important for us to have enough money so that our kids can go to school and so we can have clean water.”
Starbucks Coffee is the world’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade coffee and says it is a socially responsible corporation. The Starbucks Fiscal 2007 report states, “We’re committed to seeing that farmers receive an equitable share of the purchase price we pay for the coffee they produce.”
The company announced at the end of October it would double its number of Fair Trade purchases by 2012 to 40 millions pounds a year.
“We just wanted to let people know what we’re doing, and we probably needed to do something else major to get that out there,” Brian Fisher, store manager of the 874 Commonwealth Ave. Starbucks, said.
Last year, Starbucks purchased 352 million pounds of coffee in 25 difference countries. Of that 352 million pounds of coffee, 20 million pounds was Fair Trade Certified coffee — just 6 percent.
“We get rained on our Fair Trade stance. It’s pretty unfair, to be honest,” Fisher said. “If we could purchase all Fair Trade we would; there’s just not enough quality out there.”
Starbucks also has developed its own fairly traded certification process, called Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFÉ), with Conservation International. The company purchases 65 percent of its coffee from this “third-party” certifier, claiming CAFÉ pays farmers higher than Fair Trade.
Ronnie Cummins, national director of Organic Consumers Association (OCA), said Starbucks’ initiative to increase Fair Trade purchases is a result of pressure from consumers and activists who are skeptical of CAFÉ standards and demand more Fair Trade coffee.
“Their stock price is falling, they just closed locations . . . people are thinking twice about shelling out four to $5 for a cup of coffee,” Cummins said. “They have to practice what they preach if they want to retain their customer base.”
HOW TO TRADE FAIRLY
Fair Trade is an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable development that helps small-scale farmers and workers in developing countries gain direct access to international markets, Katie Borrow, public relations manager for TransFair USA, said in an email.
“In a world without Fair Trade, you let the markets decide, and the developing world’s producers simply aren’t on enough of an even playing field, presently, for this to work,” Borrow said.
“Small-scale coffee farmers often cannot recover their production costs or earn enough to invest in their futures, due to low prices, market volatility, lack of pre-harvest financing and isolation, creating a cycle of poverty.”
Coffee prices are set by the World Trade Organization, which is largely dominated by power countries like the United States and England. The power countries that can afford to send more than 100 representatives make decisions on coffee prices, while developing countries that can only afford to send one or two representatives have little to no input on the decision-making.
Fair Trade is an improvement over the regular coffee prices set by the World Trade Organization, Meskela said.
“I support fair trade companies 100 percent. That is why we say it is fair,” Meskela said. “They are paying double the price of the conventional price.”
TransFair USA is a nonprofit organization, one of 20 members of Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, Borrow said.
In addition to coffee and tea, TransFair USA certifies bananas, chocolate, cocoa, flowers, honey, rice, sugar, vanilla and wine. Every fair trade label customers see on products in the United States goes through TransFair.
Critics of the Fair Trade movement say it focuses less on the farmer and more on the prices, Fisher, of Starbucks, said. In some cases, Fair Trade prices will be lower than world coffee prices because as the market changes, coffee prices change, but Fair Trade prices are still set in stone.
Fair Trade requires that farmers live on cooperatives, which are voluntary collaborations of farmers living on shared but equally distributed farmland.
“[Cooperatives] are a good thing! Cooperatives are owned and democratically controlled by its employees,” Borrow said. “Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade premiums.”
Starbucks is such a large corporation that it must purchase through cooperatives, which may include 2,000 farmers with two to three acres of land each.
“We couldn’t talk to 2,000 farmers in Terazio [Costa Rica] and get good coffee,” Fisher said.
Cooperatives are not a completely good thing, as argued in the 2006 film Black Gold, a documentary on the lives of coffee farmers in Africa. Cooperatives often force farmers to move off their own land to usually smaller patches of land so that they’re able to participate in Fair Trade.
Cooperatives are also sometimes built on the land of indigenous peoples in Africa, which displaces the indigenous communities, sometimes taking away their homes and food sources, and takes a toll on the environment that was not previously used for agriculture.
“It’s one thing to pay certain percentage per pound to owners of coffee plantation; it’s another thing to pay to cooperatives of workers to share the money,” Cummins, of OCA, said.
Genuinely democratic and transparent cooperatives are an important means for organization if they are run well, Meskela said.
“The [cooperatives] have to be investigated, then, after that, if they are supporting people and bringing coffee down to producers, they are accepted by certification of the Fair Trade mark,” Meskela said. “The fairness is what you have to consider.”
WHICH COFFEE IS THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL?
Fair Trade’s restrictions are a factor in why Starbucks only purchases 6 percent of its coffee from TransFair, Fisher of the Comm. Ave. location said. Certification takes several years for farmers, and some do not have the time or capital to go through the process.
“We need quality,” Fisher said. “It’s about good stuff and having it year after year after year.”
However, CAFÉ is meant to promote fiscal transparency and ensure the farmers receive the right amount of money. The practice also supports community initiatives, such as building hospitals and schools, holding coffee tastings and establishing farmer support centers.
“We want to be a beacon of hope for a giant conglomerate,” Fisher said. “If we show the world a giant corporation can do good and give back … instead of making money hand over fist, we’re giving half the money away.”
Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association said CAFÉ is a “controversial in-house certification” that Conservation International deemed equivalent to Fair Trade. He said Starbucks finally decided to increase Fair Trade purchases after pressure from customers and activist groups.
“They claimed all along they were paying fair trade coffee, but no one ever believed it because they were making their own certifications,” Cummins said.
A customer at the Newbury Street Starbucks, Naseem Alizadeh, said she did not see any Fair Trade coffee in the shop. She said she supports Starbucks’ initiative to increase its Fair Trade purchases “if it’s legitimate Fair Trade and not just a gimmick to get us to buy it.”
Some smaller Boston coffee shops claim to be committed to fairly traded coffee. Espresso Royale sells it because of its conscious customer base, Chuck Hale, store manager, said. He said café-goers feel better about themselves for buying coffee from a company that pays its growers a reasonable price.
The shop located on Commonwealth Avenue sells Jim’s Organic Coffee, which is not under the Fair Trade “brand name,” Hale said.
“The tea company we buy from is not Fair Trade, but his tea is actually a better price to growers than Fair Trade,” Hale said. “There’s a difference between Fair Trade and fairly traded.”
Jim’s Organic Coffee purchases some of its coffee from TransFair, but the company certifies much of its products through UTZ Certified, a European organization that requires farmers to be provided with health care, clean water and education.
Jim’s also buys products that are Rainforest Certified, bird-friendly and approved by organizations like Child Aid, which protects against child labor, and Water Aid, which ensures clean water.
“It’s the lifestyle of the farmer instead of money. [With TransFair standards], we don’t know where that money is going,” Emily Sheehan, spokesperson for Jim’s Organic Coffee, said.
“With Fair Trade, you’re limiting yourself,” Hale, of Espresso Royale, said. “You can’t buy the best coffee.”
Cummins said he has only seen a Fair Trade certified coffee as the Coffee of the Day once at Starbucks, which he thinks indicates the company is not serious about Fair Trade. He said people will begin buying coffee from local competition, because those shops circulate money through the community while Starbucks’ profits go “right to Seattle.”
“They have a long way to go,” Cummins said. “Our recommendation to ethical-minded consumers is to find a local coffee shop that serves Fair Trade every day.”
Meskela said that coffee farmers advise people to fight for the poor and continue to produce sustainable coffee. He said his people do not need aid from the United States; they need to become a part of the world market and self-sustainable, but they can only do so if they are paid fairly.
“People in our country are lining up with us and campaigning to make things fair,” Meskela said. “We need activists to drink Fair Trade coffee to make the world a better place for producers and to pass on a better world to the next generation.”
PUBLISHED by The Daily Free Press
Purchasing a $4 latte not only hurts American consumers’ wallets but also the pockets of coffee growers in developing countries.
Tadesse Meskela, manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said his farmers are only getting paid a little more than $1 per pound for coffee beans. Life is only sustainable when the minimum price of coffee is set at least $20 per pound, Meskela said.
“Farmers suffer through cultivation, picking the coffee, digging the ground, and they only get a dollar; it’s not fair,” Meskela said. “The price of coffee has to go up so that farmers can keep producing coffee, and it’s also important for us to have enough money so that our kids can go to school and so we can have clean water.”
Starbucks Coffee is the world’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade coffee and says it is a socially responsible corporation. The Starbucks Fiscal 2007 report states, “We’re committed to seeing that farmers receive an equitable share of the purchase price we pay for the coffee they produce.”
The company announced at the end of October it would double its number of Fair Trade purchases by 2012 to 40 millions pounds a year.
“We just wanted to let people know what we’re doing, and we probably needed to do something else major to get that out there,” Brian Fisher, store manager of the 874 Commonwealth Ave. Starbucks, said.
Last year, Starbucks purchased 352 million pounds of coffee in 25 difference countries. Of that 352 million pounds of coffee, 20 million pounds was Fair Trade Certified coffee — just 6 percent.
“We get rained on our Fair Trade stance. It’s pretty unfair, to be honest,” Fisher said. “If we could purchase all Fair Trade we would; there’s just not enough quality out there.”
Starbucks also has developed its own fairly traded certification process, called Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFÉ), with Conservation International. The company purchases 65 percent of its coffee from this “third-party” certifier, claiming CAFÉ pays farmers higher than Fair Trade.
Ronnie Cummins, national director of Organic Consumers Association (OCA), said Starbucks’ initiative to increase Fair Trade purchases is a result of pressure from consumers and activists who are skeptical of CAFÉ standards and demand more Fair Trade coffee.
“Their stock price is falling, they just closed locations . . . people are thinking twice about shelling out four to $5 for a cup of coffee,” Cummins said. “They have to practice what they preach if they want to retain their customer base.”
HOW TO TRADE FAIRLY
Fair Trade is an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable development that helps small-scale farmers and workers in developing countries gain direct access to international markets, Katie Borrow, public relations manager for TransFair USA, said in an email.
“In a world without Fair Trade, you let the markets decide, and the developing world’s producers simply aren’t on enough of an even playing field, presently, for this to work,” Borrow said.
“Small-scale coffee farmers often cannot recover their production costs or earn enough to invest in their futures, due to low prices, market volatility, lack of pre-harvest financing and isolation, creating a cycle of poverty.”
Coffee prices are set by the World Trade Organization, which is largely dominated by power countries like the United States and England. The power countries that can afford to send more than 100 representatives make decisions on coffee prices, while developing countries that can only afford to send one or two representatives have little to no input on the decision-making.
Fair Trade is an improvement over the regular coffee prices set by the World Trade Organization, Meskela said.
“I support fair trade companies 100 percent. That is why we say it is fair,” Meskela said. “They are paying double the price of the conventional price.”
TransFair USA is a nonprofit organization, one of 20 members of Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, Borrow said.
In addition to coffee and tea, TransFair USA certifies bananas, chocolate, cocoa, flowers, honey, rice, sugar, vanilla and wine. Every fair trade label customers see on products in the United States goes through TransFair.
Critics of the Fair Trade movement say it focuses less on the farmer and more on the prices, Fisher, of Starbucks, said. In some cases, Fair Trade prices will be lower than world coffee prices because as the market changes, coffee prices change, but Fair Trade prices are still set in stone.
Fair Trade requires that farmers live on cooperatives, which are voluntary collaborations of farmers living on shared but equally distributed farmland.
“[Cooperatives] are a good thing! Cooperatives are owned and democratically controlled by its employees,” Borrow said. “Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to use their Fair Trade premiums.”
Starbucks is such a large corporation that it must purchase through cooperatives, which may include 2,000 farmers with two to three acres of land each.
“We couldn’t talk to 2,000 farmers in Terazio [Costa Rica] and get good coffee,” Fisher said.
Cooperatives are not a completely good thing, as argued in the 2006 film Black Gold, a documentary on the lives of coffee farmers in Africa. Cooperatives often force farmers to move off their own land to usually smaller patches of land so that they’re able to participate in Fair Trade.
Cooperatives are also sometimes built on the land of indigenous peoples in Africa, which displaces the indigenous communities, sometimes taking away their homes and food sources, and takes a toll on the environment that was not previously used for agriculture.
“It’s one thing to pay certain percentage per pound to owners of coffee plantation; it’s another thing to pay to cooperatives of workers to share the money,” Cummins, of OCA, said.
Genuinely democratic and transparent cooperatives are an important means for organization if they are run well, Meskela said.
“The [cooperatives] have to be investigated, then, after that, if they are supporting people and bringing coffee down to producers, they are accepted by certification of the Fair Trade mark,” Meskela said. “The fairness is what you have to consider.”
WHICH COFFEE IS THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL?
Fair Trade’s restrictions are a factor in why Starbucks only purchases 6 percent of its coffee from TransFair, Fisher of the Comm. Ave. location said. Certification takes several years for farmers, and some do not have the time or capital to go through the process.
“We need quality,” Fisher said. “It’s about good stuff and having it year after year after year.”
However, CAFÉ is meant to promote fiscal transparency and ensure the farmers receive the right amount of money. The practice also supports community initiatives, such as building hospitals and schools, holding coffee tastings and establishing farmer support centers.
“We want to be a beacon of hope for a giant conglomerate,” Fisher said. “If we show the world a giant corporation can do good and give back … instead of making money hand over fist, we’re giving half the money away.”
Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association said CAFÉ is a “controversial in-house certification” that Conservation International deemed equivalent to Fair Trade. He said Starbucks finally decided to increase Fair Trade purchases after pressure from customers and activist groups.
“They claimed all along they were paying fair trade coffee, but no one ever believed it because they were making their own certifications,” Cummins said.
A customer at the Newbury Street Starbucks, Naseem Alizadeh, said she did not see any Fair Trade coffee in the shop. She said she supports Starbucks’ initiative to increase its Fair Trade purchases “if it’s legitimate Fair Trade and not just a gimmick to get us to buy it.”
Some smaller Boston coffee shops claim to be committed to fairly traded coffee. Espresso Royale sells it because of its conscious customer base, Chuck Hale, store manager, said. He said café-goers feel better about themselves for buying coffee from a company that pays its growers a reasonable price.
The shop located on Commonwealth Avenue sells Jim’s Organic Coffee, which is not under the Fair Trade “brand name,” Hale said.
“The tea company we buy from is not Fair Trade, but his tea is actually a better price to growers than Fair Trade,” Hale said. “There’s a difference between Fair Trade and fairly traded.”
Jim’s Organic Coffee purchases some of its coffee from TransFair, but the company certifies much of its products through UTZ Certified, a European organization that requires farmers to be provided with health care, clean water and education.
Jim’s also buys products that are Rainforest Certified, bird-friendly and approved by organizations like Child Aid, which protects against child labor, and Water Aid, which ensures clean water.
“It’s the lifestyle of the farmer instead of money. [With TransFair standards], we don’t know where that money is going,” Emily Sheehan, spokesperson for Jim’s Organic Coffee, said.
“With Fair Trade, you’re limiting yourself,” Hale, of Espresso Royale, said. “You can’t buy the best coffee.”
Cummins said he has only seen a Fair Trade certified coffee as the Coffee of the Day once at Starbucks, which he thinks indicates the company is not serious about Fair Trade. He said people will begin buying coffee from local competition, because those shops circulate money through the community while Starbucks’ profits go “right to Seattle.”
“They have a long way to go,” Cummins said. “Our recommendation to ethical-minded consumers is to find a local coffee shop that serves Fair Trade every day.”
Meskela said that coffee farmers advise people to fight for the poor and continue to produce sustainable coffee. He said his people do not need aid from the United States; they need to become a part of the world market and self-sustainable, but they can only do so if they are paid fairly.
“People in our country are lining up with us and campaigning to make things fair,” Meskela said. “We need activists to drink Fair Trade coffee to make the world a better place for producers and to pass on a better world to the next generation.”
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