You know what’s really kick-ass? Achieving the green trifecta of organic, fair-trade and local all at once — which I can do every morning now with Kicking Horse coffee.
OK, ‘local’ is pushing it a little because, despite the fact that it’s Canadian, British Columbia isn’t exactly just down the street from Toronto … unless by ‘just down’ you mean three days of car travel and by ‘street’ you mean the Trans-Canada highway.
There are other coffees I could have gone with. Starbucks, to which I maintain a shameful loyalty, has all of one fair-trade coffee (Estima), which tastes great, but hey, I’m trying to support the little guys here. Alternative Grounds is another option. But I liked the fact that Kicking Horse has partnered with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and contributes regularly to various eco-projects. Plus their coffee is purchased from small co-ops, shade-grown without pesticides and it’s roasted 3,000 feet above sea level (and you can totally tell, the altitude really brings out the flavour… er, yeah).
That really seems like a great product. Im even surprised to learn that coffee actually grows in Canada! Thats got to be as local as it gets…
But I have to say… I would really like to see you boicoting Starbucks in one of your getting green moves. Their megalomaniac chain attitude is taking over the world, putting the little guys out of business and exterminating diversity. It really annoys me to know that IF I was ever to go to a starbucks, say in Amsterdam, I would find exactly the same stuff as say you can get around the corner…
If you’re ever in Ottawa, we have a chain of coffee shops called Bridgehead. It’s fairly-traded, organic, shade-grown and locally roasted coffees. You can buy it on their website too.
Oh, and for Alina above and whoever may read the comments: coffee doesn’t grow in Canada. Kicking Horse gets their coffee from around the world, it’s just roasted in BC.