tourist2's Qype profile

tp_ki And I can see what you mean, but I think that 1 star is just unfair to the folks. Many fair trade coffees are not as fair as they look. I would like them to have more ecological stuff, too. OTOH there are so many shops who do not have it and most offer worse quality.

lcj27 Well, the original comment and ranking seems a bit beside the point and shows not too much familiarity wth coffee and it's market value. Specialty coffee per se IS almost always traded "fair" in the sense that most of the batches that are sold by Heyck and other roasters in this market call up high prices at auctions that gorelatively straight to the producers. In most cases, the importers directly have to trade with the coffee farmers to even get hold of the coffees. So, basically the coffees you buy in specialised roasteries have nothing to do with the poor-quality mass-produced junk that is sold elsewhere and then labelled "fair trade", but still don't match the prices by orders of magnitude that are paid to the farmers that produce quality coffee varieties that are sold in shops like "Heyck". Big, big difference. Don't take my word for it, research it in the web, go to the respective sites of the SCAA, the Baristi websites, alt.coffee, coffeegeek, etc.
I am not at all saying 'Fair trade" is bad. It just doesn't match the scope and level of goods sold there. Or on another note: you want to ask an outfitter for guaranteeing fair wages for their sub-contracted tailors sewing together clothes in a sweat shop somewhere overseas for some designer label. You would not necessarily need to call for that in a bespoke tailor's atelier in Paris or London, where your suit or dress for 4000 is crafted by expert people....
More certified organic products, on the other hand, would make sense and be good, but the market in upscale coffee is still small (but growing) at this current stage.