Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

I was holed up today in Brooklyn, nursing my wounds from an unfortunate incident last night at Sotto Voce, an italian restaurant in Park Slope. (I highly recommend it, though I’m not welcome back and they no longer have a front door. Order to go, please!)

While fantasizing about the cappuccino I was too hobbled to leave the house for, I remembered a pair of fantastic resources I’d been meaning to post, both by Liza Featherstone. Liza is the best kind of conscientious hedonist: she’ll do what it takes to get a good cup of fair trade coffee, but not if it tastes like nag champa.

For this 2006 blog post, Liza convened a fair trade coffee tasting extravaganza. Four judges put nine coffees to the test, ranking them on everything from body and acidity to the most important quality — flavor. Tasting some of the usuals (Equal Exchange) and some new finds, Liza had hopes for coffees like “CO2,” whose political efforts (coffee with no net ozone emissions … who knew?) were admirable. In the end, Featherstone and the tasters found that “political sincerity alone does not a decent cup of coffee make.” They DID, however, find a favorite — Brooklyn’s Gorillla coffee won with a 4.5 rating. The post is helpful but the comments are too; while the winner was a local Brooklyn roastery, commenters nation-wide chimed in with their own suggestions.

The second resource also has a New York bias, but its a great rundown from 2007 about fair trade coffee: what it is, what “fair trade means,” how its certified, and where in Brooklyn you can go to smother yourself in it. Wherever you live its a swell primer for any fair trade virgin.

About The Author - Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.