Green Mountain Coffee- Spreading the Word of Fair Trade...and Free Java!!

Over the past couple of months I've talked to you guys quite a bit about the notion of Fair Trade. I talked with you about Ben & Jerry's commitment, the induction of Boston as a Fair Trade city and the efforts that Theo Chocolate in Seattle have been making. Well today I'm talking about another company committed to the ideals for Fair Trade- Green Mountain Coffee.

The folks from Green Mountain are invading the city of Boston, running Fair Trade trade outs and giving samples over the next couple of weeks. Details of these promotions are below, straight from the press release:

"o Oct. 13th – 16th coffee commando teams armed with freshly brewed jetpacks of Fair Trade Certified coffee will ambush the city including offices, city sites, T stations, dog parks and more. They will be “trading out” Bostonian’s conventional coffee with Fair Trade Certified. All Bostonians are welcome to free coffee.

o Sampling on demand. Through social media (facebook and twitter) anyone can request a “Trade Me Out.” The ambush team will show up to any location in Boston to treat an entire office to its Fair Trade flavors.

o Live e-tasting. On October 26, 2010 at 4pm, Lindsay Bulger, the “nose” of Green Mountain Coffee, will lead an e-tasting where consumers will learn what coffee professionals look for in a good cup, what it means to source from fair trade farmers, and answer any brewing questions you may have. For more information or to sign-up, please visit http://www.facebook.com/greenmountaincoffee"

Green Mountain is initiating this infiltration not only to give us coffee crazed Bostonians a little assistance in out daily cup (or two), but also to help spread the word about the Fair Trade initiative, and educate us more about what we can do.

And if you weren't aware of Boston's extreme love of coffee- Green Mountain conducted a little survey about what the residents would do to keep their daily cup- read on:

" • About the same amount of Bostonians would “absolutely” rat out Whitey Bulger (28%) as would talk Tom Brady into cutting his new flowing locks of hair (26%).

• Just as many Bostonians (1 in 3) would opt to pick up someone at Logan Airport every week for a month as would party with Deval Patrick.

• And when it comes to bravery, almost the same amount of Bostonians (44%) would keep open the option of either fighting Bruins’ pugilist Shawn Thornton or swimming across the Charles River before giving up their coffee."