Equal Exchange Coffee

Equal Exchange Coffee is pretty darn expensive, but it is made for coffee drinkers with a conscience who are willing to spend a little more for peace of mind. A 12 ounce bag of whole beans costs $8.99, which is enough to make everyone else flinch. For the cost, Equal Exchange Coffee gives you something that other coffees can't, and that's the notion that your consumer dollars are going toward making the world a better place. And it's pretty darn good coffee at that.

Indigenous peoples of South America grow equal Exchange Coffee organically in the shade of the rainforest. This means that instead of bulldozing the land to make way for vast coffee plantations owned by multinational corporations who spay their plants with pesticides, Equal Exchange Coffee is grown the old-fashioned way. Not only does this preserve the surrounding rainforest, but it also preserves cultures and a way of life.

In addition to being certified organic, Equal Exchange is also what is called "fair trade coffee." This means that the folks who grow and pick the coffee beans are paid what the beans are worth on the market, instead of being paid peanuts for their labor while the company that owns the land sees most of the profits.

While knowing that your morning cup of joe is earth-friendly, you're probably concerned with how Equal Exchange Coffee actually tastes. Like most organic food products, Equal Exchange Coffee has a distinctly strong flavor. Anyone who has ever tried an organically grown banana for example knows that feeling of tasting something familiar for the very first time. Equal Exchange Coffee tastes more like coffee than any other coffee I've ever tried-and I love coffee enough to try them all!

Equal Exchange comes in two blends-a regular dark blend and a breakfast blend, which is a combination of light and dark coffee beans. While the dark blend is very dark and delicious, I prefer the breakfast blend for an everyday coffee. The taste and brew of the breakfast blend is about what you would get in a regular blend of any other brand of coffee, so don't let the light colored beans fool you.

Like most specialty organic foods, you probably won't find Equal Exchange Coffee at your local supermarket. I get mine at Whole Foods, but any good health food store should carry Equal Exchange coffee. I've noticed that a few vegetarian restaurants that focus on organic dishes also carry Equal Exchange Coffee. The Chicago Diner (in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chi-town) and Seva in Ann Arbor, Michigan both serve Equal Exchange as their standard coffee selection. The fact that these great veggie restaurants trust Equal Exchange as a coffee worthy of their fine fare is testament to the excellent taste that comes with this earth-friendly coffee.