By Maya Rossin
Features Editor

Christina Gonzalez is the owner of a third-generation coffee bean farm called Finca El Valle, which is located in Guatemala. Thanks to her work through the Fair Trade Coffee Network, she has been making a living wage, which she can use to finally buy a gas stove, get medical help and buy a bicycle for her children.

Throughout history, the coffee business has been marked by many injustices like slave trade and indentured servitude. Fair Trade is looking to abolish these wrongs by paying coffee farmers a sustainable living wage and practicing just business ethics. However, not many of the local coffee venues are part of the Fair Trade network. Newly opened Global Blends Coffee Company in downtown Mountain View embraces its ethics and plans to attract customers with its unique blends of coffees and teas.

“I promote a passion for specialty coffee and tea. I support small farmers and small micro-roasters. But I also want to [offer] a superior coffee experience,” said Patsy Price, owner of Global Blends.

The coffee shop has a friendly and customer-oriented atmosphere where all the drinks are made fresh with unique recipes and secret ingredients. Global Blends offers usual mochas, lattes and cappuccinos, as well as some more original creations like their famous white chocolate chai. This drink, made with organic black Indian tea, special spices and honey is like an oasis of perfection, complete with a sweet warm feeling of total creamy satisfaction.

The recipes for all the drinks were not spur of the moment creations, but rather give careful consideration to the customers’ taste.

“Every drink was a collaboration of the whole team. We create a culture of excellence for people to have a voice that has some input into the process,” Price said.

Price, who is a graduate of UC Berkeley and once worked for high-tech companies, has created a philosophy for her business. Its pillars include respect, dignity and excellence in taste. She selected four vendors that are all part of Fair Trade and she has non-negotiable standards for the quality of her drinks.

“The vendors [I use] do relationship buying. [The farmers] get Fair Trade value for each pound because a lot of the middlemen are cut out. I selected these vendors because they have ethical business practices and they make incredible coffees,” Price said.

Global Blends is an environmentally conscious business that minimizes the impact of trash by recycling all paper and plastic products. It uses top quality, hormone-free milk and serves organic teas and coffees from around the world. One of their vendors, the Yemen Mocha Java caters coffee for events like the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the Emmys.

The coffee shop also offers healthy smoothies and freshly blended coffee drinks.

“I used to weight train and I had trouble finding food that I could eat that wasn’t going to pack on pounds. We’ve created recipes [for smoothies] that are healthy and have protein and vitamins,” Price said.

Despite efforts of small coffee venues like Global Blends, many coffee bean farmers around the world are still living in poverty while big business companies profit from their cheap labor. The concept of fair trade has not been embraced by all coffee shops and vendors. Ultimately, it is the customers who make the difference in how the coffee business functions.

“It’s about what people want to buy. If they want to buy this kind of product with these kind of labor profiles, then they come here. If they want something different, it is their choice,” Price said.

Perhaps more farmers like Gonzalez will be able to finally earn a wage that sustains a normal living standard. Each vanilla latté bought through the Fair Trade network at Global Blends will bring them closer to achieving that goal.