gimme good (coffee)

My fiancee and I are admittedly somewhat of coffee snobs, and we are willing to spend money on quality grounds for our morning brew (method of choice: French Press). For the past six months we've been buying them at Gimme! coffee, right down the street from our apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Gimme!'s customer service is so thorough that it's almost over the top: the barista nearly jumps over the register to walk you through their bean offerings, describing each in florid, Portlandia-esque detail. They also have a handy wall chart for which roasts are shade, relationship-based, rainforest-sensitive, and more: organic and fair trade are a given.

Their business' sustainability doesn't just cover the bean growing, though: they have a long list. An actual list, that I will paste here. Gimme! is

• sourcing certified coffees including Fair Trade, Organic, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and Rainforest Alliance
• sourcing relationship coffees that bring us together with growers in long-term agreements
• sourcing Cup of Excellence coffees that pay top harvest prices to farmers
• sourcing shade-grown coffee that preserves habitat
• traveling to origin to collaborate with our growing partners and learn about sustainable agriculture
• sharing coffee origin data with our customers
• serving local, hormone-free milk in espresso bars
• using corn-based compostable cups instead of plastic
• using local providers of goods and services whenever possible

And their commitment to community is in this next list, wherein they are:

• energizing neighborhoods by creating popular gathering places, often where none existed before
• educating consumers through an active publishing effort that includes posters, web pages, and barista training
• educating our staff by hosting sustainability lectures with local college faculty
• promoting sustainability thinking by sponsoring social justice documentaries at the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
• preserving historic buildings through renovations and donations to the Historic Ithaca preservation fund
• partnering with dozens of community organizations, locally and globally, for philanthropic purposes
• supporting AIDS relief work by raising thousands of dollars annually for the regional foundation
• examining our choices through ongoing conversations with our customers, vendors, and peers in the specialty coffee trade
• reaching a wide audience with educational content by using the “podium” of our growing business

They also admit that they 'are not sustainability experts,' claiming they learn as they go and are more than open to feedback and additional information. Coffee growing is one of the most fascinating examples of supply-chain scrutiny, because people still balk at any cup of coffee over $2, and yet most of these individuals are still in favor of rights for coffee farmers and quality over quantity. Frankly, I don't fully understand how New York coffee shops make ends meet. But thanks to a healthy level of caffeine dependency, I'm doing my part: gimme more!