Beantown

Coffee: shit is complicated. CultureMap Austin asks locals how they feel about buying and selling trade-labeled coffee versus regular old super oppressive death coffee. For example, at Casa Brasil, they serve Direct Trade (which "emphasizes that quality is the driver of price") as opposed to Fair Trade, and Cuvée Coffee has developed its own system that's not fully either one (though Cuvée's Mike McKim says Fair Trade "does have an advantage as it sends people on a regular basis to audit farms"). [CultureMap Austin]