Some coffee drinkers pay premium for social conscience

By Bonnie Pfister
Express-News Business Writer

For the connoisseur willing to hand over a wad of folding cash for a single cup of coffee, shade-grown beans and organic blends are old news.

Enter "fair-trade" coffee, the fastest-growing segment of the specialty coffee market, in which roasters willingly buy and sell coffee for a few dollars more per pound to return a livable wage to growers on cooperative farms across Latin America, Africa and elsewhere.

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