McDonald’s brings N.E. a taste of fair trade Newman’s Own label organic coffee debuts

Customers at all McDonald’s restaurants in New England and Albany, N.Y., can now order a cup of social consciousness along with their fries and Big Macs.

And the coffee tastes great, too.

A yearlong test began Tuesday to offer only a Newman’s Own Organics blend of Fair Trade Certified Green Mountain Coffee at 650 of the fast-food eateries. Though local restaurants have raised their coffee prices by a dime or so, the smooth taste, the lack of chemicals used to farm the beans and the livable wages paid to coffee farmers make it all worthwhile, officials said.

“I’m really excited,” Nell Newman of Newman’s Own Organics said Tuesday morning in a phone interview. “It’s an excellent opportunity to educate a type of consumer that wouldn’t necessarily know what organic or fair trade is. I’m very proud of McDonald’s to want to do this in New England.”

Newman, daughter of actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, is a longtime proponent of organic foods and sustainable agriculture. Her interests made her a good fit at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, where she graduated with a degree in human ecology in 1988.

“I loved Bar Harbor,” she said. “I loved everything about it. I loved the wintertime when all the [tourists] were gone. It’s such a beautiful area, it’s hard not to enjoy it.”

Newman, 46, now lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., and last visited Bar Harbor about four years ago. She harbors fond memories of her time on the coast of Maine, counting cross-country skiing among her favorite activities.

Her company got involved in the coffee partnership after McDonald’s approached Green Mountain about providing a new, different kind of java for its clientele.

“They came to us,” she said. “We couldn’t have done a conventional coffee.”

Fair trade coffees have been offered by Green Mountain since 2000, said Rick Peyser, director of social advocacy and public relations.

Customers who discover the coffee at McDonald’s may decide to purchase the beans for their home consumption, he said.

“That will help bring the fair trade message to the mainstream, which we think is a fabulous thing.”

Fair trade-certified coffees are grown in 30 countries around the world by small-scale farmers working just a few acres of land. The coffee beans are grown without harsh chemicals and are primarily grown in the shade, which helps area biodiversity. The Newman’s Own Organics blend sold at McDonald’s comes from small farmer co-ops in Latin America.

One local McDonald’s entrepreneur is hopeful that the new product will prove a hit with his customers.

“We’re serving a higher-quality, better-tasting product,” Gary Eckman, a Bangor-Brewer McDonald’s owner-operator said. “I think this is going to be a good partnership.”

Though the social benefits of selling an organic, fair trade product are nice, he said, it’s the coffee’s taste that counts in the end.

“I think the coffee’s excellent,” Eckman said. “I think the taste, from what I’ve experienced so far, is as good coffee as you can find anywhere, and better.”