Think Human, Drink Fair Celebrate World Fair Trade Day With A Fair. Cocktail Hour

What better way to celebrate World Fair Trade Day on Saturday, May 12, 2012 than by hosting a party or event that features fair trade products? Naturally, Fair Trade Breakfasts are a logical option, as many of our most common breakfast items can be sourced fair trade including coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas.

But what about hosting a Fair Trade Cocktail Hour? Fair Trade Cocktails, you might ask? Yes, it's possible thanks to FAIR., the world's first and only Fair Trade Certified spirits brand that makes high-quality spirits out of fair-trade-certified ingredients including:

FAIR. Quinoa Vodka is a Quinoa-based, one-of-a-kind 80-proof spirit, the result of two-years joint research by French distillers and a community of 1,200 independent small-scale farmers who cultivate the Fair Trade Certified quinoa superfood at 16,000 ft in the Bolivian Andean mountains. Because FAIR. Quinoa is distilled from a quinoa beer it not only makes the most discerning vodka drinkers happy, but also works amazingly well as an unaged whiskey base in cocktails because of its wonderful weight, flavor and texture. It won Best Tasting Spirit at the New York Spirits Awards, 93 points at the Chicago Beverage Institute and most recently, Double Gold imported vodka by The Fifty Best.

FAIR. Goji Liqueur is made from sacred Goji berries, known as one of the most nutritious fruits on earth. Sourced from a cooperative of 300 farmers in Tibet, FAIR. Goji Liqueur offers totally new fresh flavors of warm, nurturing vitality and is often referred to as a berry amaro. It works well with a myriad of spirits in cocktails -- rum, pisco, tequila, whiskey and cachaca are bartender favorites -- and surprisingly works well with other amari.

FAIR. Caf� Liqueur is made from 100% Fair Trade Certified Arabica coffee beans from a collective of 1,908 small independent farmers in Huatusco, Mexico. The farmers focus specifically on quality, independence, culture and nature preservation, making for an exceptional base ingredient for FAIR. Cafe. Voted Best Tasting Liqueur at the 2011 New York Spirits Awards, FAIR. Cafe is a coffee liqueur layered and flavorful enough to stand alone but can be used to create a bevvy of balanced cocktails and is consistently preferred by consumers and bartenders in blind tastings.

Co-founded by Jean Francois Daniel and Alexandre Koiransky, FAIR. applies the fair trade model to the business of spirits. "I realized that farming is the basic activity for a lot of the planet," says Daniel. "So if I want to fight poverty, I have to empower people through farming."

FAIR. pays a fair price and purchases their raw ingredients directly from farmers in Bolivia, Mexico, Malawi and Tibet, which in turn allows the farmers to build sustainable businesses that positively influence their communities. The raw materials are then expertly brewed, macerated and distilled in the Cognac region France to create the finest Fair Trade spirits possible.

So, on May 12th pull out the cocktail shaker and try these recipes, courtesy of FAIR.*

QUINOA OLD FASHIONED
2 oz FAIR. Quinoa
0.5 oz honey syrup (1-to-1 ratio water to honey)
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Stir to chill, strain into a rocks glass, one big piece of ice. Garnish with an orange peel.

FAIR TRADE NEGRONI
1.5 oz FAIR. Quinoa
0.75 oz FAIR.Goji
0.75 oz Cynar (but Campari and Aperol will also work)
Stir to chill, strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with thick orange peel.

FAIR TRADE WHITE RUSSIAN
2 oz FAIR. Quinoa Vodka
1 oz FAIR. Cafe Liqueur
1 oz organic light cream
In and old-fashioned glass, pour FAIR. Quinoa Vodka and FAIR. Caf� Liqueur over ice cubes, top with organic cream. Shake delicately and serve.

GOJI KISS
0.75 oz FAIR. Goji Liqueu