If you start your day with fair trade coffee — and want to end it with a fair trade cocktail, start making ice cubes in your energy-efficient freezer. Fair trade vodka is now available in the U.S — just in time to make a toast on World Fair Trade Day!

 

Appropriately dubbed FAIR. Vodka, the new spirit is not only the first fair trade certified vodka, but also the first quinoa-based vodka, made with quinoa grown by more than 1,200 small producers of the Anapqui cooperative in the Bolivian Altiplano who are paid a fairer price for their work. The quinoa is then crafted into a vodka by French distillers — whose work nabbed FAIR the “Best Tasting Vodka 2009″ nomination at the New York Spirits Awards in June.

 

I haven’t tried the vodka yet myself — and like many people, including avowed vodka fans, have a hard time telling vodkas apart by taste. But according to the company’s press release “the unexpected fusion of quinoa leaves a warm taste, unique to South America’s high plateau” — which makes me want to try the fair trade stuff just to see if I can pick out this warm taste.

 

Want to try it yourself? Find it in select stores and bars in New York, San Francisco and Chicago — and share your tasting notes in the comments. For the adventurously healthy, FAIR. also makes FAIR. Goji — a fair trade certified goji liqueur.