Heard about coffee, did not realise tea was the same

GreenGirlyGirl — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:12:43 -0500

Hi.

Thanks for the information. I knew about fair trade coffee but did not realise I should be checking my herbal teas as well....will go through the cupboards tonight!

Patty

Fair trade teas for the fall

greenlagirl — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:14:24 -0500

So Fair Trade Month coincides with Halloween -- but chocolate's not the only yummy fall fair trade goody! Lots of new tasty fair trade teas came on the market this year -- and here are a few to try this season:

Choice Organic Teas has come out with a caffeine free lemon lavender mint herb tea -- made with lavender grown on a coastal island in the Pacific Northwest. A tea afficionado friend of mine called this tea a "gateway drug" for people who don't want to puut sugar in their tea, because it's flavorful enough without a sweetener.

Choice's organic himalaya green tea from Nepal's a lighte tea, produced by a grower cooperative. For each box sold, 10 cents goes to Save The Himalayan Kingdom, a nonprofit with programs focused on environment, health, literacy issues.

In addition, Choice has partnered with Santa Cruz Organic to make ready-to-drink organic teas in 3 flavors: mint, mango and lemon. Find the 32-oz bottles on store shelves now!

Pioneering fair trade company Equal Exchange's also introduced new teas: fairly traded Pyramid Teas, grown by small, organic farms in India (At TriplePundit, Gina-Marie Cheeseman points out some of the benefits of organic, fair trade tea for Indian workers), Sri Lanka, and South Africa. The teas -- bagged in biodegradable pyramids -- come in six flavors: Ceylon Chai, Ceylon Green, Darjeeling Black, Wild Rooibos, and Breakfast Blend.

Unlike most other Equal Exchange products, these teas don't carry the fair trade certification sticker from TransFair USA, the nonprofit that certifies fair trade products in the US. Why? Says Rodney North of Equal Exchange: "The short version is that we’re disappointed with TransFair’s & FLO’s low-bar standards for certifying tea." TransFair and FLO -- the international body that oversees TransFair and similar organizations in other countries -- allow large estates to get certified in addition to small co-ops.

Equal Exchange, being a co-op itself, believes the co-op model to be the best way to empower small farmers -- and thus has decided to forego the certification sticker while making sure all of Equal Exchange's own tea's produced by small farmer co-ops. Rodney says Equal Exchange wants to "begin the education process about the need for Fair Trade to get back to its original farmer co-op focus, and resist the temptation to lower standards in the name of volume, volume, volume."

However, this approach leaves the door wide open for other, less-than-committed companies to call their tea "fairly traded" without getting the sticker -- or making any sort of commitment to paying fair prices, whether to individual farmers, co-ops, or large estates. Yes, I'm sure Equal Exchange pays a fair price to the farmers it works with. But unless you're very familiar with a company's business practices and are certain they mean what they say, I recommend opting for the fair trade certification sticker, so as to avoid getting suckered in by unsubstanciated "fairly traded"-type promises.

Tea drinkers: Opt for fair trade tea! Rural Aspirations has switched to fair trade tea in an effort to put her money where her mouth is. And as Karen's post at Everyday Just Living shows, there are lots more fair trade teas to pick from than the short list I mentioned above. Karen recommends Numi Earl Grey Tea. Sample a few to explore the options --

Top image via Choice

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Heard about coffee, did not realise tea was the same

Fair trade teas for the fall