What if you discovered
that the Fair Trade tea in your cupboard really wasn't fair?
How would you feel? If you found out that the extra money you paid for
your tea because of the Fair Trade label never really made it to the
workers, would you still feel that your conscience was satisfied?
Worldwide, millions of consumers, purchase Fair Trade product with a
belief that the Fair Trade system works-- that the extra money paid goes
to fight poverty, end hunger and ensure that workers in Third World
countries are getting a fair wage for their labors. Fair Trade has become a
21st-century buzzword filled with progressive promises of increased
labor standards and higher levels of employee welfare.
Consumers contribute to Fair Trade as a means of satisfying a desire
to, "do the right thing"; "do something good." Some even consider that
buying Fair Trade products is a charitable act of duty. What if that was all wrong?
In 2008, a pair of Danish documentary film makers
produced The Bitter
Taste of Tea. It was aired on Danish television and
highlighted issues and concerns that are currently ongoing in the Fair
Trade tea industry. The film makers travelled to tea producing
countries, visited tea plantations, both traditional and Fair Trade.
There they uncovered some truths and realities of Fair Trade. They shake the tree and produce
an image of Fair Trade that is unsettling, disturbing and even somewhat
shocking.
The film made headlines throughout 2009 and is now finally available to
the English-speaking world. A screening was held in January 2010 at the
University of California, Los Angeles. The screening
was followed by a forum discussion moderated by acclaimed tea author,
Beatrice Hohenegger. We've reviewed the film, listened to the
discussion and were surprised to learn that Fair Trade is not what we
thought it was.
Click through to see images from the film and to read about issues in Fair Trade
Coming soon, in the
first few weeks of March, Tony Gebley and
his
partner, Erin Murphy will be opening the doors online to Chicago's
latest tea
merchant - Chicago Tea
Garden (you can also keep track of Tony's progress on Twitter, @worldoftea). To celebrate this, we've received a
sampling from them of a Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea. This tea is a
competition-grade Oolong from Anxi County, China. According to Tony,
this tea was sourced by the infamous American tea guru, David Lee
Hoffman from one of the organizers of the Chinese National Tea
Competition. This particular tea is part of Mr Hoffman's prized Phoenix Collection.
Chicago Tea Garden is making this special tea available to American tea
drinkers where it will retail at $14.99 for 50 grams and will be
available
online. Newer tea drinkers may feel this is expensive, but it's really
an
excellent example of the accessibility that comes with fine,
upper-level teas.
This particular Oolong is very much considered a fine tea, and
those 50 grams will easily give you upwards to 50 cups of tea or more
with resteepings. A typical teaspoon measurement holds about 3 grams of
tea so you'll get about 16 initial cups, but due to the hardiness and
quality of the leaves, this tea can be resteeped 3-4 times. We found
that one measurement of this tea resteeped well enough to keep our cups
full for an entire afternoon.
Tie Guan Yin is a historical tea and was used as a tribute tea to the
Royal Court. It is often translated as, "Iron Goddess of Mercy" and is
a reference to the Buddhist goddess of love which is
associated with the legend behind this tea's birth.
Tea
is for work.
Forget all the people who say tea is just for relaxing and only there to
help clear your mind. To define tea that way, and to limit tea like
that is nonsense. Far more people probably drink tea in the middle
of their work day, or while doing household chores. A lot of people don't even take a
tea break to do it.
They boil up some water, toss in some leaves and pour. Then, of course
they hope to make it back to the pot in time to retrieve them -
assuming they even remember.
How many pots or cups of tea have
been ruined by hard-working folks deep in the middle of cleaning,
writing, fixing, making, or just doing?
There is a lot of
marketing hype out there about the relaxing nature of tea drinking.
Though tea drinking certainly can be calming, the truth is, few people
have time to sit back with their cuppa and put their feet up while
listening to soft tunes on their iPod. Yes, it's awesome to do that,
but how often does that happen? And are those the only times you really
drink tea?
Like so many others, you
probably work hard every day
- maybe even on weekends. Bosses, families, friends, everyone has
things to do for somebody, and not enough time to get it done. Relaxation is often the last
thing people ever get to do.
More often than not, you are tired, but keep working, or you're
distracted and you keep going. You may even be thirsty and force
yourself to wait for a chance to drink. For many hard-working people,
tea really has less to do with taking a break, and more to do with
staying hydrated so you can just keep getting things done.
Christine won 3.5 ounces each of The NecessiTeas Root Beer Float
and Pineapple Upside Down Cake blends
The NecessiTeas
Thanks to all those who
entered and even if you didn't win, we
encourage you to shop for teas with our sponsor.
We choose and invite companies to sponsor our giveaways based on the
special and unique qualities of their business. The NecessiTeas is a small tea
company, specializing in tea blends of various kinds. They include
black teas, green teas, white teas, herbal teas and even some fruit
teas. While they do provide some of the old standards like
Earl Grey, what they are really known for are diverse blends of tea
with enticing names. Names like Chocolate
Hazelnut Truffle, Chocolate Coconut Lime, Strawberry Cheesecake, and
Tuxedo Strawberries do well to make The NecessiTeas an interesting
place to shop. Their
teas are not ordinary and they break away from traditional tea by
creating a delicious array of flavors and blends.
Congratulations to our winner!
Christine is relatively new to tea (so she says), but her enthusiasm
for our favorite drink is wonderful and inspiring. Christine, the world
needs more tea drinkers like you!
We are big fans of Henrietta Lovell, the Rare Tea Lady, she is doing some great things promoting loose tea in Britain. We've featured her a number of times in our forums. In this video, she pairs tea with cheese. Watch and let us know if you have ever tried combining the two and what your best pairings were.
Grab your teacup, turn up the volume and listen to these great songs,
because tea needs a soundtrack!
The theme in this edition
is new music.
In fact, it doesn't really get any newer than this. There is is some
great stuff here; if you like discovering the newest music, we sat down
with our music guy and picked the some of the best just for you.
We've got a great lineup for you featuring songs from albums released in January of this year and others from albums not even available yet. We have the first new music in 10 years from R&B legend Sade and a never-before released track from Johnny Cash. We also have more from Spoon and Massive Attack. We are also featuring a couple underdog Indie bands, The Influence and Cold War Kids. We have have a fantastic song by that woman with the beautiful voice, Charlotte Gainsbourg. There are 15 outstanding songs in all, each one is well worth listening to. Follow the the link to hear from these great artists and more!
What
better way to test out a new brand of British tea than to pit it
against a long-time favorite and champion of British blends.
There
is definitely a place in the industry for tea bag teas. To those who
say that tea bag tea is disgusting and undrinkable, we say - expand
your palate. If you were a wine drinker and only drank expensive
bottles every night then you would never really know if
you have it good. Drinking ordinary table wine allows you to really
appreciate a great top-class wine. It's the same way with tea. There
are plenty of drinkable teas out there packaged up in tea bags and
drinking them will help you appreciate the subtle qualities of a good
oolong, or a fresh Darjeeling. Here, in America, when it comes to
standard, blended brands, we are limited. However, in Britain,
the
blended brands are plentiful.
In this review, we are taking the old and
trusted PG
Tips, and pitting it against a new underdog brand, Make Mine
a Builder's. In the process, we are going to learn a little
something
about tea from our British friends across the pond. Namely,
that blended tea brands are more sophisticated and complex
than many
people realize.