"FairtradeCoffee" news and stories

CaféDirect now claims that its new TeaDirect brand has overtaken Brooke Bond tea to become the 7th largest tea brand in the UK.

Not that I drink tea (how un-English is that!) but both my Polish and French friends do (Hi Lukasz, Hi Nic) not with milk but with a slice of lemon. Coffee is my thing - and I always return to the Café Direct brand (medium roast, the one in the blue bag) not just because it is fairtrade, although that is important, but because it just tastes the best!

I've just checked the tea-bags in the cupboard. While they are still fairtrade they are produced by Clipper Teas. No idea where this brand fall in the sales league though.

 

Yesterday I picked "Ethiopia Sidamo" from the thermal pot at my fave local coffee shop, on a whim. I almost never go with the boring, ordinary Colombian house blend. Sometimes I'm wowed by my alternative selection, other times it's just coffee.

Color me wowed. I can't get enough of this stuff. It tastes like berries. No lie. And I'm sure you're thinking, coffee that tastes like berries? I totally passed that raspberry-flavored stuff up in the coffee aisle at my grocery store. But this is more a terroir thing (do they call it terroir in coffee?). The coffee beans, they're not that different from grapes, after all. Roasting brings out these amazingly complex and, yes, fruity flavors. According to the roaster, Stumptown Coffee, "The cup is Neopolitan ice cream... Intense chocolate, strawberry and creamy vanilla flavors in every sip." Plus it's organic and fair-trade and ohmigod I am so in love with this coffee. I wish I could give you a taste, you'd never be the same.