A Tea Whore No More (Clipper Teas in general)

Member Name: shewhosmiles

Product:	Clipper Teas in general
Date:	28/03/03 (376 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes great, Backs Fairtrade, Inexpensive

Disadvantages: None

I didn't know about Fair Trade goods until I read an opinion several months ago. It has always bothered me that people in the third world work for long hours and slave labour wages and that many are children. They work in conditions that would be totally unacceptable to us, and all to give profits to large fat cat corporations who import the products to this and other countries to be sold at huge mark ups.

The Fair Trade Foundation is a registered charity and aims to give a better deal to workers in the third world or developing countries by paying living wages, providing good working conditions and helping them to develop. The foundation operates in direct competition with big corporations and to me is a splendid idea that needs supporting more. The website is at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ and there you will see that there are quite a lot of food products available under the Fair Trade banner and the stores are listed that stock them. Far more than I realised, leaving me wondering why supermarkets don’t promote the fact that they sell Fair Trade goods.

I discovered Fair Trade’s Clipper teabags almost by accident in the Coop. They were tucked away on the bottom shelf underneath the popular well known brands. As I work in a shop I know that some of the larger companies insist upon their products being displayed more prominently! The box was originally dark blue with nothing to make it stand out amongst the more attractive looking teas on offer. Now the box has a dark blue background with a bright yellow and orange picture of the world on the front. An improvement, but still likely to be missed amongst the more attractively designed packages.

I was a bit of a tea whore without loyalty to any brand and usually bought Brook Bond, Typhoo, PG Tips or Yorkshire Tea according to which was the cheapest or had the best special offer on. At £1.59 for 80 teabags Clipper wasn’t the cheapest but it was by no means the most expens

ive either. Eminently affordable and Free Trade, I just hoped that it tasted ok.

When you open the box you see teabags in sets of two. They don’t look as posh as the more popular brands and I was a bit flabbergasted at first to have to spend time tearing them apart. I’d been used to individual teabags that required no effort other than popping them in a cup and pouring boiling water over them. It was a bit like going back to early teabag days but then I reminded myself that I was helping to support Fair Trade and that it didn’t matter if a bit of effort was required on my part or that the teabags didn’t look very good.

I make my tea in a mug. One teabag, boiling water and impatiently stir a spoon around to get it to brew quicker. I noticed straight away that the colour of the water was rapidly darkening, much quicker than the teabags I was used to and a zillion times quicker than those drawstring things that we sometimes use at work. After removing the teabag I add one sugar but no milk to spoil the taste of my tea.

I had no need to be apprehensive about the taste. My first Clipper cuppa was simply the best cup of tea that I can remember tasting. It was a perfect strength for me, too weak tea isn’t worth drinking, too strong tea can taste horrible. I can’t really describe the taste of tea but Clipper is full of flavour without the bitterness that you get with some teas. It's a nicely refreshing drink and tastes good cold too.

I’m a tea whore no more and have been buying Clipper teabags for at least 6 months with no complaint. I regularly drink other brands at work (my boss provides them free) and they just don’t match up to Clipper in taste. I’ve seen them on sale at Morrisons for £1.95 for 80 teabags and wondered why they are so much more expensive than the £1.59 charged by the Coop. Leaf tea and organic tea are also available from Clipper Fairtrade.

Inside e
ach box is an invitation to join the Clipper tea club where you receive a
quarterly newsletter with news about Fair Trade and organic developments, tea samples and competitions. The annual subscriptions are UK £7.50, Europe £11.50, outside Europe £15.00. I haven’t joined that yet but it might be worth £7.50 to learn more.

Summary: