Fair Trade at a Fair Price

Advantages: Good for the Third World
Disadvantages: Not that good for you

...of Fair Trade coffee, 2 types of tea bag, 5 types of chocolate, 3 fruit juices, 2 wines, bananas, and a world first: Fair Trade mangoes. Plus, breaking news: only last week the Co-op promised to double their range of Fair Trade products. Soon it will include Easter eggs, plums, pears, oranges, cakes and biscuits. Don?t worry though, I realise that this review isn?t in fact about the Co-op Fair Trade range, but the chocolate bars themselves. So on we go, to my Co-op Fair Trade Milk Chocolate Bar, which weighs 45 grams and is suitable for vegetarians but is unsuitable for anyone allergic to cow?s milk, soya or nuts. All this is made extremely clear on the wrapper, along with the calories, the fat and the salt content in a little circle on the front. Under nutritional information, the bar screams HIGH or LOW at you after every value. Just...

flipflopgirl 03.03.2004 · Read review
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Review of Fair Trade Milk Chocolate

Make trade truly fair

Advantages: It is absolutely your choice
Disadvantages: Masks deeper problems and encourages scams

...applied carefully, can be misdirected. The people who supported Hitler in the early days had good intentions - they wanted to restore their nation to an earlier glory. But they were misdirected in to supporting a fascist regime. Of course, recycling and fair trade are nothing like Nazi Germany. The comparison would be ludicrous. Fair trade works on the principle that we should pay a little bit more for a product to subsidise the producer of the product. Coffee, tea, chocolate and various other products are available in fair trade varieties. More and more companies and organisations are moving toward fair-trade-only policies. Starbucks, Costa and many other coffee shops support fair trade. My university refectory sells fair trade chocolates and serves fair trade tea and coffee. But do the fair trade programmes live up to the hype? Well...

bigbtommy 29.12.2004 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Fair Trade

Fancy a coffee old bean

Advantages: Freshly ground, available in small quantities
Disadvantages: A bit more expensive than other coffees

...girl”, but all that has changed. I don’t think I could go back to instant coffee now. The coffee beans at Whittard always look and smell beautifully fresh and all the ones I’ve bought so far have tasted wonderful. I usually buy little and often, as freshness is the most important thing with coffee. A 125g bag will make about six or seven full pots and as I pass the shop regularly, I would rather buy in small amounts to keep the freshness. For once, it doesn’t cost more to buy little and often. Though their packaging doesn't carry the Fairtrade logo, Whittard say they often buy the entire output of a coffee plantation or co-operative of growers, so they tend to fix their own prices directly with the grower, rather than following the low world market coffee prices. The company operates its own "Fair to...

madamois_elle 10.03.2003 (11.03.2003) · Read review
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Review of Whittard Coffee Beans

My piggies are oinking with happiness! Fair Trade Foot Lotion!

Advantages: Great smell, lovely colour, makes my skin smooth.
Disadvantages: A little expensive.

...Most people will already know about Lush products. Lush is the shop you occasionally walk past that always smells divine, well pop on inside, yes, they can be a little pricey but it's guilt free indulgence, their products are fresh & handmade and they use lots of fair trade products (this one contains fair trade cocoa butter). I got this 225g pot as part of the Think Pink gift set that I purchased for myself from Lush at the end of February this year. The product can be purchased alone (but then it would be lonely!) for £7.59 for a 225g pot which would quite possibly last a whole year (judging from how little I've used so far!). Remember you can take 5 of these containers back to Lush for recycling and be granted with a free fresh face mask for your troubles (see - it's good to recycle!). Fair Trade Foot Lotion is provided in a black...

katyeverett 22.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Lush Fair Trade Foot Lotion

₪ Bucking the Star Coffee Bean ₪

Advantages: Smells great, tastes great, perfect finish. Home brew cafe style.
Disadvantages: Caffeine addiction is a terrible thing.

...Ciao reviewer found out to his cost). Starbucks do label their packs of coffee beans with the name of the beans and they are categorised as Mild, Smooth or Bold. However it can still be a little bewildering unless you are a bean connoisseur. Some of their blends are also Fair Trade which means that the coffee growers get a fair price for their produce. I have tried several different types of coffee bean both in Starbucks café and at home but remembering which one I bought and liked is not always so easy. Last time the very helpful Pete came over to assist my choice. This man knew his coffee beans for sure. I was looking at the Café Estima blend and he exuberantly explained that this was a coffee with the most amazing finish. Hmm I thought. He explained it left the most amazing aftertaste. 'Did I brew my coffee in a cafetiere?' I...

susie191 23.05.2006 · Read review
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Review of Starbucks Cafe Estima Whole Bean Coffee

More fair trade coffee

Advantages: Fair trade for farmers
Disadvantages: more expensive than other coffees

...Everyone fears change and (to follow up my review of 5065 cafedirect coffee) someone in my lab has switched coffee brands. He did make sure it was fair trade though. Again, I won't go into the details of fair trade because of the huge availability of information on the net about it. I will reiterate, though, that the fairtrade logo guarentees that the product was purchased at a fair price from the farmer. In this case the farmers are from South America. the look This coffee comes in a cylindrical jar with a deep blue lid. The label has the Co-op logo and the words Fair Trade at the top. Under that, it says medium roast instant coffee granules. The fair trade logo is at the bottom and there is a rather uninspiring picture of a cup and some coffee beans. The back label says the origin is South Americn, tells you how to make...

Heidavey 20.05.2004 (21.05.2004) · Read review
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Review of Co-op Fairtrade Instant Coffee Granules

Fair Trade, the new Organic

Advantages: You eat better, you feel better
Disadvantages: Down to you...

...becoming quite regular shops for us. And we have found that they are not more expensive than Tesco and the food actually taste better. What else ? We have dropped all products that do not support Fair Trade, or at least do not advertise it. So bye-bye to Whittard Irish Coffee which I am so fond of, still to find an alternative but I won?t die without. We will be finishing our current supply of tea and sugar before waving goodbye to our current brand and look for some Fair Trade one. Thanks again to Jill, I am now armed with a Fair Trade website - http://www.maketradefair.com/stylesheet.asp?file=24042002122543&cat=2&subcat=5&select=2a- and consistently check our needs against the web. We are also considering the Co-op as an alternative to Tesco and are lucky to have one nearby, albeit small. Finally, I will be pursuing Tesco on this...

FrenchCancan 20.02.2004 (11.03.2004) · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Fair Trade

GIMME CHOCOLATE!!!! Fair Trade Options

Advantages: It's chocolate! It tastes good, relatively inexpensive.
Disadvantages: The orange filling is sickly.

...A few months ago after watching a documentary on the cocoa industry in Africa I decided that I needed to do a little something to help. Fair trade is a standard whereby the cocoa producers in Africa are held to and guaranteed a price for their cocoa beans if they adhere to the standards. These include ethical treatment of workers, not using child labour and generally producing in a social and environmentally good way. I love chocolate, in fact I'd chew my own arm off for a chocolate bar, so this for me was a big ask when I decided to give up non fair trade bars. What shocked me the most was the child labour, depriving children of the right to go to school to work at backbreaking jobs in the coca fields. The thing that struck me the most? Only 3% of all the cocoa produced under fair trade standards is actually bought - because...

bluetedgirl 09.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Co-op Fair Trade Chocolate Orange Bar

Tasty, fair traded and organic

Advantages: tasty, fair trade, organic, price ok
Disadvantages: a bit much tea in a single bag

...tea is a bit more expensive than others may be ? but it is worth it ? not only for the social aspects. The tea itself comes from the mountains of Tanzania and Uganda and is a blend of different tasty tea plants.   Teadirect fair trade tea bags are offered in many big supermarkets (at Tesco's, for example) and at Costa Coffee Shops. The price for 80 tea bags ranges between 1.99 GBP (Tesco) and 2.40 GBP (seen in an online shop). Compared with 'classic' tea bags like 'pg tips' (which cost 1.20 GBP for 80) this seems to be expensive, but I don't think so. In Germany, good tea is much more expensive than this, so, I had no problems in deciding for the fair trade tea. :-)   Packaging ---------- The tea bags come in a compact (organic-dark green) paper box that contains 80 bags. The bags are parted into two foil packaged aroma bags (with...

Shue 28.07.2002 · Read review
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Review of TeaDirect Fair Trade Tea Bags

Be fair to yourself and the world

Advantages: Great taste. Makes a REAL brew.
Disadvantages: None whatsoever!

...I've always been a big tea drinker. A cup of tea is the first thing I must have first thing. I had to go for a blood test the other day and was told not to eat anything or drink anything (apart from water) before hand. Afterwards I was gagging for a cuppa, and was the first thing I had afterwards! Just lately I've been buying the shops own brand of teabags as I've been working on a bit of a budget lately. But I've always been wanting to buy Fair Trade products as I like to think that the people picking the leaves are getting a fair treatment. So whilst shopping in Tesco the other day I bought a small bag of Fair Trade sugar and a box of Clipper Fair Trade teabags. For 80 teabags you will pay £1.78. Now, I know this isn't the cheapest around, but there are more expensive on the market as well. I'd never tried this tea before...

Louise90 28.05.2005 · Read review
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Review of Clipper Fair Trade Tea