Buyer's guide to herbal tea

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Best Buys as of November 2006

As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the ethiscore website may have changed since this report was written.

Equal Exchange, Qi, Hambelden Herbs and Dragonfly's organic and Fairtrade teas all come out best.

Brand	Rating
Equal Exchange green teas [F,O]	17
Equal Exchange Organic Rooibos [F,O]	17
Qi fairtrade organic green and herbal teas [F,O]	17
Dragonfly organic Fair Trade rooibos [F,O]	16
Hambleden Herbs teas [O,A,S]	16
Dragonfly organic teas [O]	15
Eleven O'Clock organic rooibos [O]	15
Essential herbal teas [A,O]	14.5
Dragonfly herb and rooibos teas	14
Eleven O'Clock rooibos tea	14
Floradix herbal teas	14
Yogi Tea herbal and green teas [O]	13.5
Clipper organic herbal or green tea [O]	13
Ministry of Tea organic herb teas [O]	13
Clipper herbal or green tea	12
Cotswold organic herb teas [O]	12
Dr Stuart's herbal teas	12
Celestial Seasonings herb teas	11
Cotswold herb teas	11
Heath & Heather herbal teas	11
London Fruit & Herb Teas [S]	11
Jacksons of Piccadilly green teas	3.5
Twinings herb teas	2.5
Lipton Tchae green teas	0.5

The ratings on this scorecard were last updated from our database at www.ethiscore.org on 22 May 2008. The higher the rating, the more ethical the brand.

Herbal tea - mini report

The main issues for buyers of herb teas haven't changed much since the last report, in issue 83 (June/July 2003), but for those looking for ethical alternatives the choices have expanded further. With the success of fair trade and organic labelling schemes in the herbal tea market, there is now a huge range of flavours of herbal and green teas for those wanting to make ethical choices, although online shopping or wholefood shops are still the best places to find the best buys on the table. Supermarket herb tea shelves are still likely to be dominated by brands such as Liptons and Twinings, owned by international corporations such as Wittington Investments/Associated British Foods and Unilever. The Heath & Heather and London Herb & Spice brands, also amongst the more easily found herbal teas, have passed from investment company Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst to Indian industrial group Apeejay Surrendra, with operations in shipping, hotels and finance.

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