Pukka

This is a little bit on consumer power and the internet...

I like herbal teas. I find the medicinal ones from health food shops a little much a lot of the time, they are fine if you have a health issue you need them for, but for everyday drinking pleasure... The teas generally sold in Tesco come in a few main varieties - summer fruit, mint, chamomile and a few others, maybe chai, maybe ginger or jasmine. You know the sort of thing...

Then Pukka appeared on the shelves. They were lovely. Blends of different herbs and spices to create beautiful, balanced teas with lovely names.

There was...

Love - rose, chamomile and lavender

There was...

Detox - aniseed, fennel and licorice

There was...

Clarity - ginger, lemongrass and gotu kola

There was...

Harmonise - rose, hibiscus, vanilla, shatavari, licorice and chamomile



and they were lovely. I owned all of them at work and at home and drank whichever one I fancied at the time and it was all good.

and then....

Tesco decided to stop stocking them. eek! They didn't stop stocking Pukka teas but I sensed the hand of Tesco in the choice of flavours that Pukka decided to develop.

We have...

Night time - chamomile, oatstraw and lavender

Three ginger - ginger, galangal and golden turmeric

Three mint - peppermint, spearmint and fieldmint

The mint is very minty and the ginger is very gingery but the night time is really nice. This only gives me one variety to play with at work that I really like. *sigh*

So I go online. What I discover is that Pukka have a lovely little internet business going. Not only that but all my old favourites are still there. And even better there are a whole lod of other beautiful and interesting teas there for me to try!

We have...

Relax - chamomile, fennel and marshmallow

Revitalise - cinnamon, cardamon and ginger

Refresh - peppermint, licorice and rose

Cleanse - nettle, fennel and aloe vera

Protect - Jasmine green tea, cardamon and rosemary

Pleasure - cocoa, licorice and roasted chicory

Three Berry - elderberry, blueberry and blackberry



oooh! So when I got paid I went and ordered all my favourites plus all the ones I had never tried before. The presence of variety packs means that this was cheaper than shopping for the new premium teas Tesco stock and I don't like so much.

They arrived earlier this week and since then I have been enjoying the return of beautiful variety to my tea breaks....

I know this is a shameless plug for Pukka (that they will probably never know about) but it is an important thing to me. I hate the way that supermarkets cater for the lowest common denominator. We think they are giving us choice but in reality they so often take choice away and discourage us from cooking and thinking for ourselves.

We are creatures of habit and so often we develop habits and then they take them away from us. Well, I no longer buy tea from Tesco.... I buy it direct. Did I mention that it is organic?