We love the range of Christmas gift hampers newly available at the excellent Ethical Superstore which you can view here.
Contents include all the usual fayre (minced pies, cake and chocolates) and the hamper itself is housed in a large, fairly traded, handwoven storage basket.
A beautifully designed 'tower block' advent calendar made from organic cotton with a Green and Black's miniature chocolate bar for each pocket. This gift is the perfect count down to Christmas with enough variety to keep everyone happy.
A cheaper alternative is available here. This Divine Chocolate Advent Calendar features delicious fairtrade chocolate, is beautifuly presented and available for £3.50. Organic Chocolatiers, Green & Black's, have recently launched their new online shop.
As well as including their organic chocolate, many of their gift boxes include other fine organic products, such as coffee, wine, champagne and ale. While prices for organic wines and beers are high, the gift boxes seem pretty reasonably priced, and the one we received was also wonderfully presented.
The Beer and Bars gift box contains five 100g bars of organic chocolate, dark, milk, white, almond and dark 85%. Alongside are two bottles of Suffolk-brewed St Peter's Organic - one beer and one bitter. This product is currently available for £15 and is a fine gift for any occassion.
The Deluxe Bars and Wine gift box (pictured above) currently retails for £35. It brings together a range of Green & Black’s intense chocolate bars with two organic wines from Bonterra – one of the world’s leaders in organic viticulture and one of the first wineries to have the Soil Association Certification for their wines. Full contents of this box are: 8 x 100g Bars; Dark 70%, Milk, Maya Gold, White, Almond, Butterscotch, Ginger, Cherry
1 x Bonterra Organic 75cl Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 x Bonterra Organic 75cl Chardonnay.
To view the full range of gifts available from Green and Black's visit their website or simply click here.
The truth is that most of the wine we drink (and we consume quite a bit of the stuff) has travelled many thousands of miles to reach our kitchens and dining rooms. It's also probably laced with a number of preservatives.
There are a growing number of British organic wine growers, but it is still early days and these wines are pretty expensive. For Fairtrade wines you should simply look for the Fairtrade label on the bottle. With these wines the farmers should have received fair trade prices for their grapes, as well as free technical advice and assistance. Traidraft offer a variety of individual bottles, as well as crates, on their website.
Further to my post below, the same company have an innovative and reasonably priced range of organic hampers. The hampers range from simple combinations of organic teas and coffees, to more innovative themed hampers such as the Spirit of Morocco organic gift hamper pictured below.
The site also offers a handy range of Fairtrade Selection Packs which are a great way to introduce fairtrade to your friends or to your workplace. Whether you need to provide refreshments for a few people or many there's a pack here to suit your needs.
The packs contain a variety of products including organic teas and coffees, cakes, biscuits and condiments. The pack pictured sells for £30.00. To view this and the other packs in the range click here.