The Ecologist: Top 10 Organic & Fairtrade Teas

Thanks to Greenhouse for pointing this one out to us! Great news is that After Dinner made the top 10 and our 3 Berry, 3 Mint and 3 Ginger got a mention too!

http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/Ecologist_top_ten/680716/the_ecologist_top_ten_organic_and_fair_trade_teas.html

Why we love Elderberry Syrup

The nights are drawing in and there is a definite chill in the air so we can almost say winter is here. And, when the clocks go back, our minds turn internally and think about looking after the body and defending our systems against the onslaught of the changing seasons.

When we are feeling chock full of cold, you will see us reaching for the Elderberry Syrup! This month, save £2 on a bottle, now only £8.95 

And it is true! Erin O'Connor told Celebs on Sunday how our Elderberry Syrup was first the first line of defence for her when the onset of a cold. 

Announcing the arrival of two great new teas!

We've been excited about this one for a while but yesterday saw the official PR launch for our new teas! We have Morning Time and Three Fennel to welcome into the Pukka Family!

Three Fennel is a deliciously sweet blend of organic sweet fennel, wild fennal and fennel leaf tea. All the ingredients in this soothing and calming tea are organically grown and ethically sourced; as with all of our teas! Particularly exciting is the inclusion of a lovely ingredient from here in the UK; organic fennel leaf!

Morning Time has been specifically blended to give you a caffeine free lift first thing in the morning and, with its rich flavours of Rooibos, honey bush and the kick of red ginseng, we think it is a great alternative to coffee. This lovely tea can be drunk with or without milk and helps kick start the day.

September has been a good month

Congratulations to our guys in Denmark, Naturesource, who picked up an award over there this month for Pukka Tea's where we won 'Best food product of the year'. 

More from London Fashion week and Miriam Saltmarshe

We've had some lovely feedback from Miriam Saltmarshe, Nutritionist for Models at London Fashion Week about some of our lovely Pukka goodies that were helping keep the models in tip top shape!

“Pukka's elderberry syrup worked a treat for any of the models who were coming down with a cold or cough and worked very well with their Three Ginger tea. To support skin health we used Pukka's bionutrients (Clean Greens and Vitalise) with their delicious teas, Cleanse and Detox, which replaced tea and coffee”.  

And here are some great pictures of Miriam at manning the Sanctuary at Fashion Week 

Pukka at the Model Sanctuary

It's London Fashion Week and Pukka have been lucky enough to be featured... in the Model Sanctuary! The official nutritionist loves Pukka products for their gentle and nurturing qualities!
http://www.erinsmodelsanctuary.com/page/3/

More from Natural products

A further browse into the magazine and here Pukka is again! This time its a great review of our firm immune system favourites. Take a look!

Organic Food Fair, Bristol Harbourside 2010

We are always proud and excited to be part of the Organic Food fair in Bristol so imagine our excitement when our copy of Natural Products magazine turned up and you can see (just!) our lovely banner!

Its not just us that love our herbal teas!

Reading The Times last week we were pleased to see that model Erin O Connor states that she 'can't live without Pukka Tea'! We've scanned the article and placed it on our Facebook page for you to peruse but here it is in miniature

Tribe of Doris!

From the 10th till the 17th of August the Tribe of Doris - a seamless fusion of summer camp and festival  - hit a site in Devon with over 40 workshops in drumming, dance and song from award winning and inspirational teachers from Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe.

Doris is a participatory event, where learning from these amazing artists is the core activity but there was also world class performances, open mic sessions, jamming, Ceremonies, fireside jamborees, a wellbeing zone as well as a host of creative youth and childrens activities!

Visitors could get involved in djembe drumming at all levels, sabar, African ballet and contemporary African dance,  Flamenco song and dance, samba, Brazilian song and dance,  Sufi whirling, belly dance, Middle Eastern music, Moroccan Gnawa and much more, culminating in a huge firelit celebration of the weeks workshops on Saturday night. And Pukka was there (in spirit!) to provide a refreshing back note in the form of our teas!

Tribe of Doris: not so much a festival more a way of life!

Help for Alzheimer's: A few berries a day could stop the brain over-ripening

There is a great article from the Daily Mail online today. Worth a read! It's good to know that our Vitalise Capsules are full of helpful Blueberries!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1305556/Help-Alzheimers-A-berries-day-stop-brain-ripening.html#ixzz0xWIcpwsA


http://www.pukkaherbs.com/file/d765b7bdd177a8cfc61969b09dcfc917/vitalise-capsules.html

Tea break rituals

We've been a-wondering here at Pukka HQ how you manage to make your tea break real breaks? What little rituals and routines do you have to make that time your own? We'd love to here from you! You never know, it may even make it into our next newsletter!

Drop us an email pukka@pukkaherbs.com

Natural Ways To Treat Depression

Great article on alternative treatments for depression online at womanandhome.com this month. It is well worth a read and features a few Pukka Herbal favourites!

http://www.womanandhome.com/galleries/dietandwellbeing/healthylifestyle/28685/4/0/natural-ways-to-treat-depression.html

Fall in love with Pukka this summer

We love summer here at Pukka and have been celebrating all through July by giving away a FREE love tea with every online order.

We want you to feel the love too and have teamed up with the lovely people at My Single Friend to give you a chance to maybe do just that!

We have 10x 1 month full memberships to give away. Whether you have a fabulous single friend you want to help find love, or you’re looking to find someone special yourself, My Single Friend is a great way to meet other singles. Entry could not be simpler. Click through and complete the form and we will send you a FREE tea sample.

We also will be providing 10x runners up prizes of our gorgeous Love Gift Packs.

Great Taste Awards 2010

Great news at Pukka HQ today; we've won a Gold Star on EIGHT of our delicious organic herbal teas!

We've uploaded an album to our Facebook page, so have a click and a look!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20799&id=1222069078086
83&l=3bb1ade4c1

A word from our residential herbalist, Sebastian Pole

The Bulgarian rose harvest

I am just back from a wonderful and exciting Bulgarian trip visiting our organic rose flower and rosewater suppliers and looking for future sources of incredible sustainable organic herbs for our Pukka products.

 It was my first trip to Bulgaria and even as my aeroplane began its descent flying over endless stretches of forests and lakes, I was struck by how beautiful this country is. One third mountains, Bulgaria is situated in the heart of the Balkan peninsula. It is a country famous for its ancient archaeological sites, as the birthplace of the Cyrillic script and for its enormous diversity of wildlife, wild herbs and flowers.

Poppies, camomile, mullein, blue cornflower, meadowsweet, St Johns Wort and milk thistle sit in open plains side by side with oak forests and walnut groves. Butterflies, swooping swallows and enormous storks fill the air as they enjoy and support this rich and diverse habitat.

Roses have been grown commercially for over 300 years in the central Bulgarian ‘valley of the roses ‘ and this is where I started my trip meeting our rose supplier whose grandfather set up the family rose growing business in 1909. Like all Bulgarian private companies it was taken over by the state during the communist era but after many decades it was returned to the family who consulted with the older locals to find  the location of the old rose growing sites. In a beautiful location in the lee of the mountains they began their enterprise again in an ideal environment for herb growing, at over 500meters above sea level the mountains shelter the tender young rosebushes,  protecting from frost and bringing in water. 

At the time of my visit in early June the rose harvest was in full swing. Rosa damascena, Rosa centifolia and Rosa alba all grow near each other making for a beautiful sight as their pink and white colours shimmer in the early morning sun. Local villagers and seasonal workers from the countryside gather in the fields shortly after sunrise and carefully pick only the fully open roses in the best condition; the early morning picking ensuring that the high essential oil content in the roses doesn’t evaporate under the warm sun. The large sacks filled with freshly-harvested roses are weighed on site and within 2 hours are at the nearby distillery to be made into rosewater and rose oil or at the drying facility to be dried as rose flowers for our Love and Refresh teas.

 Organic rose growing means no petro chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used which allows the wonderful diversity of nature to flourish in the rose fields; lavender, poppies and blue cornflowers are just a few of the colourful array of purple, red and blue wild flowers bordering the rosebushes. But no chemical pesticides and fertilizers also means a 50% lower flower yield than non-organic rose growing and leaves our supplier with very difficult problems such as the ‘agrillos’ infection whose presence can be detected by a swelling in the rose stem meaning that particular bush needs to be cut back losing the flowers for the rest of that season.

The roses grown for our rosewater and the special concentrated distillation give the rosewater a very high geraniol content which is unmistakeable as the classic rose smell and contributes to its inflammation reducing, skin toning, anti bacterial properties and enable us to make our products without preservatives. However roses are also particularly delicate and sensitive plants presenting a lot of challenges for the grower. One challenge is the weather; rain is vital for the plants but rain in the harvest season makes drying the plants very difficult and inclement weather means the need to adjust rose petal processing times on a daily basis. Watching our rose supplier at work at his most busy and stressful time of the year really brought it home to me that as organic rose growing means half the volume and twice the processing costs compared to non-organic, our rose water and the rosepetals used in our teas really are  extremely precious products !

We followed the roses for our Love and Refresh teas as they were driven the mile to the huge workshop of the drying facility where the rose heads are heated to remove humidity and then carefully airdried to retain the colour, aroma, flavour and essential oil content. After 24 hours at the drying facility and constant inspection the dried rose petals are shipped off to our UK base to be blended into our delicious teas!

Meanwhile the roses destined for our rosewater are driven one mile to a pristine distillery which still uses the original copper vats set up by our suppliers grandfather alongside more modern machinery. The intense heady scent of roses hangs in the air while the distillery workers move swiftly emptying tons of rose flowers and petals into  enormous stainless steel vats where they are steamed for 2 hours before the steam is sent to the cooler where it condenses and is collected as rosewater.

Unlike most rosewaters, at Pukka our rosewater is not a by product of essential oil production but comes from rose flowers only used for rosewater. As it takes a whole kilo of roses to make 1 litre of rosewater every drop is carefully collected as every one is infused with the sweet scent of the rose flowers.

The delicate beauty of roses are particularly suited to women’s health and are highly prized for their soothing strengthening effect on the emotional heart and for their skin cooling and nourishing properties. Rose oil is an even more labour intensive product as it takes 3.5 tons of petals to produce one litre of oil. The manufacturing process is similar to that of rosewater but the steam from the petals circulates for much longer until rose oil floats on top of the rosewater. I found out on this herb trip that rose oil  capsules have become a ‘ must have ‘ item for discerning Japanese women who swear that the daily swallowing of rose oil prevents body odour and gives them a deliciously fragrant ‘glow.!’ Perhaps another Pukka product for the pipeline?

Roses are an inspiration to us; they are strong, self-protecting and irresistibly beautiful. Long used throughout the world as cooling and astringing on the tissues they help to tone puffy skin, clear spots and soothing inflammation. A teaspoon of rosewater in a glass of cool water is quite simply one of the most delicious drinks in the world. Dried rose flowers in a hot tea are instantly soothing. Understanding quite how much hard work goes into growing, harvesting and preparing the roses helps me appreciate them even more.

Bringing the idea of Fairtrade closer to home!

Fair trade is growing fast with ever more Fairtrade towns that promote ethical shopping and even twin with their producer communities
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/13/fairtrade-towns-ethical-shopping-twinning

Summer of Love

Throughout July we're celebrating a Summer of Love by giving away a FREE box of Organic Love Tea - a soothing blend of rose, chamomile and lavender - with every online order. Spend over £35 and receive this gorgeous mug for the perfect Pukka cuppa!

#7 Collectors Card: Green Tea

#6 Collectors card: Cardamom

#5 Collectors Card: Fennel

#4 Collectors Card: Cocoa

#3 Collectors Card: Vanilla

#2 Collectors Card: Gotu Kola

#1 Collectors Card: Mint From India

The Real World Cuppa

Tarporley Health Store 4th Birthday Event.

Richard Thomas and his team celebrate 4 years trading on Tarporley High Street with a day of celebration and added value for customers.

On Saturday June 12th between 9am and 5pm Tarporley Health Store will be offering all customers on the day a straight 5% OFF ALL PURCHASES - Plus Food and Drink Samples. Charity £1 Entry Prize Draw to win a £100 Health Store Hamper. Also enjoy a FREE Mini Hand Treatment and Sample SYNOVITAL Hyaluronic Acid (Anti-Ageing Sachets) throughout the day.

Everyone welcome at Tarporley Health Store. 2 Chestnut Terrace. High Street. Tarporley. Cheshire. CW6 0UW. Telephone 01829 730 662, or 0845 437 4490 (Local Rate Call From A Land Line).

Normal Opening Days and Times Tuesday - Saturday 9am - 5pm.

Online 24 / 7 @ www.healthstore247.com eMail help@healthstore247.com

Pukka Products on Amazon

Well, the 21st century has really kicked in for us now! Pukka Herbs is live and kicking with the Organic Bio Nutrients and Organic Botanical supplements on Amazon!

Find our your Dosha!

The doshas:

In Ayurveda we are said to have body-mind types, these are known as dosha and consist ofvata, pitta and kapha. Each dosha has certain attributes and describes our individual characteristics, inherited traits, our likes and dislikes and our tendencies.

Generally we are a combination of dosha but one will usually dominate. If a dosha becomes out of balance, which can happen for a number of reasons, it can effect how we behave and even our health.

Typcial characteristics of each dosha type:

Vata types tend to be visionary, imaginative and full of creative energy but when they are out of balance they can be forgetful, spaced out, anxious and uptight. Typical vata problems are erractic digestion, bloating, anxiety or joint disorders.

Pitta types are confident, passionate leaders, organised and perfectionists but excess pittacan make them fiery, snappy and irritable. Pitta people have a tendency to suffer from skin irritations, overheating, heartburn and ulcers.

Kapha types tend to be loyal, kind-hearted, calm and full of love, but a kapha overload can make them lethargic, lacking in energy and a little overindulgent. Kapha types are prone to congestion, excess weight and sluggish digestion.

It's important to try and keep our doshas in balance in order to stay on top form. It's not always easy with the hectic lives we lead, but if we can learn what our body needs and adjust our lifestyle accordingly, it's a big step closer to staying healthy and happy!

Discover yours!

May Star Products!

Check out the featured products for this May either via Pukka Herbs or come and see them at our new Facebook page.

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF VINYASA KRAMA YOGA

The lovely people at Harmony Yoga are running a series of Summer Schools in Wells and Doncaster in the upcoming months.

14^th-20^th August 2010 in Wells, Somerset. UK

30^th August - 5^th September 2010 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. UK

With Steve Brandon, IYN Yoga Elder, AYS Senior Teacher.

Yoga is a complete, integrated approach to attain optimum health, vitality, longevity and spiritual awareness. It arose from the spiritual tradition of ancient India where the sages wanted to maintain perfect health and total independence to pursue the goal of spiritual freedom. So, they devised the practices of Yoga to attain these aims. These courses are designed to be primarily practical and experiential with theoretical teachings to support your understanding.

For more information,click here

New Fair Trade Green Teas

We set out to create some truly incredible tasting, smooth green teas. So we have selected the finest organic whole leaf green tea hand picked by Fairtrade growers around the world.

Each tea has been specially blended by our herbalist, Sebastian, using the whole leaf which is gently steamed and rolled to retain the fantastic delicate flavour. The methods used to prepare our organic Fairtrade green teas ensure the high levels of antioxidants are preserved. We've blended three great flavours: Green Tea, Mint Green Tea and Lemon Green Tea. Worthy of any tea break, any time!

The three varieties of green tea used in our unique ‘Green tea’ blend are sourced from Fairtrade growers in China, India and Vietnam.

Sencha green whole leaf tea comes from a pioneering project in China called Da Zhang Shan which means ‘Great Barrier Mountains’. It is the first EU organic and Fairtrade project in China. There are 15,000 smallholders, each owning a third of a hectare. The Sencha green tea is a traditional Chinese tea made by steaming and rolling that creates a flat whole leaf, brimming with flavour.

Oothu green whole leaf tea comes from an estate in India called Singampatti which means ‘Home of the Lion’. Some of the original pioneers of organic farming in India came from this estate. They use bio dynamic farming methods and are also Demeter certified because of the effective growing techniques used. The Fairtrade estate has a high social responsibility with schools, a hospital, crèches and special shops with discounted food. 

Suoi Gang green whole leaf tea comes from Van Chan in Vietnam. The green tea is sustainably collected by H’mong and Zhao tribes from wild tea trees that grow in certified organic rainforests. Tea collecting is a part of their ancient culture which existed even before tea drinking became popular. The trees are grown to full height and therefore have a higher antioxidant level. No cultivation is involved as the trees are part of the local ecosystem. Traditionally Suoi Gang is quite a strong local brew, however, there has been investment in this Fairtrade project which has helped to refine the flavour and create a delicious smooth tea.

Award Winning Teas

Posting this a little late (as it happened last month!), but good news! Pukka won BEST NEW ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCT at the Natural and Organic Products award for our new After Diner Tea. After Dinner is a deliciously rich and full-bodied blend of bitter-sweet digestive herbs including organic fennel, chicory and cardamom.  Perfect sipped after a meal to help soothe and support the digestive system.

Certified organic by the Soil Association.