Conclusion- Letting the thoughts steep

Through this assignment i have learned a great deal about the commodity chain associated with Red-Rose Tea. This particular brand of Tea, which is partly owned by Unilever and partly by Redco Foods, sources its tea from high end estates in over four countries, with the main one being the UTK owned Kericho tea estate.

Tea has a variety of health benefits and appealing flavors which assist in enticing consumers and in the forging of an individual and collective identity where tea is assigned some value through routine and historical means.

Commodity Chains show us that there is never just a self-existing product. All products do not exist in a vacuum, but rather there is an entire world of  space and place in play. The history behind these items may lend itself to the commodity but more often than not, the fetishization of the commodity obscures the historical tracing of a product. In a lot of cases, for the conscious purchaser, knowledge of a product's history will actually negate the buying of a product in favour of another type of brand.

What was most interesting was how difficult it is to obtain information. Emails not returned, calls unanswered. It definitely shows how detracted we as consumers are from the process that devises our foods and the way in which these foods reach us. Even the groceries cannot give sufficient information at times. I did speak (through Facebook) to a representative named Abby who was able to help (Thanks Abby) but this came too late to be of much assistance. 

REFERENCES:

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• 1.       1992. "Which tea is best?." Consumer Reports 57, no. 7: 468. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 4, 2014
  2.       Bell, J. 1995. "All the tea of Kenya." Tea And Coffee Trade Journal 167, no. 10: 24. FSTA - Food Science and Technology Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed April 2, 2014).
  3.       Challies, Edward R. T. 2008. "Commodity Chains, Rural Development and the Global Agri‐food System." Geography Compass 2, no. 2: 375-394. E-Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed March 30, 2014).
  4.       Hindmarch I, Quinlan PT, Moore KL, Parkin C. The effects of black tea and other beverages on aspects of cognition and psychomotor performance. Psychopharmacol. 1998;139:230-238.
  5.       Karanja, Andrew M., Arie Kuyvenhoven, and Henk A.J. Moll. 2003. "Economic Reforms and Evolution of Producer Prices in Kenya: An ARCH‐M Approach." African Development Review 15, no. 3: 271-296. E-Journals
  6.       Le Heron, Richard B., and Christina Stringer. 2008. Agri-food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008. eBook Business Collection Trial, EBSCOhost (accessed April 2, 2014).
  7.       Nobre AC, Rao AR, Owen GN. L-theanine, a natural constituent in tea, and its effect on mental state. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2008;17:167-168.
  8.       Okal, A. W., P. O. Owuor, D. M. Kamau, and L. O. A. Mang'uro. 2012. "Effects of production locations and plucking intervals on clonal tea fatty acids levels in the Kenya highlands." Food Science And Technology Research 18, no. 3: 351-356. FSTA - Food Science and Technology Abstracts,
  9.       Seurei, P. 1997. "Tea improvement in Kenya: progress, constraints and prospects." Tea 18, no. 2: 87-100. FSTA - Food Science and Technology Abstracts
  10.   Talbot, John. 2002. "Tropical commodity chains, forward integration strategies and international inequality: coffee, cocoa and tea." Review Of International Political Economy 9, no. 4: 701-734.

Picture Sources:

* Most pictures (except for those specified below) were sourced from Red Rose's Official Websites- i.e. the Canadian website and the American Website (redrosetea.ca and redrosetea.com respectively)

* The Red Rose Tea Logo (first post) was sourced from tea.wikia.com

*The Lipton Tea-Kericho Gardens picture in the post "Where is it grown?" was sourced from www.triplepundit.com

*The picture depicting Tea blending in "Tree-->Leaf--->Tea" was sourced from  Christopherstea.wordpress.com

* The picture of Unilever Kenya in "Social and Environmental Conditions" was sourced from virtualtourist.com

*The picture of Commodities in "What does Tea mean to you?" was sourced from anticap.wordpress.com