Fair Trade In Assorted Flavours

Flavours of Life brings fruits of labor from far away, enhancing the lives of people from places such as Africa, India and Asia, while doing the same for buyers of their handmade goods at New London’s fair trade store at 86 Bank St.

With $500 and a tent, Flavours of Life began in 2004, selling fair trade crafts at markets and festivals. The shop, now in its second, more spacious locale, on Bank Street rightfully takes the claim as the only fair trade store in Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Put Flavours of Life on your list of regular shopping places, as you will find it is a perfect place to buy gifts and goods for loved ones and for yourself. Beyond its sunny storefront and within its interior brick walls, the shop carries an eclectic and colorful array of clothes, jewelry, ornaments, books, chocolate, coffee, cards, chimes, wall art and more.

The store’s marketing material best describes this business of fair trade as “an international movement that puts people before profits and seeks to use trade as a force for positive change. It is an alternative way of doing business, one that builds equitable partnerships between western consumers and producers in developing regions of the world.”  

And why? “Because it offers respect and dignity to all—from producer to the consumer. It is a basic human right.”

The store works with certified fair trade artisan groups, such as Global Mamas from Cape Coast, Ghana, a long-ago center for slave trading that now offers its people long-deserved respect. The group makes goods that include batiked ties and bibs, selling for $10 and $8, respectively.

Beautifully handcrafted baskets in swirls of gorgeous colors emit the smoky scent of wood fires that their South African weavers use for communal cooking. The artisans, known as Zulu Weavers, transform spooled, colorful telephone wire that had not yet been used for communication – only to become obsolete with the advent of cell phones – into bowls and baskets, from big to small, selling from $20 to $150.

Handbags sell for $13 and up to $34 for those with pretty appliqués made by Appliqué Artisans Group, a loose-knit, 270-strong women’s cooperative in desert villages of Rajasthan in northern India.

The store carries an array of necklaces, bracelets and earrings, with many selling for under $25, such as a fashionable tri-color cuff for $13 from the Ana Art Group in western Rajasthan. For $20, you’ll find a Happy Feet Box Set, with a pumice stone and jasmine soap in the shape of feet and arranged in a lovely cloth box by the artisans of Zen-Zen of Bali, Indonesia.

Fair trade is not charity—it’s a truly wonderful way to help others help themselves and a perfect avenue to open your heart and your mind to cultures around the world.