May 1968 tea: A French revolution in retail

Paris: The times are changing in Paris, where a luxury foodstore is offering a "May 68" brand of tea to commemorate riots 40 years ago in which anti-capitalist students hurled cobblestones at police.

"Tea with a flavour of revolution", says the chic Fauchon in a statement announcing the launch of the collector item.

The tea, flavoured with lemon zest and rose petals, is packaged in a metal tin emblazoned with the image of a student with a raised fist and slogans from the riots such as It is forbidden to forbid and Poetry is in the street. The cost is 15 euros ($23.5) for 100 grams of tea.

All things related to the 1968 riots are fashionable in France in the build-up to the 40th anniversary, and the media is awash with programming on the student uprising.

There is a certain irony in Fauchon's decision to endorse the spirit of May 1968 with its commemorative tea.

The flagship Fauchon store in central Paris was attacked in May 1970, when the 1968 riots were still reverberating through French society, by a commando of Maoists who looted foie gras and other fine foods to redistribute them to the poor.