A Stash Of A Different Kind

My friend Linda with whom we stayed the past week, is a tea lover, never drinks coffee. I on the other hand love both having grown up in Australia we almost always drank tea, even young children were allowed to drink diluted tea with half milk and perhaps a dash of honey or sugar!
I learned to love good coffee in nursing school in Sydney, even way back then the Italian influence had created an espresso culture so that even country towns seemed to have espresso available. When I first came to the USA I was surprised that espresso was almost unheard of in 1970, so it was a real treat to find it on occasion, of course now we find it everywhere on practically every corner.
On our visit to Celestial Seasonings in CO. Springs we were like kids in a candy store so much tea of every variety, many herbal and fruit infusions without caffeine at all and I had to drag myself out of the gift store!

 This was my restrained purchase, most of them on sale because whenever a box is slightly imperfect it is removed from regular retail sale and sold at a discount in the gift store.  Apparently when the company was founded the herbals were all called "infusions" but the public was not familiar with this term so they switched to calling them tea even though many contain no tea at all and are by nature caffeine free.
I was happy to find Earl Grey, my personal favorite I really like the bergamot infusion in this tea. African Rooibus is another lovely "tea" also naturally caffeine free. Chai oh how I love Chai and I have several versions of it, so wonderfully satisfying especially made with milk or Almond Silk rather than water and with a dash of honey it tastes very decadent almost like dessert without all the bad stuff! I tried a new [to me] milk substitute Almond/Coconut Silk and liked it very well, so I will be looking for it in my local stores.

With this new addition to my tea stash I needed to re-organize my current teas and infusions which were tumbled higgledy piggledly on the pantry shelf. The Billy tea is a basic Aussie tea, bulk as is my preference, it is black and only mildly fragrant. Quite an assortment  but that's not all.

In this messy basket above are loose teas many of which I purchase from my local tea shop Souvia where they have walls of tins of bulk teas and herbals which they mix to form different flavors, Earl Grey with lavender is one I really like, it's a very elegant tea. At a local Vietnamese restaurant The Tea Light Cafe, the owner's wife mixes the teas they sell and the pomegranate is my favorite- it is not a caffeine free version.

 More of my current collection two different chais there! The Good Earth is a naturally sweet beverage, quite sweet in fact.

These are plain old black tea bags which DH prefers.

Celestial Seasonings also manufactures a wide range of body care products many of them under the Jason brand and Alba and Avalon organics.

 Having read a lot about all the chemical additives in nearly every product we buy I am concerned not only about what goes into our bodies but what we put on them. The skin is the body's largest organ and as such transfers all the chemicals it encounters. Not much has been talked about in the media on transdermal absorption but my MD and NMD have both warned about several chemicals like sulfates, sodium lauryl sulfate is in almost every liquid soap and shampoo though many companies are getting the word that many consumers prefer products without this particular sudsing agent. There are other efficient sudsing agents but this is the cheapest and so most widely used. I prefer bar soap and avoid the liquids as much as possible, those I buy do not have sulfates, or other chemicals only pure herbals usually organic but that's a subject for another post.

 Aluminum in various forms is in most deodorants and I have been on a search for one that is efficient but cleaner. This one I purchased at Celestial Seasonings is very reasonable and seems to be working well so far and it is summer!

The dermatologist says I should have a body lotion with sunscreen and without parabens another toxic chemical, and this body lotion with SPF at $16.00 is about $6-8 dollars less from the CS gift store than even from Amazon. I have also used their excellent shampoos and lotions, lip salves etc etc plus this body lotion with 15 SPF -prices in the gift shop are way discounted.

Final purchase was these two heat sensitive mugs, the colors change as the mug heats up with the beverage. I flew in without a carryon but I needed one on the return!
All in all I can recommend a visit to the Celestial Seasonings plant any time you are in the Denver/Boulder area of Colorado. Leave room in your bag to add your swag!