Starbucks: people either love ‘em or loathe ‘em. My husband likes their coffee and admires their business brains. I, on the other hand, can’t stand them for their homogenized, yuppie style. Having grown up in grunge-era Seattle, once a land of artsy coffee shops crammed with kitschy sofas and local color, cookie-cutter Starbucks look to me like a department store: void of soul and chock-full of useless merchandise.

But how bad is Starbucks, really? I decided to find out.

1. Clean water is such a precious commodity in the world …

Tags: barista , coffee , corporate power , disposables , drink , fair trade , food and beverage , greenwash , starbucks , waste

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Triple Certified coffee – the gourmet, deluxe, connoisseur’s brew. Coffee that’s organic, fair trade and shade grown. Coffee that’s good for the people, the forest and the birds.

Here’s a guide to the cream of the cup. These sites are worth browsing for the grower’s stories and photos of the people and the farms.

Café Altura
Café Canopy
Café Fair
Caffe Ibis
Café Mam
Coffee-Tea-Etc
Dean’s Beans
The Groovy Mind
Grounds for Change
Heine Brothers Coffee
Higher …

Tags: coffee , drink , fair trade , food , organic , songbirds , triple certified

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Not everyone has the space or budget for a large thermal wine cooler in their pad. Here’s a practical way to chill that organic vino and rescue the dying cork stopper industry at the same time.

The Cork Bark Wine Chiller from Bitters Co. is from and features unglazed terracotta wrapped with an outer layer of natural cork bark ($46). It cools your bottle by insulating it with these layers and lends some earthy style at the same time.

The way of life for Mediterranean cork harvesters has become …

Tags: cork , drink , gift , lifestyle , medicine , organic , organic farming , reduce , wine

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It’s one thing to go organic, but many California wineries are taking sustainability to another level. From ground to glass, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) is ensuring that Californian vintners are known not only for quality organic wines, but for being leaders in the movement towards sustainable agriculture.

Some of the recommendations put forth by the CSWA for Californian vintners are:

Embrace alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind and biodegradable fuels.

Be at the forefront in habitat restoration and preservation efforts.

Use green building materials ““ straw bale, rammed earth, …

Tags: biodynamic , CSWA , drink , environment , lifestyle , organic , sustainable , wine

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Although coffee gets a bad rap, it’s actually a medicinal food. In fact, this stimulating bean isn’t nearly so bad as we’ve all been taught. Although I’m skeptical about grande latte supplementation in the long run (it’s a drug, after all), I found myself surprised by much of the science on coffee. Poor Ponce de Leon; all this time he should have been searching for the espresso machine.

Step aside, acai. Here are 20 surprising health benefits of coffee.

Apparently, …

Tags: coffee , drink , fair trade , health , indulgence

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I’m not a soda drinker. Too much sugar and sodium benzoate (which has been proven to cause cell damage). But last year I discovered a product that seems to be flying off shelves in natural food markets and traditional ones alike: IZZE Sparkling Juice.

It comes in such flavors as pomegranate, apple, blueberry, clementine, peach, and my all-time favorite: grapefruit. All products are made with pure fruit juice from concentrate and sparkling water. And a portion of IZZE’s proceeds go to numerous philantrhopic organizations …

Tags: drink , fruit juice , IZZE , soda alternatives , wellness

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If you’re thinking that the last few months have been the toughest of an increasingly problematic year for most of the world – you’re not wrong. But there’s a silver lining: conditions are also perfect for innovation, redesign, a flourishing in all walks of life. Julia Levitt explains over at Worldchanging exactly why the signs are good.

Forty years ago, human beings watched the Earth rise about the horizon of another world (or more accurately, a Moon). The most poignant image of humanity’s home, a fragile-looking blue-green …

Tags: decor , drink , lifestyle , news , technology , wellness

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Having happily sworn off bottled water in favor of refillable pitcher filters (like Brita or Pur), many of us save countless plastic bottles from the landfill. But now we have bulky plastic filters to throw out every couple of months. Sure, it’s less trash than bottles, but still, what gives?

Take Back The Filter has launched a campaign pushing Clorox (the owners of Brita) to either set up a filter recycling program or create a reusable filter with a permanent housing, in which you only have to replace the environmentally-safe carbon granules …

Tags: accessory , appliance , drink , innovation , kitchen , recycled , reuse , sustainable , wellness

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‘Tis the season…to have cold hands.

I’m convinced mulled wine was invented as a handwarmer in the depths of winter. It first pops up in the history books around 400 CE, although its European medieval name of Hipocris harks back to Hippocrates, the Ancient Greek “father of medicine” – and it’s not hard to imagine Celtic Mead being dangled over the fire for an extra-warming kick. Nowadays, mulled wine is a popular winter drink across much of northern Europe. For example, in …

Tags: drink , mead , organic wine , Recipe , wellness , wine

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