BizzleLuvin
03-24-2006, 12:44 PM
I made a vow earlier in the year to consume only organic, free-trade tea and coffee, only organic soymilk and rbgh-free dairy products. I'm a big tea drinker .I'm quite the tea bigot, to be honest. you can get a cup of tea anywhere- from a hotel lobby to the police station (i know this first-hand). but its hard to get a high-quality cup and even harder to find one thats organic and free-trade. I prefer to steep the tea myself- not buying it in a bottle or having it prepared by a waitress.
so anyway, im on this never-ending quest to find a good cup of OFT (organic, free-trade) tea. every time i go to a new coffee shop or tea house (and there are a LOT of them in Annapolis), I ask if they serve OFT and rgbh-free tea, coffee, soy milk and dairy. i either get one of the four responses: 1) an indignant snort 'no, we dont serve that here' 2) a puzzled look and 'what's that' 3) a 'i'll go ask the manager' and a waitress that never returns with her response, 4) and on rare occasions 'yes, we do...what kind would u like'.
I had been to nearly ever shop in annapolis and to no avail have i ever found my holy grail cup of tea- untill i walked into this monolithic place called Hard Bean and Booksellers. Most of the time I ignored this place because from the outside, it looks like just another commercial Starbucks (and starbucks rarely brews or serves OFT products and charges me extra for organic soy-milk), so i was hesitant to give it a try. but when i walked in and asked the question 'do you serve organic and free-trade products?' the cashier smiled, cocked her head and said with great confidence 'of course! everything here is! from our sugar to the cotton smocks we wear. i promise'. those were her exact words! i almost leaped over the counter and kissed her. so anyway, i enjoyed a delicious and hard-to-find cup of Puh-erh OFT green tea. I was so happy that i told the cashier to compliment the manager for supporting the OFT, vegan, organic, vegetarian lifestyle. i also bough a bumper sticker and a go mug, since my previous one had STARBUCKS printed all over it. yay for Hard Bean, my new favorite coffee shop!
so anyway, im on this never-ending quest to find a good cup of OFT (organic, free-trade) tea. every time i go to a new coffee shop or tea house (and there are a LOT of them in Annapolis), I ask if they serve OFT and rgbh-free tea, coffee, soy milk and dairy. i either get one of the four responses: 1) an indignant snort 'no, we dont serve that here' 2) a puzzled look and 'what's that' 3) a 'i'll go ask the manager' and a waitress that never returns with her response, 4) and on rare occasions 'yes, we do...what kind would u like'.
I had been to nearly ever shop in annapolis and to no avail have i ever found my holy grail cup of tea- untill i walked into this monolithic place called Hard Bean and Booksellers. Most of the time I ignored this place because from the outside, it looks like just another commercial Starbucks (and starbucks rarely brews or serves OFT products and charges me extra for organic soy-milk), so i was hesitant to give it a try. but when i walked in and asked the question 'do you serve organic and free-trade products?' the cashier smiled, cocked her head and said with great confidence 'of course! everything here is! from our sugar to the cotton smocks we wear. i promise'. those were her exact words! i almost leaped over the counter and kissed her. so anyway, i enjoyed a delicious and hard-to-find cup of Puh-erh OFT green tea. I was so happy that i told the cashier to compliment the manager for supporting the OFT, vegan, organic, vegetarian lifestyle. i also bough a bumper sticker and a go mug, since my previous one had STARBUCKS printed all over it. yay for Hard Bean, my new favorite coffee shop!