Cleansers and Coffee

Decided to use an organic soap on Bruno this evening for his bath. Dr Bronner's castille soap - organic, SLS free and smells heavenly. Check out the link here. Lavender did seem to have a calming effect on Bruno as he seemed a lot calmer after the bath!

These wonderful soaps are now available at selected Guardian pharmacies. The other scents - peppermint and almond are my other favourites!

On the topic of organic cleansers, a friend introduced a new face wash which is also SLS and paraben free. At the retail price, they give Aesop a run for the money.

While searching for cleansers I chanced upon Ah Yuan organic soap which is 100% natural and handmade. Mr Chiang Jung Yuan the founder and soap maker discovered his remedies while making soap for his sensitive skin condition, and they say the rest is history. In taiwan, it has taken only 3 years for his products to be ranked on par with Crabtree and Evelyn, L'Occitane etc in terms of brand presence and price. Read about it here.

I bought the organic oat soap which claims to be good for skins that are oily on the surface and dry underneath. The soap lathers well, and smells wonderful too! I just hope that the soap continues to lather well as it is SLS free.

After all that shopping, I settled for a cuppa at Tully's Coffee (as opposed to my usual fav Starbucks) The extract below is taken from Wikipedia :

Tully's Coffee is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington. Its stores serve specialty coffees, espresso, baked goods, pastries, and coffee-related supplies. Tully's currently has the highest sales of whole bean coffee in grocery and supermarket stores. Tully's Coffee is well known for once following an expansion strategy of opening stores adjacent to the opposing coffee giant Starbucks, also based in Seattle. There's a running joke in Seattle that the easiest way to find a Tully's is to stand in front of a Starbucks and turn around. The busiest Tully's in the world located inside the Boeing Everett factory, near where the 747s are built.

After my first sip of Latte without sugar, I'm sold on Tully's! The coffee was smooth, robust, full-bodied - more european than american. ie not acidic . The milk was full bodied and the coffee smooth - the combination was perfect. My perfect cuppa which made starbucks pale in comparison. Maybe its the beans, or the milk, or the froth. I can't quite put a finger to it. But the coffee was perfect.

If only there were more Tully's...... And I hope they keep this standard. Maybe it's the smaller scale of operation now that helps maintain the high standard they have now.

Price of Tully's is similar to SB, but I'd gladly vote for Tully's now.