On the same day that I realized I was travelling with a 6 year old wing man, I discovered a few new businesses on the 4th Street Promenade, aka 104th Street, north of Jasper Avenue. This is a cute part of downtown mostly containing places to eat and drink, including Blue Plate Diner (yummmm...). It is also the area where the Downtown Farmer's Market is held on Saturdays. I wanted to check out Carbon Environmental Boutique, which I had read about on the Alberta Boostr website. Carbon is a local small business that provides consumers with safe and environmentally friendly products from cosmetics and hygiene products to mattresses to toys to cookware. I personally go back and forth on using "safe" products and filling my body with chemicals but i have a few friends who are very dedicated to limiting their exposure to potentially harmful products so I wanted to check it out. Given that I was there with Jimmy, I couldn't spend too much time browsing but I did have a good look around and they really do carry everything you could possibly imagine. You are limited, obviously, to only a few brands but there is a huge variety in the types of items you can find here. I bought a shave gel from Alba Botanicals, which is a brand I was already familiar with, and I felt like it was priced comparatively to what I would have paid for the same thing at Planet Organic (around $8). Obviously you're not going to find $0.99 Barbasol here! The guy working the day I was there wasn't particularly helpful or friendly but I also didn't seek out help so I'm not going to judge him too harshly on his customer service. I didn't see anything that really caught my eye or got my attention in a "I hadn't considered that before!" kind of way. Most of the products that they sell, I already get other places. However, if you're looking for something specific that you can't readily find in your usual haunts, I bet Carbon's got it. I would especially recommend it if you are a parent looking for baby/kids items.
Just a few doors down from Carbon, I found my new coffee love, Credo. I'm doing this silly thing where I'm trying to limit my sugar and cut out processed sugar completely so I now have to be a little more selective about what I have added to my latte. So I had to ask my awkward question of "Um, is the chocolate in your mocha syrup dark chocolate and do you add any extra sugar to the drink?" And the lovely Credo girl said, "no, we actually melt dark chocolate and add it to the milk." Well, HELL-O! That is so much better than what I was willing to settle for! Not only did Credo's coffee turn out to be delicious but it's also Direct Trade, which, according to their website, has much stricter requirements than regular fair trade. Purchasing ethical products is something I am trying to be more conscious of, particularly after some of my traveling adventures in the developing world. While I am not always successful at it, I do try to shop ethically when I can and I love it when I find somewhere that I can support that also believes in ensuring that our luxuries aren't coming at the expense of someone else's suffering. Check out Credo's website for more information about their coffee and where it comes from and definitely go support this fantastic local cafe!
Learning about the meaning of Direct Trade never would have happened if I had been at the mall!
Just a few doors down from Carbon, I found my new coffee love, Credo. I'm doing this silly thing where I'm trying to limit my sugar and cut out processed sugar completely so I now have to be a little more selective about what I have added to my latte. So I had to ask my awkward question of "Um, is the chocolate in your mocha syrup dark chocolate and do you add any extra sugar to the drink?" And the lovely Credo girl said, "no, we actually melt dark chocolate and add it to the milk." Well, HELL-O! That is so much better than what I was willing to settle for! Not only did Credo's coffee turn out to be delicious but it's also Direct Trade, which, according to their website, has much stricter requirements than regular fair trade. Purchasing ethical products is something I am trying to be more conscious of, particularly after some of my traveling adventures in the developing world. While I am not always successful at it, I do try to shop ethically when I can and I love it when I find somewhere that I can support that also believes in ensuring that our luxuries aren't coming at the expense of someone else's suffering. Check out Credo's website for more information about their coffee and where it comes from and definitely go support this fantastic local cafe!
Learning about the meaning of Direct Trade never would have happened if I had been at the mall!
No comments:
Post a Comment