True Origin Organics brings us the first exclusively single-origin organic Colombian coffee that is harvested, roasted, and packaged by Colombian coffee experts to the U.S. Their coffee hails from two distinct regions. One from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which is located on Colombia’s Caribbean coast,  an area known for coffee, according to True Origin, that :has  an intense and sweet aroma with citric and caramel notes. It has a balanced flavor with distinct hints of chocolate and walnuts. Full bodied, with moderate acidity and a clean, smooth aftertaste. It uses a moderately dark, crisp roast.” While the other hails from Tierradentro which is an inland region of Columbia.

They describe their second coffee as having a powerful, sweet aroma with fruits and floral notes. It’s well balanced and has hints of caramel. It’s creamy in body with medium-high acidity and has a long-lasting aftertaste. It uses a medium jungle roast.

You can get either of their coffees in whole beans or ground. I would suggest whole beans so you can grind them as you need to so as to preserve their freshness. Only a small amount of ground beans will be needed as these are two wonderfully flavorful choices.  Find out more online at trueoriginorganics.com!

In the same vein as Chiapas Farms, Pura Vida specializes in superior fair trade coffees finely crafted from 100% Arabica beans handpicked in the mountains of one of the world’s premier coffee growing regions and then slow roasted in small patches.

Pura Vida has a variety of blends from light ones (Breakfast Blend for example), to Medium ones like their House Blend and Ethiopian Blend, and Dark ones like their French Roast and Espresso Milano. No matter which you pick however each Pura Vida product you buy helps the company succeed in their mission to “create good.” Pura Vida provides over 1,400 hot, nutritious meals each week to hungry children in  San Jose, Costa Rica in the hopes of keeping them off the streets. They also provide education opportunities to children in Guatemala and Costa Rica through computer centers, scholarships, after school programs, and transportation to schools.

To learn more about their blends and their mission click here.

Cafe de Chiapas brand coffee is made from a single organic/fair trade cooperative in the highlands of the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas. It has a wonderfully nutty and buttery taste with a smooth, slightly sweet finish making it a great morning pick-me-up. The full-bodied, 100% Organic/Fair Trade Arabica coffee is roasted in Austin, TX and recently made its debut at the All Things Organic Trade Show in Chicago in June.

Check their site in the coming weeks as their dark and medium roasts will soon be up for sale at www.chiapasfarms.com!

Equator Estate Coffees & Teas is a women–owned company, co-founded in 1995 by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell with a mission to “continue to be a growing, customer-centric company, dedicated to quality, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility with a commitment to procuring distinctive coffees from growers who practice responsible land stewardship and bio-friendly farming techniques.” With that in mind Equator has just launched Chido’s Blend, a blend of three African coffee beans with 100% of the profits supporting the work of Chido Govero, a 23 year old woman from rural Zimbabwe who is training her fellow orphan girls to grow critically-needed food using little more than coffee pulp and grass clippings.

Govero, who is pictured on the label, will use proceeds to build housing as well as to support training program in many coffee-growing countries.

Chido’s Blend has floral and fruity notes, supple spice and wood flavors and retails for $13.95. Learn more and support the cause by clicking here!

PureVia is a new all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener made from the stevia plant and they just launched a new ad campaign with health icon and volleyball player Gabrielle Reece!

The sweatner launched a few months ago in grocery and mass merchandise stores across the U.S. and it is specially blended to complement the flavor of coffee made from the Arabica bean, the new standard for premium coffee. In addition to coffee, PureVia can be used to sweeten other hot or cold drinks or sprinkled on cereal, fruit or yogurt.

To boot it’s suitable for diabetics and individuals with gluten allergies. PureVia is offered in 40-, 80- and 300-stick cartons for $3.99, $6.99 and $15.99, respectively.

Naked Juice has just announced that it has become the first nationally-distributed brand to transition to a 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.

Naked Juice expects to have its entire product line transitioned to the 100% post-consumer recycled bottles in 2010, starting by converting all of its 32 ounce bottles this month (Green Machine, Blue Machine, Mighty Mango, Chai Spiced Cider, Pomegranate Blueberry, and Protein Zone which is launching in August).

Simply put, it’s a bottle made from other bottles! The initial 32 ounce bottle transition reduces virgin plastic consumption by 1 million pounds per year and oil use by 8,192 barrels every year – the equivalent of taking 497 cars off of the road.  When Naked Juice finishes transitioning its entire line, virgin plastic consumption will be reduced by 8.1 million pounds per year, saving 57,000 barrels of oil every year – the equivalent of taking 3,460 cars off of the road!

I have yet to see the bottles in person, but I’m loving the clear packaging look from the photos (versus the opaque one before).  Plus they’re going to be coming out with a bunch of delicious sounding new, healthy flavors in the fall!

Have you heard of the baobab fruit? Already, foodies are touting it as the”super fruit” for 2009 and it’s not yet available in the United States.

Grown in Africa, the fruit comes from the adansonia digitata, or”upside-down” tree. The word “baobab” means “monkeybread.” It’s reported that it tastes like a melon, and is a good source of riboflavin.

Perhaps you’ll see it in your local food store sometime this year. What you can find there already is the simple almond, though. Described as the “good-for-the-gut net,” almonds improve digestion and increase levels of good bacteria in the digestive tract. Eating just 25 almonds each day could boost your immune system. And this is true for this year and beyond.

Janet Muniz

(photo credit: idua_japan)

O.K., it’s the new year and I’m working on a new me, so I’ve decided to return to counting every step I take each day. My goal: 10,000, which is the recommended number of steps to maintain proper weight and health.

One of the cool things about counting steps is that you can go shopping for the new gadget to count them: the pedometer. I happen to have three of them in my drawer, given to me as a gift with purchase of walking shoes and hiking boots.

One of them actually talks to you. So, that’s the one I choose.

It’s actually called a Talking Pedometer, part of the Walking Shop by Sportline. I’ve used other pedometers made by Sportline; they’re relatively inexpensive and are pretty accurate, once you input your statistics.

It’s pretty darn fun to hear, “You have walked 1,000 steps;” “You have burned 100 calories;” “You have walked 2.5 miles;” every time you take that step, so to speak.

I’ve been talking back to my pedometer.

I say, “Really? Thank you so much.”

This way, I’m not only working on maintaining my wellness, I’m working on my gratitude, too.

Janet Muniz

You may have sneezed your way through winter, but the spring allergy season is already here. Get readyahhh-chew!

Sneezing. Watery eyes. Elevated asthma symptoms. All because nature is waking up, flowers and other plants are blooming, and you’re probably spending a little more time outdoors, too.

Spring is a very busy time for allergists, so if you visit one you may want to be prepared for the appointment by writing down any new symptoms you’re experiencing as well as reviewing your current therapy.

You can also visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology for information on all things AAAAI, including recommendations for an allergist in your area. This just may be the year I take the plunge and make an appointment, as I wore out a lot of tissues in two different states sneezing my head off. It’s exhausting, and you never know when an attack may bother you.

Who knows, you may just enjoy nature’s re-birth instead of suffering through it!

Janet Muniz

(photo credit: aheatwole)