Until I had my little traffic incident, it had been a wonderful day. An esthetician friend had given me a free waxing service ("So you don't have to worry about that when you go into the hospital")...
...and I'd enjoyed a lovely brunch with two of my favorite LA blogging friends: Cynthia Liu (@Cyn3matic) and Liz Dwyer (@losangelista)... and Eric Schnell, one of the founders of the natural beverage company that makes Steaz Teaz.
To be perfectly honest, I'd never before heard of the product... but I was dreading my hospital visit and the meeting was the perfect excuse to have a little fun before I submitted myself to the UFE procedure. Besides, it was set up by the fabulous Kim Moldofsky, who works with several food companies. She's the one who hooked us up with the diet-busting Eli's cheesecake we enjoyed at our Inaugural viewing party back in January -- so if she says a product is good, I tend to believe her. Besides, she assured me that "lunch with [Eric] would be quite interesting."
And he was:
Eric and his staff told me that Steaz has been available for some time in Whole Foods Markets and locally at high end stores like Gelson's. These are places I shop regularly, so I wondered why they weren't on my radar. Then I looked at the tea labels and saw that most of the flavors are sweetened with pure cane sugar. That's a wonderful thing for taste -- but it was a no-no when I was on my weight-loss regimen and I still shy away from any beverage that isn't labeled "diet." And Whole Foods doesn't sell beverages containing NutraSweet or Splenda.
Then I was handed a new Steaz product: a zero calorie sparkling tea drink that's sweetened with natural Stevia. And it was good.
Now, I've never been particularly picky about food. I have always seen the virtues of buying healthy/organic, but was skeptical about claims that natural foods are necessarily superior. I have never been shy about using packaged shortcuts. Most of the time, I'm just happy to get dinner on the table.
But after six months without a kitchen, I may have developed a new attitude. I am sick of pre-packaged, frozen, and take-out meals. I long to be part of the slow food movement, even though I realize I'm too time-constrained for that to ever happen. While biding my time during our home renovation, I've been busy plotting new meal strategies that rely on visits to farmer's markets. I'm even planning to do more vegetarian/vegan meals. I don't think I'd ever go that route completely, but intellectually, I understand why vegan makes sense for the planet. If I cut down on meat consumption just once a week, it's a contribution. A small one, but a start.
As for meat, the one kind of home-cooked meal we have allowed ourselves these last six months is chicken cooked on the outdoor grill, and I recently came to the conclusion that free-range organic DOES taste better than Foster Farms.
So I'm coming around.
Eric described Steaz as a "triple bottom-line company." By that, he means their long-term objective goes beyond mere Profits. They aspire to benefit People by only purchasing commodities that are Fair Trade (and providing the farmers who grow their tea with a living wage), and they have created manufacturing and distribution systems that are carbon-neutral, thereby helping the Planet. I find this business philosophy very appealing, and would like to see more companies try it. That will only happen if the business model proves to be profitable.
And Steaz is on its way: They've gone big-time this month with a national distribution deal at Target.
We left the brunch with a little goodie bag of Steaz samples. I enjoyed the unsweetened tea drink so much that I made my husband buy me more while I was recuperating from my hospital stay. And my daughter really loved the sugar-sweetened drinks.
I'm now a Steaz believer, and I liked the product so much that I asked Kim if I could do a giveaway here on the blog. So here are the details: I'm going to keep comments open on this post for the rest of the week, and on Monday, I'll select one commenter at random to receive a Steaz gift box and a $10 gift card you can use to buy more Steaz at Target.
In the meantime, Steaz is running a buy one, get one free promotion. Download the coupon here.
DISCLOSURE: I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. I did receive about a dozen cans of beverage products. I made no promises or guarantees about the content of this post, nor did I promise anyone to expect a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.
NOVEMBER 24: WE HAVE A WINNER! CONGRATULATIONS, COMMENTER MARY ELLEN. A STEAZ GIFT PACK IS COMING YOUR WAY.
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