Officially March ended today with a balmy Sunday in Seattle! I almost perspired while walking down 3rd Avenue to pick up my organic grapefruit, bananas and blueberries… that’s right I am a juicer! In Seattle, you get your sunshine however you can – my choice is through fruit that was grown in the sunshine!
Seattle is a mecca for “Organic” products from our coffee at Green Leaf Cafe in Belltown to our grocers like Kreiss. I have eaten and sipped the non-organic products being a native of Houston, Texas but I can’t get any products from Houston here unless I order online and wait and wait some more. So – in the name of the goddess of impatience I just buy the organic products and keep my day moving.
I remember the first day I actually crossed over to the Organic Side of Life. I was in need of coffee and there was no Starbuck’s in sight – amazing I know! There I was right across the street from KOMO News and all I had to choose from for coffee was the 7-Eleven or the organic Green Leaf Cafe. So, knowing that the young man at 7-Eleven most likely has cooties I went for the Green Leaf Cafe with some double tall sized trepidation. I had met one of the owners who seemed like a nice young man a couple of weeks before – so with no other option I took the plunge…
In I walked and a nice young lady was manning the cash register. I smelled nothing amiss and everything looked clean including her. I didn’t see the owner so I asked for a small coffee not asking for any additional information and not making eye contact. The young lady told me the price was $1.73 – so I handed her my Rushcard and looked the other way as she swiped it. After signing my receipt and adding a $1.00 tip for the cashier I went to fill my empty SOLO cup with “ORGANIC” coffee and as if my ordeal had not stressed me out enough now I had to choose between:<br>
- Organic Half and Half
- Organic 20% Milk
- Organic Whole Milk
- Organic Sugar
- Organic Raw Sugar
Yikes! Just when I was comfy with Equal and Nestle Coffee Mate!
Well, I went for the Organic Whole Milk and the Organic Raw Sugar (brown crystals). I sniffed the coffee – didn’t really smell any aroma… stirred all the ingredients, popped on a lid and strolled back out into the misting Seattle rain drift, with the words of the cashiers parting words trailing me, “You can get a refill later for .50 cents if you like. Although I find 50 Cent the rapper divine – I wasn’t certain about the Organic coffee just yet… so I hurriedly entered the mist with the Organic coffee clutched in my right hand and my feet striking the pavement as I hurried to distance myself from the Green Leaf Cafe. Once I had crossed the street and stood waiting for the number 3 route to talk me to Cherry Hill I investigated my Organic coffee, slowly I sniffed again – nothing out of the ordinary, next I took the stirrer from the cup and tasted the bottom gingerly – tasted okay. So, I closed my eyes and took a sip – not bad, different, but not bad… Well, before you know it I was sipping without a care in the world and was shocked when I went for another sip and my cup was empty and I was still alive.
All of that anxiety for nothing, I am not a tree hugger now, the organic coffee did not transform me into a new-age hipster and I have no desire to date nerdy, fat boys who drive beamers… I am still myself but I have now added to my life another color for my palette – organic coffee.
There is nothing wrong with trying new things – I wouldn’t recommend it in a moment of anxiety or despair but trying new things can be interesting to say the least. I even introduced a friend to the Green Leaf Cafe the next day and he ordered the Organic green tea with Organic Agave syrup – he liked it… I just had another coffee. Alex, one of the owners also told me that Green Leaf Cafe also specializes in:
- Organic Rice Milk
- Organic Sour Dough Bread
- Organic Croissants
- Organic Pro Bars
- and uses Planet Earth eco-friendly cups and containers
The owners of Green Leaf Cafe are Alex Allred and Bao Nguyen two young men with a dream to give Seattle hipsters and others what they want – Organic products! They are located at 2720 3rd. Avenue, Seattle, 98121 or find them on the web at http://www.thegreenleafcafe.com.
To celebrate April, I am going to check out a little restaurant up on Fourth Avenue that was host to the Pacific NW Grammy club this past February 22nd…it looked fabulous! Well, see you next week stay tuned…
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