Want tea on the go — but don’t want your tea steeping in the plasticky Libretea? There’s a less plasticky option for busy tea lovers: Innate Tea Culture Vaccum Insulated Flask.

This Innate flask lets you steep tea in an all stainless steel environment. The insulated flask is made of stainless steel, as is the removable tea infuser basket.

That said, the Innate flask isn’t totally plastic free. The top black portion’s made with plastic — though the plastic is BPA-free — so once you’re done steeping and start drinking, your hot tea will start touching plastic.

And sadly, the Innate flask’s got other downsides. The holes in the infuser are quite large — and will let through bits and pieces of most tisanes. The cup has no fill-line, which means I have to guesstimate how far I can fill up the cup. Not far enough, and the tea doesn’t actually get infused. Too far, and the cup runneth over when I put in the infuser. I am not good at guessimating, so this is a big problem for me. Last but not least — The cap, described as “leak-proof,” leaks — and I’ve burned my hands a few times as a result.

So I give the Innate flask a C. I still use it occasionally, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Libretea users — How does my experience compare to yours?

If short news articles and clips about fair trade just aren’t cutting it for you, this book’s where you can get a lot of great raw data and serious evaluative studies. Considering the fact that a lot of the impetus behind the fair trade movement relies on anecdotal or single-case stories, the more in-depth, numbers-based studies in this book lend a welcome, somewhat less biased perspective on the problem.

The examples and stories in the essays in this book are less sugarcoated. Because while there are communities where fair trade has shown a clear difference — sent kids to schools, health, community development, empowerment, etc. — that get featured in Fair Trade USA’s brochures, there are also communities that have participated in fair trade programs where concrete changes are tough to see.

One study in the book takes Venezuela as an example. There, fair trade helps mitigate crises and softens economic blows, but the coffee industry’s still full of problems. Farmers are selling 70% via conventional market due to the difficulty of finding buyers — and are struggling for those and other reasons. This study shows that while fair trade can help, a community or country embracing fair trade isn’t necessarily a magic bullet solution that suddenly and significantly improves people’s lives.

In fact, some of the studies more honestly deal with some of the current conflicts between the fair trade model and the organic models — mainly by pointing out that eco-friendly practices aren’t always financially viable, especially in countries where environmental laws are few. One essay studying Veracruz, Mexico notes that the ecofriendliest farms there have the lowest harvest output — not a financially sustainable model, even with the price premiums from organic or fair trade labels.

There is encouraging stuff in these essays too, of course, about increased yield after converting to organic farming — and especially about “intensified” organic farming that can boost yields.

But more than anything, the essays in this book show how complicated everything is. There are, for example, very many different ways of coffee growing — beyond just organic vs. conventional, sustainable vs. technified. And there are many other issues to consider in most coffee growing countries — from the histories of colonialization to transitional farming possibilities to all sorts of other technical and political stuff we usually aren’t faced with in the supermarket when buying a bag of coffee.

The studies do make you wish things were simpler. If only we had solid data — i.e. something like how fair trade certification allowed for an x% incrase in the standard of living of producers — consumer choices would be easier to make. But nothing like that’s available. In fact, what many of the essays emphasize is the necessity of dealing with things on the micro level — looking closely at the diversity of issues, and citing the need for local and regional focus.

Compared to all of that, the current quibbles about fair trade certification seem — small.

Confronting the Coffee Crisis is a heavy read, but there’s lots of interesting stuff to interest the coffee lover — from an essay on the difficult paradoxical work of organic standards inspectors in Oaxaca to a more poetic essay about landscapes. And of course, the book provides a general overview of history of coffee crisis that answers background questions.

Equal Exchange Organic Green Tea. When it comes to no frills green tea that’ll meet your fair trade and organic standards, you can do no better than Equal Exchange’s line. This basic green tea is as simple and direct as its ugly, 90′s-inspired packaging.

Choice Premium Japanese Green Tea. For a more sumptuous treat, go for Choice’s organic tea. This selection’s delicious — with fresh grassy notes and deeper rich aromas too.

Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Dragon Well Green Tea. Even more rich is this fair trade, organic tea from Zhena’s, described as “Authentic West lake Longjing China’s Most Prized Tea. mellow. This is as soft, smooth, and creamy as Chinese green tea can get. Enjoy.

What is your favorite green tea?

Earlier:
>> Tasty teas — that are fair trade and organic too
>> A Taste test of 4 organic rooibos teas

Flower power’s getting redefined. A pretty green company called Lotus Wei has launched a collection of flower essences — described as “energetic infusions of flowers” that have the power to lift moods and brighten spirits. Can what is basically scentless water in which organic flowers once soaked really change how you feel? Well, I’m guessing your answer to that will depend on your current beliefs about aromatherapy, vibrational healing, and “What the Bleep Do We Know?”

What I do know, however, is that chocolate can provide instant calm — which is why I’m really glad Lotus Wei has a sister company called Wei of Chocolate. I met the women behind both companies at Evolue’s party for Environmental Working Group last month — and got to sample some of these eco-ethical treats.

Even flower essence skeptics will love the taste of Wei of Chocolate — deliciously creamy organic, vegan, and fair trade dark chocolates in decadent flavors. My favorite? Wei Love — Chocolate with a kick of cayenne, plus cinnamon, ginger, mace, and maca, all of which give this treat a creamy yet grainy texture.

I also loved Wei Inspired — a mocha-flavored treat, and Wei Gratitude, a chai-spiced dessert. Wei Joyful has a nice citrus flavor, while Wei Relaxed and Wei Pure are both rich and creamy — and milkier, with slightly lower chocolate content.

All Wei of Chocolate flavors are infused with flower essences from Lotus Wei — that are supposed to enhance the feelings the chocolates are named after. After eating a small piece of each flavor, I did indeed feel a little more joyful, relaxed, inspired, and grateful with a little more love for the world — kind of like the way I feel after any delicious organic chocolate treat.

With just 30 calories a piece, Wei of Chocolate won’t guilt your health-conscious mind. I like the way the chocolates melt really slowly in your mouth, so you can really savor each piece for a long time. A 2.25-ounce tube with 9 pieces costs $10 at Wei of Chocolate, while a 6-ounce bag with 24 pieces costs $21. I recommend going for All the Wei — a 6-ounce bag that’s an assortment of all six flavors — to get a taste of each.

As for the Lotus Wei products? Though the claim to fame for the line are the scentless flower essences, Lotus Wei’s serums and energy mists contain sweet-smelling organic essential oils. I got a sample of the Inner Peace mist and have been spraying it intermittenly throughout the day. The gentle spiced lavender scent reminds me to chill out — and works nicely as a not-too-pungent perfume.

After 20 years of addiction, I’ve finally quit coffee — and developed a raging addiction to green tea.

The addiction swap-out, apparently, means great eco-benefits. According to GOOD, a cup of coffee requires 37 gallons of water to make (from growing the coffee, etc.) — while a cup of tea requires just 9 gallons.

That isn’t why I quit coffee though. Though GOOD’s chart compares somewhat similar choices we make in everyday life, I don’t think the lower water use option is necessarily always the choice you “should” make. If it were, we should eat oranges (13 gallons) and shun apples (18 gallons), and always opt of beer (20 gallons) over wine (31 gallons). A healthy, eco-friendly diet, though, requires variety — and in my opinion, a fun factor that makes room for individual taste. Picking fair trade coffee — or an organic apple — seems to me more eco-effective than always going for tea or oranges.

But now I really am always going for green tea over coffee. Why? I finally realized coffee was making me a more anxious, less even-keeled person.

I’d been drinking coffee daily since sixth grade, so I thought my anxiety levels and daily energy highs and crashes were just part of my nature. Coffee was just a normal, daily habit — a morning routine I looked forward to. Until recently, I started each day with three cups of French-pressed organic fair trade coffee — and couldn’t function without it. In fact, when I started my personal green blog, its main focus was coffee — fair trade, organic coffee, to be specific. I did lots of coffee reviews, interviewed movers and shakers in the fair trade coffee world, achieved some eco-notoriety for co-starting a Starbucks Challenge for fair trade coffee, and gave advice on drinking the most eco-ethical cup of coffee.

But about a year ago, when I complained about low-grade anxiety, low energy in the afternoons, and some trouble falling asleep at night, a doctor recommended that I try cutting back my daily habit to just two cups of coffee.

So I did. The result? I still felt my energy dip in the early afternoon, but I felt less anxious and I slept better! In fact, I felt so much better that whenever a friend mentioned anxiety or mood swings or insomnia, I waxed lyrical about how much cutting back on caffeine helped my sense of well-being.

Oddly, this did not spur me to explore actually quitting coffee altogether.

I think part of the resistance was that I’d tried to quit coffee before — and failed rather miserably each time. Usually, these attempts to quit were linked to some sort of bigger lifestyle change that sparked my interest — that forced me not only to go cold turkey on all caffeine, but totally revamp my diet or some other big aspect of my life (one especially tortuous stab at the Master Cleanse comes to mind).

Needless to say, those “change everything” dealios gave me horrible caffeine withdrawal headaches and just made me feel crappy altogether. It’s been an extremely slow process, but through the years I do seem to be finally accepting the fact that I generally do better when I try to make gradual changes over time, instead of attempting to alter everything in one go as I’m often tempted to do.

If you’re like me, my method of finally quitting coffee successfully might work for you.

My attempt to go from the now 2-cup habit to zero began when I decided to do the Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse — in a sane manner that wasn’t too shocking to my body. That cleanse recommended, among other things, quitting coffee — but also preached moderation and going at your own pace.

Around the same time, I read Robin Barooah’s post at Quantified Self about how he quit coffee due to the “growing suspicion that coffee was causing mood swings and crashes that are bad for my overall sense of well-being.” His quitting method? A very gradual and exact self-devised program that required a lot of measuring — and some unfortunate coffee waste:

I made the same amount of coffee each day, using a vac-pot. Although I didn’t measure caffeine content, I did control many factors including grind, age of beans, water temperature and water/coffee contact time. From this controlled pot of coffee, I used measuring cups to discard an additional 20ml per week.

He quit successfully — and found his concentration improved to boot!

So instead of going cold turkey, this time I decided to channel Robin’s anal retentive methodology — minus the coffee waste. How? I counted beans. I started with 100 beans every morning, cutting back five beans every few days and reducing the amount of water I put in the French press. Finally, I had about 15 beans left in my coffee jar — with which I made my last weak shot or so of coffee.

The next day, I drank a cup of black tea instead — without suffering a caffeine withdrawal headache. I had about 20 bags of black tea stockpiled in the apartment, mostly begotten as friends or as samples for review. Those finally got quaffed. Then I moved onto the green tea — I also had about 20 bags of those to get through.

After those were gone, I went entirely caffeine-free, starting my days with herbal tea. I even proudly told a number of organic tea companies to not send any more caffeinated tea samples, because I’ve quit caffeine — to which they replied with congratulations and herbal tea samples.

That caffeine-free streak lasted less than a month.

It ended when I read some nice things about green tea’s many healthy properties — things I had certainly read before, but this time, could use as an excuse to enjoy some caffeine in the morning. I guess I’m just not ready to part entirely with a caffeine habit yet — because I don’t see a reason to kick caffeine entirely. The switch from coffee to green tea has definitely lessened my mood swings and energy crashes — and I’m happy with the results as they are.

Perhaps twenty years from now, I’ll find a reason to quit green tea. For now, I’m slowly becoming a green tea connoisseur — so expect to see more fair trade, organic green tea reviews here.

One thing I’ve discovered so far: Back when I drank coffee, green tea never seemed to “do” anything in terms of a caffeine kick — the effect of the brew seemed no different than just water. Now, I not only feel the caffeine jolt — but also can feel the difference in the caffeine levels of cheaper, paper tea bag coffees and the more expensive, premium silk satchel bag or loose leaf coffees. The latter definitely gives you more of a kick!

Have you quit coffee — or tried to? What’s your story? And do you have a green tea to recommend?

Photo by Lynne Lowe/Flickr