AstroBotanico

I'll be going out of town for a few days next week, so get your coffee orders in now if you want them shipped out before Christmas! And don't forget, e-gift cards are also available in the store!

Happy holidays, y'all!

Give what you get.

Buy a bag of any coffee from Astro Botanico and I'll give you a free sample bag of the same.

All I ask is that you share it with someone you love...and preferably someone you disagree with. And then sit down with them and have a conversation to look for ways to find common ground with each other, and hopefully...if you both do it well...the two of you walk away from the conversation loving each other a little bit more than when you began.

Because here's the thing...the last few years - and especially the last few days - have shone a light on one very uncomfortable truth...which is that most people aren't actually equipped to handle the truth - especially when it involves intense self-reflection, confronting their cognitive biases, or asking whether their complacency has made them complicit in the lies.

And the truth is, yeah...it does.

Each one of us needs to begin the painful process of peering into the shadows of the dark places in our fractured minds and our wounded egos to start addressing our own fears and cognitive dissonance so that we can stop working our s**t out on everyone around us and instead, get to work learning how to help each other step into the light by cultivating patience, accountability, dignity, respect, forgiveness, and love...
..literally for the sake of our children and the future of humanity.
Yet for some reason, so many people are choosing a comfortable lie over an uncomfortable truth.

But no more. Not now...or ever again. Something's changed, and if you can't feel it, then you're part of the problem.

For those of you who're choosing to continue aligning yourself with the darkness and stay hidden in the shadows...you should know that the rest of us won't stop shining our light into every crevice to expose who the demons really are and reveal the Truth once and for all - no matter how painful it is.

Because only then can we start to heal.

Shoot, I'll even throw a nifty coffee towel in your sack to mop up any tears that start flowing.

Screenshot of a conversation sent to me from a buddy of mine who turned one of his coworkers onto Thunderbird.

Ladies...if you want your man to knock out that honey-do list, boost his mental focus, and kick more ass in life (or if you want that for yourself), switch his daily cup of coffee to Thunderbird.

Running hot water through plastic is a really bad idea once you learn how bad microplastics in the body are, because hot water leaches microscopic particles of plastic into it when it comes into contact with it.

Microplastics have been linked to a wide range of serious health risks, including doubling the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with pre-existing heart disease, disruption of the gut microbiome, physical irritation and inflammation in the digestive and respiratory tracts, interfering with hormone signaling, reproductive and metabolic disorders, cancer, neurotoxicity, and more.

These microplastics and nanoplastics are small enough to breach cell barriers and the blood-brain barrier, allowing them to travel throughout the body and accumulate in organs and tissues, including the heart, brain, colon, placenta, sc***um, lungs, and gut...pretty much the entire body.

It's also believed that the accumulation is irreversible, with only a fraction of it being excreted naturally - unless you actively work to target, bind, and remove it specifically.

And don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because a product is labeled "BPA Free"...because the common replacements for BPA are just as bad - if not worse - than BPA itself.

Those replacements (sometimes referred to as "regrettable substitutions") exhibit similar endocrine-disrupting properties - among them, mimicking estrogen, interfering with hormonal systems, disrupting reproductive development, affecting neurological functioning, obesity, and increased cardiovascular disease. Even worse, some of them are even MORE potent than BPA in activating estrogen receptors.

And if that wasn't bad enough...Google "roaches in coffee maker"...or "mold in coffee maker". It's not pretty. In fact, it's downright nasty.

Now ask yourself, "How often do you clean out your coffee maker?"

If you don't clean it out regularly, gross. And if you do, there's still the issue with microplastics.

This is one of the many reasons I raise an eyebrow anytime someone says they can't "do" coffee. Was it truly the coffee, or was it mold, roach p**p, or microplastics? Or the fluoride, chlorine, and pharmaceutical waste in the water it was brewed with? Or the plastic coating that lines paper coffee cups, which melts when hot water is poured in it, releasing up to 25,000 microplastic particles into the coffee, along with fluoride, chloride, nitrate, and sulfate...and toxic heavy metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, and arsenic? Or the pesticides and glyphosate that were sprayed on non-organic coffee? Or the seed oils in milk substitutes?

Or...or...or...lots of variables to look at.

So start with high-quality, organic coffee and clean water. THEN take a look at what you're brewing your coffee in.

My recommendation is to look for something made entirely with stainless steel, glass, or ceramic...a French press, a pour over set, Moka pot (don't get aluminum), percolator (don't get aluminum), or a certified plastic-free automatic brewer or espresso machine...neither of those last two will be terribly cheap, by the way.

Personally, I've used a stainless steel French press for over 20 years. It was really inexpensive, durable, keeps the coffee hot, brews in 4 minutes, cleans up easily, and makes an amazing cup of coffee. I mean...I've had it for over 20 years, which should tell you something.

The world we live in today is filled with all kinds of nonsense that amounts to an all-out assault on our health, and making smarter choices is one of the best things you can do for yourself if you want to thrive.

May as well start with your coffee.