Good morning everyone! I hope your week started out well yesterday! I had a semi-painful day with physical therapy (bruises up and down my legs) but I’m definitely seeing improvements! Oh and I did some studying… Today I have ZERO activities planned, so I’m hoping to get my take-home final finished! Yaaaay. I know, don’t be too jealous.
Today I have a few things I’ve been wanting to review for all of you, so I thought I’d go ahead and put them all in one post!
David’s Tea
I’ve been wanting to try David’s Tea for ages, ever since I heard about it from Meg! I was so excited when I saw a location was going in not toooo far from my house (still well over a mile walk but only a half mile from my physical therapist!). What did I think of it? Impressed would be in understatement.
They had a TON of tea flavors to choose from, and as soon as I walked in I was greeted, given a tea sample, and had how they work explained to me. I told Benjamin, who was helping me, I just wanted to try out a cup of tea. He asked what type I was looking for and then pulled down several options, having me smell them and then left out the “big contenders.” Basically it was a blast. Yes, I’m weird.
There were SO MANY flavors I wanted to try (Blueberry Jam, Chocolate Chili Chai, Buttered Rum, Cookie Dough, Banana Nut Bread… I could go on forever) so I know I’ll be back! I got a green tea called Toasted Walnut, because it smelled perfect to me right then and for walking around outside in the cold. If you live near a David’s Tea, be sure to check it out!
Pure Barre Charleston
As I mentioned in my Charleston re-cap post, I took a class at Pure Barre, in Mt. Pleasant (a suburb of Charleston). A friend of mine goes there so I took her recommendation and checked it out. I do have to say it was awkward when I showed up, I had no idea who the instructor was and I was just glad I’d already paid online. I followed others’ examples and grabbed weights, a small ball and a resistance band and waited for class to start.
The warm up song was INTENSE. I was seriously trying to figure out how to get out of there! Luckily it wasn’t quite as scary as class went on, but I certainly felt the burn! The class uses very small, isometric movements set to upbeat music. The moves were a little confusing but I was assured by my friend that it takes a few classes to really get the hang of it.
I liked the class, but I didn’t LOVE it. I think it would take going a few times to really get into the groove of the class, so if I could afford to go 3x’s a week, then I think it would be a great investment, some of the women in there looked so toned!
KIND Bars
KIND Healthy Snacks contacted me last week to tell me about their campaign to give back during the holidays. You all know I LOVE KIND Healthy Snacks, they are all natural foods made from simple, pronounceable foods and gluten free! Kind’s new campaign is called Snack & Give Back, a partnership with Arianna Huffington (of Huffington Post), Bobbi Brown (of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics) and Grace Potter (of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals). Each of them have personally created KIND cubes, which you can purchase to support three charities: The Committee to Protect Journalists, Broome Street Academy and the Alzheimer’s Association. KIND is donating $10,000 to each charity as a part of the campaign.
The Arianna Huffington GPS for the Soul Cube was created to help free you from the stress of a hyper-connected life and find a centered place. It includes Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants, Almonds and Apricots in Yogurt, Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt and Pomegranate Blueberry Pistachio + Antioxidants.
The Bobbi Brown Eat Pretty Powerful Cube was curated by Bobbi to empower women to embrace and enhance their unique beauty, not only through the makeup they wear, but also the ways they choose to live, eat and give back. It includes Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt, Cashew & Ginger Spice, Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan, and Madagascar Vanilla Almond.
The Grace Potter Backstage Snack Pack was designed by Grace to remind people that eating well and doing good are key aspects of being a true ‘rock star.’ The cube includes Peanut Butter & Strawberry, Almond & Coconut, Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants and Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt
A portion of each cube goes to support their chosen charity. KIND sent me some of the flavors to review. You all know I already love them, but they send me a few I hadn’t tried before! First of all, the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt (which I’ve tried) is by FAR my favorite! It’s heaven! I actually liked all the Nuts & Spice flavors. And I’d never tried the Almonds and Apricots in Yogurt, but it was delicious! I know I sound like a broken record, but I highly recommend KIND bars, and these cubes are a cute, healthy and fun way to give a gift and support a charity!
Cubes are available for purchase at www.SnackandGiveBack.co for $42.95 (which is actually a great deal with ALL the bars that are in one cube and the donation to a charity!
Are you much of a tea person?
Would you buy something simple (and delicious) like KIND bars as a gift if it went towards charity?
I’m not a tea person at all, but I’m so tempted to try David’s when I’m in Chicago over break. Meg makes me want to try it, and I love the sound of a banana nut bread-flavored drink! I always get a KIND bar when I’m studying at Starbucks 🙂
I really want to try the banana nut next! It’s worth giving it a try, and just going into the shop is fun!
Im in for Kind even if it doesnt go to charity 🙂
Haha me too!
Okay, so I know this is unrelated to the questions you asked, but I tried Pure Barre this month, too! I had a hard time not laughing during some of the exercises (so immature), and thanking God sometimes that there were no men in the class, but overall, I thought it was fun to shake up my routine. no pun intended! 🙂
Haha you’re comments don’t have to do with my questions, those are just prompts! And I was SO glad it was all women too! Haha
Always wanted to try a David’s Tea, I might have to wander up to Canada to get some!
They actually have a few locations in the North East, although their Kingston location might be the closest to you!
I love tea, and I’ve been itching to try David’s Tea after reading so much about it on Meg’s blog haha…this just makes me want to go even more 🙂 And I want one of those KIND cubes…wonder if anyone needs a last minute gift idea….;)
Haha email it out to your friends and family!
That tea spot looks really cool. I’ll definitely have to check it out since my roomy and I are not longer doing caffeine. Tea all the way! I’d definitely buy something as a gift especially if it went to charity. These boxes are a wonderfully creative idea!
You should, I think they have 3 locations in Chicago now. This one is right by the Armitage Brown/Purple line stop.
So many good things in this post! David’s looks incredible. I am a huge tea person and would pick it over coffee any day. Those Kind bar cubes are such good ideas!
They recently opened up a Pure Barre studio very close to where I live. I’m definitely intrigued; I grew up dancing so I feel like the class would be up my alley, but it does sound intense! And expensive…
It’s worth trying out one class, just to see if you like it.
Tea shops make me happy! I could get lost in tea shops. Plus the people that work there have all this crazy knowledge about tea. I really want to try a barre class but they are so expensive. Buuuuut maybe next year (mahahaha I am 5 years old) I could convince you to try another class in Chicago with me? Okay great!
haha we’ll see about that… Next year.
I love tea, but I don’t drink it as often as I should. And Davids is really good!
I only like iced tea…I don’t really like hot drinks. Those kind boxes look awesome. I am going to have to check those out for my mothers birthday…she loves those.
Definitely, I think the box itself is so cute, especially the Bobbi Brown one.
I have never heard of David’s Tea before but it sounds so good. My favorite tea place in Chicago is Tea Gschwender! My favorite Kind bar is Dark Chocolate and Cherries! So good :).
I haven’t heard of that tea place before, I’ll look it up.
I really want to try David’s Tea. I think I may have been in one in the burbs (Naperville) because it looked a lot like your pictures but I definitely need to check it out and try some cool flavors– especially that chai one you mentioned!
I don’t think there’s one in the burbs, the only ones I know of are in Wicker Park, Wrigleyville and Lincoln Park.
I tried that Barre class not too long ago and felt the same. It was good, but not great. I just saw a livingsocial deal today for one and let’s just say I didn’t click it.
yea I don’t think I’d go back, especially for the price!
I go past David’s Tea ALL the time at really inconvenient times (always on my way to somewhere when I pass it) and I’ve been meaning to actually stop in and look around for awhile. Now I DEFINITELY want to stop in. I’m a huge tea fan and browsing through their website it looks like they’ve got all sorts of really interesting flavors.
you really should, and they’ll let you smell the flavors!
I love love love tea! My favorite is Tazo’s Refresh, a lovely peppermint tea that is super refreshing.
I drink that one all the time!
I’m not a huge fan of tea, but after hearing about David’s tea, that sounds so cool!
That tea store sounds so fun! I LOVE herbal tea. Love it.
And yes, KIND snacks for the win! THe dark choc with sea salt & almond is SO freakng good.
I love KIND bars – especially the chocolate flavors. Yum!
I LOVE tea and I’ve been meaning to go to David’s Tea. Maybe this week will be the week I finally go?
It’s definitely worth the trip!
Ooooh, David’s tea looks amazing! There’s a great tea shop in Forest Park that I used to go to but I always get overwhelmed with so many options. Although, now that I have a Keurig with a reuseable cup and I can put whatever I want in there I should start checking out these tea places more often.
I love the idea of snack and give back, and I love kinds bars! Thanks for the review!
We don’t have a David’s Tea near us, but we do have a Teavana. We went in there on Sunday, and they tried to sell us a $100 (!!!) canister of tea! I couldn’t believe how expensive it was!
since i’ve been looking for an excuse to splurge on some kind bars as it is, i think this might be the perfect excuse i’ve been looking for. ummm i’m doing a charitable deed, people, the bars aren’t for me, they’re for the universe.
I don’t drink much tea, but that cookie dough flavor sounds amazing! Did the walnut flavor actually taste like walnut? In my experience the tea always smells really good, but rarely tastes like I expect.
It wasn’t super walnutty, but I could definitely taste it.
gah, i feel so left out. I need to try that tea! and that class. we have a studio here that just opened.