After a crazy travel day in which I started my excursion getting in a car accident on the way to the airport, my friends car breaking down once I got to the Oakland airport, a trip to Midas and Enterprise rent-a-car…we got our trip started. Sure it started a little later than we expected, but we met in Oakland to be together and hang out and we could do that at Midas or Enterprise rent-a-car just as easily as we could at some cute little East Bay lo-cal.

We did discover one of the newest, cutest and best kept secrets in Oakland. It is a new tea shop called Tea Here Now. It specializes in fair trade and organic teas. And I was so impressed as the owner knows the stories behind each of the teas, the vendors she gets the teas from and can truly describe the flavor and smell of each tea on her shelf.

I wasn’t too sure exactly what fair trade meant and with the help of my friend and the tea room I was quickly educated. Fair trade is a “seal of approval” of sorts for businesses out of the United States (primarily Asia, Africa and Latin America). It is a designation that indicates they have fair labor practices, pay decent wages, have good working conditions and run their business in an ethical and environmental way. I learned there are different organizations that give the “fair trade” designation and that there are different tiers of fair trade businesses.

It is a tiny little tea room, but it was the perfect place to end a crazy day. It was fun to pick the tea we wanted off the wall and the tea room had great tea accouterments. I even purchased a tea “bottle” that allows you to put the tea leaves in the base, add water, milk and sugar and just sip on it all day as the top has a strainer in it…because seriously no one wants tea leaves in their mouth. The tea room also has a limited menu of foods specializing in vegan baked goods, organic produce and farm to table ingredients.

I got to try several vegan cookies and unless I was told they were vegan I had no idea. Since I was on a role of asking questions I asked how to bake vegan and what the substitutes were for such products as butter and eggs.  They both told me there is a vegan margarine that works well for baking and can easily be used to substitute butter. They also said that there is a faux egg powder, applesauce or banana that can be used in place of eggs. And seriously these delectables were just as light, fluffy and flavorful as any "regular" cookie.