Tea (things) and Taxes

Tea and taxes are inextricably linked in our great nation's history, and I can't help mentioning this fact today for two reasons. 1) I just got through spending a teeny-tiny little bit of my and DH's tax refund (really, darling, it was negligible!) on some tea-related treats. 2) Today is Tax Freedom Day. That, policy wonks tell us, means that today is the day on which, theoretically, the average American worker has worked enough to cover all of their federal, state and local taxes for the year. Yippee!


To celebrate, a little retail therapy is certainly in order, and I suggest a visit to one of downtown Newnan's newest gift shops, M. Cole Design on West Washington Street. This Napa Soap is my favorite find and is quite possibly the best-smelling soap I have ever found. It doesn't actually smell like green tea to me, though, but rather some light, heavenly, lily-of-the-valley-ish fragrance, like a just-picked garden flower. According to napasoap.com, "Whenever possible, we use local ingredients from the Napa Valley in an effort to share the beauty of this unique area. Our grapeseed oil and grapeseeds are a by-product of the wine industry. Our lavender and herbs come from a variety of gardens in the area. Our beeswax and honey is harvested in the heart of the Napa Valley, and we even use Napa Valley wine to make our Cabernet Soapignon and Soapignon Blanc bar soaps." I chose the Tea-no Grigio Soap because in addition to smelling absolutely divine, it contains green tea and green tea extract.

Another find was these Scentchips, a new fragrance product I'd read about but never tried. These are little scented wax chips, shaped like leaves and flowers, and you can use them as potpourri or in your tart burner. The clever thing about these little treats is that you can mix and match them to get a scent that's just what you're looking (smelling?) for. I was poking around in the bins of various scents when I saw one of the pre-packaged versions marked "Afternoon Tea," so naturally that's what I got. It's a combination of their Gardenia and Bergamot chips, and I'm just quite intrigued that bergamot - the citrus fruit that provides the bergamot flavoring in Earl Grey tea - has made it this far in the fragrance world. When I got home from work, I popped my tart burner in the freezer for a few minutes to loosen the old tart it contained so I could use some Scentchips. Soon my husband was asking about the wonderful scent. For those of you who don't live nearby, you can find out more about these chips at scentchipsusa.com.