Our Standards
We’re extremely proud of the reputation we’ve earned among our customers! We only carry the cleanest products from the best brands around.
Our Commitment to Organic or Better
What this means to us is that we want to carry products that are exclusively organic ingredients as much as possible, or better than organic. Examples ‘better than’ would include something like wildcrafted from the region of origin of a certain ingredient, or a hyper-locally sourced ingredient grown in a pesticide-free backyard environment.
We don’t require our brands to have the USDA Organic Certification on their product necessarily, as we recognize that they may be too small to afford such a large investment, however, we do check on their ingredients to make sure they are Organic, or otherwise very clean. We also recognize that some ingredients are incredibly expensive to acquire organic, and we may offer some alternatives that are clean-sourced, but not necessarily fully organic, to offer reasonably priced products to our customers. All of our products are individually vetted by our team.
Passion Driven Brands
We only work with brands that are driven by a passion to make incredible products. What this means to us is that manufacturers create products that bring joy to their customers, and make the world a better place. For example, manufacturers need to care about constantly improving their packaging to be more sustainable, and improving their ingredients to be more organic.
We always ask our brands what their main reason is for starting their company. If the reason they give is to make a quick buck, ride a trend, or have high margins, we say “no thank you” and move on to other brands. If they provide other reasons, such as trying to improve people’s livelihoods, express their passions, support small farmers and a cleaner, healthier tomorrow, we are all ears!
We are also regularly checking in with brands to see what they’re doing to improve their product. Are they making their packaging easier to understand, so that their mission and vision are getting out there? Are they improving their recipe and responding to customer feedback? Are they working on getting USDA certified organic, if they’re not already? Are they working to make their packaging biodegradable? the list goes on.
Organic Only Ingredients and Restricted Ingredients
Certain ingredients we are very strict about requiring them to be organic, because of the high likelihood of the product being heavily sprayed, or otherwise not clean in their sourcing. Examples include (but are not limited to): sugar, wheat, corn, soy, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, palm oil, dairy, etc.; these items we are very strict about not carrying anything that isn’t organic.
Further, there are many ingredients that we absolutely will not carry. The list is too long to put completely here, though essentially we will not carry anything with artificial flavors, preservatives, fragrances, or other chemicals known to cause irritation and allergy, or that have a disastrous impact on health and/or the environment.
Freshly Made
Perhaps one of the most important factors in determining a food’s taste and quality is determining how fresh it is, and we are very careful to pay attention to this when are working with brands. As an example, one of our favorite brands Joshua Tree Coffee roasts their beans on Mondays, we pick up on Tuesdays, and deliver to our customers the following few days. We repeat this every week, and never sell coffee that is more than 2 weeks past its roasted on date.
California Local First
We are proud to be based in San Clemente, CA, and are believers that a more local-first economy is a great way to lower our corporate carbon footprint and support local small businesses. Therefore, we’re proud that more than 50% of the 65+ brands we work with are locally based in California. We especially focus on this with heavy products like kombucha and water.