CALIFORNIA UNIQUE SPIRITS

Ventura Spirits Company: Opuntia is a prickly pear spirit, made from the fruit of the Nopal cactus, which is indigenous to the American Southwest.  Its distillation process is similar to tequila's, but it is not tequila.  Instead, it's a new spirit, born in and of California.  

CALIFORNIA SNORKLE GEAR

Body Glove: Redondo Beach-based Body Glove claims that its founders used insulation from the back of a refrigerator to invent "the first practical wetsuit."  I have no idea whether that's true.  But I do know that the Body Glove logo makes me stop, smile, and reminisce.  Their surfing (or, in my case, boogie boarding) wetsuits brought much affordable joy to my Central Coast surf-town childhood, and that Body Glove's diving wetsuits were there for me when I learned to scuba.  They also make affordable snorkle gear for kids and adults.

CALIFORNIA WATER SHOES

Body Glove: Redondo Beach-based Body Glove claims that its founders used insulation from the back of a refrigerator to invent "the first practical wetsuit."  I have no idea whether that's true.  But I do know that the Body Glove logo makes me stop, smile, and reminisce.  Their surfing (or, in my case, boogie boarding) wetsuits brought much affordable joy to my Central Coast surf-town childhood, and that Body Glove's diving wetsuits were there for me when I learned to scuba.  Next time that I need a water shoe, I'll probably give Body Glove's a try.

CALIFORNIA RASH GUARDS

Body Glove: Redondo Beach-based Body Glove claims that its founders used insulation from the back of a refrigerator to invent "the first practical wetsuit."  I have no idea whether that's true.  But I do know that the Body Glove logo makes me stop, smile, and reminisce.  Their surfing (or, in my case, boogie boarding) wetsuits brought much affordable joy to my Central Coast surf-town childhood, and that Body Glove's diving wetsuits were there for me when I learned to scuba.  This summer, I will give their rash guards a try.

CALIFORNIA PET FOOD

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable cat and dog food in BPA-free containers.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA SPONGES, SCRUBBERS, AND SCOURING PADS

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable and relatively environmentally friendly sponges, scrubber-sponges, and scouring pads.

CALIFORNIA PLASTIC WRAP

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable, relatively environmentally friendly plastic wrap.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA PAPER TOWELS

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable, relatively environmentally friendly paper towels.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com. 

CALIFORNIA PLASTIC SANDWICH/FREEZER BAGS

Natural Value Inc.: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable, relatively environmentally friendly, Ziploc-style plastic sandwich and freezer bags.

CALIFORNIA NOODLES

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade, gluten-free pad thai noodles.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA SNACKS & JUNK FOOD

Annie's: Berkeley-based Annie's makes a variety of organic -- but not necessarily good for you -- snacks, including yogurt tubes, granola bars, cookies, bagged popcorn, and fruit snacks.  Their Cheddar Bunnies crackers are difficult to stop eating.

 



Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade pretzels.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.











 

CALIFORNIA POPCORN

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade popcorn.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA PASTA SAUCE

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade pasta sauces.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA MAPLE SYRUP

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade maple syrups.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA CONDIMENTS

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade mustards, sriracha, and ketchup.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

Annie's: Berkeley-based Annie's makes a variety of organic condiments, including salad dressings, ketchups, mustards, BBQ sauces, and Worcestershire sauce.

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CALIFORNIA COCONUT FOOD PRODUCTS

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade coconut milks and creams.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

CALIFORNIA CANNED FOOD

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable organic, environmentally friendly, fair-trade canned food.  The sort of food that I used to buy from Amy's, except at a fraction of the price.  Their offerings include canned beans, lentils, hominy, olives, tuna, tomatoes, corn, and peas.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.

Annie's: Berkeley-based Annie's makes a variety of organic soups and canned meals.
 

CALIFORNIA ICE CREAM

Three Twins Ice Cream: Bay Area-based Three Twins is a small, socially conscious makes delicious ice creams.  I recommend buying some in one of their stores, but the stuff at the market is good too.

Straus Family Creamery: Marshall-based Straus provides most of the dairy products that my household consumes.  Their ice cream is as good as store-bought ice cream gets -- other brands may be as good, but I've never found one that's better.

CALIFORNIA INTERLUDE -- HOW TO BREAK IN A PAIR OF RAW-DENIM JEANS

Raw-denim jeans are magic.  Broken in correctly, they change their shape to fit you like no other clothing item can.  And -- somehow -- they keep that fits-you-perfectly shape even after you wash them.  But the magic only works if you break them in right.

Here's how:

1. DO NOT wash them right away.  Good raw-denim jeans already will be pretty tight when you get them.  If you wash before wearing, then there’s a good chance that they will shrink up so small that you’ll never get them on.

2. DO NOT get them hemmed right away. Raw denim shrinks a LOT when you wash it.  If you get them hemmed before you wash them (which you SHOULD NOT DO right away), then they’ll be too short afterwards. Roll them up.  Endure the compliments from hipsters.

3. Wear them frequently without washing for at least a month.  Raw denim creases and bends a lot like thin cardboard.  Your goal is to make the denim crease's match yours -- e.g., the jeans' knees should bend in the exact same place that yours legs do -- and to grow accustomed to bending where you bend.  The thicker the denim, the longer it will take.  I wore my 11-weight for six weeks before I soaked them, my 14-weight for six months, and my 18-eight for nine months.  If they start to smell, then let them air out outside.

4. Don’t fold them. Hang them straight – I loop one of the back belt loops over the neck of a hanger, and let the jeans hang full length. Two reasons: 1. If you fold jeans that you’re not washing, then they won’t air out at all, and they will start to smell. 2. The whole point of raw denim is to let it form to your body. That doesn’t work if you flatten them out every time that you wear them. After a while, hanging them gets a bit creepy, because you keep seeing – out of the corner of your eye – your own torso-less body lurking in your closet. That’s a good thing.

5. Important Yet Optional Step: Once the creases in your raw denim have set, soak your jeans and let them dry on your body. I have done this in two ways: 1. By wearing them in the bath tub while I read a book, then letting the water out and letting them dry on me as I sat outside and kept reading the book. 2. By wearing them into the swimming pool, then letting the dry on me poolside. This step is important because it will shape the denim to your body like nothing else will. It is optional because you will be mocked by anyone who catches you doing it. If the words “fashion victim” sound bad when applied to you, then you may just have to settle for less-comfortable jeans.

6. Wear them for at least another month. Wear them hard. Climb trees. Do yard work. Go backpacking. Sweat lots.

7. Wash them, inside out, on cold. Don’t wash them with other clothes – the dye will stain everything else in the wash. I never wash my Brave Stars with other clothes. I don’t know how long it takes for all of the extra dye to bleed out of raw denim.

8. Tumble dry on extra low.

9. Try them on.  Be amazed.  Feel bad about rolling your eyes the first time that you read this post.

10. Decide whether you want to get them hemmed. The hipster way is to wear them rolled up, showing off the selvage stitching. I am not a hipster – I get mine hemmed.

CALIFORNIA CANDLES

Goodlight Natural Candles: San Francisco-based Goodlight makes palm-wax candles in a variety of shapes, scents (including non-scent), and sizes.  We use their tea lights frequently.  They work -- all the flicker with none of the burnt-petroleum-product smell.

CALIFORNIA WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS

GU Energy Labs: Berkeley-based GU Energy Lab's energy gels are among the most disgusting substances I've ever put in my mouth.  And, as Dumbledore might say, that's saying something.  However: (1) in my experience, all energy gels are equally gag-inducing -- i.e., I've never found an energy gel which I hated less than GU's; and (2) GU's energy gels do a really good job of helping me enjoy long runs.  In fact, the GU-and-endorphins combination that hammers me at mile 6 has been known to make me giggle.  So I recommend GU's energy gels.  Just be sure you're near a drinking fountain when you eat one, and wash it down as fast as you can.

CALIFORNIA SKATEBOARDS

Boosted Boards: Mountain View-based Boosted, Inc. makes my dream: an electric longboard that will go 22 miles per hour, up a 25% grade.  Starting December 2017, they’ll upgrade to a new battery pack, and Boosted Boards will be able to go 12 miles on a single charge.  I want one so bad!

 
Body Glove: Redondo Beach-based Body Glove claims that its founders used insulation from the back of a refrigerator to invent "the first practical wetsuit."  I have no idea whether that's true.  But I do know that the Body Glove logo makes me stop, smile, and reminisce.  Their surfing (or, in my case, boogie boarding) wetsuits brought much affordable joy to my Central Coast surf-town childhood, and that Body Glove's diving wetsuits were there for me when I learned to scuba.  They also make affordable cruiser and longboard skateboards.
 

CALIFORNIA DEODORANT

Native Deodorant: San Francisco-based Native produces USA-made, high-end deodorants from natural ingredients.

CALIFORNIA FOOD CANISTERS

Klean Kanteen: Chico-based Klean Kanteen is a B Corporation that makes stainless-steel, BPA-free, insulated food canisters that keep my kids' bag-lunched spaghetti warm until lunch time.  

CALIFORNIA FLASHLIGHTS & HEADLAMPS

Mag-Lite: Ontario-based Mag Instruments specializes in sleek, durable, high-quality flashlights.  All of their products are designed in California, and manufactured by USA workers in USA factories.

SureFire: I have mixed feelings about including Fountain Valley-based SureFire on this list.  They make a host of useful products, including handheld flashlights, headlamps, and even lights you can wear on your wrist.  And the quality of their offerings looks good.  SureFire markets themselves, however, as gun nuts serving gun nuts -- everything they sell was designed with shooting in mind.

CALIFORNIA CARDIGANS

AG Jeans: Los Angeles-based AG made its name designing flattering and socially conscious jeans, which my wife has worn happily for years.  They also make a few cardigans.

CALIFORNIA HOUSE-CLEANING PRODUCTS

Grab Green: Camarillo-based Grab Green makes reasonably priced, eco-friendly all-purpose cleaners, kitchen degreasers, and glass cleaners.

CALIFORNIA DISH SOAP

Grab Green: Camarillo-based Grab Green makes reasonably priced, eco-friendly dish soap.

CALIFORNIA DISHWASHER DETERGENT

Grab Green: Camarillo-based Grab Green makes reasonably priced, eco-friendly dishwasher-detergent pods.  They also sell "cookware & bakeware cleaner pods" that allegedly separate baked-on grease from pans and cookware without abrasives or scrubbing, and "garbage disposal freshener & cleaner pods" which allegedly "prevent clogs, remove odors, and loosen grime" -- I have not yet purchased said pods, and I make no representations or warranties regarding their efficacy.

CALIFORNIA DRYER SHEETS

Natural Value: Sacramento-based Natural Value makes affordable, compostable, fair-trade dryer sheets.  Their brick-and-mortar and online distributors are listed on their website: http://naturalvalue.com.
 

 




Grab Green: Camarillo-based Grab Green makes reasonably priced, eco-friendly dryer sheets.

CALIFORNIA GRAPPA

Pendrays Distillery: Templeton-based Pendrays makes a port-barrel-aged grappa from zinfandel grapes.

Saint James Spirits: Irwindale-based SJS distills their grappa from California-grown zinfandel pumace.

CALIFORNIA BITTERS

Greenbar Distillery: Los Angeles-based Greenbar Distillery makes a organic, variously flavored Bar Keep bitters in their downtown-L.A. distillery.

CALIFORNIA MEZCAL

Mezcal El Silencio: MES was founded and is based in Los Angeles, but they make their mezcal in Oaxaca out of 100% wild agave plants.  Their branding and merchandising (t-shirts, hoodies, etc.) is unusually cool.

CALIFORNIA AGAVE SPIRIT (CALIFORNIAN TEQUILA)

It's not Tequila unless it's made in Tequila, Mexico.  And I'm not so much the California booster to suggest that anything we make here can compete with the real thing.  That said, we Californians have fermented the same ingredients that the Mexicans use to create beverages that are not Tequila, but that still are pretty delicious.

Venus Spirits: Santa Cruz-based VS imports organic agave from the Jalisco highlands, and distills it into award-winning agave spirits.

Channel Islands Distillery: Ventura-based CID makes small-batch tequila.

Greenbar Distillery: Los Angeles-based Greenbar Distillery's organic IXÁ Tequila really is tequila, as in, they make it in Tequila, Mexico.  It is the only one of their spirits that they don't make in their downtown-L.A. distillery. 

Saint James Spirits: Irwindale-based SJS makes a 100% Blue Agave, distilled in California, and aged in French Oak.

CALIFORNIA ANISE-TASTING LIQUOR

It seems like every country comes up with a liquor that tastes like black licorice.  California has its own take on a few. 

Venus Spirits: Santa Cruz-based VS makes an award-winning, organic-wheat-based "interpretation" of the Scandinavian liquor Aquavit. 

Bear & Eagle Products: Santa Ana-based Bear & Eagle brews three flavors of Persian-style Arak.

CALIFORNIA GROWLERS

Chrome: When I lived in the real Bay Area (i.e., the Bay Area in which you can see the Golden Gate and/or Bay Bridge with minimal effort), Chrome was the most ubiquitous brand of messenger bags and backpacks.  Now, they've expanded their line to include everything a bike-messenger-type urbanite needs for day-to-day living, including growlers.

Klean Kanteen: My household relies heavily on insulated bottles from this Chico-based B Corporation.  Klean Kanteen bottles keep my coffee warm, my drinking-water room temperature, and my to-go cocktails cold.  Now -- according to their website -- they also make growlers.  I probably will buy one soon. 

CALIFORNIA CORD ORGANIZERS (AKA CORD WALLETS)

Glaser Designs: San Francisco-based Glaser makes tasteful, expensive-looking cord organizers to order for "executive travelers," which I think means wealthy professionals who spend a lot of time on planes. 

CALIFORNIA BRANDIES

In Distill of the Night Spirits: Central Valley-based IDotNS makes brandy from Central California wines.

Channel Islands Distillery: Ventura-based CID makes small-batch brandy.

Pendrays Distillery: Templeton-based Pendrays makes a port-barrel-aged brandy from viognier grapes.

Bear & Eagle Products: Santa Ana-based Bear & Eagle distills two brandies from California grapes.

CALIFORNIA DEODORANTS

Baxter of California: Los Angeles-based Baxter of California focuses on men's body-care products.  I have not bought their deodorants, but I probably will give them a try -- they seem to take them very seriously.