Vida Cork Tiles/Sahagun Chocolates

Vida Cork

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What it is: Pocketbooks to floor planks, all fashioned from cork

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Who makes it: Vida Cork

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Where it’s made: Portugal

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Distributed by: Environmental Home Center, Seattle

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More info at: www.environmentalhomecenter.com

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Price: $65 for the tote, $44-$70 for 11 square feet of tile

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Remember the urban myth that cork was endangered? Some say the real story is that vintners around the world found plastic corks and screw tops to be cheaper. Cork is the bark of the Oak Cork tree, and harvesting cork is still an important (and protected) industry in Spain and Portugal. Cork trees must rest for nine years between harvests, and remaining cork forests keep back desertification and provide habitat for the (truly) endangered Iberian lynx.

Environmental Home Center (EHC) is helping one small Portuguese company find new markets for its line of cork products.

Vida’s cork tiles can be used in any room in the house, including the bathroom, EHC said. Cork planks can be installed by homeowners and are best in dry, lower-traffic areas. Vida also has a small line of cork bags, a cork picture frame and a cork wastebasket, all available from EHC’s Web site.


Sahagún Chocolates
What it is: High-cocoa chocolate confections

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Who makes it: Sahagún

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Where it’s made: Portland

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More info at: www.sahagunchocolates.com

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Price: $1 to $5 each

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There seem to be few remaining downsides to quality dark chocolate — it’s good, good for you, and locally produced by a growing number of creative chocolatiers.

Elizabeth Montes named her chocolate company after a Spanish missionary who wrote a treatise on
chocolate’s important role in Aztec society. Montes, who moved to Portland in 2001, describes herself as a decorative painter entranced by chocolate. At the Portland Farmers Market, she sells an array of chocolates enriched with flavorful extras such as Oregon’s Sundance Farm lavender, Sauvie’s Island marionberries and Rickreall cherries.

In 2005, Montes opened her own storefront on Northwest 16th Avenue. Sahagún chocolates aren’t completely organic, but the varietal Ecuadorian cocoa Montes favors is considered to be “responsibly produced,” she says.

If traveling to Sahagún for hazelnut-topped chocolate caramels or chocolate bark isn’t possible, highly-rated Dagoba organic chocolates are easy to buy at www.dagobachocolates.com and send to a special chocolate lover anywhere. And for the non-chocolate lovers, there are always organic green tea gummy bears, made with matcha powder, available at www.bissingers.com.