Outstanding Companies

Stash Tea Company - Teas make great alternatives to soft drinks, coffee, and the latest generation of "energy drinks". Stash offers a wide variety of teas of outstanding quality and flavor, some organically grown. One of the best is organic green tea, which is great tasting and full of antioxidants to promote optimum health. The site is an outstanding resource that covers the history of teas and includes lots of tea recipes to make some elegant beverage creations.

Traditional Medicinals - Produces an outstanding array of herbal teas that taste great and promote optimal health. Any time you feel a cold coming on, skip the cold medicines, pills, and cough medicines and pick up some Echinacea Plus tea. Echinacea is considered a natural antibiotic and can be extremely effective and knocking out the cold and flu bug when it first starts to bring you down. Because echinacea can have medicinal effects it may be best not to consume it on a regular basis. More information on echinacea can be found here. If you'd like more information about Echinacea Plus or any other teas offered by Traditional Medicinals visit the site or request free tea samples.

Atomic Skis - Cool graphics on an otherwise useless Flash website that may crash your computer, Atomic makes world class skis. Classes include the Beta Carve (medium stiffness all mountain skis), Beta Ride (softer all mountain skis), and Beta Race (what else? racing skis). In adition to phenomenal ski, Atomic makes adjustable bindings you can slide to and fro on the ski as well as a relatively new line of boots. Typical retail prices are out of sight, particularly for high end skis like the Atomic 10.20, a personal favorite. If you want the ultimate downhill ski, Atomic makes a ski for you. They are rock solid cruising through anything and hold a solid edge on all but the most bulletproof snow surface. Typical retail prices range anywhere up to $850.00, but keep your eyes open and you'll find em' for about half that online.

Outback Gear - A great place to buy outback gear from sleeping bags to backpacks, hydration systems, tents, and other outdoor adventure gear. Discount prices, top notch selection and extremelly slow shipping charaterize this online retailer.

Gary Fisher Bikes- One of the original mountain bike manufacturers and still one of the best. The Sugar series is one of the best lines of mountain bikes available today. These full suspension bikes aren't cheap but climb very well for a soft tail bike, and don't wash out like those with really mushy suspension systems. If you're considering a new mountain bike and have some cash to spend, consider the Sugar 4+ or a higher end model. For a new one you'll drop about a grand but if you want a serious mountain bike that can take abuse and take you through the most rugged of trails with stability and comfort, go with a Fisher!

Google - You probably use Google every time you search the web. Google is the one search engine company that actually provides useful relevant search results. Most engines accept payment for inclusion of placement within their search results so the search results you get are tainted by commercial advertisers and determined in part by the size of the ad budget. When you search Google you get real search results and these is always a clear distinction between editorial result and advertising. With an IPO in the works it'll be interesting to see if they sell out, crash and burn when the bean counters take over the company.

Overstock.com - One of the few successful online discount retailers that has good customer service, products you can actually use and true discount prices. Ya never know what you'll find at Overstock on any given day but thus far they seem to be one of the best places to shop online.