Category: Toothpaste (Page 6 of 8)

Eureka! I have a way that my non-sweetened, all-natural toothpaste can almost taste like real, live, artificially sweetened, artificially flavored toothpaste. How, you say? A combination! My favorite tasting Tom’s of Maine toothpaste has always been Cinnamon-Clove. Gingermint, however, has a burn to it that resembles the strong mint flavors of other brands of toothpaste. I suppose it was obvious what I should have done all along, but it didn’t occur to me: put a little of each on the brush.

The flavor while brushing is the delicious cinnamon oil, then while rinsing, the burn of the ginger kicks in. The whole experience is delightful. The only problem is that I keep putting too much toothpaste on the brush at one time and end up with a huge amount of suds in my mouth. The amount of lather is like I’m brushing with bubble bath or something. But it’s tasty, wonderful bubble bath.

I have waited two and a half months for this moment: Today I opened the cinnamon-clove toothpaste. I got it on May 11, but had only just bought a new tube of another flavor on May 7, so I had to wait. For two and a half months.

It tasted just as I remember… strong cinnamon taste, no artificial sweeteners to give me a bitter-metallic aftertaste. Glorious!

Between May 11 and now, I have kept looking compulsively at toothpaste isles. At a tree-hugger store, I saw a flavor of Tom’s toothpaste I hadn’t seen before: Fennel. I bought it out of curiosity. Last night I opened it and smelled it. UGH! It smelled exactly like the worst part of black licorice flavor. I didn’t throw it away yet because it fascinates me to open it and smell it and retch. Plus, it has a pretty purple label.

The bitter-metallic taste is back. The last few days, I’ve had a weird taste in my mouth all day long. It is identical to the taste I wrote about in September. Last time it was my toothpaste. (And thus my obsession with Tom’s of Maine unsweetened toothpaste.) This time, I at least know to look for artificial sweetener. And this time, I believe the culprit is floss.

I have recently been very good about flossing. So good that I ran out of floss. I like Glide floss because it doesn’t break so easily in my crazy-tight teeth. It also doesn’t shred and leave pieces of floss stuck between my teeth. (Not a good sensation, let me tell you.) There are several kinds of Glide. When I went to get a refill from the drugstore, I got a different kind than my usual. This new kind I got said “Deep Clean”. Apparently, it’s textured, so it scrapes your teeth better. The problem with it, as I’ve discovered, is that it’s flavored and sweetened. The artificial sweetener gets in my mouth and doesn’t leave. Thus the bitter-metallic taste. And thus, I won’t be using this floss anymore.

A little while ago, a grocery store near me closed. It was on my route from school to home, so I stopped there with some regularity. It wasn’t the best place to shop, but it was convenient. I don’t even know why it closed.

Yesterday I taught lesson where I needed some candy as an illustration. As I was going home from school on Thursday, I was telling myself to remember to get the candy. I remembered until about where the closed grocery store was, then I forgot. Yesterday morning I was so angry that I had not stopped to get candy.

I decided I would have to stop on the way to school. But I had gotten ready quicker than usual and it was only 6:00am. The only place to get candy at that time of the morning was a grocery store. Because my regular stop was closed, I would have to take a different route to school. A route that had more stoplights and slower traffic. But I took it because I needed the candy.

When I got to this other grocery store, I got my candy, but there was only one checkout lane open. I got at the back of the line. It stretched all the way back into an isle. It stretched into an isle where I found this:

It’s a miracle! (cue the music)