Breath Palette

is my new favorite product. It's a Japanese brand of toothpaste that comes in forty different flavors, all of them bizarre: green tea, Japanese plum, bitter chocolate, Indian curry, pumpkin pudding, café au lait, fresh yogurt, etc. This is the kind of thing I find exciting on principle, and to test the quality I decided to sample one of the flavors I thought would be most difficult to achieve succesfully in toothpaste: darjeeling tea. I thought that if it was artificial or too pasty, the tea-scent would end up bitter or medicinal. Lo and behold, the toothpaste surpassed my wildest expectations: the flavor was subtle, pleasant, and sophisticated. Delightful, actually. Plus, brushing your teeth with tea-flavored toothpaste makes breakfast much more palatable.

Yesterday I bought three more tubes: caramel, honey, and café au lait. The tubes are pretty small, so they are great for sampling and for travel. I've tried the honey - which is a bit too mild, and not very striking, and the café au lait, which is delicious.

I'm sure that Breath Palette toothpaste is difficult to find in most places, but if you come across it anywhere, give it a whirl.