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Healthy Living Loves Local: Urban Moonshine

Urban Moonshine is a small family business located in beautiful Burlington, Vermont, specializing in organic bitters and tonics. Their mission is to rekindle the relationship between herbal medicine and the modern world. They hope to inspire people to bring herbal medicine “out of the cupboard and onto the counter” in everyday life.

I first fell in love with this company after trying their organic bitters. As human beings we evolved eating tons of bitters—bitter greens, bitter roots, bitter barks. The majority of food growing in the wild has an element of bitterness to it, but nowadays the presence of bitter foods is mostly absent in the standard American diet.

Among other health benefits, Urban Moonshine’s Original, Citrus, & Maple Bitters may:

• Soothe gas and bloating

• Relieve occasional heartburn

• Tone, strengthen and build digestive health

• Inspire the production of our own digestive juices and enzymes

• Help maintain healthy blood sugar levels &

• Support liver function and healthy skin

(They are great to take either before or after meals, and they make a wonderful addition to cocktails!)

Urban Moonshine also makes a line of certified organic tonics including: Immune Tonic (to support deep immunity) , Energy Tonic (to boost energy levels), & Joy Tonic (to calm the mind, uplift the spirit)–all of which act to support the body’s natural defenses and boost stamina.

Never tried a tonic before? Summer is the perfect time to test out their Energy Tonic; I always bring a bottle with me when I embark on a challenging hike, or other outdoor activities!

In addition to the Urban Moonshine Bitters & Tonics, we also carry the book The Wild Medicine Solution: Healing with Aromatic, Bitter, and Tonic Plants by Guido Masé, who holds the position of Clinical Herbalist on staff at Urban Moonshine. In the book, Masé outlines how to restore the use of wild plants in daily life for vibrant physical, mental, and spiritual health by:

• Explaining how 3 classes of wild plants—aromatics, bitters, and tonics—are uniquely adapted to work with our physiology

• Providing simple recipes as well as formulas for teas, spirits, and tinctures &

• Offering examples of plants in each of the 3 classes, from aromatic peppermint to bitter dandelion to tonic chocolate

Masé sums up the powerful healing benefits of simple herbal medicine quite nicely in his book, “Its remedies stem from plants. They are real, they grow out of the soil, and they are alive” (16).

Try out one of the Urban Moonshine bitters or tonics today & salute to your health!

For more info on Urban Moonshine, visit their beautiful website: http://www.urbanmoonshine.com/