Monday, August 22, 2011

August Tea Review, Arbonne Essentials, Herbal Detox

Part of the joy of tea is that it is really good for you; our bodies have seven organs that can help us remove toxins through a detoxification process. These organs are the skin, colon, liver, kidneys, blood, lungs, and immune system. And sometimes it’s time to give back to those seven that gives so much for us. This month I am looking at one of my new favorite Detox Teas.
I have been cleansing the past few weeks and so I needed something to help me out, I have never felt better and I am looking forward to some new growth in the future.

My Selection is Arbonne Essentials Herbal Detox Tea: It smells great, tastes really good and helps to really keep you going (insert pun here).
Any detox tea will generally include herbs that assist in cleansing one or more organs. The key is to know which organs are in need of cleansing and then select an herbal blend to do the job, what I like about this is it combines a number of good detoxers so I don’t have to think too much about it.

So what’s in it?
The ingredients:
Milk Thistle: Which is well known for its ability to cleanse the liver and one of the best preventative herbs out there, since it cleanses and protects the liver.
Peppermint: Aside from being one of my favorite ingredients of a good herbal tea, Peppermint is also used to calm and soothe the stomach.
Dandelion: Used today for liver and gallbladder function. It’s also known as a blood purifier.
Sweet Fennel: Love the taste, and it helps to relax the intestines, and bring bloating down after a heavy meal, in fact it has been used for years as an after dinner “mint” in India and Pakistan.
Elder: This been used for hundreds of years to help with the flu, and quite well in fact. It is also used for cough, colds, fever, and inflammation.
Parsley: This is a known diuretic and cleanser.
Walnut: reduces inflammation.
Uva Ursi: I’ll be honest, I had to look this one up, I had never heard of it, but it’s a great little herb, it’s also known as bearberry and has been used since the 2nd century. It’s great for urinary tract infections, and helps heal inflammation.
Licorice: one of my other favorite herbs, it also has great detoxing power for our body, plus combined with the Sweet Fennel, it gives it a really good flavor.

Bottom line, this is a great bagged Detox tea and I would recommend it if you are about to start a cleanse or already on one, or simply if you are just looking for a good tasting herbal tea.

Link below:


Legal stuff when talking about Herbs: This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Gotta keep myself safe here. 



Saturday, July 16, 2011

July tea review Grey's Tea, Good Afternoon blend





Grey's Teas

Good Afternoon blend-


So maybe I am longing for some relief from the heat and wanted something that remind me of a cool fall day, campfires and the smell of dried leaves that hits me right around my birthday in October (18th, if anyone wants to get me a present).

This tea did just the trick, it is reminiscent of my grandmothers love for afternoon tea, and it really has a calming effect to the hustle and bustle of my day.

My first reaction was joy at the sweet woodiness of the leaves, followed by the undeniable smokiness that usually follows a good Lapsang souchong (one of my personal favorites) but with a bit more earthy sweetness. The liquor also had beautifully rich caramel redness to it, I have to say that it reminded me of a fall evening and I will be more than happy to relive that again and again. The taste was very full without being overpowering, it's warm flavor (not temp but, think brown sugar) and sweet almost (this may sound crazy) light artichoke like notes were very well balanced.

I have to give this very high marks for a very GOOD AFTERNOON tea.

Our Afternoon blend - Well chosen China and Indian teas are blended to give a light, fragrant liquor with a little smokiness. Once you have tried it you will not drink an average tea during the afternoon ever again! Can be drunk with or without milk.
Go to Grey's Tea

Below is a direct link to this tea
http://goo.gl/q7mIE

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

June Tea Review Obubu Tea Plantations, Sencha of the Earth

This month I am reviewing some lovely tea from the Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations. 



Sencha of the Earth (Spring harvested Shincha)




This tea was very good, I mean its hard to wrong when you have a spring harvested Shincha tea. But this one has a very good quality liquor and a nice balance of vegetative sweetness with just a hint of the ever expected bite of a green tea.

I was pleasantly surprised with the earthy taste that this tea has, it really is worth trying.


From their Website:
Balancing sweetness with bitterness, the Sencha of the Earth or 大地の煎茶, was named because it comes from standard tea plants over 30 years old. The strength of these plants is simply amazing, and we can feel the power of the earth as we drink it. Grown on northwest facing slopes near the Wazuka River.

This Tea gets 4 out of 5 cups for me.

http://www.obubutea.com/store/sencha-green-tea/earth/

Monday, April 4, 2011

Tea 101, what makes a great cup

So I just realized after all I did with this blog last year (not that much) I never actually posted the basics of how to brew a good cup of tea.... so sorry, so here goes.

First things first, start with a good tea, but at this point it really doesn't matter what you start with as long as you are starting, for this example I will use some loose leaf Sencha Green Tea.


  • The average cup of tea 8 oz, needs approx. 1 teaspoon of leaves (or one tea bag). 








  • Put into your infuser or if you are bagging it set it in your cup. For this I am using an Adagio Tea ingenuiTea brewer (to the right though I am showing a typical wire mesh infuser). 
  • Now lets boil our water.The quality of your water WILL affect the taste of your tea, so make sure if you have off-tasting water you use either a filter or bottled water.  Slowly boil this really will affect the waters taste






  • For this part your tea will determine the temp that you boil your water at:
    • Green tea bring your water (slowly) to around 150-160 F and only steep for about 2-4 minutes, 3 being a good average. 
    • Black tea (as well as Rooibos, African red tea) you want to truly bring it to a boil and steep for about 5-6 minutes. 
    • Herbal teas or Tisane should be around 5 minutes, now there are lots and lots of types so this may need a little testing to get it right. if its bitter it may need to be reduced in time a bit. 
    • Oolong tea is a tea fermented between Green and Black its best temp is right around 190 F but steeped longer than Blacks at around 5-8 minutes. 

Its a good idea to have a thermometer handy if you don't have an automatic kettle (and even then sometimes its still a good idea). But if you don't a good rule of thumb (first keep thumbs away from boiling water... ouch) is small bubbles float on the waters surface at about 160-170 F. Then as it gets hotter around 180-190F you will start to see the little stings of bubbles form from the bottom of your kettle, after that the party gets started at a rolling boil of about 212 F. 



Remember once you have brewed your tea if you are using a higher quality loose leaf you may get 2 or 3 steeps out of it. If you are using a bag tea, its only going to be good for one (more than likely).

Resist the temptation to "squeeze" your tea bag, that will only make your tea bitter. 

And know that its not like ribs, the longer you slow cook the better it gets doesn't apply here. Timing is everything here in tea, if you the tea in too long it will become over steeped and bitter. But the flip side is true too, if you don't leave it in long enough it will be weak tea... so experiment, find what you like.

Enjoy, I know I am.... I am drinking this cup right now 


*For Iced tea preperation, basic amounts can be doubled, then add ice... so brew double strength and add equal amounts ice and water to suit your tastebuds. 

Monday, January 3, 2011

Ninjas Can't Mess with me

This is really funny Contest entry for Calm-A-Sutra of Tea 2008.



For all you hater Ninjas out there. You better step off Cause I've been drinking my green tea.

Chuck Norris you aren't the only one who can do a round house NOW!!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!!

Tis the time of year to look back and look ahead, doing that at one time though can cause a really bad strain on your neck.  So part of me feels like I failed a bit, I didn’t get to blog nearly as much on tea as I wanted to. Life happened, what are you going to do. I enjoyed this last year of discovering many types of tea and I really had fun with the friends I was able to share it with. From our trips to the tea stores to just hanging around talking about different types of processing amongst other things. This next year I plan to continue with the journey, a bit more educated but nowhere near an expert. I still have much to learn grasshopper. And I will do my best to share it with you, please feel free to join in, I know I may have an unhealthy obsession with this, but I know that there are those out there just like me, and you know who you are (if you are reading this you may just be one of them).
If you want to know more about me personally you can follow one of my other blogs: http://livewellblessbetter.blogspot.com/ or my wife’s: http://thrillofthechases.blogspot.com/  her blog is more than likely going to be better than mine, just saying.