Part 2 
The best way to get things done is to push yourself to start just a tiny bit, 5 to 10 minutes a day. One baby step. There is a rule in psychology that says “YOU DO, THEREFORE YOU ARE, THEREFORE YOU DO”. Just doing something causes you to think differently about yourself. If you start to do your goal activity like say exercising for 10 minutes a day, you will start to think, “I’m an athletic person” and thereby start to get into a habit of doing things towards your goal. 

There are lots of motivational books, tapes, training programs and courses that talk about visualizing yourself achieving your goals and doing self affirmations by telling yourself that you are a great person and you can do anything. There’s also the popular best-selling book “The Secret” which says that you just have to ask the universe for whatever you want and think positively to attract good things.

Now as enticing and magical as all this sounds, science has proved that visualizing or fantasizing about yourself achieving goals is actually bad for you.  According to extensive studies at the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania, people who fantasize about being slim or getting a dream job, or landing the mate of their dreams, are more likely NOT to reach their goals.

There are two reasons for this… since fantasy is just that, fantasy, people who daydream are often unprepared for the setbacks or difficulties that come along on the road to success. When something goes wrong, the visualizers tend to give up their dream instead of persisting. Researchers also found that indulging in fantasy and escapism was more fun than actually doing the work required to reach the goal, so visualizers tended to waste too much time dreaming instead of doing.

Now having said that there is a kind of visualization that actually works. Instead of visualizing yourself as a top tennis player, visualize yourself going through the process of training. Visualize yourself eating and sleeping properly, getting out on the tennis courts with an instructor, practicing your swings, etc. Visualizing the process of getting to your goal is actually effective.

Imagine the benefits of achieving your goals and also visualize the kinds of barriers or problems you are likely to encounter when you go after your dream. These kinds of strategic visualizations actually work very well. So, don’t daydream about sailing on a yacht with George Clooney; visualize how you’re going to get on that yacht with Clooney and some of the setbacks your likely to incur. And once you’ve figured out how to get on that yacht with Clooney, let me know.

Other techniques that have been scientifically proven to work in achieving goals are:

1.  Making a step-by-step plan. Write down everything you need to get to your goal and break it into daily steps.

2.  Telling other people about your goal tends to force people to complete their mission.

3. List the benefits of your goal.

4. Give yourself rewards along the way… everytime you make progress, give yourself a treat like a movie, bubble bath, new shoes, a cup of good tea.

5.  And lastly, recording your progress in a journal or chart.

Now as mentioned earlier, you are going to hit some snags on your way to the top. A great motivational speaker, Les Brown says:

“If you don’t develop the hunger and courage to pursue your goal, you will lose your nerve and you will give up on your dream. If you don’t have the courage to act life will take the initiative from you. Act on life or risk having life act on you.”

There are many setbacks that can occur in life. Toxic people are one of them…and it’s a biggie. It takes an enormous amount of energy to achieve your goals so you need to surround yourself with people who inspire and encourage you and who make you feel good about yourself.

Now, what do you do when life hands you things that are totally out of your control…there are three questions you can ask yourself:

1. What can I do to move forward?
2. How can I grow from this challenge?
3. What’s within my control to change? 

Scientists have also concluded that OVERTHINKING can sometimes severely impair our judgement and convince us to choose something we don’t even like.  In Western culture we’re taught that the more we think and reason, the wiser and more rational our decisions will be. But the more we cut ourselves off from our gut feelings and natural instincts, the less equipped we are to make clear, smart choices. Our ability to pick up subconscious and nonverbal clues are more effective in guiding us to make correct decisions than hard thinking.

So don’t overthink or rationalize things, or make excuses. Go with your hunches and gut feelings! I hope you all go for the life of your dreams without delay, and don’t let anything stop you.

Written by Orli Kohn

Part 1 
You know one of the biggest fears people have is public speaking…you’ve all heard that people would rather die than speak in public…or as Jerry Seinfeld says, “People would rather be in a coffin than giving the eulogy”. I always tell people who are shy or scared of making fools of themselves that no one cares about them anyway…people are far to busy thinking about themselves.  

Imagine if Margaret Mitchell had let 38 publisher rejections of “Gone With The Wind” stop her from trying to get it published. Imagine if Thomas Edison had listened to his teachers who told him that he was too stupid to learn anything. Imagine if Elvis Presley had listened to Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, who fired Elvis after just one performance telling him, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” 

Benjamin Disraeli said: “Life is too short to be little”  

French Author, Andre Maurois Wrote: “Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year’s time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings. to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.”

In other words. we have limited time here, don’t waste it on the “small stuff”. Dr. Robert Eliot, Professor of Cardiology, University of Nebraska suffered a massive heart attack at the age of 44. He was forced to spend a few months looking at life from the perspective of a patient, rather than a doctor. There was no history of heart disease in his family and he had a feeling that his heart attack was the result of the constant stress in his life. Dr. Eliot, who now heads the Institute of Stress Medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona, estimated that as many as 500,000 Americans die each year from stress-related heart conditions alone. Some people tend to react to stress by overreacting in ways that may damage their heart and blood vessels by producing excess adrenaline.

As a heart patient, Dr. Eliot offered two rules to live by:

Rule #1: Don’t sweat the small stuff
Rule # 2: It’s all small stuff

Lot’s of people have ambitions and dreams in life – whether it’s to travel, to start a new career, to get out of bad relationships…whatever…and they wait till the time is right to pursue their dreams. They wait until they have enough money, till the kids are grown, till they lose weight, till they put together a business plan, etc. The problem with that is that a lot of talented people end up standing on the sidelines and not on the playing field.

The trick is to start before you are ready. I’m not saying to be reckless and not plan and think ahead, but don’t wait for the PERFECT time to pursue your dreams because you don’t know what that perfect time will be. Oftentimes when you start before you’re ready, the momentum of starting will propel you forward and you’ll be on your way.

Don’t let age deter you or be an excuse to keep on the sideline either. Many of our great success stories made their mark on society later in life. Who would believe that an overweight, ex-boxer-turned preacher could recapture the title of heavyweight champion of the world at age 45. George Foreman did. Who would believe that a 48-year-old widow who never owned a business before could start her own cosmetics company and turn it into a billion dollar enterprise. Mary Kay Ash did. Ray Kroc was a 52-year-old traveling salesman of milk-shake mixers before he launched McDonalds. Winston Churchill was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister of England at age 62. Harland Sanders was 65 before he began selling his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises from his car.

So it’s never to late to pursue your dreams or to start on a new goal. Don’t procrastinate.

Procrastination is such a huge problem for many people. We’ve all heard techniques against procrastination, like breaking down the task into small chunks, overcoming perfectionism, managing time properly, etc. There is a simple trick that psychologists say works best. It was discovered in the 1920′s. A psychology graduate named Bluma Zeigarnik was having tea in a cafe with her supervisor when they happened to come upon something interesting. When a customer asked for the check, the waiters could easily remember the food that had been ordered. However if the customer already paid the check and then asked about the order a few minutes later, the waiters had to struggle to remember anything about the order. The psychologists concluded that the act of paying for the meal brought a sense of closure so the waiters erased the order from their memories.

Based on this theory, Zeigarnik did some lab experiments where she asked people to start a task but didn’t allow them to finish it. She later asked people to describe the task and, like the waiters, she found that people who didn’t finish what they started remembered the task very clearly. It stuck in their minds.

The psychologists concluded that if you start an activity and don’t finish it, your mind experiences a kind of psychic anxiety until the task is completed. Now procrastinators put off starting activities because they are overwhelmed by the size of the job, but if they can push themselves to work on the activity for just a few minutes, they often feel an urge to see it to its completion. “Just a few minutes” rule is one of the best ways of getting a procrastinator to finish their work. Those few minutes of initial activity create an anxious brain that refuses to rest until the job is done.

Written by Orli Kohn

Let’s talk about Men!

A friend of mine had a tea party a while back and the husband of one of the guests came early to pick her up. And he was invited in and promptly the ladies started serving him tea and gave him some cookies and cakes, and put a napkin on his lap. He was chatting and had a great time and then left with his wife.

If I told that same story a hundred or a hundred & fifty years ago people would be outraged. Women would have said how low have we come?… Women never serve men at any public or social function, men serve women.

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras – that is, from 1837 right through to 1910, (the end of the Edwardian era), the idea of men sort of sitting around at any party or social gathering and not constantly serving women would be unthinkable. A man’s character and social class was measured by his gallant treatment of women. Men were frequently invited to ladies afternoon teas and here’s why: Here’s a quote from an 1897 etiquette book for men.

Manners for Men – by Mrs. Humphry 1897
Gentlemen are in great request at 5 o’clock tea. Their duties are rather onerous if there are but one or two men and the usual crowd of ladies. They have to carry teacups about; hand sugar, cream and cakes or muffins, and keep up all the time a stream of small talk, as amusing as they can make it. They must rise every time a lady enters or leaves the room, opening the door for her exit if no one else is nearer to do it, and, if the hostess requests them, they must see the lady downstairs to her carriage or cab. With regards to the viands, a man helps himself, but not until he has seen that all the ladies in his vicinity have everything they could possibly want.

At any kind of social function, men always served women. For example at a dinner party, after the dinner was over, the ladies would rise to leave the dining room. The men sitting closest to the door would rise with the women, open the door for them, and remain standing at the door until all the women had left to go to the drawing room. Now, the servants would usually serve tea in the drawing room after dinner, and again, just as in afternoon teas, it would be the men’s job to take the empty tea cups from the women.

At a ball a woman would give her trusted man, like her brother or father, her gloves, fan, evening purse, and flowers to hold when she wanted to dance. Today, men would feel this was unmasculine, but Victorian and Edwardian men were honoured to be a woman’s most humble servant. 

Interestingly, the Victorian and Edwardian eras were extremely patriarchial. Women couldn’t vote until 1918 and 1920 in the U.S. A married woman could not own property. Married women were not allowed to make a will. A woman could not enter into a business contract without her husbands approval. A married woman who worked outside the home was not allowed to keep her earnings; her wages became the husband’s property. In short, a husband had the right to everything that was his wife’s, but she had no right to anything that was his.

Single women or “spinsters and old maids”, as they were called at the time, actually did have the right to own their earnings, widowed woman could also inherit property. In general, however unmarried women were looked down on, and had difficulty making ends meet unless they came from a wealthy family.

Here we have an extremely patriarchial society in which men are taught that real masculinity lies in worshipping and serving women. The truth was that Victorian and Edwardian men really did adore women, and they felt that having a patriarchial society would protect them. 

Men were so delicate and refined during the Victorian era that they would walk backwards when retreating from a room so as not to turn their backs on the ladies who remained. Men were required to bow slightly and lift their hats if they met a woman they knew on the street. Men were never allowed to push their attentions upon women unless the lady gave an invitation of some sort – through a card or mutual acquaintance.

Men always stood up when a lady entered or left the room. If a man was smoking when a woman walked by he would have to remove the cigar from his mouth. When dancing with a woman, men always wore gloves so that his sweat would not touch her hand or dress. 

Men who didn’t respect women were actually more frightened of other men…Rudeness, especially to a lady, was the kiss of death in Victorian society. A rude man would get “the big chill” from other men. He would be ostracized from social activities; from the sacred men’s clubs and other men might even refuse to do business with him.

Interestingly, in an 1891 issue of the Ladies Home Journal magazine, women were asked to predict what life would be like for women in the year 2000. They said they were happy that our sisters in the future will probably have freedom, rights and independence, however they said we also fear for our sisters of the future. Victorian women predicted that feminism and women’s independence by the year 2000 might lead to a sexual revolution. They predicted that if women were promiscuous without marriage or any promise of solid commitment, men would no longer respect them and chivalrous behaviour would be unfamiliar to us. A very interesting prediction!

Dedicated to Orli Kohn…

Part 4 of 4

Afternoon teas could be very simple events or more elaborate ones used to introduce debutants to society or to honour special guests. The more elaborate teas were often called “at homes” and could take place in the evenings.  There would be maids and footmen to help guests out of their carriages, and tons of food and drinks, including champagne as well as tea, bullion and hot chocolate. Musicians would also complete the event.

Now the only problem left to deal with was “how could a Victorian lady truly relax with her tea when she couldn’t breathe?” Victorian women often had difficulty breathing and fainted often because their waists were squeezed into a tiny 18 inches by a whalebone, wire, sometimes steel ribbed corset. Also Victorian Women could wear up to 37 pounds of clothing – up to 19 lbs suspended from the waist alone. On top of the corset problem, there was the problem of sitting down with a bustle. Bustles were made of wire mesh and springs, and they wouldn’t allow a women to sit back in their chair so they had to balance themselves on the edge. In fact in the late 1870′s bustles became so large that they were called tea tray bustles (because they were large enough to hold a tea setting).

In the 1880′s, the Dress Reform Society in England came to the rescue by introducing “tea gowns”. These very loose, flowing gowns, almost like negligees were made of chiffon, lace, velvet, satin or silk, and were very ornate – trimmed with beads, jewels, feathers, furs or ribbons. Many “tea gowns” had matching jackets. They were usually worn in the home, or if you were visiting friends in their country house. The comfortable tea gowns, however were not worn to public functions or formal teas.

When Queen Victoria’s son, King Edward the seventh, took the throne (1901 – 1910), tea gowns became even more lavish and high society went all out with teas. Evening tea parties had footmen, hot dishes, professional musicians, and ornate silver tea pots on swivel stands. The Edwardian era was a very lavish and joyful time. People emulated the extravagant ways of the king.

LOW TEA – also called afternoon tea is the most elegant of teas, served between 4 and 5 o’clock. This was the tea of wealthy aristocrats and features dainty finger sandwiches, scones with Devonshire or clotted cream and jam, and also a variety of tarts and pastries. Sometimes fresh fruit is also served. Low teas are called “low” because it was taken in the sitting or “withdrawing” room where low tables (like a coffee table) were placed near sofas. In a traditional low tea, all food must be dry to the touch as Victorians wore hats (some with veils) and gloves to these events. The gloves would be left on while eating, especially at outdoor garden teas, so food was prepared neatly so as not to get the gloves dirty.

HIGH TEA – also called a “Meat Tea” was traditionally the tea of the middle and lower classes. During the second half of the Victorian Period, known as the industrial revolution, working families would come home tired and hungry. High tea was served at 6 o’clock at the end of the workday, and is basically a large, heavy supper with several courses – meats, eggs, cheese, fish, vegetables, sandwiches and tea. Despite its name there is nothing elegant about high tea. It was the main meal of the day and is still a tradition in English, Welsh and Scottish farming regions.

 So there you have the basic history of tea… After almost 5,000 years of tea drinking, we’re still discovering new varieties, new flavours, and the wonderful health benefits of this drink.

Join us for our Musical Twilight Tea with musical guest Rosalee Peppard. Her music is steeped in the sea, as she brings the rich maritime past to life in song.

Part 3

In the 1820′s, the British East India Company began large scale production of tea in India, and by the 1850′s the British learned how to commercially cultivate tea plants. It took the British several decades to learn how to grow and produce various types of Indian tea like Assam and Darjeeling. By 1875, the British had the knowledge to produce tea on their own island colony of Ceylon, Sri Lanka. In 1878, tea was cultivated in Indonesia by the Dutch and by the turn of the Century…early 1900′s, tea was also being cultivated in parts of Africa, like Kenya. The English and the Dutch managed to crumble China’s world tea dominance.

In 1904 St. Louis World’s fair, ice tea became all the rage. One plantation owner decided to dump a load of ice into his hot tea because the weather was so warm, no one was buying the hot tea.  Ice tea was consumed in the 1800′s in tea and liquour punch cocktails but iced tea alone took off in popularity in the early 1900′s.

In 1908, the first teabags were invented.

Starting in the late 1880′s, fine hotels in America and England began to offer tea service in Tea Rooms and Tea Courts. Victorian ladies and gentlemen would meet in the late afternoon for tea and conversation.  By 1910 fashionable hotels began to host afternoon Tea Dances. Tea Dances were very popular with singles and they were considered a very respectable way for singles to meet. The Tango became all the rage in 1910, and tea and tango became connected.

The London Ritz was the first hotel where young women were allowed to go alone to tea without a chaperone. Romance writer Barbara Cartland said that in the years following World War One, tea at the London Ritz was a great way to meet single men. “You’d have a long lunch with men you liked, a short tea with the rest,” she said. The editor of Vogue Magazine once fired a large number of female secretaries for “wasting too much time at the tea dances.” in the 1920′s.

 to be continued….

Join us for our traditional high tea and enjoy a cup of your favourite tea!

Part 2

Tea first arrived in Paris in 1636 and a famous gossip and letter writer, Madame de Sevigne wrote about a friend of hers who was tired of breaking her precious tea ware due to the heat of the water, and one day added cold milk prior to the tea. The dishes did not break and the addition of milk to tea was born.

Interestingly, Great Britain, known as a tea-loving nation, was not familiar with tea until about 1652. As in Holland, the royal family had to provide the stamp of approval for tea to gain nationwide acceptance. In 1662, King Charles 11 married the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. Princess Catherine was said to be a tea addict and she brought a large tea chest as part of her dowry. Her influence made tea the beverage of choice in English high society. Tea became very popular, but it was extremely expensive so tea leaves were kept in a locked caddy. Tea was locked in a caddy throughout Victorian times as well, so the servants couldn’t steal it. (By the way, in Victorian times, once the masters of the house drank the first brew, the servants would make tea for themselves from the used leaves and then sell the twice used leaves at the back door to vendors.) The vendors would press the used leaves into tea cakes.  They would sell these cakes to people who could only afford to spend a penny or two for the tea, and that’s where the phrase “Tea for two” came from…the cost was “tea for two pence”.

Tea Gardens became popular with the English in the 1600′s. They took the idea from the Dutch tavern garden teas and embellished it. Ladies and Gentlemen would take their tea outdoors and were entertained by orchestras, flowered walkways, concerts, games, fireworks, etc. The Tea Gardens were the first time that women could mix freely with men and with all social classes. Tipping for good service started in the English Tea Gardens. Locked wooden boxes were placed on the Garden Tables. Inscribed on the boxes were the letters T.I.P.S – TO INSURE PROMPT SERVICE. Customers would drop a coin into the box to insure that the waiters hurried to bring the tea hot from the distant kitchen.

Since tea was so popular in Britain, the government decided to profit by putting heavy taxes on tea, up to 119% Unfortunately, this backfired because it created a huge organized smuggling industry in the 18th century. Millions of pounds of tea were smuggled into Britain and obviously there was no quality control so a lot of the tea was adulterated. Leaves from other plants or used tea leaves were added to fresh tea leaves. Sometimes the colour was not convincing enough so anything from sheep’s dung to poisonous copper carbonate was added to make it look more like tea.

In 1784, the government dramatically lowered tea taxes which ended the smuggling. 

Several wars were started because of tea. By the mid-1700′s tea was so expensive and so popular in Britain that importing tea from China was creating a burden on the currency reserves in England. Since India was a British Colony, opium from India was smuggled into China by British Merchants to help pay for the tea exports to Britain. When the Chinese destroyed the opium, it started the opium wars between Britain and China. Britain won these wars and this lead to the Chinese opening more ports to trade tea with the world.

Tea didn’t come to America until 1690. Tea Gardens opened in New York City, and by 1720, the tea trade was based in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. In the U.S., tea made history when there was a fight over the high taxes levied on British tea after England’s French and Indian war. In 1773, a group of radicals disguised as Indians dumped hundreds of pounds of British tea into the Boston Harbour to protest high taxes. This was known as the Boston Tea Party, and eventually led to the American Revolution and American Independence.

In the 1800′s, Tea Plantations sprung up in the American south and America became the biggest importer of tea due to the faster clipper ships and the ability to pay its debts in gold.

 to be continued….

Join us for our traditional high tea and enjoy a cup of your favourite tea!

Part 1 

Tea is the second most consumed drink in the world after water.
The history of tea is long and convoluted, starting in China and working its way around the world causing revolutions in taste, lifestyle and politics.The discovery of tea actually influenced world history.

So where did tea originate? Who discovered tea? The honest answer is no one knows for sure. The most popular legend, however, takes us back to the year 2737 B.C. Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was a gifted herbalist and scientist. He was smart enough to insist that all drinking water be boiled for the sake of hygiene. One day, the Emperor and his servants stopped to rest and boil some water when they were out for a walk. Some dried leaves from a nearby tea bush blew into the water and the water turned brown. The emperor tasted the water, for scientific purposes, and exclaimed, “This is delicious”. According to legend, this is how tea was born.

Tea consumption spread throughout China and by the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD), tea was the national drink in China. In 780 AD, a famous Chinese scholar by the name of Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on tea called the Cha Ching. He wrote about tea cultivation and preparation in ancient China.

Interestingly, even at that early time, additives were added to tea to create different flavours.  The ancient Chinese added, ginger, orange peel or peppermint as flavourings. It was also a custom to boil tea with onions. Lu Yu recommended that people always add salt to their tea, which we would consider strange today. Lu Yu also said that tea should always be consumed in an atmosphere of tranquility, so you shouldn’t make tea when you’re fighting with someone.

With the advent of Lu Yu’s book, tea became extremely popular in China and in 800 AD; tea began to be commercially cultivated.

In 1191, a Zen Buddhist missionary – Priest Yeisei, bought tea seeds from China to Japan, and he thought that the preparation of tea would enhance religious meditation. So tea in Japan instantly got approval from the royal family and monasteries, and spread throughout Japanese society. In Japan, the preparation of tea was elevated to an art form. The “Japanese Tea Ceremony” actually originated in China, but it died out there and was continued in Japan. It actually takes years to master the Tea Ceremony which is very complicated. Later, tea houses in which Japanese Hostesses, “the geisha” practiced the tea ceremony became very popular.

Another missionary, a Portuguese Jesuit Priest was the first European to try tea and he brought it back to Lisbon in 1560. It was the Portuguese and Dutch traders who first imported tea to Europe. In 1602 the Dutch East India Trading Company was formed and by 1610, regular shipments were going to France, Holland, and the Baltic countries.

Tea first came to Russia in 1618 when the Chinese embassy presented tea to the Czar. The Czar refused it as being a useless beverage, nevertheless tea eventually grew popular in Russia. In the late 1600′s, caravan trading began between China & Russia. Russians would trade their furs for Chinese tea. The horse and camel caravan journey took about a year and it was here that tea would be infused at night with smoke from the camp fires – so smoky teas like Lapsang Souchong and Russian Caravan were born. They are very strong teas with a strong smoke fragrance and flavours.

Tea became very fashionable in Holland, but because it was terribly expensive – over $100 per pound in the early 1600′s – it was only available to the wealthy. By 1675, the prices came down a bit, but it was still a luxury item. In Holland, tavern owners had to have a license to sell tea and got into the habit of serving teas outdoors in their gardens on portable tea sets with a heating unit, so people could enjoy tea outside in the tavern’s garden.

to be continued….

Join us for our traditional high tea and enjoy a cup of your favourite tea!

Part 6 0f 6 

White Tea Boosts Stimulating Brain Waves
Even though white tea has the lowest level of caffeine of all the teas, it has the highest amount of L-theanine, an amino acid that perks you up naturally. L-theanine stimulates the production of alpha brain waves that makes you more focused and mentally alert.

Green Tea Protects Your Eyes
A study in the “Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry” says that Green Tea Protects your eyes. The Antioxidants in tea are absorbed by eye tissue helping to protect against glaucoma and other degenerative eye diseases. Since green tea has been proven to protect your heart and help prevent cancer, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is now testing green tea’s ability to fight Parkinson’s disease.

Black Tea Absorbs Heavy Metals
Fish is healthy and full of important omega – 3 fatty acids which help with everything from arthritis, to heart disease, to dementia. Were advised to eat fish twice a week but the problem is fish is also a source of mercury and other unhealthy heavy metals which are bad for the heart and blood vessels. Researchers at Perdue University did studies on tea and its ability to bind heavy metals like iron, lead and mercury. They found that the best inhibitor of mercury absorption in the stomach was BLACK TEA. Drinking Black Tea while you’re eating the fish  will help prevent up to 92% of mercury from entering your bloodstream.

Tea Tips 
The University of Iowa says that you can double the concentration of antioxidants if you dunk the tea bag up and down a few times instead fo letting it steep slowly. By the way, tea bags usually release more antioxidants than loose tea because the leaves are chopped up and there is more surface exposed to the water.

Never put milk in green tea. Green tea contains an antioxidant, EGCG and the casein protein in milk will bind with that and make it less effective. You can use soy or almond milk in tea which does not have casein.

The best thing to add to all teas is citrus. Squeezing lemon, lime or orange into tea increases the absorption of catechins by up to 80 %. Catechins are antioxidants that have lots of health benefits like shrinking belly-fat cells. The vitamin C in citrus stabilizes these antioxidants until they’re properly absorbed.

Weight Loss
Finally, one last tip… one very effective way to cut down on cravings for fattening desserts is to drink a tea similar to the taste you are craving. Everything from chocolate teas, to licorice, to vanilla hazelnut, to coconut cinnamon teas are available. If you explore a bit in ethnic area stores or European supermarkets, you’ll find a vast array of exotic flavours. Now if you drink a hazelnut or chocolate tea and add a bit of 5% cream to make it thicker, like a chocolate tea milkshake, it will probably cut your dessert cravings down with minimal calories and lots of health benefits.

In conclusion, I just want to encourage you to drink as much tea as possible…whether you like black, green, white or oolong…and be creative with your tea… add citrus peels, orange, lime, lemon juices and peel will add to your body’s absorption of healthy enzymes from the teas. Throw a bunch of fresh mint leaves into your hot or cold green or white teas, or add fresh sage leaves into your hot tea. Have fun and be creative!

Join us for our traditional high tea and enjoy a cup of your favourite tea!

Part 5 0f 6 

Diabetes
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research centre has found that drinking black, green and particularly oolong tea improves blood glucose control both in diabetics and people without the disease. If you stir a half teaspoon of cinnamon into your tea, the combination significantly boosts the effectiveness of insulin to keep blood sugar levels from rising too high.

Food Poisoning
If you suspect food poisoning, couple black tea with a few pieces of burned toast, says the National Institute of Whole Health. The tannic acid in tea and charcoal in the toast will neutralize the toxins and help you get much better very quickly.

Heart Disease
Harvard University studies have shown that black tea drinkers have a 44% reduced risk of having a heart attack compared to non-tea drinkers. Research at the University of North Carolina confirmed that 12 different studies looking at tea consumption in a quarter million people found that those who drank tea have less incidence of heart attack. Tea appears to act on LDL, which is bad cholesterol by keeping cholesterol from being metabolized in a way that would clog the arteries and cause stoke.

Immune Strength
Pace University in New York found that all teas, even commercial ice teas like Snapple, Nestea & Arizona killed or inactivated certain viruses on contact. Their research showed that black tea can kill human viruses including cold, flu, and herpes simplex 1 and 2.

Kidney Stones
Investigators at China’s Sichuan University found that a compound in green tea binds with calcium oxalate to help prevent and reduce the size of painful kidney stones.

Stress
When you are under stress, your adrenal glands produce a hormone called “Cortisol”. Cortisol increases blood sugar and fat formation especially belly fat which is the most dangerous type of fat. Cortisol also suppresses your immune system. According to a new University College study from London, England, cortisol levels of regular black tea drinkers fell 47% within one hour after completing a stressful task.

Weight Loss
If you want to loose weight, studies have shown that 5 cups of tea a day boosts metabolism by up to 5%, and it’s not the caffeine that’s doing it – it’s the catechins and polyphenols in tea. One study showed that green tea may reduce fat absorption from your diet by as much as 30%. Japan’s University of Tokushima reported that people who drank oolong tea had a fat burning rate that was 12% higher than people who didn’t drink oolong. 

to be continued… in the mean time join us for a cup of your favourite tea!

Part 4 0f 6 

Alzheimer’s Disease
Newcastle University in England looked at green and black tea in a series of laboratory experiments. The results showed that both types of tea inhibited the activity of Enzymes associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, tea appears to affect the brain in a similar way as prescription drugs for Alzheimer’s, however, tea doesn’t have the side effects that the drugs do. According to the scientists, black and green tea fight enzymes that destroy chemical messengers in the brain. 

Arthritis
Scientists at Case Western University in Cleveland took two groups of mice and gave them injections of a substance that causes immune reactions similar to those due to rheumatoid arthritis. One group had regular water to drink and the other got water laced with polyphenols, chemicals found in green tea and, to a lessar extent black tea. Nearly all the mice that drank regular water got arthritis-like symptoms, compared to less than half of the treated mice. Green tea and its polyphenols are great for controlling arthritis, it has an antioxidant called EGCG that blocks enzymes from breaking down cartilage.

Bone Strength
Tea flavonoids may be bone builders and fight Osteoporosis. A report in the archives of internal Medicine looked at about 500 chinese men and women who regularly drank black, green, or oolong tea for more than 10 years. Compared with non-habitual tea drinkers, tea regulars had higher bone mineral densities, even after exercise and calcium were taken into account. A British University study found that drinking one cup a day was linked to a 5% higher bone mineral density in senior citizens. A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that green tea drinkers had bones that were 3% thicker than non-tea drinkers

Breath
Coffee can give you bad breath, but polyphenols found in both black and green tea can stop the growth of bacteria that cause bad breath. Black tea also suppresses the growth of bacteria in dental plaque and rinsing with black tea reduces plaque formation and the production of acids that cause tooth decay. Japanese researchers also found that green tea helped patients with gingivitis and more advanced gum disease. 

Cancer
“Tea is one of the single best cancer fighters you can put in your body,” according to Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, director of medical oncology at the world-renowned Strong Cancer Prevention Center in New York CIty. Studies have shown that both green and black teas kept healthy cells from turning malignant after exposure to cancer-causing compounds. John Hopkins University studies showed that drinking 2 to 3 cups of tea daily reduced the risk of developing urinary tract cancer by 60%, and digestive tract cancer by 32%.

Cholesterol
New research confirms that extracts of black tea can help reduce cholesterol. Researchers at Vanderbilt University tested 240 people with mild to moderately high cholesterol who were on a low-fat diet. Half took a daily black tea extract with polyphenols (equal to 7 cups of tea); the other half took a placebo. After 12 weeks, those on tea cut their LDL by 16%. “Over time that could translate into a 16 to 24% reduction in risk of heart attack and stroke” says Dr. David Maron, MD, cardiologist and lead researcher.

to be continued… in the mean time join us for a cup of your favourite tea!