Did you know that aside from water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world? Sweet, warm, and soothing, each cup of tea is unique and has its own advantages. For centuries the people of Japan, China, India, Thailand, and many other countries have been drinking green tea, but why? What is so special about a cup full of leaves and water? Well, aside from tasting delicious (when made properly) Green tea has many health benefits, and is very inexpensive. I have been drinking green tea for several years, and I love how healthy it makes me feel. But I’m sure you’re wondering, what exactly is green tea? What makes it different from other teas? Where did it come from? How does it benefit you? Well, let me start with what it is.

Ito En (Oi Ocha) Japanese Green Tea, 16.9-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 12)

Green Tea is simply tea leaves that are not processed the same way that other teas are. Tea comes from the leaves of a plant called Camellia Sinensis (kah-MEAL-e-a sy-NEN-sis) The leaves are harvested and dried, with a different drying process for each kind of tea. Green tea, is not fermented the way Black and Oolong teas are. Instead, the leaves are simply steamed. This process allows the leaves to retain more of their healthy properties than the fermenting process would.

Though no one is sure where green tea originally came from, it has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Some people believe Green Tea was first discovered in India. Some people believe it was first found in China. The Japanese legend, according to Yukihiko Hara, author of the book “Green Tea Health Benefits and Applications (Food Science and Technology)” is that in 2737 B.C. Emperor Sheng Nung discovered the plant and taught his people how to brew it into a medicinal drink.

So why should you drink green tea? Green Tea is Beneficial to your body and your mind. Green tea protects and strengthens your body in several ways. Green Tea contains powerful antioxidants called polyphenols that protect against potentially damaging free radical compounds that naturally occur in the body. Green Tea can also aid digestion, assist weight loss by boosting metabolism, protect against heart disease, reduce the risk of cancer.
Though there is not much clinical research on the medicinal properties of green tea, the University of Maryland Medical Center reports that in population based clinical studies green tea seems to prevent coronary artery disease and protect against cancer. Another study by the University of Maryland showed that men who drink green tea are more likely to have lower total cholesterol than men who do not.
Harvard Medical School reports that green tea is the best food source of a group called catechins, which are more powerful than vitamins C and E in stopping oxidative damage to cells
The U.S. National Library of Medicine states that green tea is even possibly effective for reducing the risk or slowing the onset of Parkinson’s disease, and preventing bladder, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
Green Tea is also good for your mind. Though it does contain caffeine, Green Tea has a smaller amount than most other caffeinated beverages. The small amount of caffeine can reduce headaches and improve mental alertness. Also, because the caffeine content is not high, Green Tea does not have the side effects of other highly caffeinated beverages such as jitters, withdrawal headaches, dizziness, or nausea.

Green Tea is a readily available and inexpensive way to protect against many potentially expensive health problems. A box of green tea at Wal-mart is about 2 dollars for 20 tea bags; that is only 10 cents for each cup of tea. Making a cup of tea takes less than ten minutes. To make a cup of green tea you simply heat boil water and let it cool for about 4 minutes, and pour it over a tea bag. Let the teabag sit in the hot water for three minutes, then take it out and add sweetener if you like. Our health is one of the most important things we have, and drinking one cup of green tea a day is an easy way to preserve such a valuable asset.
Kirkland Signature Ito En Matcha Blend (Green Tea), 100% Japanese Green Tea Leaves, 100 Tea Bags

The ultimate big pizza is the moon that dean martin sings about. I guess only an Italian new yorker would be able to put together such incredible word play involving classic food like big pizza, as a significant part of the description of love. I am not sure how most women respond to the specific line of the moon being like a big pizza. Do they think that is a romantic comparison? I have had some romantic dates while eating a big pizza, but most of the time if I am planning a truly special event I would pick seafood or something really classy. However if we are talking about love and a big pizza, maybe what he meant is the love a man feels for a big pizza. Really isn’t it true that when you walk into a pizzeria, you feel something akin to love. The smell of sauce wafting through the air filled with the aroma of basil, thyme, and rosemary, the smell of fresh mozzarella melting all of its gooey goodness over the face of that moon like piece of heaven. The sight of the bubbling hot big pizza being pulled out of the oven on that wooden paddle inspires anticipation much like that of waiting for your sweetheart to get off the airplane after a long trip. I feel the anxiousness building as they cut the slices and you see all the goodness giving away to the knife surrendering to the inevitability of surrendering to my taste buds. My mouth begins to salivate as if anticipating the first kiss all over again, thinking about the deliciousness of the sausage onion and peppers combining with all the other ingredients of the big pizza to formulate the perfect bite of love over and over again until every last morsel is consumed. Unfortunately like love not every big pizza is a good experience in fact some of them are truly horrendous. I remember Domino’s old style of pizza tasting like a cardboard box smeared with ketchup and drowned in grease. It was truly a disgusting horrendous culinary disappointment. Like love I have experienced big pizza at times and in ways I little expected. The first time I had a barbeque chicken big pizza, I was sure it was going to be a huge let down, instead it became one of my all time favorites. I remember the first time I had a taco style big pizza. That too was a pleasant surprise, although I wouldn’t order it very often, infrequently I have a hankering for taco pizza. Maybe there are women out there who have a similar response to all the sensory stimulants of a delicious big pizza and Dean Martin singing about pizza and love causes the same delectable response.

WINE GIFT BASKETS Arranging Wine Gift Baskets Contents Wine Gift Baskets can be very diverse depending on the choicie of the person sending the gift baskets and the preferences of the person receiving the gift baskets. If you are planning on sending the wine gift baskets you could start planning the contents based on what you know about the person. If they have a sweet tooth you can plan your wine gift baskets with a dessert wine that has a sweeter content and include some fine chocolate, some very nice shortbread cookies or something else that fits nicely with the wine. You may ask yourself next does the person receiving the wine gift baskets prefer a white or red wine. Once you have determined the color of the wine you can choose cheeses, cold cuts, breads, or other additional items that would complement the appropriate color of the wine. It is possible that you may choose to fill your wine gift baskets with champagne and complement it with caviar and water crackers. If you are really intimate with the recipient you may choose to break all the rules and protocol and send them a wine gift baskets filled with the items you know they love that will help create a night to never forget. Wine Gift Baskets Occasions When is the right time to send wine gift baskets? The broader answer is that any time is right time to send wine gift baskets. However there are some occassions that seem to be the perfect opportunity to choose a wine gift baskets as the appropriate way to express your emotion to the gift receiver. If someone you know receives a career promotion or a new job a wine gift baskets is a great way to congratulate them on their career path. Following the birth of a child a new mother (who is bottle feeding her baby) will be ready for her first glass of wine after a nine month hiatus and a nicely arranged wine gift baskets will help the new mom and dad celebrate. Birthdays are a great time to send anyone a wine gift basket. You may need to make sure you are not sending such a gift to someone who is in a treatment program for substance use, or that they have religious believes that would impact their view of the wine gift baskets. Retirement is another opportunity to congratulate someone with the celebratory wine gift baskets.

Weight Watchers Free Registration with Monthly Pass

Currently Weight Watchers Free Registration is available when you sign up for their monthly pass program.   Monthly Pass is an excellent program that offers you a myriad of online tools as well as a wallet size card sent to you every month that allows you to attend meetings for free.  Currently if you sign up for monthly pass you will get weight watchers free registration and then your credit card will be billed each month until you are ready to end your weight loss.

Weight Watchers Sign Up For Free

A similar but slightly different plan is also being offered along the monthly pass free registration offer from Weight Watchers.   They are also offering a three month savings plan and if you sign up by March twelfth two thousand eleven you will have no sign up fee.  This plan is a purely online plan that does not involve any of the meetings.

Weight Watchers Free Registration Success

Clients who sign up for the monthly pass and attend meetings at least weekly are forty five percent more successful at weight loss than those who just follow the program on line.  There is tremendous help from having accountability to a group of people who are struggling and want to see you succeed.  The other point of Weight Watchers Free Registration is that they offer it with longer term commitments.  They have seen that over the years people who stay with it at least ninety days are much more likely to be successful at weight loss.

Weight Watchers Free Registration Menu

Green Coffee Beans Roasting

What are green coffee beans

Some of you may be asking what in the world are green coffee beans.  If you have only ever had folgers or generic coffee grounds that come in a five pound can you might be shocked to hear that your coffee comes from something that sounds like a vegetable.   How does my beautiful brown toasty coffee grounds come from something that’s a green bean.   Coffee grows on small trees or bushes in pods with seeds.  The seeds are what make the green coffee beans.  The seeds are removed from the pod and washed and cleaned.  Then the green coffee beans are sold to various buyers based on the quality of the green coffee beans they demand different prices.  Then the beans are shipped to various locations around the world.  The large distributors roast and package the lowest grade beans in bulk and package it as folgers or something that is bought in the grocery.  The medium grade green coffee beans are bought and roasted in smaller batches so that there is less time between roasting and brewing.  These are places like Starbucks and Caribou.   Then there are the high end green coffee beans that  are bought by the specialty coffee shops and are roasted for your order and shipped the same day so that within 60 hours of roasting you are drinking the coffee.

Why Green Coffee Beans

Roasted Green Coffee beans start to lose their flavor the second they cool off and even the best system for sealing in the flavor won’t stop them from leaking out the best of the flavor.   So if you want to experience the best in an ultimate cup of coffee you need to find a place that roasts their green coffee beans on site and drink a truly freshly roasted and brewed cup of coffee.

Roasting Coffee Beans

If you are the ultimate coffee connoisseur you may want to invest in the equipment so that you can roast your own green coffee beans.   It used to be only a handful of roasting machines and some of them were dangerous.  Now there are countertop coffee roasting machines that will roast and brew the coffee with little of your input.