RSSMATCHA TEA
October 29, 2007
I wish I liked Green Tea
Does anyone out there really like Green Tea? I know I’m supposed to like it. I’ve had lots of different ones. Some are less bitter, some are just undrinkable, but none are great. White tea is awarded the same comments.
I force them down and try not to think about the taste too much. The girls at work wonder why I bother. Why, I’m trying to turn back the clock, of course. I offered some to my boss…. He told me his clock was broken. He didn’t want any of my diet hot chocolate either.
I’ve never liked Chamomile and Jasmine teas. They taste to me like run-off from a hayfield. Green tea is better than that. The better Japanese green teas taste like tea you get at a good Chinese or Japanese restaurant.
What I really love is Red Rose tea. It can’t be just any Orange Pekoe, it has to be Red Rose, brewed very strong. I’ve fantasized about using 2 bags per cup but that might be too much; I could potentially make pudding. I’m saving that for a really bad day.
A powerful anti-cancer agent
I read about Matcha tea on Dr. Andrew Weil’s site. I’m not really an organic, supplement type person but he’s pretty good, I think. I don’t follow his work closely but when I come across his advice, I find myself paying attention.
Very recently, I was given a phenomenal book to read. If you are even remotely interested in health through diet, and preventing cancer, you absolutely must read Foods That Fight Cancer ( and my review of the book here). It is written by two scientists from the University of Quebec in Montreal, but the book reads like a story. The history of how these foods found their way into the human food chain centuries before Christ was born is just fascinating.
You know that we all have cancer cells starting tumors in our body all the time, right? Our immune system is supposed to detect these and kill them before they become tumors. What if your immune system were to miss a few bad cells? By incorporating foods with a potent ability to prevent tumor growth into your diet, you are giving yourself safe and unbelievably powerful ammunition against the most dreaded disease.
Did you know that anti-oxidant and anti-cancer is not at all the same? Did you know that there are teas with even more anti-cancer power than Matcha Tea? And that there is a black tea that still retains a lot of cancer-fighting chemicals? Sadly, it’s not Red Rose. Will I be buying some of it? Of course.
Anti-cancer will cost you
I go to my local Health and Wellness store expecting to buy a $7 box of tea bags. First of all, it costs $32 for a little can of it!! I had to have it. After all, the woman explained that the tea is harvested from the youngest leaves at the top of the plant, grown in the shade. That just screams of wiping out disease, with a big anti-aging kick thrown in.
How to brew Matcha Tea
I get home and plug in the kettle, watching it carefully. You see, you don’t actually want it to come to a boil because fully boiling water could bruise the tea. I definitely did not want to bruise the tea in any way and compromise the anti-oxidant kick.
I open my little $32 can and peer inside. There’s a foil bag which I open. The woman at the store warned me that the tea is finer than icing sugar and I did not want to be breathing a $32 cloud. As instructed, I take out ½ teaspoon and mix it into a paste with a little water in my cup. It has no particular odor that I could detect but the color!! How can I describe this to you? It’s green like new grass in spring, like Crayola Green. I hoped the color wouldn’t stain my teeth. OK, forget the color, think about the anti-cancer force I now had on my side.
I add the hot-but-not-boiling water carefully to the paste and stir. Looks fine, though mighty green. Still no particular odor. I taste it expecting it to taste like grass soup with a sushi overtone.
Drink this. Time will stand still.
Actually, it’s not bad. Red Rose, it ain’t, but it is drinkable. It’s milder than regular green and white teas. You use such a small amount that the can will last you through many cups of tea.
I actually felt pretty good afterward as well. Cleansed. Clear-minded. Happy with my purchase. And my teeth were not green.
Comments
2 Responses to “MATCHA TEA”
Got something to say? I hope so.
-
A Greener Tea
Web Maintenence by Rick Beckman
Tea ahhh yes the comfort drink of my childhood. I was raised on only King Cole, anything else was blasphemous in our home. Had the complete Barbours description on how it was brewed and tested and how to warm the pot. Tea always added after the water was since you could scald the leaves and of course the gauze bag not paper. The only way to get true taste. Nothing would anger my mother more than someone leaving the teapot on the woodstove and then have my father build a roaring fire and horror of horrors, BOIL THE TEA. For some reason it did not appear to bother him as he would drink anything. They are no longer together and I have a strong suspicion that after 47 years of frequently boiled tea my mother simply had enough. Time to move on and well can’t say as I blame her. It is an art, tea is, just check out the Asian culture and the tea ceremonies. What more can I say.
To have it turn back the clock ….well I’m thinking laser surgery may be less expensive and more effective but then would I get the same euphoric high? hmmm perhaps not. gotta go… it’s time for a cuppa.