“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” - H.L. Mencken
Nothing like a good cup of coffee, is there? Well, perhaps a good cup of tea. I know that one of my readers, Steve, is a big fan of Greek coffee, and I wanted to draw his attention to FreshCoffeeShop.com, which has a focus on Greek and Turkish coffee. The site proprietor is also a wet-shaving aficionado—see how everything that rises does converge? He probably likes fountain pens as well.
I imagine that if green tea helps, white tea would help more—but that would have to be determined through studies.
In a population-based study involving 781 women with epithelial ovarian cancer and 1,263 controls, results indicate that drinking one or more cups of green tea daily may be associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer. Information on consumption of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, teas, and colas were gathered using self-administered questionnaires and in-person interviews. Using logistic regression adjusted for confounders, consumption of one or more cups of green tea daily was associated with a 54% reduced risk of ovarian cancer. The association between green tea and ovarian cancer risk remained when invasive and borderline ovarian cancer cases were analyzed separately, and when Asian women were excluded from analysis. On the other hand, no associations were observed between consumption of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, black tea, and colas with ovarian cancer risk. Thus, the authors of this study conclude, “Green tea, which is commonly consumed in coun tries with low ovarian cancer incidence, should be further investigated for its cancer prevention properties.”
“Coffee, tea, colas, and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer,” Song YJ, Kristal AR, et al, Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 2008; 17(3): 712-6. (Address: Program in Epidemiology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, P.O. Box 19024, Seattle, WA 99109-1024, USA. E-mail: mrossing@fhcrc.org ).
The Eldest and her husband drink only decaf, so the first day I went out to Starbucks to buy a pound of caffeinated coffee, ground. I drank that all week, and when I was getting ready to return home, asked if they wanted to keep it. They said “no” so I brought it home and offered it to The Wife, since she buys pre-ground coffee. She said she didn’t want it because it was decaf. No! Yes. She pointed to the label, which plainly said “Decaf.” That explains why I kept being sleepy all week—I thought it was that I was having time-zone-adjustment trouble.
Those who smoke have observed that when they have a cup of coffee, they want a cigarette. It could just be association—they often smoke on coffee break—but Healthbolt points out that it is more than that: some foods make cigarettes taste good, some make them taste bad.
he Honibe Honey Drop works like a sugar cube for those who’d rather sweeten their tea with honey. John Rowe, creator of the drops, says he was inspired to create a “non-messy” honey after an unfortunate camping trip involving a broken jar of honey, a backpack, and a sticky mess. Because the single-serving drops won’t stick like liquid honey, they might be particularly useful for tea drinkers on the go. According to Rowe, unlike other dried honey products on the market, his drops are made of 100% natural honey and contain no binding agents or additives such as sugar or corn syrup. $11.99 for a box of 20 (plain or flavored with lemon) at Honibe.
Another good tea from my collection of tea samples: Irish Breakfast. Great stuff.
For those who make their tea in the cup, these cup-size filters look like just the ticket—and they are endorsed by The Wife.
Enjoy loose tea anywhere with these tea accessories… convenient and easy-to-use disposable empty tea bags. An elongated back makes filling-up easy, and requires no filter holder, making the tea ball obsolete. Simply fold over the edge of your cup or teapot. Made in Germany of taste-neutral wood and hemp fibers. Each box contains 100 filters [and costs $3: 3¢ a filter, not bad].
This morning it’s English Breakfast tea in lieu of coffee—at least for now. I got a nice box of samples from Adagio, and now I’m going to work my way through them.
For my birthday I got (among other things) a Zarafina tea suite (there’s a video at the link that explains it. It’s also sold at Amazon.
I have to say that I like it a lot and it greatly simplifies the tea process: no watching, no timing. You set the tea type (black, oolong, green, white, or herbal), tea format (bag or loose), and tea strength (mild, average, strong). Fill the reservoir with 2 cups of water, fill the tea basket with a scoop or two of the tea. The tea basket floats until the reservoir reaches the right temperature, then the basket sinks, the tea brews, and the brewed tea flows into the teapot.
Since I have a 2-cup mug, I get exactly one mug of tea each time, which makes it easy to change tea from cup to cup—I don’t have to finish off a pot. I’ve been drinking quite a bit of tea the last few days, mostly white tea (with a squeeze of lemon, since that prolongs the healthful aspects), but also various Mariage Frères teas I have on hand.
So today I’m having just one cup of coffee, not two:
Daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes and may undermine efforts to control their disease, say scientists at Duke University Medical Center.
Researchers used new technology that measured participants’ glucose (sugar) levels on a constant basis throughout the day. Dr. James Lane, a psychologist at Duke and the lead author of the study, says it represents the first time researchers have been able to track the impact of caffeine consumption as patients go about their normal, everyday lives.
The findings, appearing in the February issue of Diabetes Care, add more weight to a growing body of research suggesting that eliminating caffeine from the diet might be a good way to manage blood sugar levels.
Lane studied 10 patients with established type 2 diabetes and who drank at least two cups of coffee every day and who were trying to manage their disease through diet, exercise and oral medications, but no extra insulin. Each had a tiny glucose monitor embedded under their abdominal skin that continuously monitored their glucose levels over a 72-hour period.
Participants took capsules containing caffeine equal to about four cups of coffee on one day and then identical capsules that contained a placebo on another day. Everyone had the same nutrition drink for breakfast, but were free to eat whatever they liked for lunch and dinner.
The researchers found…
Too much caffeine during pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage, a new study says, and it suggests that pregnant women may want to reduce their intake or cut it out entirely.
Many obstetricians already advise women to limit caffeine, although the subject has long been contentious, with conflicting studies, fuzzy data and various recommendations given over the years.
The new study, to be published Monday in The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, finds that pregnant women who consume 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day — the amount in 10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea — may double their risk of miscarriage.
Pregnant women should try to give up caffeine for at least the first three or four months, said the lead author of the study, Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.
The Eldest sent me a note today about the Thanksgiving Coffee Company:
Founded in 1972 by Joan and Paul Katzeff, Thanksgiving Coffee has long been a pioneer in transforming the coffee business. Our philosophy blends business and politics; our goal is to be a force for change in support of social and economic justice, and environmental sustainability.
Our commitment to total quality imagines trading relationships that empower farmers to produce incredible coffee, and also connects coffee drinkers with the knowledge that they can change the world through their coffee purchases. Thus, our site serves as a wealth of information on topics such as shade grown coffee, fair trade coffee, organic farming, as well as being a great place to learn about and buy our coffee.
The note from The Eldest included comments by a friend:
I recommend buying from A Just Cup from Thanksgiving Coffee Company. They offer a Mirembe Kawomera dark roast blend from Uganda. [You can also specify Light Roast when you order. - LG] From the website: “A sweet, nutty coffee from Uganda with notes of pecan and nutmeg, grown by an amazing and unique cooperative consisting of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian coffee farmers.” … I’m a coffee snob, and do not like to waste my caffeine intake on low-quality. This is the best coffee that I’ve had.
We all know that various types of tea require different brewing temperatures and times, and now Adagio has a little tea-brewing timer that provides the info you need.
I thought I had blogged this note from Science News, but I can’t find it. It dates from 4/15/2000. (Note that you should drink your tea with lemon juice. And brew it correctly.)
From San Francisco, at the spring national meeting of the American Chemical Society
For years, researchers have been extolling green tea as a natural source of compounds that appear to fight cancer by protecting DNA. Now, scientists have identified a relatively rare tea that may offer DNA even more protection. The surprise: Some share of this brew’s anticancer activity may result from its caffeine content, about twice that of green tea.
Known for its pale hue and delicate flavor, white tea comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, as green and other true teas. What distinguishes white tea is the buds that it contains and the way that it’s processed—steamed, rather than fermented or roasted. Many of the plant’s potent cancer fighters, its polyphenol antioxidants, “become oxidized or destroyed as green tea is further processed into oolong and black teas,” explains Roderick H. Dashwood of Oregon State University in Corvallis. White tea undergoes even less processing than green, so he suspects that it might “be more beneficial” to health.
In one test, his team incubated bacteria in cultures containing white or green tea and then compared each brew’s ability to protect the bacterial DNA from damage by a heterocyclic amine known as IQ. This carcinogen can form in fried or broiled meats. “White tea was a much more powerful antimutagen than green tea,” reports Oregon’s Gilberto Santana-Rios, a coauthor of the study. Although its potency varied somewhat between tests, white tea was always more protective than green tea, sometimes by a factor of more than five.
Went a traditional route this morning: a Mennen shave stick (from Australia) and the Wilkinson Sword blade in the Edwin Jagger lined Chatsworth. The Simpsons Keyhold 3 Best produced a fine lather, and the finish was Pinaud’s Clubman aftershave, a very traditional fragrance. Now I sit with one of my Christmas coffees: Breakfast Blend from the Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company.
I just go my first batch of tea from Adagio tea, and I must say that they package the tea nicely: it’s in tins, with a hinged clear-plastic top that is fastened by a snap-lever so that the top is tightly sealed. The clear plastic means that you can see the tea through the top. The label gives the name of the tea along with the proper brewing temperature and time. And tonight I used my digital thermometer to figure out exactly the setting on my utiliTEA kettle for 180º.
Just had a cup of White Peony tea, brewed using my new utiliTEA tea kettle in the IngenuiTEA brewer. The tea kettle brings the water to a pre-set temperature and then cuts off, so it’s very good for the lower (non-boiling) water temperatures required by, for example, white, green, and oolong teas. You can google “tea brewing temperatures” and find information such as this:
These steeping times are only approximate, and you should adjust them depending on your own personal tea taste.
Black tea - Black is the most robust of the tea varieties and can be brewed in truly boiling water, usually steeped for 4-6 minutes. [I've also read that Black tea should be brewed with water just under boiling, with Pu-erh teas brewed with water at the full boil. - LG]
Oolong tea - As to be expected, oolong tea falls between green and black. The best temperature is around 190F. But oolong should be steeped longer than black tea, for around 5-8 minutes.
Green tea - You will need to be more gentle with your green teas. The water temperature should be around 150-160F and only steeped for 2-4 minutes.
White tea - Another delicate tea that should be treated gently. Water can be a bit warmer than for green tea, at 180F. You should let it steep longer though. At least 4-6 minutes.
Rooibos tea - This red herbal tea from South Africa is very hardy stuff and should be prepared with fully boiling water, just like black tea.
I brewed the White Peony for 6 minutes, then had the cup: fantastically delicious, with a definite peach flavor. Great stuff. Later, I heated up more water, poured it over the leaves from the first cup, and brewed a second cup from the same leaves—6 minutes again, and equally delicious. The “cup” in this case was actually a pint.
First, the guidelines:
This morning I checked the temperature of the water from the Sunbeam Hotshot: 180º. Not good. I put the Hotshot aside, and brought out the Hobbs electric kettle. That’s what I’ll use for now.
UPDATE: On my second cup of coffee, so I have some observations. First, although the electric kettle brings water to the boil, pouring it into the Pyrex measuring cup dropped the temperature to 195º immediately—and I didn’t want to brew the coffee starting at the low end of the temperature range. So I poured the water back into the kettle, brought it again to the boil, and poured it into the now-hot Pyrex measuring cup: temperature 205º.
I brewed my cup of coffee, and it’s noticeably hotter and tastier than with the water from the Hotshot.
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