Yellow verbena or lemon verbena, native to South America, has quite a few health benefits packed into this pungent herb. The plant looks very similar to your average mint plant — perhaps like the common lemon mint — and a tea can be made out of its leaves just like any other mint plant.
The Lovely Health Benefits of Caraway Seeds
Native to parts of Europe, Asia and India, the caraway plant belongs to the carminative family containing Dill and Cumin. Carminatives are herbs that help ease gastrointestinal distress, including gas and bowel spasms. Documented since the Middle Ages, caraway seeds and oil have flavored various dishes and been prepared as medicinal remedies.
A Pseudo-Scientific Tea Brewing and Tasting Method
Brewing a fine pot of tea takes practice and patience. Brewing teas is nothing short of an art. First and foremost, study your tea. In this way, you will come to know each and every tea you own. What is the benefit of this? Well, the biggest one, as far as I personally am concerned, is personality.
Close-Up on Yak Butter Tea
The tea used for yak butter tea most probably comes from the mountains just west of Yunnan and Sichuan. What I have seen is a dark, formidable leaf with an intense flavor bordering on bitterness and smoke. Every Tibetan I have ever met, drinks it continuously and urges onto everyone whom he might meet.
Preventing Gingivitis Naturally – Herbs for Healthy Gums
We read so much about healthy teeth, taking care of teeth, whitening teeth, brushing, flossing, gargling et cetera that it’s very easy to think that’s all there is to oral hygiene. But we should also devote equal time to our gums; after all, they’re the home base for our teeth.
Close-Up on Brick Tea (Tuo Cha)
When it comes to tea, only recently has the common man gained access to fresh greens and whites, aromatic oolongs and delicate yellows. For centuries, the best teas went to the rich and powerful and the common man drank what he could, when he could. So what did he drink? He drank brick tea.
Bitter Tea: Bittersweet Medicine
I must say I was very proud of the little Kuding leaf and glad that my friends could appreciate it as much as I do. Kuding tea (bitter tea) is grown all over China, in two distinct varieties. The Sichuan variety, which I know very well, is called Qing Shan Lui Shui (Jade Mountain Green Water) and the Hainan variety is just straight Kuding (bitter nail).
The Breadth and Depth of Oolong Teas
As with all good teas, oolongs are a work of art and truly good varieties require a master craftsman at every stage: cultivation, picking, fermenting/oxidizing, and the final stage, which is roasting. Each stage has its own special secrets and techniques, thus we have a diverse range of oolongs.
Oolong Tea: Taste and Versatility
Ah oolong! The perfect anytime tea with a rich, versatile flavor that is a great compliment to just about any meal or as a stand-alone beverage. Most people have tried oolong tea once or twice in their lives because it is commonly served in Chinese restaurants. But oolong, like so many other teas, has a long and rich history.
Close-Up on Yellow: The “In-Between” Tea
Yellow tea might be a good tea for Westerners, because some do not like the grassy flavor of green teas, but they want the same health benefits that green tea provides. Yellows might just be the “in-between tea” that people here in the US could enjoy for both taste and health benefits.