Taste Test Tuesday: Celestial Seasonings Two New Fun Green Tea Flavors!

I'm a green tea enthusiast...I admit it. I drink about two cups of green tea a day without fail and half the time it's iced and half the time it's hot. But it's almost never plain green tea. Although I enjoy traditional green tea when dining in Japanese or Chinese restaurants, in the comfort of my own home, I opt for the flavored green teas.

I'm always up for trying new flavored green teas and so I was happy to find two new flavors from Celestial Seasonings. Celestial Seasonings has developed a new line of all-natural green tea that they say "eliminates the bitterness." These teas are actually a blend of green and white tea (which is also brimming with antioxidant phytochemicals). The white tea comes from the tender buds and low-tannin young leaves of the plant.

The two flavors I tried and I must say THOROUGHLY ENJOYED are:

• Decaf mandarin Orchard (a decaf blend of green and white tea)
• Blueberry Breeze (a blend of green and white tea)

I REALLY liked the mandarin Orchard tea iced and I REALLY liked the Blueberry Breeze tea hot. That's kind of backwards in terms of caffeine though since I tend to drink the hot green tea at night and the Blueberry is the one that has caffeine in it, while I tend to drink the mandarin flavored tea (iced) in the day time and that happens to be the one that's decaffeinated.

To make either as iced tea, just put 4 bags in a pitcher or 6 cup measure and pour in about 6 cups of boiling water. Let the bags steep for about 10 minutes then remove the bags. Keep in refrigerator to chill or pour directly into a glasses filled with ice and enjoy immediately.

There are three really good reasons to drink green tea:

1. Green teas today taste so wonderful-there are so many flavor and brand options to choose from. Drinking green tea is an absolutely enjoyable taste experience!


2. Green tea is calorie free, a great substitute for calorie-containing beverages that you might be trying to cut down on.


3. Drinking green and white tea is a super healthy habit - gobs of studies have linked green tea and the phytochemicals in green tea to reducing the risk of the top diseases in America.

Related Topics:

• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

Taste Test Tuesday: Stash Chai Green Tea

You can have your chai tea and drink green tea too! I love chai tea and the wonderful combination of spices and flavors that go into making it (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, clove, cardamom, etc...) But, I like to get a couple cups of green tea a day for all the potential health benefits.

Now there's a way to do both! Stash brand of tea has a Chai Green Tea bag and it's wonderful. I found it in my local supermarket so I hope that means it's pretty easy to find in your neck of the woods. The directions on the tea bag say to brew the tea for 3-5 minutes, but if you like your chai tea flavor on the mild side, steep your tea bag more like 2 minutes.

Green tea was named as one of the "synergy superfoods" in my latest book by Rodale, FOOD SYNERGY. With each sip you get two potent flavonoids - anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin - as well as a healthy dose of catechin, which may enhance the antioxidant activity of alpha-tocopherol (a form of vitamin E) and trigger weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories and decrease body fat.

But I'm probably most excited about this research breakthrough: Green and black tea contain antioxidant polyphenols thought to block cell damage that can lead to cancer. Green tea happens to be loaded with a certain polyphenol catechin called EGCG, which has a knack for binding to a certain procancer protein, interfering with its ability to activate cancer cells, possibly stopping cancer before it starts!

Related Topics:

• Types of Teas and Their Health Benefits
• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

A Healthy Use for Your Cookie Jars!

Got cookie jars? If you happen to be looking for a great use for cookie jars that you want to keep on your kitchen counter but you don't exactly keep copious cookies around...I've got a healthy use for your cookie jars.

Convert your cookie jars into tea jars!

Photo Credit: Elaine Magee

It's a great way to keep an assortment of tea bags conveniently located near your stove where you boil your water. This year I handed some winter cookie jars filled with an assortment of tea bags to a few of my friends and they loved it (at least that's what they said). You can make them more "gifty" by wrapping them up in cellophane and adding colorful ribbon. Here's a photo of the cookie jars I gave to my friends this holiday.

Drinking more green tea is a great New Year's resolution too for two reasons, the health benefits (from the antioxidant phytochemicals in tea) and the fact that if you are drinking tea, you are less likely to be drinking something with calories like soda!

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Green Tea for the Skin
• Green Tea Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
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Taste Test Tuesday: Two New Green Teas

Green Teas from Celestial Seasonings

Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Every time I see those pink ribbons on pretty much anything, it grabs my attention. Well, there are two new flavors on Celestial Seasonings green tea boxes proudly displaying the pink ribbon as a sponsor of the National Breast Cancer Foundation...just in time for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

The colorful and eye-catching art on the two boxes were designed by two artists who are breast cancer survivors. These boxes are so beautiful; you will want to keep them out on your kitchen counter! The bonus to this is you are much more likely to think about having your high antioxidant cup of green tea if it's sitting right there in front of you.

How did they taste?
What I loved about both of the flavors was that they still looked and tasted like green tea. Sometimes when you have a berry-flavored tea, the tea is literally red and overwhelmingly tart or sweet. Not the case here.

The Topical Grapefruit was nice and subtle and you might still enjoy this tea even if you aren't crazy about grapefruit.

The Cranberry Pomegranate Green Tea was also delightful. The berry and pomegranate flavors were noticeable and pleasant without being overwhelming.

I will be enjoying both of these new green tea flavors throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month and beyond!

NOTE: Green tea is one of the 10 "synergy superfoods" I named in my most recent book, FOOD SYNERGY. The half life of some of the healthful phytochemicals in green tea is a few hours so have a cup in the morning and one later in the day or early evening!

Related Topics:

• Green Tea Ingredient Slows Breast Cancer
• WebMD Video: Green Tea for the Skin