Like many folks who had just quit smoking, Tropic Thunder star Jack Black needed something to fill in the void, to ease the cravings.  And, like many wise souls, Black turned to green.  Tea, that is.

According to a recent article, the Tenacious D frontman says that, now that he has quit smoking, “I don’t do anything exciting or dangerous,” but he really does “like iced green tea.” 

(Not considered exciting, perhaps, because he’s never tried Tavalon… hopefully soon to change!)

 Also added to his new repetoire of fixations is Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as dabbling in sound engineering.  Let’s try to encourage him to stick with the tea, though.

With all the press that tea has been getting in recent years, it seemed inevitable that it was destined for the big screen.  That time has finally come!  Entitled “All in this Tea,” documentarians Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht followed famous American tea importer David Lee Hoffman to some of the most remote tea growing regions in the world.  Interesting and entertaining, I’d even recommend this to my coffee-drinking friends.

Check out the trailer below for a sneak peek!

Earl Grey is traditionally a blend of black tea from Ceylon which were then combined with natural bergamot oil, taken from the Bergamot Orange Tree. It is this citrus fruit that gives the tea it’s notorious aroma and flavor.

The original blend of Earl Grey tea was named after a man called Charles Grey. The second Earl of Grey, legend says that Charles was a British diplomat sent on a mission to China. The story goes that Charlie was given the recipe as a reward by a local Mandarin noble after diving into a roaring river to save the noble’s son.

However, a few corrections need to be made to give the story a little more accuracy. First, at the time the Chinese were not huge black tea drinkers, let alone flavored black tea, so would be unlikely to bestow a recipe for such. Second, British records indicated that Charles Grey never stepped foot in China. Other than that, the story is completely true.

In a recent search for the newest health benefits of tea, I stumbled upon this little gem of a study put out by the Japanese Journal of Swine Science, entitled “The Influence of Green Tea in Pig Feed on Meat Production and Quality.” 

The scientists mixed green tea into the food for the pigs. When the pigs were matured for consumption, scientific examinations were done on the swine.

The results found that pork from the tea-eating pigs had 3 times more vitamin E compared to the pigs that did not get tea. They also found a significant increase in healthy amino acids, and a decrease in the levels of cholesterol.

Simply put, the pigs turned out to be healthier and therefore provided healthier meat thanks to tea.  Don’t let a pig’s diet be better than yours, have some tea!

Want to make it to 100 years old?  Scientists say that you should live like the Japanese.  In fact, Japan has more centenarians (100+ year-olds) than any other country in the world.  Their secret?  Tea.  Lots of tea.

 Tea is a staple to the Japanese diet, most folks drinking 6 to 10 cups a day.  Tea, combined with ultra-healthy food like seaweed and fish (fish oils are great for the heart) and an optimistic outlook, gives Japan the highest life expectancy in the world!  Studies have shown that when there was a decline in tea consumption, there was a directly parallel decline in life expectancy.

I plan on following the Japanese lead, and drinking lots of tea - and living well into my 100’s (after all, this blog won’t write itself).   Hope to see you all there with me and lots of tea!

We’ve already discussed why adding milk to your tea virtually eliminates all the many health benefits that tea can provide.  However, a relatively new study will get you reaching back in your refrigerator for a splash to put in your tea.  Not milk, though… juice.

In this report, scientists found that mixing juices, especially citrus juices, into your tea helps your body absorb up to 5 times more of the antioxidants found in the tea.  You see, after our body digests tea, only about 20% of the antioxidants survive.  However, when you combine tea with more acidic substances, such as lime juice, the acid helps protect the catechins (the specific antioxidants in tea) from the body’s natural digestive juices.

If this doesn’t encourage you to try to make your own moTEAjo (with or without the rum if you prefer), nothing will!

As we’ve mentioned, tea is not just for drinking. The refreshing beverage can also be used for myriad purposes.

On its tea-up-your-day.de website, the German Tea Association recommends taking brewed tea, cooling it, and then freezing it in ice cube trays. When your concentration flags or your head gets heavy, wrap one of the ice cubes in a paper towel, press it alternately on your temples, neck and forehead for 15 seconds at a time for a total of five minutes. It will invigorate and focus you!

This “compress” is also great for puffy eyes. Indulge your skin by pressing an unwrapped cube against your eyelids or cheeks for about 10 seconds.

It is well recognized that the British are fanatical about tea, but even I was surprised to find out the levels in which the British Standard Institute has taken it.  You see, I recently uncovered “BS 6008,”(warning: flagrant use of the metric system!) also known as “The British Standard Method for Preparation of a Liquor of Tea for Use in Sensory Tests.”  Sorry, tea cocktail fans - “liquor” in this context implies “any solution prepared by extraction of soluble substances from dried tea leaf.”  This instant classic of a page-turner chronicles the exact processes required to make a proper cup of tea (the British Way). 

While I don’t personally agree with every aspect for their method (they didn’t mention Tavalon even once!), I’m not one to cause an international incident over it.  A few things that should be mentioned are the lack of differences when preparing black and green teas (green should use less than boiling water and only steeped for 3 min), and the type of teaware used (I prefer glass, as it imparts no flavor … and looks nicer). 

I have to admire the fact that they made an effort to standardize the tea-making process so that everyone can enjoy it equally.  They even have a corollary section for the addition of milk (”free from any off-flavour” - I hope!).

Ever notice that, when you are steeping tea leaves,  you stir tea leaves and they seem to congregate to the center?  Seems a little odd, doesn’t it, considering that centrifugal force usually pushes objects away from the center (like when you make a left turn in your car and your body feels like it being pushed to the right)?  This very quandary was actually tackled by Al Einstein himself in what he referred to as the “Tea Leaf Paradox.”  Without getting too scientific, Einstein says the reason that the tea leaves don’t press to the edges of the cup is because friction at the bottom of the cup creates an opposing force that pushes the leaves back to the center.

Einstein’s tea-inspired revelation has recently had much larger consequences that can be applied to real life.  Australia’s Dr. Leslie Yeo used this theory to come up with a quicker, easier way to test blood to measure cholesterol or glucose or immuno-deficiencies.  Using this technology, all that is needed is a microscopic amount of blood, and the blood is ready for analysis in less time than it takes to brew a cup of tea!  The testing device could be as small as a credit card, and it would greatly benefit those folks who have to take regular blood tests, as well as kids (remember how traumatic that first blood test was?  I sure do!) .

I encourage all my readers to take a moment to make yourself a cup of tea, sip it slowly and let your mind wander and ponder.  The possibilities are limitless for all amazing contributions to the world tea can inspire!