Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Oolala

This time we're mentioning one of my favorite teas! OOLONG TEA!!!!! :D


I love oolong tea because it's relaxing and helps strengthen your bones. It also gives you healthier looking skin, helps with stress management, and helps control type 2 diabetes. Oolong tea can also help you lose weight like green tea, but it has more of a fruity flavor and isn't as strong. You can read more about this at OrganicFacts.

To make oolong tea you'll need:
  • kettle
  • thermometer
  • oolong tea leaves
  • filter
  • teapot and/or teacup (optional)
Step 1: Heat the water in the kettle to 200°F. If you do not have a thermometer to measure the specific temperature, bring the water to a boil and then let it rest for 2 minutes.
Step 2: Measure between 1 teaspoon and 2 tablespoons of oolong tea. Use less if the tea is rolled into balls and more if the tea consists of large, open leaves. Then place the tea leaves into the teapot (or a regular cup if you don't use these).
Step 3: Pour the hot water over the tea and place a lid on the teapot. If using a cup then use something to cover it. Let the tea stay like that from 1 to 5 minutes depending on personal taste. Leaf-style tea generally infuses more quickly than rolled-style tea. I like to do it for the full 5 for the leaf-style and 2 minutes for the rolled style. Taste the tea at 1 minute intervals until it's to your liking.
Step 4: Place the strainer in the teacup and pour the tea from the teapot into the strainer and it's ready to go!
Quick Tip: You can reuse oolong tea leaves if you want because they sometimes produce different flavors each time. You can generally reuse the leaves 2 or 3 times if you are using a large teapot and up to 5 times if you are using a small teapot.

Friday, April 21, 2017

The Green Diet

Welcome to Kristen's Tea Corner! We'll explore the wonderful process of making tea as well as each one's effects.

First, let's start with the most common type of tea. Green tea. It's literally the healthiest drink on Earth. It has all kinds of great health benefits such as better brain function, losing weight faster, lowering your risk of cancer, and lots of antioxidants that help you look younger. To read more about this you can visit AuthorityNutrition.

To make green tea you'll need:
  • green tea leaves
  • hot water
  • thermometer
  • honey
  • lemon
Step 1: Boil some water in a pot but don't let it get too hot. Keep it at about 85 degrees for no more than 3 minutes. Use the thermometer to keep track of the temperature.
Step 2: Put about 5 grams of green tea leaves in a tea strainer. If you don't have tea leaves you can use a tea bag instead.
Step 3: Get a cup (preferably glass because plastic can styrofoam can soak up the nutrients). Pour the hot water over the leaves into the cup.
Step 4: Set the tea strainer into the water for a 2 to 3 minutes, Any longer will make it have a slightly bitter taste.
Step 5: Add honey and lemon to taste and ENJOY! :D