Spring cleaning for your body

So spring is among us Montrealers. As usual with extreme fluctuations in temperature - the weather can never make up its mind. Regardless, many of us feel the need to do some spring cleaning, whether it be your environment (as in your house) or even yourself and get ready to enjoy the new season. This brings me to the subject of detox teas. Most teas have some form of health benefit (just go to Cha Guan and each tea has a list of what it does).

What i'll cover in this post is any tea that's called a detox tea or any tea that is associated with helping your digestive system (and I'll include another little extra bit to talk about my stomach power pack)!

Green Tea Kombucha Lime

This is a green tea (in case you didn't guess from the name) that has pieces of lime and kombucha interspersed. I bought this tea earlier this year at the Tea Emporium in Toronto while visiting a friend. 

Why detox: Kombucha is a symbiotic culture of yeasts and other micro-organisms that acts as purifier to the blood and organs. 

What's it like: The tea is generally light - it's especially good after a meal or even just during the afternoon. It has hints of lime (I'm not sure what kombucha tastes like, so I couldn't tell you if there's any hint of that). But, I guess you could say you feel really healthy after having it, but without an extremely strong tea taste and it's also not nasty. Tea Emporium says it also makes a good iced tea. I'll have to try it out and report back to you. 

Rating: 4/5 - It's nice and healthy, but it still wasn't a kablam, this is the most amazing tea I've ever had. 

David's Tea - Organic Detox

I bought this tea on a whim while visiting David's Tea with Paw and two of our other friends. I figured, why not? I had tried a tea at Cha Guan that had lemongrass and liked it. So, let's try this tea out. 

Why detox: From David's Tea: "Need a reboot? Try this traditional formula. The rooibos will restore your equilibrium with iron, potassium, zinc and manganese. The sencha will pump you full of antioxidants. The ginger’ll zap lethargy and headaches. The ginkgo will clear your mind. The lemongrass will detoxify your liver. And the juniper berries will flush out toxins and any lingering regrets. Not working? Just go back to bed."

What's it like: The lemongrass is strong in this tea - that was the very first thing I noticed. Secondly, the combination of flavors isn't so premium. They told me it tasted really healthy. I guess they're referring to the school of thought that healthy has to be nasty. It's drinkable, but pretty disappointing considering David's Tea has a lot of good stuff. I drink it now and then, mostly because I bought it. Luckily, I only got the small tin. I won't be buying it again though. 

Rating: 2/5 - 2 points for effort and I like the individual components of the tea, but don't enjoy this particular marriage of flavors.

Tou cha Bonbon

I went to David's Tea yesterday to check out some of their new spring collection. This includes some new Pu-erh teas. I was attracted to Tou cha Bonbon and its 2 other friends  because they're really cute! Individually wrapped little cakes. Of the three, this one smelled the best. The chrysanthemum one was really overpowering and I wasn't a big fan (not a big fan of that flower in tea generally - at least in big quantities). 

Why detox: In general, Pu-erh is known for helping the digestive system (in addition to reducing LDL cholesterol and boost your metabolism. What a superhero this tea is!). It helps to relieve constipation and just make sure everything is running smoothly (no pun intended). When visiting the shop, Thé Santé last year, the store clerk told me that it's best to drink pu-erh with a meal for maximum benefit. So yes, Pu-erh goes in the detox category for me. 

What's it like: Apparently, it's supposed to have hints of licorice when steeped (yay for that because licorice, also known as fennel is also great for digestion). It also claims to be 5 times steepable. Now, this tasted like any other standard pu-erh to me. No hint of licorice and it was also only about 3 times steepable. After that, it was just colored hot water.  

Rating: 3/5 - A really cute tea and I like pu-erh. On the other hand, there's nothing special about it apart from the fact that it's cute and portable. I won't it again, unless it's a gift and the person will go "aaaah, kawaii!!! ^_^". 

Organic Pu-erh Ginger

This was part of my David's Tea expedition yesterday. Lately, I'm on a big ginger kick. Combine that with pu-erh, and I'm sold. 

Why detox:  As I mentioned, Pu-erh has a bunch of health benefits - a tea superhero. Ginger is like root superhero. Ginger can do everything - drink it when you have a cold, when you have indigestion. You name your illness, ginger can help you. It also has the bite of a pepper without being one. So, check it out - you have stomach problems...

Pu-erh: I'm great at regulating digestion, but I need some help to chill out this person's stomach before I do my magic. 

Ginger: did someone call my name? 

And there you have it, the creation of the dynamic-duo. No stomach illness is safe. You also get the bonus benefits, in case you know...you have a cold at the same time and you're trying to reduce your cholesterol and generate awesome metabolism. 

What's it like: I really like this tea. You definitely taste the ginger a bit more, just because it has a rather strong flavor. Fear not though, you can still taste the pu-erh. You definitely feel great after it, too - slightly energized and also happy. You needn't only drink this when your stomach feels nasty of course. You can enjoy it at any time, as I intend to do (on a rotational basis, because I need to deplete my teas). 

Rating: 5/5 - Earthy pu-erh meets spicy ginger in perfect balance with sufficient bite. I think we have a winner. It's also organic! 

The Stomach Power Pack

A while ago while talking about some mint teas, I mentioned my 3 essential ingredients for stomach ailments. I have a bit of a sensitive stomach, so this is essential. Even if you don't and just happen to have occasional ailments, this can be useful. 

The magic three: Ginger, Mint and Fennel. Each of these has a special power. I never mix them though (maybe it'd be nasty, I have no idea). 

Ginger

I carry around a lot of stuff with me. On any given day, my friends know that in my bag I will probably have anything they need for a given situation (toilet paper, hand sanitizer, plastic bags (for carrying items or in case someone feels ill), advil, lactaid, hand cream, etc - you get the idea). I am sort of like a walking pharmacy - I inherited this wonderful quality from my dear mom. 

Among the things I carry are bags of tea - I usually will have about 2-3 bags of ginger tea, particularly by Yogi Tea (not a fan of other's I've tasted). In addition, for all their tea's, Yogi Tea has little I guess, fortunes on their labels - but they're more insightful than fortune cookies. It is also organic. You can get it from any health food store. 

If you want to make fresh ginger tisane, you can just cut it up and steep it in hot water for a while. Another thing I really like is Ginger-Lemon juice. They make this at l'Escalier, but it tends to be rather pricy. The raw materials are extra cheap (1 thing of ginger is less than a dollar and you can get 4-6 lemons for 2-3$, especially in the summer). It doesn't take long and you'll make about 1-1.5 litres of it, depending on how concentrated a taste you want. Add some honey to it and a bit of cinnamon. Refrigerate. Then you have a great cool and spicy drink. Don't let it sit too long though (I guess for a few days - week), apparently it ferments and you get an alcoholic drinks - or so my friend told me. 

It's also great in food (but you already knew that). 

Stomach benefits: Stop nausea in its tracks. Also helps with general indigestion and heart burn (which seems kind of counterintuitive since it's spicy, but hey it works). 

Mint

Mint tea is something else that I'll occasionally carry around - whether it be Moroccan mint or peppermint. Though, most times I just have mint gum and it does the trick.  I actually haven't bought any form of mint tea in a while. I've depleted my White Peony mint and gave away my intense "Folie Morocaine" because it scared me. What I love doing is buying fresh mint, steeping some green tea and putting a bunch of mint in there. Sometimes I'll add a bit of honey. It tastes great. Nothing beats fresh mint. I also like it in salads and various dishes, like this particular Mexican soup made with fava beans. 

Stomach benefits: It's great for digestion (especially in the form of gum). Like, generally, I'd have this after a meal for digestion. If my nausea were prolonged, I would take ginger tea. 

In addition to stomach benefits, it's a mild decongestant and helps chest pain (think of Vick's vaporub). 

Fennel

Ok, so check - I hate licorice (it's nasty!), but somehow I can handle fennel. Sometimes I buy fennel tea, but I actually discovered that fennel seeds are a lot cheaper (2$ for a bag at Asian or West Indian stores). All you do is take about a tea spoon and steep it in hot water. Fennel seeds are really prominent in Indian cooking (sometimes you'll find them in samosas and other times I've just seen them at the cash register in a bowl for people to take with a spoon). Fennel (has the consistently of celery) can be made into lots of things - awesome in soup. 

Stomach benefits: Reduces flatulence and helps associated gas cramps. 

It's also supposed to be a good diuretic and as such helps to reduce hypertension. 

In practice, my stomach power pack would be most useful in portable form. As such, you should either have tea bags, gum, fresh fennel seeds or licorice to chew on or if you like chewing on fresh ginger (I've seen it! and tried, dang it's spicy), do that. Whatever is most convenient for you. So far it has worked for me. 

That ends my lengthy post on spring cleaning for your body! Wishing you all great health for this season (and beyond of course). 

Thé Santé and Café Dervish

Greetings tea drinkers! Tonight's post deals with two places I've been meaning to check out and happened to randomly go to last Sunday.

I recently discovered that there was a tea place not far from me (oh happy happy joy! :P). On top of that, they offer one of my favorite teas : Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose
Once I run out, I can get The Sante (rather than run to The Salon on St-Denis).

Anyways, following the Filipino Independence Day celebrations at a nearby park, a friend and I decided to check the place out. It's located on Decarie, near the corner of Queen Mary on the western side, in a little basement space. They have quite a selection of tea (as can be seen on their site), as well as quite a bit of tea ware.

If you want to buy tea, you can browse through the catalague (available in both english and french). Each tea is described quite in-depth, making you want to try all of them. The store attendant was a man of eastern european descent (though, he may be the owner, I'm not sure) and he was very helpful letting us smell any of the teas we wanted and also giving suggestions about which tea to try.

My friend settled on 50 g of Young Pu-erh and also 50 g of a Oolong for her grandmother.
I got 50g Blue Mango Green tea, 50 g of Ti Kuan Yin Slimming, as well as one of those metallic tea "bags" so that I don't have to make a whole pot everytime I want to make loose leaf tea.

I would definitely suggest checking the place out and a good chunk of the teas are decently priced and won't set you back much. There were others I wanted to try, but my cupboard is already overpopulated by tea :P

Now, as for the teas I bought:
Blue Mango Green Tea: I had no idea there was such a thing as blue mangoes. But, I am a definite fan of mangoes. In fact, I'd say they are probably my favorite fruit of all time. So, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to 1) sniff it (it smells like awesome) and 2) buy it.
The tea definitely has a fruity flavor (doesn't only smell fruity, like some teas), and the green tea used with it is light enough and doesn't overpower the fruityness. They say it makes good iced tea. I'll have to try it out.
This tea gets:
out of 5
Because while I like it, it's not *the* best tea I've ever had, and not everything can get a 5 ;)

Organic Slimming Ti Kuan Yi: I generally like Oolong tea (though I generally like tea...so, not a big surprise). It has a very fresh scent and expands quite a bit (though, it does not compare to the amount of expansion created by an Oolong a friend brought for me from China). You can infuse it at least twice. It tastes like a standard oolong, but the reason I bought it is because it's supposed to be slimming :P
So, for taste, it's average. But, I can't give my full rating yet. I have yet to see its slimming effects :P
So let's say:

out of 5.
We'll see how this experiment turns out.

Now onto Café Dervish!
I've passed by this place a few times. It's located on St-Denis in between Sherbrooke and Ontario. They specialize in homemade Masala Chai (And apparently persian aphrodisiac tea? I just read that on the site, hah!). Anyways, I had been meaning to try it out for a while. After Tam Tams on this same Sunday, my friend and I were hungry and also had no actually had any tea to drink that day. This had to be remedied and so we headed to Dervish.

It's a cute, little place. It serves both tea and food, both of which were premium. We were greeted by a canadian lady who lived in Britain all her life, but studied french and german, too. So it was quite cool because first she says in french "would you like to try the tea of the day - it's a ginger chai, a bit spicy?" and then she heard us talking in english and she switched to english and there you hear the accent. We're like, oh :o Anyways, she was very nice and spoke to us about the advantages of couch surfing.

We both ordered their "famous" Jamaican sandwich. Now, let me say, I understand why it's famous. Imagine 2 pieces of Naan bread, with jerk spices spread on each side, plantains, fake turkey (the place is entirely vegetarian, by the way), lettuce and melted cheese (optional, for those who are vegan). Dude man, I've never had plantains in a sandwich before. After that, I started :D

In addition, the ginger chai was superb. It's just about the only tea I allow to have milk and some form of sweetener in (apart from Orange Pekoe - but that's because otherwise, it has a rather uninspiring taste). I look forward to going back there again and trying another one of their homemade creations :)

So, Cafe Dervish gets

out of 5
for their great sandwich and amazing tea!

In other news, Hour.ca did a review of a place called David's Tea located on Mont-Royal (about a 10 minute walk from the metro). There is another location on Pare. In addition, there are Toronto locations and one will soon be opening in Vancouver (huzzah - expanding in the 3 big Canadian cities)
It was given a good review and so I'll have to pay a visit sometime in the (hopefully) proximal future. Their site also provides health information about different types of teas.