Today, June 10th, is National Iced Tea Day!  Why not celebrate with a drink of your favorite type of tea!?!

Most people who like to drink iced tea have a favorite flavor.  My favorite iced tea is a blend.  I use a coffee maker to brew it, but you can make it with whatever method you like best.  At one point in time I had a regular iced tea maker, but it gave up the ghost and the store was all out when I went to buy a new one.  So I got a coffee maker instead, dedicated to making tea.  It works fine; the only drawback is it doesn’t automatically shut off when the ice tea is done brewing.

Anyway, here’s what I use for my favorite iced tea:

• 2 tablespoons, more or less, of loose leaf yerba mate
• 1 family sized bag of green tea
• 1 family sized bag of black tea
• 1 Mint Mate tea bag
• 1 Orange Blossom Mate tea bag

I tear open all the tea bags and pour the loose tea into the coffee filter, add filtered water, then let it brew.  And I prefer decaffeinated tea, but that’s a matter of personal perference.  Sometimes I change it up and use different flavored bags of tea for the last two. 

I buy my yerba mate tea from Guayaki, and buy a big 5-poung bag of San Mateo Air Dried Mate along with half pound bags of the Orange Blossom Mate and a bag of mint mate.

After I fill a small canister with the San Mateo Mate, I put the rest in the freezer.  A 5-pound bag lasts a LONG time, even though I brew a new batch almost every day!

I use liquid stevia to sweeten each glass full of tea before I drink it.  Since yerba mate, green and black teas have healthful properties, this is a great beverage both taste wise and health-wise.

So enjoy a glass or two of iced tea today!

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

National Iced Tea Day

With all this talk about needing water, should we all become heavy drinkers? You’ve no doubt heard from many different sources that we should be drinking 8-ounces of water 8 times a day. “Everybody knows” we’re supposed to do this, but does anyone know where this rule originated?

The answer is… not really. Best guess is it’s a misinterpretation of normal physiological requirements. Adults lose about 64-ounces of water a day from breathing, sweating and going to the bathroom. A big part of that fluid is replaced by the foods we eat since there’s a lot of liquid in most of them.

In fact, there have been scientific studies that refute the need for drinking such large amounts of water. It seems that a daily intake of 5 or 6 glasses of water is more appropriate. Of course, it you’re outside on a hot day or exercising a lot, you might need a little more.

It’s probably more a matter of WHAT you’re drinking for most people. If you’re swilling down a liter of Coke every day, that’s not getting the job done for replacing fluids in your body. In fact, it can lead to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in the blood, causing calcium to be pulled out of the bones.

Which brings us back to the need for healthy drinks. Remember, the following are good replacements for some of the chemical concoctions many of us are fond of drinking –

• Yerba Mate
• Fizzy or Plain Juice
• Teas: herbal, green, and others
• Lemonade
• Kefir
• Milk
• Vegetable Juices

And of course, purified water tops the list!

If you improve what you’re drinking a little every day, before you know it, you’ll have acquired a taste for the “good-for-you” stuff.

And then you’re one step closer to a healthy diet.

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Should You Be a Heavy Drinker?

Okay, you’re trying to make healthier beverage choices, so forget some of the chemical concoctions on the market today that are passed off as energy drinks. Try Yerba Mate! It’s an all-natural alternative that not only boosts energy, but has 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids, and abundant antioxidants.

Yerba Mate (pronounced yer-bə mä-tā), sometimes called Paraguay or Brazilian Tea, comes from a small evergreen tree, a member of the holly family native to the subtropical forests of South America. The dried leaves and stems of the tree are used to make an infusion the natives call the “drink of the gods” and have been drinking for centuries because it has so many health benefits.

It is considered to be the healthiest of the six most commonly used stimulants in the world — yerba mate, coffee, tea, kola nut, cocoa and guarana – providing both energy and nutrition.

Each infusion of yerba mate contains:
• Vitamins: A, C, E, B1, B2, Niacin (B3), B5, B Complex
• Minerals: Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Selenium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc
• Additional Compounds: Carotene, Fatty Acids, Chlorophyll, Flavonols, Polyphenols, Inositol, Trace Minerals, Antioxidants, Tannins, Pantothenic Acid and 15 Amino Acids.

The taste somewhat resembles green teas, but it is also available in many flavored varieties. Unlike most teas, the leaves may be infused several times as it does not become bitter and astringent when steeped for extended periods.

One of my favorite brands of Yerba Mate comes from Guayaki.  Their products not only taste good, but all of them are produced without the use of herbicides, chemical pesticides, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Guayaki not only offers great products, but also helps preserve the rainforest and support indigenous people by partnering with small farmers of South America to obtain mate from the sub-tropical forests. Mate that is forest grown has more nutritional value and a smooth, rich flavor.  It is also environmentally sustainable in the long term and provides more income per acre for the farmers than cattle or agricultural products such as corn, soy or wheat.

There are several types of Yerba Mate available from Guayaki. Here’s a list of some of their products:

~ Bottled Yerba Mate. These organic energy drinks are available in 8-ounce bottles of mint, citrus, Pomegranate, raspberry, traditional and unsweetened varieties.

~ Yerba Mate Lattes. Available in 32-ounce bottles of either the rich, traditional flavor, or a spiced mate chai latte, the mate is mixed 1:1 with milk, then heated or poured over ice.

~ Loose-Leaf Mate. This comes in several different flavors, from Traditional to Java Mate (tastes more like coffee). It’s packaged in 7 and 8 ounce bags, plus 1 or 5-pound bags.

Last but not least, my very favorite products from Guayaki –

~ Tea Bags and Bulk Loose Mate. These are great tasting teas! I use them in my tea maker all the time to make iced tea, and often experiment with different flavors, mixing and matching to find ones that really delight the palate!

Tea bags are available in the traditional flavor, plus Chai Spice, Greener Green Tea, Magical Mint, Chocolatte, Orange Blossom and Red Tea.

For hot tea, I will confess to a special weakness for the Chocolatte Mate or Orange Blossom Mate. The latter also works great for ice tea, as does the Magical Mint, mixed with plain mate, and sometimes other tea blends.

It is also worth noting that many of their mate blends are lightly sweetened with stevia, a naturally sweet substitute for sugar.  Also, Guayaki offers gourds and bombillas, the traditional way to drink Yerba Mate, and other accessories.

I highly recommend Guayaki. I haven’t tried every one of their products, but those I buy regularly are always of the highest quality.

So switch to Yerba Mate for a great energy drink!

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

For a Healthy Energy Drink, Think Yerba Mate!