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One of my favorite herbal teas is Chrysanthemum tea. This fragrant tea is reported to have many medicinal values in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Most notably, within TCM, it is claimed that Chrysanthemum tea can help support the immune system, and help keep your body from getting sick. Studies suggest that chrysanthemums contain a high amount of B Carotene. This is converted to Vitamin A in the liver, which can help support the immune system. Drinking the tea is also claimed to have a cooling effect, reducing body temperatures during a fever and soothing a sore throat.

After drinking the tea, if the flowers are squeezed of excess moisture, they can be applied as a compress to help alleviate itchy, dry eyes and TCM uses these compresses to also treat blurry eyes, dizziness and diminished vision. A chrysanthemum compress can also be applied to the skin to help reduce swelling and redness from acne.

I personally drink this herbal tea daily and can say that I feel that the claimed health benefits seem to be factual. As with any form of medicine, do your own research before giving it a try. If you decide you'd like to, California Tea House offers a chrysanthemum blooming tea that you can try called Peri Flower.

Midterms are, once again, upon many college students across the nation and while many are grabbing coffee and energy drinks to keep them focused all through the night, I’m personally reaching for tea.

Now some of you may wonder how tea can even COMPARE to a product such as Five-Hour Energy when students are looking for that extra boost. While tea is not filled with the same caffeine that students think they are looking for, it IS filled with many values that energy drinks, soda, and coffee can’t even compare to.

Currently my top teas of choice during these next few stressful and demanding weeks are:

• Herbal Tea: Now, I don’t know about you, but when I am stressed out and not getting a lot of sleep or eating as well as I can (library café food anyone?), I tend to get sick. This tea is a life and sanity saver. I drink this tea twice a day—in the morning and in the evening in addition to taking my vitamins to give myself that extra protection against germs and mental breakdowns. I recommend this tea to be the backbone to any student’s midterm/final week diet to give them an even better chance at success.

• Vanilla Bean Honeybush: I have always been a lover of vanilla—no it is not the boring flavor of ice cream, it is the delicious one! I naturally had to try this tea out based on the fact that it is, well, made from vanilla beans. This all natural and antioxidant rich tea comes from the Cape Region of South Africa where it is said to help you “laugh more” and “you will look at your watch less.” Who could ask for a better remedy for headaches, deadlines, and panic-attacks?

• Rooibos: While many students are wanting to jam as much information into their brains as possible, or pull an all-nighter putting the finishing touches on that paper, it’s SO important to get restful sleep. Sleeping has always been one of my biggest foes and I’m constantly struggling with it—it’s very much a love/hate relationship. During midterms and exam time I reach for this dream saver. With the peaceful and relaxing qualities of rooibos and chamomile, you can’t help but let your eyelids get droopy.

• Silver Needle White Tea: My all-time favorite kind of tea. After completing that exhausting paper or conquering that grueling 200-question exam, I like to treat myself to some of the finest tea in the brew family. Not only is it’s taste smooth, exquisite and appreciated by many tea connoisseurs all over the world, but this tea is also believed to help fight against cancer.  I cannot help but feel at peace and comforted while drinking this tea, which is exactly what I need after pushing myself towards that midterm finish line.

Other universal benefits of drinking tea over caffeinated drinks during tense periods:

- NO sugar: The sugar in energy drinks and soda will cause many of their users to crash.

- Little to NO caffeine: While some people need a little bit of caffeine to help put that pep in their step, there are various types of tea that can still provide that energy boost without the effects of caffeine.

- Hydration: Tea will help to keep you hydrated while energy drinks contain more elements that PREVENT hydration of the body.

- Future health: Tea has been credited with helping fight against cancer...now who can tell me an energy drink or soda that has been credited with that?

Now I hope that my love for tea during midterm and finals season are beneficial for other students, but I must get back to my studies since it is that time of year. ::sigh::

So next time you need that extra OOMPH to finish that assignment, grab some tea over that Five-Hour Energy!

Ice cream is one of the best and worst coolants of summer.  Best because it tastes sooo good and worst because its sooo bad for you. Here's a delicious tisane recipe that's packed with healthy components like anti-oxidants and tannins that serves as a simply fantastic dessert substitute for a scorching hot day: 

Blueberry Smooth-Tea:

1. Two tablespoons of Blueberry Syrup herbal tea

2. Two tablespoons of White Peony Tea

3. One teaspoon of honey

4. 4 cups boiled water

5. Ice

Combine Blueberry Syrup, White Peony tea and honey in a teapot. Add boiled water and steep for 5 minutes. Strain the brewed tea over ice in a blender to your liking. Blend to your desired consistency. Transfer to an ice cream glass. Adjust sweetener if necessary. Add a swirl of whipping cream on top if you dare!

What's fabulous about LA is that you can wake up in the morning, have your breakfast, and decide to spend yourhard earned day offat the beach... in no time. This past weekend we ventured out to sunny Malibu for our third stair-climb, gaining one step closer to conquering our Mount Whitney feat. Continuing our exercising with tea adventures, our featured tea of choice was Silver Needle white tea, no sweetener, chilled.

Parking on Pacific Coast Highway was polite, possibly because we discovered a way to cheat the parking gods. Since the stair climb is throughout the residential neighborhood of Malibu, we figured to park uphill on a windy street where our climb would weave through, and it worked. We squeezed our car on a tight roundabout where parking was permitted on non "red flag days" (has anyone figured out what that even is?)

Walking by an SUV with an open trunk we see blond haired, sun-kissed kids in swimsuits looking too young to be drinking enjoying the views of the ocean on a beautiful weekend. Down a flight of stairs and crossing the overpass of PCH to the west side we stayed true to the stair count and began our journey with sandy feet.

Charles Fleming,the author of the LA stair climbs andnow our guide, describes a set of lingering, steep stairs along this trail as the "stairwell to nowhere." These nowhere stairs are exactly that, but they add a very nice level of difficulty if you decide to scale them a couple of times during each round of the Castellammare hike like we did. We're not sure if these steps were included in the article's count, we added it to ours anyway. After all, it couldn't hurt to throw in another 66 steps one way to spice up the mix.

Passing through homes which make you want to play that game of "which house would you want," we see evidence of neighborhood unification: handwritten blue signs every few feet warning drivers to "slow down" and "watch out" for "children at play."

We incline up to experience a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean dotted with sailboats on the left and a decked out, Italian style mansion called Villa de Leon, once belonging toLeon Kauffman, a wool magnate famous in the1920's lies straight ahead.

Perhaps it was the large, wide and smooth stones with ornate detailing that gave this villa its authentic, transcendent exterior. A sprawling lawn overlooking the ocean makes you stop and stare...one can only imagine the frolicky horseplay at this mansion's 'hay-day'.

Up and around the bend we come back down to PCH for another two rounds. A lookout into the ocean reveals swarms of what appeared to be orangey-brown sea kelp which we couldn't help but think of the view of the oil-ridden Mexican Gulf.

Altogether, we conqueredthe Castellammare's 396steps three times plus the 'Stair's to Nowhere' 132 times three, giving this workout a total of 1584 steps. Silver Needle White Tea was the perfect selection for this journey. Its naturally airy-sweet taste complemented the soft, oceanic breeze upon our skins. The chilled version of the tea felt more replenishing like a Gatorade, but with added immune building strength and no sugar sticking to your teeth and clogging your throat. I'd definitelychoose Silver Needleagain as a workout companion. Not to mention we are both noticing an increased endurance drinking tea with our cardiovascular workouts versus working out without tea.

If you're trying tea with your workouts, comment here and letus know or write us about it. We'd love to hear about it.

October is National Dental Hygiene Month, which got us thinking about our White Tea...

Studies show that drinking white tea daily promotes a healthy smile and fights gum disease,

not to mention tastes delicious and helps fight cancer as well!

So to kick off October, and even a little earlier to give you a head start: For every white tea purchased

during our Operation Smile promotion, we are donating $1 to Operation Smile: http://www.operationsmile.org/

"Operation Smile mobilizes a world of generous hearts to heal children’s smiles and transform lives across the globe. Our network of volunteers works worldwide to repair childhood facial deformities including cleft lips and cleft palates."

So drink white tea to your own healthy smile and to the healthy smile of others!