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While sipping tea recently with a friend, I was impressed by her sugar dispenser, a little glass bauble which puts out exactly one teaspoon of sugar each time you invert it. I sheepishly admitted that I don't get out much, and I might even have uttered the word "newfangled." Then she told me the piece was actually old. Oops. 

So I shouldn't have been surprised that the tea-focused segment that I caught on TV yesterday was actually a month old. Pop-culture medicine man Dr. Oz was spouting age-old wisdom anyhow: his "Teas to Fight Disease" are nothing new, but perhaps they've reached a new audience in recent months. Of course I'm thrilled by the possibility that Oz's Oprah-fueled fame is providing well-brewed advice to reduce the incidence of diabetes, Alzheimer's, and various cancers with black, green, and white teas, respectively. But I'd like to highlight an aspect of his article which was not at all its focus.  

When we talk about tea as a healthful beverage, we often focus on antioxidants, the benefits of caffeine intake (or, paradoxically, the benefits of reduced caffeine content when compared with coffee), or the beverage's super-soothing effects. But tea was flavored water before flavored water was hip - that is, before you could bottle flavored water and charge people for it. One of the greatest health benefits for tea drinkers is that they're upping their water intake without consuming extra sugar or calories - of course, as long as they're not drowning their tea in cream and sugar. Don't get me wrong: I love cream (or milk) and sugar in my tea, but it's not as necessary as I think it is. And so my favorite feature of the Dr. Oz feature was his little "Flavor Meter" for each tea, showing which teas were sweetest and which were strongest. His list was painfully short, excluding red teas and herbals blends, but maybe I'll create my own someday. For now, I'll be satisfying my sweet tooth with healthy cups of Darjeeling, matcha, and Silver Needle teas.

What are some of your favorite sweet-without-sugar teas? (And when you do need some sweetener, doesn't that old-timey glass dispenser sound positively tea-lightful?)

 When it comes to relaxation, there is only one thing better than settling down with a hot cup of green tea to calm th nerves... making yourself a green tea facial to relax and rejuvenate your skin.   

Green tea is full of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties to help reduce stress lines and wrinkles on the face, making skin more taught and youthful looking.  If this isn't enough to convince you to slather some green tea on your face immediately, green tea facials have also been proven to help reduce the risk of sun cancer in animal tests!  Are you slicing the cucumbers for your eyes yet?   

If you're looking for a great green tea mask, you can either buy one at the store or attempt to make one yourself!  A DIY project is a fun idea for a Friday or Saturday night in with a book, so here's a recipe to get you started! 

To make the mask: 

• 1 teaspoon of Moroccan Mint green tea, steeped lightly and strained
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 2 tablespoons ground green tea

When it comes to your health, what's in your cup is a very important topic.  The beverages that we take in on a day to day basis really add up and can take from or add to your life in a big way.  If you're drinking 60g of sugar sodas, even if it's one a day, you'd better have a pretty good workout schedule or be blessed with a super high metabolism to keep that off your belt line.  If you're having more than one soda per day, you are raising your risk of diabetes and heart disease.  

On the other hand, enjoying a cup or more of tea a day can extend your life by helping eliminate cancer causing free radicals from your body.  Drinking tea can also help promote healthy gums, skin, hair, weight loss.... the list goes on and on.

This holiday season, and as we approach the new year, I want to focus on a different side of what's in your cup though.  Have you ever considered that if everything is made of energy, then your thoughts are actually energy?  This energy has a larger outreach than you may know.  You may have heard or read, "As a man thinks, so is he."  Well, these thoughts extend beyond affecting only the individual.  More and more studies are being conducted that indicate that collective thought can actually change the outcome of situations.  That's a story for another day, so before I get off the subject too far, I'd like to propose that you do two things between now and New Year's Eve.  Actually, if you're up for it, continue these things throughout the new year.  

One; drink more tea.  Do it for yourself and for those who love you.  Two; each time you enjoy a cup of tea, focus on a new world peace.  Focus on and believe in the possibility of an end to all the bloodshed and violence in the Middle East, Somalia, throughout the world and racial tensions in all societies.  All issues and points of view start with individuals.  The right mind set and focus can make a remarkable difference and bring about real change.  

I lift my tea cup to you as we enter 2012.  Good things are headed our way!

A couple of days ago I had small accident.

We'll just say that I was perhaps a little too tired to be slicing an apple and in addition to a couple of ounces of beautiful, crisp, sweet gala apple slices, I wound up with a beautifully sliced thumb as well. It was almost like a surprise holiday bonus. Almost.

Anyway, since I use my thumbs quite a bit as a primate, writer, student, and assistant office manager, my first reaction after suturing myself up (thank you, Girl Scouts) was to scour the Internet for information on how I could help my injury heal as quickly as possible. 

And lo and behold! Green tea evidently reactivates dying skin cells (source). Because compounds found in green tea help keep skin cells alive, green tea may help to minimize or prevent scarring. That is good news for me, because the length of the tip of one's thumb is an odd place to have a scar.

I also found that chamomile tea, when poured into a bath, may reduce inflammation and thus help increase the speed of healing (source).

Armed with my new knowledge, I soaked in a chamomile bath and prepared a pot of green tea, drinking one cup and soaking several cotton balls in what was left over. I have no similar injury with which to compare the results, but the wound healed quickly and cleanly. Of course I would have gone to a doctor at the first sign of infection or had I suspected for a moment that I needed stitches or medical attention, but it was a relief to be able to use a low-cost herbal remedy in this instance!

Many of the herbal teas offered by California Tea House are grown at small, organic farms in California; these farms also provide many of the berries and flowers found in other teas. Even large chains like Wal-Mart have begun to offer and promote organic products. In my experience, organic products taste the same as coventionally-raised and produced food items, yet cost much more. So, what gives? Why is it important to eat and drink organic, even when it coems to tea?

1. It's important to support small farms. Most organic farms are small farms (source), which means you can feel fairly safe in that your organic dollars are not supporting unethical labor conducted in third-world countries.

2. By choosing organic, you are choosing to protect the health of farm workers. Because organic products are not grown using dangerous pesticides and chemicals, farmers who work on organic farms do not risk their health by coming into extensive, close contact with these toxic substances (source).

3. It's green! Because organic farms do not use as many chemicals as conventional farms, less energy is used applying these chemicals. Many organic farmers use naturally-occurring fertilizers, and because organic food is typically sold closer to where it is grown than conventionally-grown food, less energy is used for transport (source).

4. There is research indicating that organic foods contain more vitamins and minerals than conventionally-raised food (source).

By drinking tea comprised of organic ingredients, you are doing something wonderful for yourself, the earth, and society at large.