Health: How much liquid should I drink per day

Some say 2 cups a day, or 8 cups per day, While some believe drink whenever you are thirsty.

Let's do the numbers.

So the question is how much liquid should a person drink per day:


Assume everything is under normal circumstances, meaning no special conditions need to be considered, such as illness/taking medicine, preganancy, dry climate, exercising, oil-drinkers (!), eat 5 pounds of watermelon per day, etc

Based upon my research, in average, we should take 2 liters (64 oz) liquid per day, including everything. Here's where I get my numbers: We lose liquid via breathing, sweating, and generating "nature fertilizers" (urine & bowel, etc. that's a lot restroom runs), roughly 2 liter (64 oz) per day. This should be how much liquid we need to take in order to keep the balance. See, our body functions more like a recycle program;) Amazing!


Does it mean we have to drink 64 oz liquid per day? NO! that would be rediculous (unless you are a salt sucker;))) We have multiple ways to get it: Through Meals, such as vegetables (salads), meat, chicken, fish, soups (more of Asian thing I believe) and snack foods, such as fruits. This part accounts for roughly 24-32 oz or 40-50%.

The rest?....we get it from drinks, such as alcohol, wine, beer, coffee, tea, juices, etc. If you stay in bath tub or water 5 hours a day, you need to count that as well.

I have seen and heard so many people who have or had kidney stones...uhhh..very very painful!!! I had a small one before (you gonna experience everything in life,including the bad ones. That's my attitude! but make sure you know how to fix it if happens!!;)).

My father, a retired doctor, asked me to drink loads of liquid, jump jump jump, upside down...every day (yeah...it's hard to get some kidney stones-right time, right methods and right spots! it's even harder to get rid of them!!) well, that helps me do yoga! Not a bad treatment, if the stone is gone. Thanks to my father (not god this time), it's all gone now!!

My next question is: How much tea should I drink per day? Or how much tea do you drink per day?

Weight loss-Stevia vs Sugar?

What's stevia? Stevia, is a plant. Also called sweet leaf, it originates from South America. It tastes sweet, but slightly different than sugar, and has a long lasting after taste.

Benefit of Stevia:
1. NO calories. (but that does not mean you can eat tons of them, in my opinion)
2. Approved by FDA as food addictive in 2008. It is commonly used by diabetes as a sugar substitute because it has no impact on blood sugar level. The herb is sold in some South American countries to aid diabetics and hypoglycemics, Candidiasis. The plant has been used widly in Japan for decades.
3. NO worries about teeth cavities (but that's a bad news for dentists, sorry)

dot dot dot....

How much more should I say? Sounds good enough to use it often, right? That's not the end of the story.

I met a lady at a tea tasting event who told me, you should drink tea with sugar, not stevia. She said her nutritionist told her that when people drink sugar sweetened beverage, they are cautious about calories. So they drink less. When people drink beverage sweetened by stevia, they intend to drink more because they know stevia has zero calory. The result is people can gain weight!


I get the point: suppose we drink 1 gallon of sugar sweetened tea per day. if we switch to stevia, according to the nutritionist's theory, we will intend to drink 2 gallons? Does the real world really work that way? if that's the case, we need to make sure to install a rubber stomach to hold that much water/food! Everybody would walk like a pregnant woman.

I found her nutrionist's advice is amusing! what do you think? have you tried Stevia? Do you like the taste?

TGI Friday....a FUN "veggie" dog

I found this picture when I surf online...how cute the puppy looks like. The title for this picture is "Almost Have"....Yes, Friday is here....This picture was taken by Attila Labodi

The dog must be a veggie dog who eats cookies!;))))

Meet with Master of Wine Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan

Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan is a Master of Wine, one of the 4 women MW (Master of Wine)in the US. And I'm a Chinese Tea master. What could happen if we ever meet?!!!!

And we did!!!

It was June 10th and we finally met in person in NYC!! It was truely exciting and fun fun fun!! She is stunningly beautiful, like a movie star (isn't she), has a great personality and kind heart!! I joked with her that she does not look like someone who drinks a lot of wine;))) She then explained to me that she spits when tasting. This is exactly the same with tea. When testing various teas, I normally spit. Otherwise, it's a hell load of teas I have to drink every day;)

Guess what we had for drink when we met? Mint TEA!!!

When we started talking, we found we spoke each other's languages!!! There are so many similaries between wine and tea!! They are all made from certain plants (tea bushes and grapes), which means geographic locations play a vital role in their quality! Even the vocabularies we use are very similar, such as fermentation, cultivar, etc

In other words, if you know how to differentiate wines, you will learn how to enjoy tea like a pro very quickly because the two drinks have so much in common!!

Jennifer offers Wine tasting classes at the Astor Center in NYC and also provides consulting services to wine professionals.

Check her websites out:
www.jennifersimonetti.com

www.everydaywineguide.com

Jennifer can also be found on Twitter:@JediWineMaster

Mobile Tea Bookshelf

I bought a lot of books but did not have enough space to display. Until yesterday, I finally decided to make a Mobile Tea Bookshelf .
Woods were bought from the Home Depot. They cut them into small pieces based upon my instruction.

I used glass cups or vases that I do not normally use to support each layer. To avoid the glasses moving, i used glue to put the woods and glass together.

Whala!! That's my tea bookshelf!! you can move it to anywhere you want!!

TeaBeyond on Youtube-Blooming tea

Just created a video..love the music!

Huppy St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patrick's Day!!

I recently read a book written by an Irish man. He says in his book that the three leaved Shamrocks represent the unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If you look at the shamrock leaves, you can find that the three are all in heart shape!! Nature always inspires us.

I collect all kinds of teapots (mostly antique, sometimes new ones if unique or made by famous artists) made in differente countries. Bought a green teapot for St. Patrick's day, but do not know its stories. There's no mark of which company manufactured it, in which year, from which country. It's really hard to tell, but i'm sure it's not made in the US, based upon its design and material.

Lightly Alcoholic Tea Punch!!!

I wanted to thank everybody for your kind feedbacks on our tea punch!!! Great to know everybody loved it!!!

The recipe was inspired by the Punch story. In old times, sailors in the sea had nothing to do but mixed drinks with spices. Punch, which means 5, includes 5 elements-Bitter (TEA!), sour, sweet, weak and arrack. The original punch was alcohol based. I replaced alcohol with tea!

Our Lightly Alcoholic Tea punch was born!!!

Taste profile: very refershing, very well balanced tastes, has the aftertaste of bitter, sweet, and sour, with nice fruity aroma, beautiful presentation!! THE BEST! Absolutely delicious!!

To make the drink more healthy, I made a revision on the original Tea Punch recipe. Here's the reduced Sugar version:


Prepare time: 20 minutes, plus at least 3 hrs to chill
Yields: 20-24 servings (or approximately 96 oz)

Ingredients
6 oz Sugar (or adjust to taste)
2.5 cups of Apple Juice (unsweetened, from concentrate)
¼ cups of Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
2 cups of Grapefruit (from concentrate)
½ cups of Tequila
¼ cups of Vodka
4 Tea Beyond Grade A Blooming teas-assorted
6 cups of spring water
*Strawberry Gingerale ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Boil spring water and get the sugar dissolved in hot water: Right before the water reaches boiling point, add sugar in and stir until completely dissolved.

2. Steep the tea: drop 4 blooms and steep for about 15 minutes.

2. Mix Apple Juice, Lemon, Grape Fruit, Tequila and Vodka in a punch bowl

3. 15 minutes later, mix all liquid together. Let blooming teas stay in the mixture.

4. Cover with the plastic wrap and put it in refrige to chill for about at least 3 hours.

5. When serve, float on Strawberry ice cubs in the punch bowl and serve!!

*Strawberry ice cubs:

Ingredients: Ginger ale and whole strawberries (or strawberry pieces)

Fill the ice cube mold with ginger ale and add whole/sliced strawberries pieces to each cube. Freeze to use. Please allow roughly 1 day to process.

Tips for preparation:

1. Make sure to use very good branded ingredients to get the best results, such as apple juice, etc. Good quality ingredients always bring the high quality results!

2. Alternatives for sugar: you can use honey, if you prefer, or Stevia. Volume might be different. Add it gradually and taste it.

3. Avoid use water to make ice cubes-Water will dilute the drink. (see, I'm SMARTIE ^0*;))

4. Strawberry Gingerale ice cubes: use Strawberries that come with green leaves for ice cubes. It creates nicer presentation in the beverage, also looks very fresh!

4. Leave the blooming tea in the mixture: it creates nicer presentation, exhotic and continues to release the tea flavor.

Here's the original tea punch recipe if you have a sweet tooth:

http://teabeyond.blogspot.com/2009/12/exotic-blooming-tea-punch.html

Long Spout Teapot Tea Performance 长嘴壶茶艺

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9D-g74SINw

Long Spout Teapot Tea Performance (长嘴壶茶艺), one kind of Kung Fu (Gong Fu) Tea performance, is a popular tea performace in Sichuan (Sizchuan in most English, famous for its spicy food) and Zhe Jiang, China.

One story says in early 3 century, the Chinese emperor Ah Dou was afraid that someone could attack him while serving him a drink. His Strategiest, Zhu Ge Liang (诸葛亮）designed a special pot that has long curved spout made of cooper for him. This pot can be used to carry liquor but also be used as a weapon to protect him.

Another story says old tea houses are always crowded and there are not many waitresses. People do not want to wait. Long Spout tea pots allow waitress to pour tea from a distance thus can serve multiple people at one spot.

There are few styles: Erh Mei style (Sizchuan), Dragon 18 Style (Meng Ding, Sizchuan), Fu Rong (Sizchuan) and Tai Chi (Hangzhou, Zhejiang),etc...This short video was recorded in Hangzhou. He is actually a champion of Tea Performance in China.

Our Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Teabeyond

Happy tea, yes indeed!

We finally launched our Free Giveaway program in May 2010. Anybody that subscribes our email list will have the opportunity to win a FREE gift. We release the list of winners on the first day of each month.

Brian from NY is one of the winners of our FREE GIFT GIVEAWAY in May. After received his gift, he wrote:

I did win your contest, and received a collection of your beautiful teas. You have no idea how that made my day. It made me forget all the cares and worries of the day. If just receiving such a special treasure made me feel that way, I can't wait to make a pot. I can;t tell you how much that means to me. Thank you so very, very much!....Once again, Thank you so much. Take satisfaction in knowing you've made one person very happy.

Nothing is better than this!! Happy tea everyday, dear tea lovers!