Kumis - (kumys) - fermented mare milk. Three days kumys does have a punch, but way, way below say, beer. Kids drink fresh kumys with no effect at all. It is also kinda effervescent. Wonderful drink when you get used to it - I did when I worked in Tuva (north of Mongolia). One-two-three-day kumys is different. Once being distilled it become arak (araka) - milk vodka. This can be tricky. Hmm... should I say VERY TRICKY? Some people get very aggressive under araka, much more than under vodka (being from Russia I know the subject of aggressive behavior under alcohol real well) It is also may be distilled two-three times. I have heard horror stories about thrice distilled araka. Drinking araka with locals almost always ends in wrestling with them. Usually starts in a friendly way. may end not as friendly. Rumor has it that Genghis warriors drank thrice distilled araka before battles. My advice - try it first time alone or with your close friends. Your resistance to normal alcohol and your resistance to araka may be two completely different things.
Tea might have an effect on diabetes, it has not been as researched, but there are animal studies and in-vitro studies suggesting a possible benefit. It might lower blood sugar somewhat. Traditionally, tea was said to be good for digestion.
Black tea also has health benefits, it does have some bioflavanoid polyphenols in it, but the profile is different from green tea. Green tea is the highest in the bioflavanoid epicatechin, which has been extensively studied for its ability as an antioxidant to destroy free radicals that damage cells, and it's ability to induce cell apoptosis in malignant and pre-malignant cells (programmed cell death, which is the body's own way of stopping cancer before it turns into a tumor). But many of the polyphenols of black tea also have anti-tumor and anti-oxidant properties as well, but it has not been as studied. Oolong teas have some of the properties of both black and green teas, they have some amount of epicatechin, and also the polyphenols of black tea. Oolong is actually not drank as much as green tea worldwide, or black tea, for that matter, which is why it has been studied much less.
One advantage of green and oolong tea is that the tea has less caffeine when brewed properly. (High caffeine intake is not necessarily good for people with diabetes (caffeine alters blood sugar).
Yes, though the flavor is sort of "middling", not bad, there are worse teas actually. The health benefits are the same as loose tea. Most of them are made from Ceylon green tea that is dried using air heating. Consequently it doesn't have some of the character that Chinese green teas can have. Ceylon traditionally didn't make green tea, they made black tea,but as green tea has become more popular, more places are making it.
If you want to try loose tea, I recommend Longjing/Lung Ching/Dragon Well. It is a somewhat light tasting tea with a little astringency and fruity flavor. Avoid "Gunpowder", despite the fact it is cheap and often the most readily available loose green, it is somewhat heavy and earthy tasting. Oolong tea is also quite good. The usual bagged Oolong or Formosa Oolong is kk, but if you want to try a good Oolong, Ti Kwan Yin is very good. The taste is medium bodied and very fruity.
The tea is too expensive... but it depends on the kind of tea you want. If you are just looking for "tea", there are much cheaper teas out there. There are various online tea vendors you can order from. One of them, Ten Ren, has various grades of tea. Usually the 2nd or 3rd grades of tea are just fine, and they cost less. Tazo and Republic of Tea are also good tea, though a bit more expensive, but are usually widely available at tea and coffee stores, Starbucks, and health food stores. Lower grades of tea (ones with higher numbers) often are just as good for you, in fact they might be better, in that older leaves tend to have more bioflavanoids.
First off, the brewing of green tea is a bit different than black tea. You brew green tea about half as long as black tea, and you use water that isn't boiling, but is instead hot.
You should use about a tablespoon (smaller leaf) or a tablespoon and a half of tea (for large leaf tea), or 2-3 grams of tea, per cup. Use 160-180 degree water, not boiling. Steep for 1-3 minutes for loose tea, and about a minute to a minute and a half for bagged, fine "dust" or fannings tea. Good bagged teas with bigger particles of leaves (Republic of Tea) might take a bit longer. Use about 6 ounces of water as a teacup measure. You can usually steep the leaves an additional time or two (remove the leaves from the water, or decant the tea, don't leave the tea and the water together beyond the steeping), as long as you steep them longer or use a bit less water. I personally draw the line at steeping the leaves or bags beyond twice, beyond that it just isn't really worth it and the flavor starts changing alot. Tea is fairly cheap, too, compared to other drinks, like coffee or soda.
Are you sure? Genmaicha only has a little toasted brown rice in it (for flavor or economy, like Oriental Postum). I imagine much of the starch is caught up in the rice and not eaten, though I have no idea precisely how many calories are in genmaicha.
I am not expert, but diabetics I believe can eat small portions of rice and bread- whole grain or brown is preffered. The American Dietetic Assosciation at least lists it as part of a diabetic diet (my grandmother is diabetic... and unfortunately she won't eat brown bread, becaues people her age, for the most part, won't touch it).
Many people have connecetd Chinese/Asian food with rice, but actually rice was often eaten in large amounts because of poverty, and because the people did alot of manual labor and physical activity (thus they burned more calories, especially glucose/carbs, right away). People who sit around on their butts all day, probably should be eating lesser amounts of starches like rice and grain, but there's no reason to abandon them altogether (I've been losing weight mostly by cutting the amount of bread, rice, and starchy root vegetables I eat in about half, and replacing them with salad or greens- though I probably should exercise more...).
Wow! Thanks fo the follow-up. Exactly the kind of information I was looking for.
For starters I have ordered the Green Tea Sampler from SpecialTeas.com. A bit pricey but not terrible, and I suspect more than I will be paying once I know what I like.
As for using tea more than once, do you let it dry out between steepings or should the 2nd steep be in the same sitting (i.e. not saved for another time)?
Just another opinion here - I never do multiple steeps with any of my teas. I enjoy tea a lot, but I am also very keen on the health benefits and I cannot believe that 2nd (or later) steepings have as much of the beneficial compounds in them. I also like a mild caffeine punch, which is very attenuated in multiple steeps.
The types of tea that are multiple steeped most often are oolongs and pu-erhs.
-- Randy (if replying by e-mail, remove SPAMFREE and DeLeTe from my address)
Is this Atkins historical revisionism? In fact, in Japan at least, rice was not a mark of poverty, but rather a measure of wealth. A medieval fief's worth was counted in volume of rice. Most Asians today continue to eat rice or noodles (or bread) at every meal. Their lower incidence of obesity, compared to us Americans, is probably attributed to how much they eat -- and what they don't eat.
I would not mix all Asians into one group here. I never studied the dietary habits in Asia, but I can say one thing - if I would have eaten as often and as much as people who I worked with in China, I would have died within a week. I am not at all a small guy by any standards and these were smaller-frame and very thin men and women fo all ages. Watching the amount of food I ate, they almost cried of compassion. They thought I was ill or something. China and Japan are very different in this regard. I do not think Japanese eat as much as Chinese. Also watching Han Chinese one can notice that they are not just thin - their body fat is very, very low. A "thin" European guy (Or Japanese), if he takes his shirt off will still display some underskin body fat. Chinese men, even older, have a very different body structure - they are real thin - almost no body fat whatsoever. Certainly I am talking "visual statistics". May be there lies the secret of the Chinese railroad builders who did built the cross-USA railroad and who was brought here because Europeans were dying like flies and the whole project was jeopardized because of that.
May be old argicultural societies of South-East Asia developed better carbohydrate metabolism than nomads of greater Asia and forest hunters-gatherers of Europe. I can say that Mongols are not at all as thin as Han Chinese. And Central Asia Asians (Uzbeks, Tazhik, Kazakhs, Turkmen) are the same way.
Quality of rice, according to the many people I spoke and ate with in my wonderings years ago throughout India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, is a matter of great national pride. In Afghanistan one person gently and politely apologized for the poor quality of the rice he served, explaining that it was in fact American rice. Undoubtedly rice, like water, is never quite right away from home. I'm partial to Indian rice. I also have developed quite a taste for Italian rice. By the way, when I was mucking about India, nobody looked forward to the government enforced "no rice" days caused by scarcities. We had to eat potato. Rice is *not* a sign of poverty, that's for sure, although its absence might be. Consider also that a vegetarian diet demands greater quanties of grains to balance proteins, right? That seems a better explanation for large amounts of rice. Is it not so that the word for "rice" and "food" are the same in Japanese? What about Chinese? Rice. Yummy. I've never cooked Japanese rice, but I'm going to go out of my way to find some.
Speaking of which, in New York City most of the Japanese restaurants are now actually run and staffed by Chinese people. Hope nobody considers this biased, biased though it be, but I eat only in Japanese restaurants owned and staffed by Japanese people. This almost guarantees a reasonably high quality.
Because compounds good and bad find their way into the tea liquor at different rates -- for specifics see Dog Ma -- I'd think it *would* be a good idea to put your tea through more than one steep from a health point of view. You can't lose anything by doing that, and you might win. Besides, often the second and/or third steep tastes significantly different, and just as delightful as the first. That's my humble opinion. You can add green teas to your list of multiple steepables. Some wise ass of long ago and far away once said something to the effect that the first steep is for the aroma, the second for the taste, and the third for balance.
The latest world health crisis obesity in China. I know pot bellied European men in the early nineteenth century were considered wealthy. The best diet, exercise. I overstuffed on dumplings at Black Eyed Pea recently and a couple of cups of puerh immediately eliminated the greasy bloated feeling. Better than any OTC medicine. I'll let you know if it is good for heartburn.
I think that argument has been debunked. At least vegetarians don't have to eat them all at the same meal, maybe just over the course of the day. Something like that. (Speaking as a devil-may-care vegetarian.)
I'm sure you're right about regional differences and preferences in rice. What I find interesting is that Asian populations are so taken with white, polished rice. Seems to me perfectly analagous to Western white breads; so many nutrients and fiber have been stripped away.
I use brown rice here at home, FWIW, and order it at Asian restaurants when available.
I've done it both ways. I usually order my teas from
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where I also got a couple of Chatsford pots (different sizes) with extra brew baskets so that I may switch to a different tea yet still conveniently store the brewed leaves for subsequent brewings.
I've also ordered from
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with good results. Both it and Upton have sample sizes and samplers along with accessories and information. Info about do-it-yourself decaffeinating is at Upton.
Not to mention that grains have protein, too. The truth Michael was reaching for, I think, was that grains and beans have different distributions of essential amino acids (i.e. amino acids our bodies can't synthesize), and as a result, by combining the two over a reasonable period of time, you get more benefit out of the same amount of protein.
In Japanese, it's more like "rice" and "meal" being the same word. You say you've never cooked Japanese rice, but surely you've eaten some at restaurants, haven't you?
I seem to have bad luck with with stumbling into Japanese restaurants run by Koreans. We have a Japanese buffet-type place here that's quite popular. As unappealing as all-you-can-eat Japanese sounds, I've been told that also it is staffed entirely by Mexicans. I'll eat Mexican food from a street stand without hesitation, but I want Japanese food prepared by Japanese.
But brown rice spoils quickly, especially in warmer climates. And it takes twice the time -- and fuel -- to cook. Also, brown rice is not a joy to eat, giving one's jaws a workout with each musty, bitter, pasty mouthful. That said, my Japanese mother-in-law ate brown rice at home. But she's a bit of an odd bird.
For those who really demand the added nutrition, a grade of rice in Japan called haiga-mai is a pleasant compromise. It has all the nutrient-rich germ, but none of the coarse bran, so it cooks just like standard white rice. And if you're eating your vegetables, who needs the fiber anyway?
Knew,new,knew,new. Always leave something for the pot. One liter of tea will always taste better than 10/100ml steeps. Tea infusion follows the bell curve and not steady state. Maximum infusion is simply a function of time which varies according to tea type because the curve can be skewed to the left or right. My rule of thumb the first cup is always the best. To accomplish that use a pot that is
1/2 larger than the volume of your cup. So if 12oz cup then 18oz pot. Yeh that last six oz will taste like the first twelve put that belongs to the pot. My every day pot currently is 1 liter cylindrical graduated in 100 ml increments so I can calculate how much time I'm saving over brewing gongfu. IMHO. I don't care 5g of cooked puerh can make six liters. It doesn't fit my world view. Newton was close enough. I'll let you Einstein's worry about multiple infusions.
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