5 Things You Need to Know About Green Tea

Green Tea is one of the most common forms of tea consumed in the country, perhaps world; of course, this is for good reason. Green tea has good flavor and it has numerous health benefits. There are plenty of health benefits of green tea that we all know about but there are also ones that remain more hidden.

Some of the benefits that have been discovered about green tea have been debated so it's important to do research; however, it is true that many of the proclaimed health benefits of the stuff are indeed true.

1. It helps with weight loss. Green tea has a compound in it that is known to boost a persons's metabolism. When your metabolism is higher, it burns off calories and such from food easier and faster than a slower metabolism. When fewer of those calories and fats make it through your system, you have less weight gain; pair that with exercise and a decent diet and you have weight loss. 
2. It helps with diabetes. When you have diabetes, glucose levels can be hard to manage. Green tea has been been reported to help control glucose levels, this helps slow down the blood sugar from rising after you eat. 
3. It helps with heart disease. It has been studied that green tea has the ability to improve the inner lining of the blood vessels; when the lining of the blood vessels is strong, the vessels withstand the changes in blood pressure much better than when the linings are weak. 
4. It helps with esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer is getting much more common among people and green tea is able to help with that. Green tea is known for its ability to limit free radicals and cancer cells. 
5. It helps with cholesterol. Green tea has the ability to help reduce the bad cholesterol in your body, this improves the good cholesterol to bad cholesterol ratio. 

So drink up your green tea. Now that it's summer, having some iced green tea is even better. If you are looking for some great stuff, then shop Coffeevines because we have Celestial Green Tea and Bigelow Green Tea. 

3 Tips for Making the Best Iced Coffee from K Cups

It is technically summer, official summer does not start for another month, but the weather is already saying, "I'm here!" and so this means iced coffee. Coffee lovers still need to get our fixes every day, perhaps more than once a day, but sometimes the heat just makes it too difficult to enjoy a hot cup.

You can't deny that having a single cup coffee machine gives you the latest and greatest coffee offerings and is also convenient. Forget about measuring out all sorts of amounts for coffee every morning. Now, k cup coffee machines have yet to really nail down the "iced coffee" option, so we still have to brew it like normal and then mix in some ice but still, having one of these makes making an iced coffee even better and easier.

So what are three things that every coffee lover needs to remember when they try to make their cup of iced coffee this summer?

1. The ice. This is a really common mistake for people to make. A lot of "at-home baristas" think that you need to wait until the end of the brewing to add in your ice cubes. While you can still achieve a real good cup of iced coffee by adding in your ice post-brewing, you can get an even better result by putting them in the mug before brewing the coffee. Why? Well, when you put the ice in before brewing, you allow the coffee to cool while brewing; this allows the coffee to become cooler and creamier, faster. 
2. The coffee blends. Choosing the best coffee blend is a a big help to making a
   
   delicious cup of coffee. The right coffee will make a nice and delicious cup of iced coffee that will get your taste buds buzzing. Try to use either a french vanilla k cup because that will go really well with any cream you add into the coffee. 
3. The cream, sugar, and milk you add. You can add your combination of these and in varying amounts, it's up to you; it depends if you like a creamier coffee or a stronger coffee flavor. 

The heat of summer will not squash your love of good coffee, so conquer the heat with a great iced coffee. 

What You Should Know About Tea

Tea is a fun and healthy drink. There are many health benefits to it and it is interesting to know a lot about it. We have compiled another list of cool things that you ought to know about tea. Once you read these, you'll want to get some tea for yourself.

1. "Tea", the word, comes from the Chinese word, T'e; this word hails from a Chinese dialect called Amoy. The word is the name of the plant that the tea leaves come from.
2. "Chai" comes from the Mandarin word "Ch'a". 
3. Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Black tea, green tea, and oolong tea all come from leaves that are pulled from the same tea plants; what makes them different are their processes. Black tea is fermented, oolong is semi fermented, white tea is unfermented, and green tea is unfermented as well. White tea is from the same bush as the others but is picked before the tea buds open. 
4. According to Chinese stories, Emperor Shen Nong was the first man to discover tea in 2737 BC. His servants were purifying water and some leaves from tea bushes fell into the water and created tea. In tea's early days, it was for medicinal use only. 
5. When a Jesuit priest named Jasper visited China from Portugal, he traded with men in the region and was allowed to bring the tea leaves back to Portugal with him. This is believed to be how tea made its way to Europe. 
6. All the way until the mid-1800s, China was the world's biggest producer of tea and their main customer was Great Britain. Great Britain began finding tea from places like India, Africa, and other regions when it grew harder to find tea from China. 
7. United Arab Emirates is the biggest consumer of tea in the world, consuming 14 pounds of tea every year. China is still the world's biggest producer of it. England comes in seventh, the United States is in 69th. 
8. Tea used to not be brewed from tea bags, that did not happen until Thomas Sullivan, an American, sent some to customers in some silk pouches. His customers did not know to take the tea out of the silk. 
9. The world's most expensive tea hails from China, in the mountains of Ya'An, located in the wonderful province of Sichuan. The way it gets to be the world's most expensive tea is due to how it is grown. Field workers fertilize the tea plants with the feces from the pandas since it is so nutritional. How much for a cup? About $200. 

If you are looking for more moderately priced, yet gourmet quality, tea, then shop Coffeevines. Find great brands of single cup tea. 

American Coffee Trends in 2014

Coffee used to be something that people would just order because they knew it tasted good but more importantly, it woke us up. Nowadays, that is not quite the case. The amount of coffee we drink has changed as well as how we drink it.

The amount of Americans who drink a cup of coffee everyday has dropped down to 61 percent this year, a two percent drop from last year. However, those who drink java have become more prone to ordering drinks that are more espresso-based, like lattes or cappuccinos; these coffee drinkers have increased by 18 percent, a 5 percent increase from last year.

Gourmet coffee has taken a big increase in popularity, increased 31 percent since last year to a total of 34 percent of coffee drinkers opting for gourmet coffee everyday. Gourmet coffee is anything that is espresso-based as well as coffee made by beans that have been deemed gourmet.

Single cup coffee has also taken a sharp leap in popularity. With sales increasing 3x over the past few years. According to studies, 29 percent of American coffee drinkers claimed they brew their coffee from k cups, up 20 percent from last year. More and more Americans are buying single serve coffee brewing systems and finding their coffee online from online coffee retailers. 

Nearly 15 percent of American coffee drinkers reported that they have at least one single cup coffee brewer in their home or office. Those who use drip brewers have fallen to 53 percent since last year, that's more than cut in half than last year's numbers.

Coffee Has Been Tied to Lower Risk of Diabetes

Enjoy that java? Good, it turns out that coffee has been linked to lowering the chances of developing Type-2 Diabetes; also, as it turns out, cutting down on your coffee consumption can even increase your chances of developing Diabetes, as new studies report.

Over the course of 20 years, researches collected extensive information about diets, lifestyles, and medical conditions for more than 120k individuals; the discovered 7,269 individuals with Type-2 Diabetes.

Upon controlling factors such as smoking, age, weight, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and any family histories of diabetes, researchers realized that people who had increased their consumption of coffee by more than one eight-ounce cup of coffee a day (during a four year frame) had lowered their risk of diabetes by 11 percent. Individuals who decreased their coffee intake by the same amount had increased their chances of diabetes by 17 percent.

The thing is that the researchers found it was not the caffeine that was the trick; see, coffee actually has a lot of antioxidants as well as bioactive compounds in it; both antioxidants and bioactive compounds are good for glucose metabolism, which is what is affected with diabetes.

With all this being said, coffee is not a magical elixir that will cure everything; you still need to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle.