For better health and an overall sense of well being : use liquid green tea extract when you are traveling. Benefits of green tea and tips how to use green tea drops.

Why use liquid green tea extract?

Why would you use liquid green tea extract when you have fresh green tea available?

It’s the same as asking me: why would you spend tons of money on an organic Aloe Vera extract when you can grow Aloe Vera in your garden?

• The answer is simple: you cannot put the Aloe Vera plant in your handbag or suitcase anytime you are on the go or traveling.
   
• Same answer applies to green tea: if you want to be sure to have a green tea in reach when traveling, do take liquid green tea with you: the bottles are as small as nose-drops and one bottle could last you a whole month.

Regardless of where you are: you do need to drink a lot of cups of green tea in order to have the same benefits of having a few drops of liquid green tea extract.

If you don’t like the taste of any of the liquid green tea extracts, then we advice you to buy concentrated green tea tablets.

How to drink liquid green tea extract

Read the label carefully on your particular container of liquid green tea extract and follow the instructions.

If there are no instructions, then follow these guidelines:

• standard dosages are 20-25 green tea drops up to three times daily, not longer than 2 weeks in a row
   
• use a glass dropper to remove one dropper-full of liquid green tea extract from the bottle. When the extract doesn’t provide a dropper, then you need to buy one from a drug store, a health food store, or an online retailers. Next time make sure to by liquid green tea extract that comes with a dropper!
   
• add 20-25 drops of the liquid green tea extract to one 8-ounce (250 ml) glass of distilled or spring water. If you don’t like the taste, then use less water and add some organic fruit or vegetable juice. Try different brands of green tea extracts as they all have different flavors.
   
• stir the green tea extract into the liquid, combine thoroughly and drink immediately.

Reminder of green tea benefits

• 4000 year old Chinese remedy to treat anything from depression to headache. Green tea health benefits are as old as civilisation.
   
• contains antioxidants to help cleanse your body of toxins and various waste accumulated through bad dietary habits:
   
• as such improving your metabolic rate: or in plain English: burning more fat
   
• boosting your energy and preventing any cases of lethargy
   
• lowers your cholesterol levels
   
• maintains your proper blood pressure level
   
• reduces risk for cancer and strokes
   
• improves skin condition
   
• boosts your immune system.

Green tea is not meant to be a weight loss tea, but by boosting your metabolism, you might see some weight loss as a wanted side-effect of so called green tea diets

Which liquid green tea extract do you buy?

When you buy green tea extracts, you have the choice between pure, caffeine free green tea and "more in one" green tea extracts.

The latter you see in the picture above on the left and the name is misleading: Green Tea Pure isn’t just a pure green tea extract, but it is mixed with liquid extracts from Goji Berry and Acai Berries. Personally I love the taste of it

Chi Teas offers "Chi Tea Ultimate Green Tea" (picture here on the right). Again not only a pure liquid green tea extract, but also containing concentrated natural extracts of Goji Berry, Astragalus and Lohan Kuo (a natural herbal sweetener, read more in Chi Tea Green Tea Extract).

If possible, buy organic green tea extracts. When caffeine gives you bad side-effects, then do buy a decaffeinated liquid green tea extract.

As there are so many things to do and numerous sightseeing places to cover, you need to ensure that you optimize your vacation time when visiting this beautiful city. The best way to do this is to research for sightseeing packages.

A top leader in New York City Sightseeing is CitySights NY. For city tours, you must book their hop-on hop off double decker buses that ply all the major attractions, uptown and downtown included.

If you are into shopping there are day trips available as well. Night tours are also available and there are various choices for your selection.

If you are into walking, there are tours that specifically cater to this. Their biking tours cover Greenway, Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge. Besides these, there are harbor cruises, helicopter riders, day trips from New York and even Food tours.

There are even tours specifically tailored for students.

No matter what your interests may be there is always something that would be exciting for you to do in New York City. So for a great travel experience, check out tours at CitySights NY!

For sure you have read that green tea is beneficial for weight loss and fat burning. But have you ever wondered why?

Although one of my favorite drinks is Japanese green tea and I love green tea ice cream… Lets not talk about the taste but instead let’s talk about the scientific green tea health benefits.

Green tea antioxidants health benefits

Every scientist wil tell you that green tea contains the antioxidant EGCG. In the graphic above you can compare the amount of antioxidants in green tea and other food items.

What are antioxidants? Simply put: they are "anti oxidation". In your every day life : oxidation of iron means it’s getting old, rusty and deteriorates. Anything anti oxidant will make sure "things don’t deteriorate that fast".

This especially is true when it comes to cells deteriorating into cancer cells. Any food containing anti oxidants are considered healthy. Of course natural anti oxidants found in organic food are of a much higher quality that chemical anti oxidants.

Then there is of course quantity : antioxidants from ready-to-drink tea bottles in your "convenience store" contain 10 to 100 tomes less antioxidants than a freshly brewed green or black teas!

Again: freshness is crucial when it comes to the amount of antioxidants in your food. Fresh food contains more antioxidants than the same food a few days later.

Green tea health benefits are plenty when you go back to basics: buy organic green tea and brew the teat yourself. Ready made tea drinks from the "convenience store" are only that: "convenient". They have much less health benefits compared to freshly brewed green tea.

Are you looking for organic cultivated and caffeine free green tea, then try Chi Tea green tea extract.

You can order Chi Tea green tea extract online and because it doesn’t contain any caffeine, you don’t have to bother about the Green tea extract side effects we mentioned earlier.

Concentrated Chi Tea green is not only caffeine free, it’s also alcohol, herbicides, pesticides and fluoride free.

Use Chi Tea for the Green tea health benefits: it’s a super anti-oxidant. One cup of Chi Tea green tea extract equals 12 to 15 cups of regular green tea containing more than 95% Polyphenols and 62% EGCG anti-oxidant.

Additionally this Chi Tea extract is fortified with concentrated extracts of:

• Goji Berry,
  
   
• Astragalus root
   
   
• natural sweetener Lohan Kuo.
   

Chi Tea green tea extract really is one of the purest and most potent natural herbal elixirs available today.

Enjoy this easy and delicious green tea opera recipe. A moist, light and creamy cake where the slight bitterness of green tea tempers the sweetness of white chocolate.

History of the Opera Cake

The Opera Cake was first created by a French known as Louis Clichy, who called it… Clichy.

It was a very refined and decadent layer cake prepared with:

• delicate almond biscuit or joconde,
   
• chocolate ganache,
   
• coffee buttercream, and
   
• chocolate glaze.

The cake got popularized by the Parisian pâtisserie Dalloyau as "Opera Cake", as it is known today.

Highest quality Matcha

Highest quality Matcha powder or green tea powder is Japan’s most widely known tea. It’s also used to flavour and dye foods like:

• green tea ice cream
   
• mochi and soba noodles,  and
   
• a variety of wagashi - Japanese confectionery-.

Highest quality Matcha differs from standard green tea well before it has even been plucked. 

The tea from which Starbucks matcha powder - and all other matcha powder - is made, is grown under shade. This causes the growth of the green tea to slow down to:

• ensure tender tea leaves and most importantly
   
• maximum chlorophyll which causes the deep green colour in the final green tea powder.

The leaves are then plucked and processed into steamed tea. This tea will then be milled into a very fine green powder making matcha green tea so distinctive. 

Matcha is generally expensive compared to other forms of tea, that’s why we want to share with you the secret recipe of making your own distinctive green tea.

Green Tea Opera Cake Recipe

Making White Chocolate Glaze

Top your green tea opera cake with this simple white chocolate glaze:

• 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
   
• 3 ounces (90g) chopped white chocolate

Simply melt the chocolate into the heavy cream in a double boiler. Let cool (for 10 minutes) and pour over the top of your green tea opera cake.

Making the green tea cake

• 1 cup (120 g) ground almonds
   
• 1 cup (100 g) sifted icing sugar
   
• 1/4 cup (30 g) all-purpose flour
   
• whites of 3 large eggs at room temperature
   
• 3 large eggs
   
• 1 tablespoon matcha
   
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
   
• 1 1/2 (22.5g) tablespoon unsalted butter

Preparing the green tea cake:

1. Line a 12 1/2 inch by 15 1/2 inch (about 30 x 40 cm) jelly roll pan with parchment and grease with butter
    
2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks. Add sugar and beat again until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
    
3. Beat icing sugar, matcha, almonds and eggs in another bowl until light and voluminous. Add the flour and beat until the flour is just combined.
    
4. Fold the egg white mixture into the almond mixture.
    
5. Fold in the butter.
    
6. Pour the batter into the pan.
    
7. Bake the green tea cake in a preheated 425F - 220C oven until lightly browned and just springy to the touch, about 5-9 minutes. As always, don’t use hot air for baking cakes.
    
8. Run a knife along the edges to loosen the cake form the jelly roll pan.
    
9. Cover the cake with parchment paper, flip and un-mold your green cake.
    
10. Peel of the parchments paper flip and cover the green cake while it cools.

Making Green Tea Buttercream

The secret to make any good buttercream is beating and beating more. The green color comes again from green tea matcha powder.

• 2 large egg whites
   
• 3/4 cup (180g) unsalted butter at room temperature
   
• 1/2 (100g) cup sugar
   
• 1 tablespoon matcha

1. Mix the sugar with the green tea matcha powder in a small bowl
    
2. Whisk the sugar and matcha into the egg whites in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until the mixture is hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Make sure the sugar gets dissolved and the mixture looks like shiny marshmallow cream
    
3. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat until the cream is cool, about 5 minutes.
    
4. Beat in the butter
    
5. Beat the mixture until it thickens and becomes smooth, about 5-20 minutes.

Making the Green Tea Syrup

This is a simple syrup with some added flavour from green tea liquor. Green tea liqueur has a nice dark green color and adds a nice aroma to the syrup and the opera cake.

• 1/4 cup (62.5ml) water
   
• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
   
• 1 tablespoon green tea liqueur

Making the green tea syrup is easy: bring all ingredients to a boil in a small sauce pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

Making White Chocolate Ganache

When too liquid to keep the ganache from streaming out of your cake: put this white chocolate ganache in the fridge before using it in your green tea opera cake.

• 7 ounces (200g) chopped white chocolate
   
• 1/4 cup (60ml) heavy cream
   
• 1/4 cup (60g) butter
   
• 2 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Melt the chocolate into the butter and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream in a double boiler.
    
2. Set the ganache aside and let cool completely.
    
3. Whip the 1/4 cup heavy cream in a large bowl.
    
4. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate ganache.
    
5. Refrigerate until used.

Putting the green tea opera cake together

Assembling the cake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper like so:

1. Cut the cake into 4 pieces (6×7 inch or 15×20cm)
    
2. Place 1 sheet of the cake onto the baking sheet and moisten with your green tea syrup.
    
3. Spread 1/2 of the buttercream over the cake.
    
4. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten again with syrup.
    
5. Spread the white chocolate ganache over the cake.
    
6. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the ganache and moisten with syrup.
    
7. Spread the remaining buttercream over the cake.
    
8. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten with syrup.
    
9. Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it out.

Refrigerate until it sets, about 30 minutes. Trim the sides to get a smooth finished green tea opera cake! Job well done

As usual: always consume in moderation to prevent getting green tea extract side effects.

Drinking freshly brewed green a lot, I never encountered any side effects. I do agree that one has to go a few times more to the toilet, which again is good exercise to help burning some extra fat :-).

Of course when you take green tea extract, the concentrated amount of the green tea in the extract can be overdosed much easier.

Main side effect however is caused by the caffeine. Caffeine can keep you awake at night. Green tea contains much less caffeine compared to normal tea and coffee. For me: brewing fresh green tea never developed into insomnia, even after drinking huge amounts of green tea.

If you notice getting sleeping problems after taking green tea extract, give the green tea extract to a friend who won’t suffer insomnia side effects. Then go and source for caffeine free green tea extract for yourself.

Other green tea side effects noted are:

• headache,
   
• heart palpitations (that sounds again like a symptom of caffeine overdose),
   
• restlessness,
   
• vomiting and nausea,
   
• diarrhea or the opposite: constipation.

If you love milk, the above side effects can be eliminated by adding some milk into your green tea. I do that from time to time before I go to sleep.

When it comes to green tea extract side effects, people with health problems like:

• heart problems,
   
• stomach ulcers,
   
• kidney disorders and
   
• psychological disorders,

… may experience green tea extract side effects easier.

Always ask your doctor’s opinion about how green tea extract could interfere with any other medications you take or health problems you have.

I am convinced that you can get more easily pesticide poisoning from eating large amounts of strawberries (like what my brother suffers from each time he eats strawberries) than suffering from green tea extract side effects!

Enjoy Kit Kat Matcha! Green tea extract in a Kit Kat from Nestle.

Kit Kat Matcha (green tea) is a limited seasonal edition of Kit Kat bars with obviously a green tea flavor. It’s now available in stores in Japan or look for them online.

The Kit Kat Matcha wafers have an unique shade of green : the color of green tea!

The Kit Kat Matcha sticks are made up of white chocolate and green tea. As you bite into the wafers you truly can detect the faint aroma and distinct flavor of green tea!

Enjoy Kit Kat Green Tea, Kit Kat Dark Chocolate and Kit Kat Cheese Cake.

For the latter 2, you need to travel to Malaysia, and for the Kit Kat green tea, you have to go all the way to Japan in May.

Green tea or matcha is a well known staple of Japanese beverages, but to make it into a Kit Kat… It just proves that there are no limits to the Japanese snack-food imagination.

When you like Green Tea Opera Cake and green tea ice cream, you will surely love the flavor of Kit Kat green tea as well.

Just one question: do we serve these green tea wafers with tea, coffee or hot chocolate?

Enjoy this quick and easy traditional Venezuelan arepas recipe. No oven needed, a frying pan works equally well. Fill your arepas simply with cheese or with any combination of savory meats, beans, plantains and/or again cheese.

Arepas translated

• Arepa - Cooked cornmeal pocket stuffed with various ingredients.
   
• Arepitas - Small fried arepas served as a starter to eat with nata (sour cream), or with soups and stews.
   
• Arepa de Trigo - Large arepa from the Andes region made from wheat.

What are arepas?

An arepa is a grilled corn flour flatbread stuffed with any combination of savory meats, beans, plantains and/or cheese.

Arepas don’t contain yeast. Any arepa can be grilled, baked, or fried. The characteristics of the arepa vary from region to region:

Spanish Arepas

Colombian Arepa

A Colombian arepa or arepas con queso are cheese arepas. They are small and fit perfectly in your hand, plump little corn-cakes filled with thick chewy cheese, griddled until they are crispy on the outside.

Venezuelan Arepa

Venezuelan arepa recipes are endless! Arepas are Venezuela’s homegrown alternative to bread or rolls: cornmeal "cakes" about the size of a hockey puck that are crunchy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside.

Venezuelan arepa recipes can have the following fillings:

• Aguacate - Avocado
   
• Aguita ‘e Sapo - Literally "Frog Water", but it’s actually pernil or roast pork in its juice, served with fried cheese. Found almost exclusively in Maracaibo.
   
• Atun - Tuna salad with onions and a squeeze of lemon
   
• Caraotas negras - Black beans
   
• Carne mechada - Shredded beef
   
• Chicharron - Pork crackling, also known in UK as pork scratching
   
• Chorizo - Spicy sausage
   
• Diablitos - Devilled ham
   
• Domino - Black beans and grated white cheese
   
• Ensalada de Gallina - Chicken salad
   
• Jamon - Ham
   
• Montaña Rusa - Quail’s eggs in mayonnaise (literally Russian Mountain, the term for a roller-coaster ride in Venezuela)
   
• Morcilla - Black pudding
   
• Orejas de Cochino - Snippets of pigs’ ears in sauce
   
• Pata-pata - Black beans, yellow cheese and avocado
   
• Pelua - Shredded beef and grated yellow cheese
   
• Perico - Scrambled eggs cooked with chopped tomato and onion
   
• Pernil - Roast pork
   
• Pollo guisado - Chicken cooked in a sauce
   
• Popurri Criolla - Shredded beef, black beans and white cheese
   
• Queso - Cheese
   
• Queso de mano - Literally "hand cheese", a traditionally-made soft white country cheese
   
• Queso Guayanes - Another soft white cheese
   
• Reina Pepiada - Chicken, avocado, mayonnaise and peas

Arepa maker

Arepas can easily made by hand but once you get hooked on them you could opt to buy an arepa maker: the above electric arepa maker makes 6 arepas at a time, with extra-large arepa cavities.

Venezuelan Arepa Recipe

This authentic Venezuelan arepa recipe video is easy to follow with the following Spanish ‘cheatsheet’ including all the ingredients mentioned in the video:

When people talk about arepa flour, they actually mean 100% corn flour that is white in colour.

Ingredients to make arepas

• 1 cup of arepa flour per person. Arepa flour is also known as Maize flour, "Harina Pan" and White Pre-Cooked Corn Flour : available in all good groceries having ‘exotic’ Asian and especially Latin American products
   
• water: 1/2 to 1 cup of water for each cup of arepa flour
   
• salt

How to prepare arepas

Read below and watch the video above.

1. Mix arepa flour with water and salt and mix or kneed until a soft dough forms.
2. If you used 1 cup of flour, then divide your arepa dough into 4 big balls. Flatten them to approximately 1 cm (1/2 inch) and let them rest for about 5 minutes.
3. Put in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes, deep fry in oil or in a pan with a thin layer of oil on a low fire.
4. Pound your arepas softly. When you hear an empty, echoing sound - as if there is nothing
   inside - they are ready.
5. Once ready, split the arepa open, lightly butter the inside and fill it with your favourite fillings. The video uses white cheese (queso de mano) and butter, but they mention as well: ham and salad. Anything goes!

Arepas recipe summarized

Nothing more easy than to follow this arepas recipes using water, corn flour and salt.

Heat your arepa in an oven, pan or deep fryer and fill them with cheese, ham, salad or anything else you love to eat!

This is the best ceasar salad dressing recipe to keep when you want to know how to make ceasar dressing.

This ceasar salad dressing recipe can be used both on chicken ceasar salad and in any other ceasar salad recipe. Use it when you want to make your "house special best ceasar salad recipe".

Ingredients to make ceasar dressing

This isn’t a low fat salad dressing recipe as we use quite some oil.

Since I need to lower my cholesterol, I use olive oil as my favorite dressing oil of choice and I  discard the egg yolk.

For an even more low calorie salad dressing, replace some of he olive oil and lemon with low fat yogurt.

• half a cup or 100 gr olive oil
   
• 2 boiled eggs, only use the egg white
   
• 2 or 3 garlic cloves
   
• 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (I prefer the subtle taste of lemon in this ceasar dressing far above a vinegar dressing)
   
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
   
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
   
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
   
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grinded black pepper

How to make your ceasar salad dressing

1. Start with putting garlic and olive oil in a blender and blend it.
    
2. Then add the other ingredients and blend again till you have a ceasar dressing.
    
3. Always taste and adjust the ceasar dressing ingredients to your taste.

When you know :

• a better oil and vinegar salad dressing,
   
• your best salad dressing,
   
• a better olive oil dressing  or
   
• a better way how to make ceasar salad dressing :

please leave a comment!