Green Tea: Just the Curative Facts

Today, scientific research in Asia as well as in the west has provided hard evidence for many of the health benefits long associated with drinking green tea.  For example, in 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent.
Additionally, University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a chemical compound found in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells and that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol.  Read more . . .

The Japanese Tea Ceremony

The Japanese Tea Ceremony, also called Chado or the “Way of Tea,” is a solemn and deliberate Japanese cultural activity that while highly ceremonial in nature, neither implies nor evokes anything beyond itself.  Traced to Zen Buddhist monks of the ninth century (though it may have earlier origins) to formal tea-tasting gatherings, the ceremony focuses around the preparation and presentation of matcha, a powdered green tea, the art of its performance the primary objective.  Perfected and popularized by Sen no Rikyu in the sixteenth century, the traditional tea ceremony has been deeply related to Zen Buddhism, and contains many aspects that teach a Zen way of life including the attainment of selflessness and a calm state of mind.  The symbolism of the ceremony is intended to inspire both the preparer and the observer to look to the ordinary not as a manifestation of a divine principle, but as the divine itself.  Read more . . .