Green Tea

Somebody just forwarded me an article on a study conducted by Yale School of Medicine. Apparently they found a bunch of health benefits associated with drinking green tea on a regular basis. Pretty cool.

It made me think about a couple things:

1. One of the things I really miss about Japan is the variety of drinks available in vending machines and convenient stores. Every vending machine (and there are a whole a lot of them) has at least two kinds of tea. NOT sweetened. They are usually some sort of green tea, barley tea, oolong tea, or a blend of all of the above+. There is nothing more refreshing than gulping down chilled green tea in a mercilessly hot, sweaty, humid summer afternoon in Japan. If I wanted to get something out of vending machine in the US that is not pop, my only choice is water. Water is good, I know. But I miss my crazy 16-blend tea (some of it even naturally de-caf).

2. Starbucks has green tea frapchino during summer. And they put freaking melon syrup in it. GROSSNES. If you want to get a real green tea frapchino, try this; Ask them to leave melon syrup out, and double the dose of green tea powder. It’s much less sweet and more flavorful that way. This is an ancient wisdom passed along in the Japanese community in the U. S. since last summer. Since I’m not a coffee drinker, I hardly ever go to Starbucks. But alas, they got me hooked on this one.