Any tea fan would agree that sipping a tall, refreshing iced tea is one sure way to stay cool when the temperature rises.  Because tea has been shown to replenish your body, both inside and out, it’s not too much of a surprise that in the July InStyle Magazine gave Bigelow Green Tea a beauty of a mention, in this summer’s first big issue!

Known for its healthful properties, it’s no wonder that green tea grabbed the spotlight for a DIY (Do It Yourself) Face Mist, a great way to stay cool and fresh on a hot day at the beach! And along with the refreshing misting action, what’s the beauty benefit?  InStyle says that the powerful antioxidants in the green tea brew that helps repair sun damage! So give it a try while the sun is high and at its strongest, and don’t forget your thermos of Bigelow Tea iced tea for a long day at the beach, too!

DIY Face Mist

Ingredients:

Bigelow Green Tea

Water

Ice

Instructions:

1.  Steep Bigelow Green Tea and cool

2.  Pour into a spray bottle filled with ice

Bigelow Tea certainly isn’t new to advocating healthy lifestyles; it’s something we’ve been doing for 65 years.

Today, May 19th, marks National Employee Health & Fitness Day, created for companies to promote and encourage employees’ health and fitness needs. This day is designed to help workers lower their stress levels, improve physical fitness and build stamina.

Daniel Bourbonnais Jogging Trail Painting, Courtesy of fineartamerica.com

A few years ago, Bigelow Tea participated in ABC Primetime’s Corporate Weight Loss Challenge, and the words teamwork, diet, and exercise were the buzz.  In fact, a little teamwork at the office certainly goes a long way, as you can also see from the most recent competition that Cindi Bigelow has promoted among Senior Management in addition to the fact that Bigelow Tea won the Bridgeport Regional Business Council’s Healthy Business Award for mid-sized employers!

We encourage both employers and employees to use National Employee Health & Fitness Day to reflect upon their lifestyles, because making healthy choices not only improves your own quality of life, but increases productivity in the workplace!

Image Courtesy of tea-co.com

Bigelow Tea’s Green Tea has many fans, for taste and health reasons; but did you know studies show it also can help to fade scars? In these three easy steps, scars can begin to vanish:

1. Blanch a teaspoon of green tea. Dip a tea ball of green tea into boiling water, then ice water. This will create two cups of green tea, and make mush out of the green tea leaves.
2. Cool the blanched green tea and then swab onto your face. The blanched tea leaves will help heal the scarred areas and protect them from UV rays and sun damage.
3. Drink several cups of green tea each day! The antioxidants in the green tea will help your skin heal from the inside out more quickly and with less discoloration.

Image Courtesy of flickr.com

So, enjoy a steaming cup of Bigelow Tea green tea, and know you are being good to your body.

The taste and warmth of tea is in itself an uplifting delight….and is there no end to all the other benefits of green tea?!

Image Courtesy of Healthday.com

As if the pleasure of sipping a nice, warm mug of green tea wasn’t reason enough to enjoy the delicious beverage, a new study adds to the  growing evidence that the properties of green tea may help protect against certain cancers.

In this new study looking at oral cancer, volunteers with pre-malignant mouth lesions were given green tea extract for three months at an amount equivalent to drinking eight to ten cups of green tea a day. The study found that about 59 percent of people taking the highest dose of the green tea extract showed a positive clinical response, compared with 18 percent of those who took a placebo.

Image Courtesy of50connect.co.uk

For years, the properties of green tea have been reported to have many health benefits, ranging from boosting immune function to reducing tummy fat.  At Bigelow Tea, we are proud of our satisfying, toasty green tea, which naturally contains healthy antioxidants. With so many Bigelow Tea varieties of green tea, like green tea with Lemon, Decaffeinated Green Tea, Chai Green Tea and Green Tea with Pomegranate, there are perhaps too many excellent options! But not to worry, there is a variety pack for those who can’t decide. Now, more than ever, it’s a great time to enjoy green tea!

Brian Hagiwara/Jupiterimages.com

Do the antioxidants in green tea prevent cancer? Science cannot answer that question definitively, but new research suggests that you should “go with your gut” and drink lots of green tea. The International Journal Gut published a study in October 2009, finding a strong correlation between drinking green tea and avoiding stomach cancer among women.

This new research deserves all the attention it has garnered from Reuters and other media for two reasons: Gut is an authoritative gastroenterology journal—part of the highly regarded family of British Medical Journal publications. And the new research combines six previous studies totaling 219,080 Japanese men and women over 11 years: that represents 2,285,968 person-years of follow-up. That’s a lot of data, which helps validate its conclusion: “Green tea may decrease the risk of distal gastric cancer in women.”

Specifically, women who drank five or more cups of green tea a day had 20% less stomach cancer than women who drank one cup or less. Other new research that we’ve noted at Bigelowtea.com describes a cancer-fighting compound recently discovered in green tea. According to researchers, the compound, called EGCG, could be used to make new anti-cancer drugs.

The American Cancer Society notes that “changes in diet have helped lower the rate of stomach cancer.” One day tea will undoubtedly be added to the list of foods (such as fruits and vegetables) that ACS recommends, but for now, enjoy Bigelow Green Tea for its other many health properties — as well as its taste!

Whether you watch his show, The Dr. Oz Show or you’ve seen him give eye-opening tips on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Mehmet Oz is certainly becoming a household name in health. Dr. Oz is known for his candid discussions about health in America, and what we can do to improve it.

Thanks to cnbc.com for the Image

One tip you’ll find on almost all his lists: drink more tea. Well of course we here at Bigelow Tea couldn’t agree more. We’re always discussing the latest health studies right here on your Bigelow Tea blog. Like so many others do, Dr. Oz recommends green tea for a variety of reasons, and suggests drinking it three or four times a day to maximize the benefits of the heart-boosting polyphenols it contains. It can even be used to reduce dandruff when applied directly to the scalp says the good Doctor – just don’t forget to let it cool first!

He’s not just partial to green tea, either. He also promotes drinking white tea for the anti-oxidants and lower levels of caffeine. He says that white tea properties have been around:

“It’s not new—it’s very old—and [has] been used for centuries for healing purposes”

Watch Dr. Oz every week for more great healthcare tips! Check your local listings!

While we enjoy the holiday season, Bigelow Tea knows that one thing that is on many people’s mind is how to keep off those extra pounds with all the entertaining this winter?  Go ahead and go for that second helping, there’s still hope for the holiday season: green tea!  The antioxidants found in green tea have been said to help promote weight loss, making it a great beverage for those of us watching our waistline.

Image courtesy of www.zimbio.com

Many studies show that the catechins found in green tea can increase  metabolism, helping us stay fit. The benefits of green tea are more than just blocking fat and keeping off extra pounds; adding it to your diet, studies say, can also lower cholesterol levels, blood glucose levels, and even reduce risk of heart disease, stroke, and other heart related problems.

Of course, during the holidays we’re not always thinking about health as much as we should; sometimes we just want to make merry!  For such moments, you can still involve keep green tea; try our Orange & Spice® Hot Mulled Wine –perfect for a holiday party!

Bigelow Tea Hot mulled wine

Ingredients:

4 cups red table wine
4 Bigelow Orange & Spice® Herb Tea Bags
½ cup light brown sugar
1 bay leaf

Yield: Yields 8 4-oz. servings.

Instructions:

Orange & Spice® Hot Mulled Wine Try a Bigelow “Naughteas” Cocktail – a drink made using Bigelow Tea and alcohol.

Place red wine in a medium saucepan and heat to simmer. (DO NOT BOIL.) Add tea bags and let sit over low heat for 30 minutes. Squeeze and remove tea bags. Add sugar and bay leaf, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Let wine sit over low heat for another 10 minutes, then remove bay leaf. Reheat and serve as needed.

So enjoy the holidays, stay safe and healthy by adding some Bigelow Green Tea to your day.  You’ll be sure to feel the holiday spirit!

When the mind seems gone,
A musical memory lingers -
A hymn, a song, a ballad of love.
We tap or we clap
Or we sing!

Sometimes we wander,
Yearning, searching.
Finally, after some detours
We find home,
Or does Home find us!?

From “Musical Memory and Home” – by John Oldham

(Image Courtesy of Care2.com)

As we journey through the chapters of our lives, we accumulate a wealth of memories – priceless collectibles living within the safety of our minds. Imagine, if you will, what it would be like if there was a breach of security, and the mind was no longer able to safely harbor all those memories?  An unsettling thought, but it’s a reality that people suffering with Alzheimer’s deal with every day. To these men and women and their families, we at Bigelow Tea commemorate you – this month, National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month , and every month.

Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes.  So, we want to focus on all the wonderful (and tasty) ways we can try to preserve our memory. And, for us, this means drinking green tea!  Recent studies have correlated certain green tea catechins with preventing cognitive deficits, like nerve damage and memory loss, linked to plaque formation in the brain.  The catechin, known as EGCG, Epigallocatechin Gallate, decreases production of plaque build-up from the beta-amyloid protein deposits -  which play a key role in the development of Alzheimer’s symptoms.  Green tea, with its many anti-oxidants, is such a wonderfully organic tonic – it soothes the body and the mind.

Green tea is at the top of the brain food list. So are blueberries and acai berries. Here’s an idea: why not increase the health benefits and try our Bigelow® Green Tea with Blueberry and Bigelow® Organic Green Tea with Pomegranate and Acai ?

Photo courtesy of Organicconsumers.org

September is that magical month of warm summer days, cool evening air and harvest moons – a gentle reminder that autumn is patiently waiting just around the corner.  It’s that pivotal month when Mother Earth provides us with her most plentiful bounty.  We celebrate National Organic Harvest Month in September to pay homage to these precious gifts from the soil.

The good news is that we consumers are becoming more aware about the importance of organic living and incorporating it into our everyday lives – in foods, drinks, household products, cleansers, clothing and healthcare.  All around the country, farmer’s markets, supermarkets, county fairs and parks are honoring organic harvest.  And in homes across the nation, families can find many fun ways in which to celebrate everything organic. The Organic Trade Association offers a suggested list of 15 ways to “go organic” – for parents, kids and pets alike – from cooking a fully organic meal, licking an organic ice cream cone, to giving Fido an organic doggie biscuit!

Bigelow® Organic Green Tea with Pomegranate & Acai

Bigelow® Organic Moroccan Mint Tea

Bigelow Tea has embraced organics and healthy living in a big way, with our dedicated selection of 100% certified organic teas.  Savor the beauty of a harvest evening with a refreshing cup of Bigelow® Organic Green Tea with Pomegranate & Acai, which combines pure organic green tea from tender, hand-picked leaves with pomegranate and the Amazon’s healthful sweet berry, Acai…or sip our exotic Bigelow® Organic Moroccan Mint Tea, with its calming, fresh blend of organic herbs, spearmint and peppermint.  So, please join us in celebration of organic harvest and, remember – go organic!

Bigelow® Certified 100% Organic Green Tea

Image compliments of About.com

While some states across the country celebrate golf with their own Golf Months, August is National Golf Month, and a great excuse to get out on the links for a few extra rounds. The origin of golf is still open to debate, but accepted golf history is that in the 12^th century golf – as it’s played today – originated in Scotland. It’s thought that shepherds were knocking stones into rabbit holes at the very spot where the Royal Golf Club of St. Andrews now sits. It’s a long world away from 12^th Century Scotland to the 21^st century and the 91st PGA Championship in August, where Tiger Woods will be shooting for another major win and his 5^th PGA Championship Cup

But you don’t need to play like Tiger Woods to enjoy a sunny morning, or day out on the links in harmony with nature and a beautifully manicured course. And it’s interesting – this Bigelow Tea ad for our great green tea may also point to the future, and using tea to keep closely shorn golf greens in better shape: at the storied Presidio Golf Course in San Francisco, the use of  tea compost on their course (and especially the greens) provided for deeper root systems, allowing turf to better withstand foot traffic and turf diseases. Raise your cup to the best greens in the game!

Golf Bag Cooler from Bigelow Tea

At Bigelow Tea we know that our tea is great before “Tea off” or for that mighty thirst out on the 18^th green! And whether you shoot in the low 70’s or well into the 100’s, you’ll score a hole-in-one with our Mini Golf Bag cooler, packed full of goodies and plenty of Bigelow Tea to keep you hydrated on the course for all 18 holes. And hey, it’s National Golf month! Maybe an extra round for the day?