Chocolate And Tea Could Improve Your Memory

A chocolate bar with your next cup of tea could help your memory.

A British study has discovered that Falvanol, a chemical found in chocolate, tea, grapes and blueberries improved the memory in mice.

Think I will go have a cup:)

Tea Tasters Could Lose Their Jobs

Scientists have developed a mechanized ‘nose’ that can detect complex odours and potentially help lead to better quality teas. The instrument uses sensors to detect and discriminate complex odours. An odour stimulus generates a characteristic fingerprint or pattern, and based on these patterns the teas can be classified, identified and graded as odour lends flavour to tea.

Tea tasters who manually taste teas could lose their jobs to this ‘nose’ that can also act as a tongue. The computing system of the instrument is capable of sensing compounds of tea and predicting the scores that are otherwise manually calculated by tea tasters.

Professional tea tasters of major brokerage firms taste the teas manually before fixing their grades. All this can now be avoided if the teas come with score cards done by a machine. Tea tasters here say it is too early to say if the new nose is any better.

Let your tea steep

Scientists have established that the traditional way of making a cup of tea releases more cancer fighting chemicals than simply dunking a tea bag in a cup of boiling water.

Scientists at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen Scotland found that the concentration of antioxidants reaches its peak after about five minutes. Scientists found that blood antioxidant levels were 60% higher among people who drank tea that had been brewed for five minutes than those who drank tea that had steeped for only one minute.

Cutty Sark Fire

The 280ft vessel Cutty Sark was ravaged by fire in the early hours of Monday and police believe the fire, which caused £25 million damage, may have been started deliberately. Donations have poured in since the blaze left the 138-year-old vessel in charred ruins. But despite firefighters doing all they could to save her, the tea clipper will need millions of pounds spent on her if she is to rise from the ashes.

Forensic examination of the remains of the Cutty Sark has failed to establish how the fire started. Scotland Yard said tests on the remains had proved "inconclusive".

Named after a fleet-footed witch in the Scottish legend of Tam O'Shanter, it has become one of London's biggest attractions. The 280ft vessel, built in 1869, was once the world's fastest tea clipper sailing from Australia to England in a record 72 days in 1885. The Cutty Sark left London on her maiden voyage on February 16 1870, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to Shanghai in three-and-a-half months. She made eight journeys to China as part of the tea trade until steam ships replaced sail on the high seas.

Bid on a chance to have tea with Nelson Mandela

Bidding opens on eBay Monday for an online auction of 50 "priceless moments" with renowned South African and international figures to raise money for seven African children's charities.

Up for grabs is afternoon tea with anti-apartheid icons Mandela and Albertina Sisulu. Also up for grabs is a visit to one of Richard Branson's charity projects with Branson plus two nights at the entrepreneur's private safari lodge.

Bidding for tea with Mandela which is expected to be the hottest item opens at 1400 GMT on Monday and other items will be posted at five minute intervals.

Bidding on the world's biggest online auction site eBay lasts until May 24.

Green tea an effective measure against acne.

Green tea is used to cure and prevent many illnesses in Asia. Green tea is a healthy alternative to the many creams and lotions that have been widely popularized as acne medicines.

Changes to Lipton PureLeaf

The Pepsi-Lipton Tea Partnership has announced that Lipton PureLeaf, the leading U.S. brand made with fresh-brewed tea, has just arrived on store shelves with all- natural ingredients, new packaging and updated graphics. Formerly known as Lipton Original, Lipton PureLeaf now offers pure, delicious tea with no artificial flavors or colors.

"Consumers have told us how important it is that their tea is pure, straight from the leaf, as nature intended," said Stacy Reichert, vice president and general manager, Pepsi-Lipton Tea Partnership. "As leaders in the ready-to-drink tea category, our master tea blenders have the expertise to produce the kinds of healthy, great tasting teas consumers are seeking."

Tea drinkers may have lower skin cancer risk

People who drink tea may have a lower risk of two common forms of skin cancer, new research suggests. In a study of nearly 2,200 adults, researchers found that tea drinkers had a lower risk of developing squamous cell or basal cell carcinoma, the two most common forms of skin cancer.

Men and women who are regular tea drinkers, one or more cups a day, were 20 to 30 percent less likely to develop cancers than those who didn't drink tea.

The effect was even stronger among people who have been tea fans for decades, as well as those who regularly had at least two cups a day, according to the findings published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

The theory is that tea antioxidants may limit the damage UV radiation inflicts on the skin. In particular, a tea antioxidant known as EGCG has been shown to reduce burning on UV-exposed skin.

The Tea market has grown

The Tea market has grown from a $1.8 billion industry in 1990 to $6.5 billion last year, according to the Tea Association of the USA.

Black tea has given way to or at least been been joined by red, white, green and what seams like a million herbal blends. And they come in the traditional bags, large conical sacks, perforated foil tubes, loose leaves and more. In addition to hot tea, cold bottled tea drinks are growing in popularity and account for the majority of tea consumed in the United States.