The Moon Diet

The moon diet is a liquid diet, consistent with the moon phases - new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter.

Obtain a full list of the phases of the moon by date and time and the exact phase of the moon at the moment. Here's a good site for that. All times are Universal (GMT) so adjust according to your correct time zone.

The diet starts when the moon enters into one of four phases and ends after 24 hours. During these 24 hours to drink only freshly squeezed juices from fruits and vegetables, tea with honey, mineral water.

Liquids have a multiple and favorable influences on the tone, spirit and health. Liquids stimulate kidney activity, clear the body and strengthen the immune system.

Moon diet relieves the body of water retention and accumulated toxins as a result of unhealthy diets, poor digestion and stress.

Once you pass the 24 hours it is best to eat light meats, more vegetables and fruits. Recommended are foods that are baked, steamed, or stewed rather than fried.

During the moon diet, drinking alcohol is not recommended, but if you have reason, it is acceptable to enjoy a glass of white wine.

The Three-day Moon Diet

What better time of year to post some strange diet menus? Oooo ... how about the moon diets! So appropriate for Blue Moon season!

Three-day moon diet is a liquid diet consistent with the moon phases.

Three-day moon liquid diet is consistent with the moon phases. The diet is followed once a month, beginning the day before the full phase, continuing during the full phase day and finishing the day after the full phase.

In this three days drink as much water -- mineral or spring, herbal teas and freshly squeezed juices -- as possible. Coffee during the diet is not recommended.

During the moon diet you can drink different kinds of herbal tea, mint iced tea or cup of hot water with lemon and honey.

Here example menus for each of the days during the three-day moon diet:

First day

Upon awakening - a glass of water and juice of half orange
Breakfast - yogurt and 1 apple
10 o'clock - juice from orange and lemon
Lunch - a cup of vegetable juice
Afternoon snack - herbal tea with honey
Dinner - a glass of citrus juice
Before bed - tea with honey

Second day

Upon awakening - a glass of water and juice of half orange
Breakfast - herbal tea with a spoonful of honey
10 o'clock - juice from orange and lemon
Lunch - a cup of vegetable juice
Afternoon snack - herbal tea with honey
Dinner - an apple puree
Before bed - tea with honey

Third day

Upon awakening - herbal tea with honey
Breakfast - yogurt and banana puree
10 o'clock - a glass of grapefruit juice
Lunch - vegetable juice and juice of two oranges
Afternoon snack - herbal tea with honey
Dinner - a cup of herbal tea
Before bed - tea with honey

To keep the lost pounds after you finish the moon diet is better to bet on light food menu. It is advisable to cook on steam.
The food should consist mainly of fruits and vegetables, focusing on carrots, cabbage, zucchini, celery, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.
To flavor salads, use olive oil and apple vinegar, no salt.

The Blue Moon sale!

It's the Blue Moon sale!

It's a blue moon month! A blue moon is said to be the second full moon of any given month. This happens every two and a half years, on average. I think the next one is to occur August 2012.

10% off all orders totaling $20.00 or more 12/30/09 through 01/02/10.
20% off all orders totaling $30.00 or more 12/30/09 through 01/02/10.
30% off all orders totaling $50.00 or more 12/30/09 through 01/02/10.
That's for tea, tea accessories and even gift certificates! How crazy is that!?
(Offer not to be combined with other coupons or discounts)

Orders mean your total at the register upon your visit to the shop, or online orders received between 12/30/09 and 01/02/10 (Discount applied to total before shipping costs) Please mention the blog posting to take advantage of this sale.
Code BLUEMOON entered in the online order form for online orders.

Green Tea by Dale Ritterbusch

Cool poem found today:

Green Tea

by Dale Ritterbusch

There is this tea
I have sometimes,
Pan Long Ying Hao,
so tightly curled
it looks like tiny roots
gnarled, a greenish-gray.
When it steeps, it opens
the way you woke this morning,
stretching, your hands behind
your head, back arched,
toes pointing, a smile steeped
in ceremony, a celebration,
the reaching of your arms.

"Green Tea" by Dale Ritterbusch, from Far From the Temple of Heaven. © Black Moss Press, 2005.

A note to my loyal customers...

I haven't forgotten you! Yes, the current campaign seems to be all about getting new customers, but that is, after all, how businesses survive.
Have I anything special for you?

I do ... If you help me grow my business by bringing me a new customer, I will give you a discount card worth 10% of the new customers purchase. Bring 6 friends, 10 friends, a new customer every day for a month ... it doesn't matter. Each time you introduce a new customer to the shop, you receive a discount worth 10% of the new customers purchase.
Local customers: Yes, for accounting purposes it is necessary for you to be with the new customers.
Internet customers: email me and I'll tell you how to take advantage of this offer. I can be reached at teasmith@sensibiliteasonline.com

So ... are you still drinking dust?

If you're still drinking bag tea, you're likely still drinking dust. It's not your fault! It's usually all that's available in a grocery store. The boxes don't say Dust ... you wouldn't buy it if it did! They say ``fine quality Orange Pekoe'' or ``mountain estate grown'' or ``premium pekoe and cut black teas.'' Take one of the tea bags and cut it open ... what do you see?
If it looks like dust, it is likely dust.

Don't know anything about loose leaf tea? That's okay. No one is born with the knowledge to make loose leaf tea. We know plenty about loose leaf tea and we're willing to teach you what you need to know.

Want to try loose leaf tea? Bring one or two of your tea bags to us here in the tea shop. We'll do a free taste test. We'll make a cup of yours and we'll make a cup of ours. In five minutes or less, you'll know the difference between bag tea and loose leaf tea and will see how easy loose leaf tea can be to prepare. If you bring a second tea bag, we'll cup it open and we'll show you the difference between your tea and our tea. Our hours are Tues-Fri 2pm-5pm and Sat 10am-5pm. We are NOT a tea room, but rather a retail tea shop selling loose leaf tea and tea making accessories, but we do make the best tea-to-go in town!

Not here in town? Mail me a tea bag of your tea so we know what your drinking, and we'll mail you a tea bag or two of our tea (loose leaf tea in a bag made for loose leaf tea.) similar to what you've been drinking. You'll need no special equipment or knowledge. Just add water and enjoy.
Our address is:
SensibiliTeas
71 Lawrence Street
Glens Falls, NY 12801
Attn: Donnalynn

Not a tea drinker yet? If all we'd ever had to drink was tea bag tea, we wouldn't be tea drinkers either! If all you've ever had was a tea bag, you may have no idea what tea is supposed to taste like! Men didn't sail around the world and risk their lives in war and journey for the taste of a tea bag!

Or perhaps you're trying to get away from coffee a bit, or add tea as part of your healthy new resolution lifestyle. Our huge variety of tea convinces us that we'll certainly fit you to a tea! Visit the tea shop or email us at the teashop at (teasmith@sensibiliteasonline.com) We'll make some suggestions and send a cup or two of tea your way!

Restaurateurs? Want to understand how to increase tea sales? Bring or send us some of the tea you offer and we'll show you what you could be offering. If you're interested, we can even match teas to your meals or desserts. We can make it easy on your staff, and impressive to your clients.

Perhaps it's time to turn over a new leaf!

Does your tea make the grade?

Tea grading remains one of the most confusing of all tea discussions. This stands to reason as the tea grades are not standardized worldwide and tend to vary according to origin. The grading terms below are usually applied to black teas from India, Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra, and Africa.

Black teas are typically graded according to leaf or particle size of leaf. Harvesting and manufacturing techniques greatly impact the finished size of the leaf, thus the tea grade. There are two main methods of producing black tea. The traditional Orthodox method requires hand-plucking of the buds and the two top leaves. The leaves are then rolled before size and grade of leaf is determined. (beginning of fermentation/oxidation stage) . The Orthodox method yields all of the possible leaf sizes and grades.

The CTC (crush, tear, curl) method of producing black tea has been gaining in popularity because of its convenience. CTC processed teas are either hand-plucked or may be machine harvested. When machine harvested, the CTC process gathers the traditional top two leaves and bud as well as other leaves on the tea bush. The leaves are then processed through the Cut, Tear, Curl machine which renders the leafs in particles cut to a common size. CTC processed teas have a appearance much like that of ground coffee.

Remember sifting sand as a child? The rocks or biggest particles always stayed on the top tray, while only the finest sand sifted all the way to the pail. Tea is processed with a similar technique. A whole leaf that does not pass through a designated sieve size during the sifting process is referred to as Orange Pekoe (OP) (pronounced 'Peck-o', rhymes with gecko). Orange Pekoe has nothing to do with oranges or orange flavor. The reference of Orange likely is a reference to the Dutch House of Orange, who, in founding the Dutch East India Company, played a major role in the spread of tea drinking habits throughout Europe and later the world. These leaves are usually of uniform size and rolled lengthwise. OP teas are categorized into finer definitions.

Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP) is the top grade. During harvesting the bud and the top two leaves are hand-plucked. When harvested during slow growth periods, these young buds have a golden tip, hence the grade ``Flowery". Flowery does NOT indicate the teas flavor. When these tips are in found in abundance, the terms ``Tippy and Golden" are also attached. Number ``1'' or ``2'' may be placed at the end of the letters to designate better grades among similar teas. Similarly the letter 'F' may appear before the TGFOP to indicate a ``finer'' grade, while the letters ``SF" indicates a ``super fine'' grade. A tea graded as ``SFTGFOP1'' is a Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - grade 1. Fabulous ... It's not unusual for higher grades of tea to command higher prices.

The next grade below Orange Pekoe is called Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) which designates a broken leaf that is smaller than those designated as OP. Just as with the OP grades, letters and numbers may be added to further define the grade -- Tippy, golden, and flowery, or a combination of these terms may also be applied. Thus a grade of ``TGBOP'' is a Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe tea. The letter 'I' for Imperial may also appear after BOP and designates a size which is smaller than whole leaf (OP) grade but larger than most of the BOP grades.

The tea grade which is even smaller than BOP is the PF, for Pekoe Fanning if produced by the CTC method of manufacturing, and Fanning if produced by the Orthodox method. This is a broken leaf about the size of a pin head. This grade of tea is often found in tea bags.

The lowest grade of tea available is the PD, Pekoe Dust if produced by CTC method of manufacturing, and Dust if produced by the Orthodox Method. This size is the smallest broken pieces left after siftings. These pieces are sometimes called the ``sweepings'', and it doesn't take much imagination to determine why. Some tea bags will contain fannings, or a combination of fannings and dust. Most tea bags in the United States contain only dust.

But your box of tea says ``fine quality Pekoe tea''? Could be true, but it likely means Pekoe Dust. Be wary of terms like ``fine'' and ``natural''. ``Fine'' is likely an opinion, and there is nothing in this world that is not ``natural'' (that is to say, derived from nature.). And to say a tea is ``mountain estate grown'' ... well, most teas are estate grown. And many estates are on mountains. That isn't anything special as tea goes ... that just where it like to grow best!

Fannings and dust have their place in this world. Fannings and dust are popularly used in tea bags because they steep so much faster than full leaf teas. Loose leaf teas, do though, have other advantages:
1) Loose leaf teas come in a far larger variety.
2) Tea bags may have environmental implications. Regular tea bags take about seven years to break down in the environment under perfect conditions for biodegradation. Pyramid tea bags, if not made from polylactic acid (a corn product), may last in the environment for over 120 years.
3) Studies have shown greater health benefits exist in loose leaf teas than tea bags.
4) You can control the strength of your own brew when using loose leaf teas.
5) Far better flavor

As SensibiliTeas, we do not carry dust. We do have a few teas that are the result of the CTC process, and are granular in nature, but they have been brought in by popular demand. Our standard at SensibiliTeas is to bring in as many hand-plucked, hand-processed first grade teas as possible and we are leaning toward a majority of teas produced through organic, fair-trade and/or bio-dynamic means.

We have also huge variety of caffeine-free herbal tisanes, and would be happy to teach you how to decaffeinate any of our other teas.

Fireworks in a cup!

What do you think about giving flowers for Christmas?
What if it could be a surprise right up until the moment of delivery?
What do you think about fireworks in a cup!?
Artisanal teas might just be your cup of tea!

What's an artisanal tea? It is tea leaves carefully selected, often placed around flowers and hand molded and hand tied into adorable little unassuming balls of tea that magically bloom in minutes when added to hot water. The tea used is typically a low tannin tea (won't get bitter), which allows the tea to remain in the pot while you enjoy cup after cup.
With nearly 30 different Artisanal teas on hand (and six brand-new-never-been-seen artisanal teas arriving tomorrow) we certainly have a selection that can turn any Christmas stocking into a mysterious, luxurious trip around the world.

Don't forget! As gift giving goes, we offer tea of the month plans, gift certificates, sampler packs and expert gift giving guidance. Visit the Shirt Factory Open House this coming weekend! Saturday Dec. 12 and Sunday Dec. 13 10am-5pm both days!

Let's Do It Again!

Let's do it again!

By overwhelming requests, the Shirt Factory Artist's Association is hosting a Second Open House and Holiday Showcase on Saturday December 12 and Sunday December 13, from 10 - 5 pm each day.
The Open House and Holiday Showcase at The Shirt Factory invites you to tour the building, visit the studios, shops, and galleries, and shop for original works of art, fine crafts, services and items for your Holiday gift giving. The exhibition and sale features over 30 in house and guest artists and craftsmen offering locally made, finely produced, original art and fine handcrafts, as well as personal services. Did I mention I'm making scones again?
The Shirt Factory is located on the corner of Lawrence and Cooper Streets in Glens Falls, NY.
For directions visit www.shirtfactorygf.com
For more information please contact Dolores Thomson at 744-2002 or clayconcepts@yahoo.com, Bev Saunders at 793-9350 or bjsartworks@aol.com, or me Donnalynn Milford at SensibiliTeas (518) 824-1290 teasmith@sensibiliteasonline.com.