Ten Things to Avoid with Tea

The famous Chinese ruler Chen-Hung is
        believed to be the discoverer of tea. In China, they used to boil water
        and add scents to it. The legend says: “One fine day when Chen-Hung
        was sitting in his fairy garden near the palace, some leaves from one
        of the bushes fell into the ruler’s cup. As if it was magic, the
        water was colored into auburn. When the ruler tried the drink, he was
        pleasantly surprised by its excellent taste and astringent effect. That
        unknown bush turned out to be a tea-plant.”

However, not everyone knows how to prepare and use this divine drink.
        Here are some basic rules.

Prohibition 1 – do not drink tea when your stomach
        is empty. If you do, the tea may cool your spleen and stomach; as if “the
        wolf gets into the house.” In China it has also been recommended
        “not to drink tea with your heart being empty.”

Prohibition 2 – do not drink scalding tea. Extremely
        hot tea irritates the throat, gullet and stomach. Prolonged use of hot
        tea may lead to unhealthy changes in these organs. Foreign investigations
        state: frequent consumption of hot tea (higher than 62 C) leads to increased
        vulnerability of stomach tissue and results in stomach disease. The temperature
        of tea shouldn’t be more than 56 C.

Prohibition 3 – do not drink cold tea. Cold tea
        causes an accumulation of phlegm.

Prohibition 4 – do not drink exceptionally strong
        tea. High caffeine content and tannins in strong tea may cause headaches
        and insomnia.

Prohibition 5 – do not boil tea for too long.
        If you boil tea for too long, tea polyphenyles and essential oils begin
        to oxidize spontaneously -- which doesn’t only decrease the tea
        clarity and aroma, but also reduces the nutritive value. If tea has been
        stewing in warm water for too long, the quantity of microorganisms (bacterium
        and fungi) greatly increases.

Prohibition 6 – do not boil tea too many times.
        Usually there is little left in tea leaves after the third or fourth boiling.
        Experiments have proven that the first boiling extracts 50 percent of
        the health-giving substances. The second provides 30 percent, the third
        provides 10 percent, and the forth boil adds only 1-3 percent. If you
        continue to boil tea further, then harmful substances fill the liquid
        since these very elements ooze out in the last moment.

Prohibition 7 – never drink tea before having
        a meal. A lot of tea before a meal leads to saliva softening, and as a
        result food seems to be tasteless. It also temporary decreases the assimilation
        of protein by the digestive organs. Consequently, try to have tea 20-30
        minutes before enjoying a meal.

Prohibition 8 - never drink tea immediately after having
        eaten a meal. It slows down digestion and upsets the functioning of all
        digestive organs. Consequently, it’s better to wait 20-30 minutes
        after a meal.

Prohibition 9 – never wash down medicine with
        tea. Tannin agents that are contained in tea split, forming tannin --
        under the influence of which a lot of medicines don’t work properly.
        That’s why the Chinese say that tea destroys medicines.

Prohibition 10 – never drink tea that was made
        the day before. Tea does not just lose vitamins, but also becomes a wonderful
        environment for bacteria. But if tea hasn’t gone bad, you are quite
        welcome to use it for medical purposes; however, in this case use it only
        outwardly. Tea that has sat for 24 hours is rich in acids and fluorine
        that prevent the capillaries from bleeding. That is why day-old tea helps
        to cure inflammation of the oral cavity, tongue pain, eczemas, bleeding
        gums, outward skin injuries and ulcers. Cleansing your eyes with tea helps
        to decrease unpleasant sensations after crying and when blood vessels
        appear in the whites. In the morning you can also rinse your mouth with
        tea before brushing your teeth, it will leave a fresh sensation and strengthen
        your teeth.

There are 10 unknown facts about planting and eating bananas.
       

Fry with salt and pepper and serve hot with spicy meat. What do
        you think we are talking about? Unbelievably, it is about bananas.

       
1. In India.
   
             Who hasn’t slipped after having stepped on a banana peel? In India,
             they use this unpleasant quality of a banana to ease ships launching.
             For this purpose, they spread mashed bananas on the surface of a slip.
          

       
2. Bananas are used for cosmetics manufacturing.
   
             The fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent used to buy several hundred
             tons of bananas annually for the production of masks, creams and lotions.
          

       
3. Bananas are almost one-and-one-half times more nutritious than potatoes,
             and dried bananas contain five times more calories than cheese does.
             In a single banana there are up to 300 mg of potassium, which helps
             to cure high blood pressure and strengthen the heart. Each of us needs
             to get at least 3 or 4 g of potassium per day.

       
4. The method of harvesting bananas is also worth paying attention to.
            
   
             The process in question requires two people. One of them knocks a bunch
             of bananas down from the tree with a help of a long pole while the other
             stands underneath, bending, with his back ready for the falling bananas.
             He collects and warehouses them.

       
5. Where do bananas grow?
   
             The first idea that comes into our minds is that bananas grow on a tree.
             This, however, is not true. Bananas are a kind of grass which just disguises
             itself as a palm tree. The stalk height of banana grass sometimes mounts
             up to 10 meters and its diameter reaches about 40 centimeters. About
             300 fruits with a total weight of 500 kg hang from each stalk.
   
             On average, a banana needs from 75 to 150 days to be ready for harvest,
             and bananas are always harvested unripe. The purpose is not to prevent
             them from going bad while transporting them; it’s just that bananas
             become tasty and useful only if they ripen under artificial conditions.
          

       
6. Bananas are not always yellow, they can be red too.
   
             Red bananas have a softer pulp and that’s why they cannot survive
             transportation. One of the Seychelles islands, Mao, is the only place
             in the world where gold, red and black bananas grow. Of course, local
             residents enjoy them to the fullest: it’s a side dish that is
             served with lobsters and shellfish.

       
7. They manufacture a banana beer in Uganda.
   
             It might sound surprising, but it’s actually very pleasant with
             a 28 percent level of alcohol.

       
8. Eating bananas raw is not the only way to enjoy them. They deep fry
             bananas in the Republic of Cuba, and you can try banana rice with pepper
             and parsley in Venezuela. Africans add bananas to all dishes -–
             omelets, porridge and even tomato soup.

       
9. In Egypt they believed in the healing power of bananas, whereas in
             Asia bananas were considered to be sacred. Some Indian pagodas still
             construct their roofs in the form of a banana.

       
10. Apart from the oblong and arched bananas we are accustomed to, there
              are more than 40 varieties of this fruit. Some of them look like the
              usual bananas only because of their color. They can be small and absolutely
              straight, or they can be totally round like a melon. Ancient Egyptians
              grew all knows kinds of bananas, and in the Thebes they left banana
              cultivation instructions on the walls for their descendants’ edification.
           

     

Some facts from ice cream history.

       
1. The most amusing sort of ice cream.
   
             In 1919, Christian Nelson developed a recipe of ice cream glazed with
             chocolate. It was called an “Eskimo’s pie.” Nelson
             carried his product from one town to another and showed films about
             Eskimos at the same time. In the end the word “pie” was
             dropped out and the ice cream on a small wooden stick became known simply
             as Eskimo.

       
2. The first patent for ice cream production.
   
             Just imagine that the first patent for ice cream production was issued
             in Russia together with a patent for the first freezing machine. But
             to tell you the truth, since the inventor had too little money, ice
             cream had to be manufactured in a primitive way for a long time.

       
3. The person who suffered most of all because of ice cream.
   
             Ice cream was indeed the very thing that Ekaterina II used to attract
             her husband Peter III: during the revolution she would treat him to
             ice cream with liquor, fruit jelly, chocolate, or nuts and waffles.
          

       
4. Ice cream was loved by many great people: Napoleon, for example,
             while being in exile on St. Helen’s Island was provided with an
             ice cream manufacturing device. But it was Maria Medici’s son
             who loved ice cream most of all. He consumed huge quantities of ice
             cream of all types and in all seasons.

       
5. The first ice cream cafe.
   
             The first ice cream café opened in Hamburg in August of 1799.
             Alongside plenty of refreshing beverages, they also offered ice cream.
             The most interesting thing about it is that the café still exists
             and still welcomes visitors.

       
6. Only 100 years later the first cook book, which contained different
             ice cream recipes, was published in Vienna. One of the copies of the
             book has been kept safe, and in it there are a large number of recipes.
             At that time it was considered to be really serious: ice cream cook
             books were believed to be serious scientific works, and they even contained
             theological and philosophical explanations of such phenomenon as water
             freezing.

       
7. The first city in which year-round ice cream production began was
             Paris. In 1676, 250 Paris confectioners united into a corporation of
             ice creamers.

       
8. It was the famous traveler, Marco Polo, that taught Europe about
             the frozen dessert in the 14th century. A Mongolian khan presented Polo
             with the recipe, which immediately became one of the most exquisite
             dishes on the menu of Italian elite.
   
             The ice cream recipes were kept secret for a long time, and the court
             chefs vowed silence about everything connected with ice cream

       
9. At the time of Alexander Macedonian, during long sieges, they obtained
             huge quantities of snow from mountaintops in which they would freeze
             berries and water. To avoid the melting of the snow, they would arrange
             relay races.