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The Health Benefits Of Oolong Tea

Oolong tea has a long and rich history that includes being one of the plants that were grown and prized by ancient Chinese emperors and today is prized for its many known health benefits around the world. The history of the plant that is botanically known as Camellia sinensis has been used throughout history for good health, healing and averting illness. These tea leaves generally originate from the Fuijan Province of China or the mountains of Taiwan and can also be referred to as Wu-Long tea. There is some evidence that the tea leaves from this region have a history of at least four hundred years; arriving toward the end of the Ming Dynasty.

This tea now known for ensuring many different health benefits can be found as straight oolong tea or with other enhancements such as jasmine, orange blossoms and others.

The process of manufacturing the tea is done with utmost care and in a fashion that has transcended the ages; from the time it is picked until the time it is packaged it undergoes a careful hand process. After the leaves are picked they are laid out to dry for a short amount of time where the oxidation process begins. Then the leaves are placed in baskets and shaken in order to bruise them. This exposes the juice of the leaves to the air whereby the oxidation process continues after which the leaves are laid out to dry for a second time. This process will oxidize the leaves from 20-80%, depending on the type of final product desired. The leaves will then be fired to halt the oxidation. Then they are sometimes rolled while still freshly roasted and fired several more times. As a way of finishing the process the leaves are completely cooled and then fired a final time to give the oolong tea the special flavor while reserving the healthful properties of the leaves.

Tea of all types have been under the microscope of late, and oolong tea has been studied and found to have numerous antioxidants, vitamins and minerals along with polyphenols, which all fit into a healthful regiment. Polyphenols that are found in oolong tea have the ability to remove free radicals, which are known for prematurely aging the skin along with causing the dark spots associated with aging. Free radicals have also been associated with hindering the immune system and they are also associated with cancer cells as well as muscle tissue deterioration or damage.

Oolong tea is also known for enhancing the function of enzymes, which in turn are known to dissolve triglycerides. These are the fatty deposits in the body and therefore it can aid in a weight loss regiment. There have been clinical trials done and it was found that this type of tea can raise the metabolic rate, which speeds up fat oxidation and the catechin polyphenols raise the rate that calories are burned in the body. This in turn means that oolong tea has the compounds in it to aid directly in weight loss. It is also an aid in reducing blood pressure that will in turn help to prevent hypertension; this is because of its ability to use the fatty deposits in the body as fuel for energy.

There is also possible evidence that along with the caffeine there is also an increase in stamina, which can help in an exercise regiment. Caffeine is also known to stimulate the frontal cortex of the brain; this helps in memory function and enhances the thought process.

There are other health benefits that have long been believed by Chinese herbalists such as the properties in oolong tea to reduce tooth decay and to aid in speeding oral healing because of tannic acid that is present in the tea. They also believe oolong tea assists in aiding the kidneys, as well as improving the utilization of glucose, which in turn aids the regulation of insulin.

Research and studies have shown that the Chinese who are known for their consumption of drinking have significant lower incidences of heart disease and prostate cancer than other ethnic groups. There is also scientific evidence that tea can also be an aid in breast cancer treatment, when used along with tamoxifen.

A recent study of Japanese elderly demonstrated that those who consumed two cups of tea per day had a lower chance of cognitive impairment by approximately fifty percent. Other studies have pointed to tea’s positive impact on the onset of Alzheimer’s.

While there is evidence that oolong tea and tea in general can benefit the health of the body there is also the fact that this tea is consumption friendly. Unlike vitamins, pills, health drinks and other health foods and drinks that are supposedly good for promoting health, oolong tea has a taste that is a pleasure to drink – and it is rehydrating, and nourishing.

This is a tea that has the ability to be flavored with different herbs and florals as well as served alone. Alone it can be dark in color with a robust taste that includes a hint of raisin, honeysuckle or almond. It can also be light and floral if only partially oxidized. Flavored oolongs can be found with names and tastes such as ginger peach oolong tea, orange blossom and plum oolong tea and others. Each of these teas has their own unique flavor and some have history behind their name like the Oriental Beauty, which received its name from Queen Elizabeth II. She named the tea after a tea merchant who brought it from Asia. The name is still used today.

Jeffrey Lorien is one of the owners of Zhi Tea, a discount retailer of quality organic teas from around the world. On their site you’ll find products and great information from the health benefits of Oolong tea to the antioxidant properties of green tea and much more.

The Health Benefits Of Oolong Tea / Author: Jeffrey Lorien

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Start Playing Through Guitar Tutorials Today!

First of all, a good guitar player starts with learning the basics. One must be able to exercise the fingers well with various chord transitions, and rhythm. If you are very much open to all the frustrations that come with this new undetaking, then you are all but some steps away to being the next best guitar player.

There are a variety of resources online that offer guitar tutorials to beginners, novices and advanced players. These resources include online lessons, guitar basic tips, online chord charts or online guitar tablature reading tips, which are either paid or free. Before you start choosing from a variety of options that will help you oil your gears for guitar musicianship, here are some tips to help you get the most out of your guitar playing. You may absolutely put them in mind in the future and today, as you start new hobby.

1. Learn the basics and be adept in them. Perfecting the basics will guarantee your expertise. If you jump around trying more difficult things before doing the simpler ones, all you will get is a premature skill that will not last a hundred of songs or years. Learning the basics will help you get ready for a long trip to guitar music.

2. Learn the value of practice. After learning the basics, and perhaps getting to strum a few songs or so, never stop practicing and looking for some songs that will challenge your present level or skill.

3. Jam with friends. Jamming with friends will further enhance your guitar-playing in terms of versatility and showmanship. When you are with friends, you might be asked to play some tunes that you do not know at the moment. It will prompt you to learn more as you practice more, and soon, you would have learned a great variety of songs.

Start with some good guitar tutorials to get you going!
Get your free e-book at http://freeguitarguide.googlepages.com/
and learn basic guitar skills OVERNIGHT, perfect them, and use them for your new-found hobby.

Start Playing Through Guitar Tutorials Today! / Author: Patrik Ewriter

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Napa Wine Train offers taste of luxury

Hop on board the Napa Valley Wine Train, and you’re immediately enroute to wine-lover’s heaven.

The Napa experience is all about wine, of course, but it’s also about enjoying the finer things in life. The typical Napa visitor will spend considerable time visiting several of the local wineries where each will offer up its special formulas and vintages - usually for ten to 15 bucks for a few sips - and there are few lodgings in Napa that are not upscale. Fine dining is also considered de rigueur for any serious visit to what is now the home base for hundreds of wineries.

It’s fitting, therefore, that the Napa Valley Wine Train would be one of the most popular tourist attractions in a place that is the definition of elegance. Just like visitors taste expensive wines for a fraction of their cost, the visitor who boards the Wine Train gets a little taste of pampered rail travel - think Orient Express - for a fraction of what it would cost for the real thing.

We stayed the night before in San Francisco, but we were still able to make our way to the Wine Train’s station in Napa by about 10:30 a.m. to board the lunch train. The Wine Train also offers a dinner excursion but that was fully booked when we called for reservations weeks ahead. The lunch train, though, has its advantages: the entire three-hour ride is in daylight no matter the time of year, and it costs a little less.

You’ll want to plan on being patient during the boarding process. With hundreds of guests and passengers allocated to different dining areas and even, in some cases, different meals, it just takes a little time to get everyone signed in and out onto the train. But during the hour we waited for actual boarding, the Wine Train offered a lecture on Napa Valley wineries and - always a crowd-pleaser - a couple of glasses of wine to sample.

Once on board, it’s clear that the Wine Train has pulled out all the stops to make this as luxurious as possible. We settled down into plush chairs facing one another with a table in between. Others in our car sat in comfortable over-stuffed swivel chairs positioned side by side so that guests could constantly view the passing scenery or easily chat with one another. This particular rail car was styled in red and gold with natural wood accents, giving a sense of luxury and feeling quite different from a typical passenger car on, say, Amtrak.

This is a historic rail car and, in fact, there is quite a history behind this train and railroad. The rail line was first built in 1864 by San Francisco’s first millionaire, Samuel Brannan, and was used to take visitors to his new spa resort called “Calistoga.” In 1885, Southern Pacific bought the Napa Valley Railroad, which provided regular passenger service to the Napa Valley until the 1930’s. It was used for freight for awhile after that, but it was not until 1987 that a group of concerned citizens founded the Napa Valley Wine train and purchased locomotives and restored 1910-era Pullman rail cars to provide the new service.

During our three hours on board, we were treated to waves of meal and beverage service starting with wine (not included in your meal price, by the way), appetizers, salad, a main course - which during our trip was a choice between salmon and a beef entrée - and dessert. Everything was exquisitely prepared and the presentations rivaled what you would find at an expensive gourmet restaurant.

The trip took us part way up the valley to St. Helena and then back to Napa. There are gorgeous views all along the way of the colorful vineyards and hills just beyond the valley. On weekends the Wine Train offers a variation of this lunch service that allows passengers to disembark and spend some time at a local winery before making the return trip to Napa.

We arrived back in Napa totally relaxed and decided to visit a few wineries before checking into our resort. The choices are endless and, in Napa, there are several major wineries that have put Big Money into their visitor centers. There are also a few smaller family-run wineries. They all want you to buy cases or bottles of wine to take back home but, in Napa, we’ve noticed a trend in recent years toward charging more for wine tasting. Or it may be a case of charging the same but getting less wine. Part of this, we’re suspecting, has to do with how busy Napa is on weekends and is a way of reducing the line at the tasting bar.

One of the least expensive tastings is at V. Sattui Winery, where the gift shop and deli were buzzing with people, and lines were forming along the wine bar to taste the latest offerings for just $5 for four wines. Located in St. Helena, this is a great stop for visitors who want to grab a bottle of wine and picnic on the beautiful grounds. The winery even sets up a buffet line out on the grounds, offering barbecue for those who didn’t bring their brown bags. Interestingly, V. Sattui does not sell its wine anyplace other than the winery, by mail order, or from the company web site.

While V. Sattui is typical of a relatively small family-run winery, the other end of the scale is Domaine Chandon, which we found in Yountville. With spectacular park grounds and a four-star gourmet restaurant just footsteps from where the wine is made, Domaine Chandon is an example of a winery owned by a large conglomerate that distributes its product world-wide. On a previous trip we took the 45-minute tour of this massive facility, which we thought was well worth the time. Small groups are taken step-by-step through the process of wine-making all the way from growing the grapes to bottling the product.

We concluded our busy first day in the Napa Valley with a short drive to our lodging for the evening, the Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa. Like several other Napa Valley accommodations, the Silverado is steeped in luxury and offers a feast for the senses. Located adjacent to an 18-hole golf course, the Silverado is really a series of individual cottage suites which are reached by winding walkways through and alongside picturesque, colorful gardens, golf fairways, courtyards and ponds.

Each of the cottages at Silverado has a unique décor and ours felt like a small one-story vacation home with a complete kitchen and living room area, dining table, fireplace and separate bedroom. A wide-screen flat TV was in the living room, while just outside the sliding glass door was a patio and chairs where we could sit and watch the golfers just a few yards away.

The Silverado reminded us a little of Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., a favorite resort of ours that has the same kind of feeling - that of a village of unique accommodations connected by meandering walkways with little surprises around every turn. With 1,200 acres altogether, Silverado guests encounter many pleasant surprises on grounds that are lush with trees and vegetation and impeccably maintained.

Silverado was the perfect complement to our day on the Napa Valley Wine Train and another great example of the spirit of Napa Valley.

AT A GLANCE

WHERE: The Napa Valley is about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco or about 60 miles southwest of Sacramento.

WHAT: The Napa Valley has become famous because of the grapes grown in this location. Grapes grown in different climates, soils and locations have different characteristics and Napa Valley grapes are judged to be some of the best in the world for making several varieties of fine wine. Accordingly, more than 300 wineries now have located in the Valley. Fine restaurants, lodging and shopping have also come to the Valley.

WHEN: Any time of year. A special bonus comes in August and September during the annual grape harvest. You can sometimes see first-hand how the grapes are crushed. Hint: Most of them don’t do it like Lucy Ricardo did.

WHY: The Valley has an almost mystical ambiance that is hard to describe, but easy to discern.

HOW: To begin planning your trip to Napa Valley, go to www.napavintners.com or www.napachamber.org. To learn more about the Napa Valley Wine Train, call 800-427-4124 or go to www.winetrain.com. For information on Silverado Resort and Spa, phone 800-427-4124 or visit www.silveradoresort.com.

Cary Ordway is a syndicated writer and president of Getaway Media Corp, publisher of www.northwesttraveladvisor.com, focusing on Pacific Northwest travel and www.californiaweekend.com, covering California vacations.

Napa Wine Train offers taste of luxury / Author: CaliforniaWeekend.com

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The Vibrant Downtown area of Boston

Boston’s Downtown area is the nexus of the city, it contains the financial and administrative heart of the city; it also encompasses the recreational areas of Boston Common and the Public Garden. Known as an older portion of the city it still has many of the old historic buildings such as Old South Meeting House and the Old State House.

Among places of historic interest in the Boston Downtown area is the birthplace of renowned American scholar, inventor and philosopher Benjamin Franklin. Located close to the Old South Meeting House it was where Franklin spent most of his childhood. The Old South Meeting House is also a special part of Boston history as it was where the idea of the famed “Boston Tea Party” was conceived. Originally built in 1729 as a church by the Puritans it later became an icon in America’s struggle for freedom.

The more modern face of Boston Downtown is portrayed in the high rose condominiums and the tall sky scrapers that house some of the largest corporations in the country. The modern Government centre sits just a short way away from the Financial District of Boston towards the North. A number of new projects are planned for this area such as the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway initiative which proposes to include a total of 27 acres of greenery and parkland into the area.

The Downtown Boston area is also quite popular with shoppers. The Faneuil Hall Marketplace is one of the most popular shopping areas in Boston. It boasts of over 100 shops and also a large number of restaurants. Having been a centre of commerce in Boston for over 250 years, Faneuil Hall is not only a historic marketplace it is also entertaining. In addition a large number of shopping malls and department stores can also be located in the Downtown area.

Being a centre of administration, commerce and entertainment in Boston there is no shortage of hotels in Boston here; among them is the Langham Hotel Boston which maintains the same standards of quality and class experienced at many Boston hotels.

The Vibrant Downtown area of Boston / Author: eMarketingEye

Naveen Marasinghe is an Online Marketing Executive at eMarketingEye which is a search engine marketing company that offers integrated Internet marketing services and specializes in serving the online travel and hospitality industry. (http://www.emarketingeye.com/ )

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Knowing Everything About Tennis Racket

To have the perfect racket of tennis will be the key in your play. You should not have the most expensive racket, but you must have one which adapts your body and the manner that you play the best. You must make sure that you appear out of what it is that you need in your racket before you will buy the first which you see.

A racket of tennis is usually made starting from aluminium or of steel. You can also find those which are done starting from other materials like the plastic. It will depend on the kind and will name that you want for yourself when you will make shopping for the perfect racket for your play. You should compare the prices and examine several of the rackets before you decide some.

There produced Net usually with the top of the racket to strike the ball with. You will note that the majority of the rackets of tennis are durable and can take a beat. They are light so that you can move it easily around. If you are new with the play of tennis, you will learn how soon to move the racket in all the directions of which you have need in order to strike the ball and to obtain the gained play.

A racket of tennis is used to strike the ball in the two directions in the play of tennis. You will employ this to strike the ball before the ball left your space indicated. You will note that the more you use your racket of tennis, plus your play will be better. It is not that hard to appear out of the play of tennis, very that you must make must have little patience and a certain time to learn the play.

There are many rackets of tennis which you can obtain for as the little of as ten dollars or thus. You will note that if you want to obtain really good, you will have only to pay twenty approximately dollars the racket. These rackets will be made of aluminium. They will have the average broad profile and semi with the average oversize head. You can go to many department or good sporting stores to find the racket which would be perfect for your play.

There are many sporting stores of goods which will be able to sell these rackets of tennis for a really cheap price. You can obtain the racket which you need in the most local stores. Once that you learn how to play tennis, you will note that you can loosen the weight and to have a great time at the same time. Once that you become justified, you will want to play tennis more and more while time continues.

Find tips about rules of tennis and tennis scoring at the Tennis Rules website.

Knowing Everything About Tennis Racket / Author: Jennifer Seaton

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