Sweet Leaf Tea

Fun Find- I love iced tea. I make it all year round and I make everything from Strawberry Kiwi, Caramel Cake, sweet tea and everything in between. As long as it tastes good and isn't loaded with artificial flavors and chemicals I will try it.  The people over at Sweet Leaf Iced Teas sent me a four pack of teas to try (Mint Honey, Mango, Classic and Peach) and they were an instant hit.

Based out of Austin, Texas Sweet Leaf Iced Teas was created in 1997 when one of the two founders, Clayton decided he wanted a good tasting bottled tea that was just like his Grandmother Mimi's iced tea.  Experiments, brewing processes and a move to Texas had Dave and Clayton building the company that is now Sweet Leaf Iced Teas.  Made from pure cane sugar and premium tea leaves the tea tastes terrific and is available in many flavors, including green tea formulas and even half tea, half lemonade.  Fantastic!  I would gladly drink each, especially the Mint Honey, again.

Sweet Leaf Teas are available in natural and regular grocery stores nationwide. 

Teas' Tea

Fun Find-"An array of studies have shown correlations between green to and good cardio health & blood circulation, maintenance of healthy cholesterol levels, improvement of brain function, an aid in healthy weight maintenance and alleviation of obesity, a contributing factor to good oral health, immune system boost and more - a long list of positive health implications.  Green tea has potent antiviral and antibacterial properties."

Teas' Tea is authenically brewed, premium tea that is also GMO free.  This all-natural beverage comes in sweetned, unsweetned, low calorie (lightly sweetned) and classic (sweetned) formulas.  Flavors like Rose green, Golden Oolong, Mint Green (my favorite!) and Pure Green quench your thirst while providing antioxidants.  Made with no artifical sweetners or dyes and sweetened with natural cane sugar Teas' Tea is refreshing and a great way to get healthy green tea into your system. 

Get 20% off your Tea online with the code ADA20. Good until December 31, 2011.

A Steeped Review- Dr. Ukra's Tea Diet

I do not “do” diets. I am one of those annoying people who believe in eating less and exercising more in order to achieve the results in weight loss that you want. Until a few years ago, I was a tea drinker. Then I had a kid. While the tea to coffee ratio is still about 8:2 in my kitchen cabinets, I now own two different coffee makers and a French press. The coffee moves, man, it moves. It does not sit and hang out the way the tea bags do. I have heard rumors though that coffee aids and abets fat cells in your body so I decided to try Dr. Ukra’s ‘Ultimate Tea Diet’ when PBN presented it to me and give tea a second chance.

First, I glanced through the book taking note that what I possess in my house for tea was fine unless I wanted to get adventurous. The premise is quite simple. Eliminate junk food. When you crave a snack or a food that is your weakness craving, have some tea instead. Dr. Ukra, who runs the Tea Garden, offers up a breif history of teas, the different varieties and a quick test to see which types of teas you might favor. It was very educational and a bit fun, I must admit. I learned that steeping tea bags for a bit and then dumping out the first round of liquid gets rid of the caffeine and I was able to function on a more rational level after that.

I decided to give myself three weeks with this tea regime and see what happened. The first few days I kept forgetting to go to the tea instead of the Ritter Sport Butter Biscuit. I kept the book handy and kept reading passages of it to keep it in the forefront of my mind. Soon I found I was consuming only one cup of coffee a day (taking away one cup as Dr. Ukra suggests) and drinking about four to five cups of tea during my daily routine. I filled my water bottle with strawberry kiwi tea to drink throughout the day and felt cleansed. Tea is a natural diuretic and I noticed after about three days of this I had no bloat left in my body. I lost a pound too. I kept this up for another week and noticed that my stomach was still flat and my pants fit better. While I did not seem to lose any more weight, I noticed I was snacking a lot less and consuming less food in general. I was literally too full of tea for anything else!

Now in my third week, I cannot say I have lost more weight. I have not. However, I am not bloated and I do seem to have more energy. I look and feel as if I've lost five pounds though. I have reacquainted myself with the tea in my home and weaned myself off the coffee IV drip I was toting around the house. I can only see that as a good thing. I think if I had spent more time creating some of the meals from “dr.tea’s” menus, it would have helped me lose more weight. I am keeping this book handy for the future when I can get my family on board and I have the time to devote to constructing such meals. In the meantime, I say try this book. It is sensible and not about deprivation. It has a lot of valuable information and you will certainly learn a lot about types of tea, making it and its benefits. Tea is in fact, quite good for you and I am happy that I tried this book.


I am giving away a copy of ‘The Ultimate Tea Diet’ by Mark “dr. tea” Ukra to one lucky reader. First person who emails me at veamason at gmail dot com will get it!