6 More Reasons to Drink Coffee

We had to complete our list to start off your week, so here are the final six reasons to drink coffee daily!

Not only does coffee taste great and perk you up, it has an endless array of positive effects on your health. Here are six more reasons why a cup a day can truly help you feel better and actually live a healthier life.

1. Coffee can make you a better athlete! 
   A 2011 New York Timesreport confirmed what people had thought for years — coffee can help improve your workout. A cup of coffee before a workout can help to jolt performance, particularly in more endurance sports like running and cycling. This is because the caffeine helps to increase the number of fatty acids in the bloodstream, which allows athletes’ muscles to absorb and burn those fats for fuel, saving the body’s small reserves of carbohydrates for later on in the exercise. Also, the results of a recent Spanish study showed that those who enjoyed a cup of coffee prior to their workout burned more calories than those who didn’t. Trained athletes who took in caffeine prior to exercising burned roughly 15% more calories for three hours post-exercise compared with those who ingested a placebo. 

2. Coffee could reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
   According to a study conducted by The American Chemical Society, coffee consumption can help lower a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes. The study’s researchers found that people who drank four or more cups of coffee each day reduced their chance of developing the disease by a whopping 50%. Plus, the risk continued to decrease by 7% with each subsequent cup of coffee.

3. Coffee can help keep your brain healthy.
   A study conducted by the University of South Florida and the University of Miami found that people older than 65 who had higher blood levels of caffeine developed Alzheimer’s disease two to four years later than those with lower caffeine levels. According to Dr. Chuanhai Cao, a neuroscientist at the USF, and co-author of the study, “We firmly believe that moderate coffee consumption can appreciably reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s or delay its onset.”

4. Coffee may make you smarter. Yes, smarter!
   In a 2006 Time magazine report, journalist Michael Lemonick, himself an avid coffee-drinker, found evidence to suggest that  caffeine allows your brain to work in a more efficient and smarter way. “It allows you to use what brain power you have in a much more efficient and focused way,” he said. “When you’re sleep-deprived and you take caffeine, pretty much anything you measure will improve: reaction time, vigilance, attention, logical reasoning — most of the complex functions you associate with intelligence.” We’ll drink to that!

5. Coffee consumption has been linked to lower levels of suicide.
   We have already discussed how the high levels of antioxidants in coffee can help make people feel happier — but to take that one step further, a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that drinking between two and four cups of coffee can reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by as much as 50 percent! The reason is thought to be because coffee acts as a mild antidepressant by aiding in the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline.

6. Coffee could help with Parkinson’s disease.
   Many studies have reported that people who consume more caffeine are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. But according to aScienceDaily report in 2012, drinking coffee may help people with Parkinson’s disease to control their movement. “Studies have shown that people who use caffeine are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, but this is one of the first studies in humans to show that caffeine can help with movement symptoms for people who already have the disease,” said Ronald Postuma, MD, the study author.

 

source/s:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/coffee-health-benefits_n_4102133.html 

www.rachelorsie.blog.organogold.com

 

A Long & Distinguished History

Ganoderma lucidum is a key ingredient in the Organo’s line of products that compliments the healthy lifestyle that is at the core of Rae’s way of life. At Organo, they use only the finest Ganoderma lucidum, creating a flavorless, invisible powder that adds amazing properties to everything from coffee and tea to personal care products.

Here are some facts about the incredible history of this truly incredible mushroom:

• Ganoderma lucidum goes by many names. It is also known as the “Lingzhi” mushroom and the “Reishi” mushroom. The Chinese name, Lingzhi, means “spiritual potency”, while the Japanese name, Reishi, translates as “King of herbs.”The Vietnamese name for the Ganoderma mushroom, “linh chi,”literally means “supernatural mushroom.”

• The botanical name, Ganoderma, derives from the Greek words ganos, which means, “shining”, and derma, which means, “skin”. This refers to the shiny exterior of the mushroom’s cap. The word Lucidum is also Latin for “shining.”

• Ganoderma lucidum has a long and prestigious history — and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest mushrooms known to have been used medicinally.

• Shi-Jean Lee —the most renowned doctor of the Ming Dynasty —strongly endorsed the effectiveness of Ganoderma in his renowned book Great Pharmacopoeia(Ban Chao Gang Moo). In it, he wrote, “long-term taking of Ganoderma will build a strong, healthy body and assure a long life.”

• The proliferation of Ganoderma lucidum images in art began in 1400 AD, and they are often associated with Taoism. However, the mentions of the mushroom soon extended beyond religion.

• The Ganoderma or “Lingzhi” mushroom was often mentioned in ancient Chinese texts such as medicinal and herbology books, and was featured in much artwork, including wood block prints in early mycology (the study of fungi) history books.

• The first book wholly devoted to the description of herbs and their medicinal value was Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, written in the Eastern Han dynasty of China (25-220 AD). This book is also known as Classic of the Materia Medicaor Shen-nong’s Herbal Classics. It describes botanical, zoological, and mineral substances, and was composed in the second century under the pseudonym of Shen-nong (“the holy farmer”). The book, which has been continually updated and extended, describes the beneficial effects of several mushrooms with a reference to the medicinal mushroom Gandoerma lucidum. [1]

• Ganoderma lucidum is a potent source of antioxidants. The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicinesays it contains one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants in any food.

 

 

 

Source: www.rachelorsie.organogold.com/blog/ogtreasures

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92757/

 

The Ultimate Workout Boost

It’s official — gone are the days of people thinking of coffee consumption as a “vice.” Recent scientific findings indicate that coffee can help you improve your performance at the gym! According to a recent study, those who enjoyed a cup of coffee prior to their workout burned more calories than those who didn’t.

The Spanish study, which was published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, found that trained athletes who took in caffeine pre-exercise burned about 15% more calories for three hours post-exercise, compared to those who ingested a placebo.

So just how much caffeine does it take to up one’s gym performance? The dose that triggered the effect was 4.5 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. For a 150-pound woman, that’s roughly 300mg of caffeine, the amount in about 12 ounces of brewed coffee, a quantity many people are already sipping each morning. The British Coffee Association was quick to support this pro-caffeine and exercise study, stating that “about two cups an hour prior to working out improves endurance will help you perform for 30% longer.”

This isn’t the first study that has demonstrated the positive effects of caffeine, which has been shown to help increase a person’s heart-rate, circulation and mental alertness— all positive things in a fitness environment.

So, why not make this new study your new motivation to hit the gym, take that walk around the lake, go on that bike ride or make it to that yoga class? Just whip up a 12 ounce cup of Rae’s Gourmet Black Coffee before you head out to really maximize your exercise performance.

Africa: A Coffee Continent

Ethiopia is thought to have been the birthplace of coffee — by now we all know the story of the Ethiopian shepherd who noticed his goats becoming particularly energetic after eating the vivid red coffee berries. So it’s no wonder that Africa has a rich history in coffee, as well as a thriving coffee industry. Africa is one of the top coffee producing regions in the world, with many nations, including Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, counting coffee as one of their key crops and exports.

Here are some tidbits of information about the coffee industry past and present throughout the continent of Africa:

• The coffee plant originates from the highland forests of Ethiopia. It is believed that the first plants were found growing wild in the region of Kaffa, which is where coffee derives its name.

• Today, Ethiopia is Africa’s top exporter of Arabica beans, and the nation’s coffee industry employs an estimated 12 million Ethiopian people.

• A wide range of dry and wet processed coffees are produced in Ethiopia, and all have a reputation for their winey, fruity and floral flavors. Ethiopian Arabica is considered by many to be the finest coffee produced in Africa.

• The Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) in Ethiopia is the largest organic coffee exporter in the world.

• The nation of Uganda produces primarily Robusta coffee beans, and the humble bean accounts for approximately 75 percent of the country’s export revenue and provides employment for around 80 percent of all rural workers.

• In Kenya, the export of coffee beans is one of the biggest industries, yet tea is a more popular beverage in Kenyan culture.

• Kenya’s high-grown, wet-processed Arabica is considered one of the worlds great coffees, and is characterized by a flavor that is full bodied, acidic, slightly winey and very smooth, with a dry winey aftertaste.

• Coffee berries provided a precursor to the modern day energy bar — it is believed that some East African tribes would mix the berries with animal fat to form edible energy balls.

A Timeline of Tea History

Sorry I didn’t post Tuesday or Wednesday this week, my computer (with all my files) was teaching me patience and gratitude. Enjoy and have a wonderful #ThirstyThursday!!!

We’ve explained before the semantics of the naming of OG’s Red Tea product. While in the West we generally refer to the color of the tea leaves, and thus call it “black tea” — in China, Korea and Japan, the name refers to the color of the infused drink itself. So, that’s why what some people in Western countries think of as “black tea” is dubbed “red tea” at Rae’s Cafe.

Tea is believed to have been discovered completely by accident, way back in 2737 BC. It is said that Shen Nung, the second emperor of China, discovered tea when some leaves from a Camellia sinensis plant (the plant that all traditional teas are made from) blew into his pot of boiling water. The habit of drinking tea leaves steeped in a tea pot didn’t become popular until during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Here’s a timeline that traces the long and storied history of the beverage that is so popular today — from that first accidental leaf right through to the first tea bag.

2737 B.C.

According to legend, the second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea when tea leaves blow into his boiling water.

A.D. 350

A Chinese dictionary cites tea for the first time as Erh Ya.

400

Demand for tea as a medicinal drink rises in China, and it is begun to be cultivated and processed.

479

Turkish traders begin to trade for tea from Mongolia.

593

Japanese priests studying in China carry tea seeds and leaves back to Japan. It is rare and expensive and is consumed mostly by high priests and the aristocracy.

725

The Chinese give tea its own character, ch’a.

780

The first book of tea, titled Ch’a Ching (The Classic of Tea), is written. It discusses ancient tea cultivation and preparation techniques.

1280

After the Mongols take over China, tea loses its aristocratic status and becomes more popular among the masses.

1368-1644

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty with the Mongol takeover, all teas (black, green, and oolong) are easily accessible in China. Steeping whole tea leaves in cups or teapots becomes more popular.

1422-1502

Zen priest Murata Shuko creates the Japanese tea ceremony and calls it cha-no-yu (hot water tea). It celebrates the mundane aspects of everyday life. Tea becomes more than just an art form and almost a religion.

1589

Europeans are exposed to tea when a Venetian author claims that Asians live so long because of their tea consumption.

1597

Tea appears for the first time in an English translation of Dutch explorer Jan Hugo van Linschoten’s papers. He refers to tea as chaa.

1610

The Dutch bring back green tea from Japan (though some scholars say it was actually from China). The Dutch East India Company markets tea as a medicinal drink, though only the very rich can afford it.

1618

Chinese ambassadors present the Russian Czar Alexis with chests of tea. He refuses it as being useless.

1657

The first tea is sold in London, England, at Garraway’s Coffee House, as a health beverage.

1662

England’s King Charles II’s new bride, Catherine Braganza of Portugal, is an avid tea drinker and helps make tea more popular and accessible.

1690

The first tea is sold publicly in Massachusetts.

1717

Thomas Twining transforms Tom’s Coffee House into the “Golden Lyon, the first tea shop in England.

1773

In what is known as the Boston Tea Party, a group of Massachusetts colonists dumped several hundred chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest taxes on tea.

1840

Anna the Duchess of Bedford introduces afternoon tea.

1856

Tea is planted in and around Darjeeling, India.

1876

Thomas Johnstone Lipton opens his first shop in Glasgow, Scotland.

1904

Englishman Richard Blechynden invents iced tea during a heat wave at the St. Louis World’s Fair.

1908

New Yorker Thomas Sullivan invents tea bags when he sends tea to clients in small silk bags and they mistakenly steep the whole bag.

The Natural Difference

The Ganoderma lucidium mushroom, so prized by Chinese herbalists, is unique in that grows in wooden trees or logs. Some Ganoderma is harvested using plastic bags which mean that the mushroom’s precious spores cannot effectively propagate, making plastic bag-harvested Ganoderma much less potent.

At Rae’s Cafe, we’re proud of Organo Gold’s natural, organic growing methods and all-natural processing practices. They partnered with some of the most reputable people in the world to produce our Ganoderma lucidum powder.

Here’s a breakdown of how we take these fantastic-looking mushrooms and turn them into an almost magical, potent and wonderfully beneficial powder:

• First, OG’s Ganoderma mushrooms are grown undisturbed on maple logs high in the Wuyi Mountains of China’s Fuxhou region. It’s cold and deeply forested up there, and these miraculous mushrooms thrive.

• Once harvested, their partners at the $240 million Gano Herb Industrial Park process the mushrooms. The agriculture and food scientists at OG’s state-of-the-art facility use cutting-edge technologies, techniques and equipment to gently dry, sterilize and process the mushrooms, transforming the tough, wood-like caps into a fine powder.

• OG’s expert team then carefully transforms the mushroom stems and caps into a fine powder, which is then easily added to our coffee, tea, and other beverage products, as well as personal care products.

• OG packages and ships all beverage, personal care and nutraceutical products to our partners and distributors in more than 30 countries across the globe.

Tea Time Fun Facts

Tea is a beverage often associated with health (all those antioxidants), breakfast (all those crumpets!) and ancient cultures (all those ceremonies). So tea has a long, diverse and storied history. Here are some fun facts about tea you may not have known:

• Tea bags were invented in America in the early 1800s, and were initially used to hold samples of teas brought from India. Today, an estimated 96% of all cups of tea served around the world are made using tea bags.

• After tourism, the cultivation of tea is India’s second largest industry.

• Tea leaves are a natural deterrent against insects such as mosquitoes. Simply use slightly damp leaves to add the scent of tea to the areas you want to keep insect-free.

• Tea leaves can also help to heal shaving cuts, eliminate bad odors, and make a great fertilizer for roses.

As we all know, tea is a natural antioxidant, but it is also rich in essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamins B2, B1 and B6, potassium, manganese, folic acid and calcium.

And of course Rae’s tea products are also enhanced with Organo Gold’s prized Ganoderma powder, making Rae’s teas some of the most beneficial beverages around!

Simple Ways to Save Time and Money

Let’s crunch the numbers: An estimated 120 to 150 million cups of coffee are consumed every day across the USA, at an average rate of 1.6 cups per man and 1.6 cups per woman over the age of 18. No doubt, one or two of them are consumed in or around your household.

Now imagine the 10 to 15 minutes it takes you to either:

1. Fix the cup yourself at home using your: drip brew coffee machine; espresso machine; French press; or other DIY coffee method of choice; add a few additional minutes if you grind your own beans at home (for the time it takes using and washing the grinder).
2. Stand in line at your local coffee shop or cafe.

On average – whether it’s prepping coffee at home or buying it to-go – that’s around 12 minutes per cup, per day. This doesn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but let’s add that up and look at the bigger picture. The average prep time for six days a week of just one coffee per day, breaks down to 12 minutes per cup. Multiply that by 312 days a year and that’s a grand total of 3,744 minutes per year, or, roughly 62 hours or about two-and-a-half (2.6 to be exact) days a year just preparing coffee.

Now imagine what else you could do in that time? Two-and-a-half days could be spent enjoying a lovely vacation — perhaps in a ski lodge, or at a resort on a sunny tropical island, if that’s more your style. Or you could read a book. Or write a short story. Or see multiple movies. Or take in your favorite sporting event, in person or live via broadcast television.

Time is valuable in today’s busy, multi-tasking society. For many of us, time is money. So wasted time means wasted money. What if you could save those 62 hours?

In honor of the Coffee Connoisseur Club, here are our six top tips on using the Cafe’s coffee, mocha and tea products to help literally save you time and money, and make your life simpler, more efficient, and possibly even happier. And who doesn’t want to be happier?

1. Gourmet Cafe Supreme not only has the light and creamy flavor of a $5 store-bought latte, it has added benefits. Namely, it is enhanced with two powerful ingredients: 100% pure Ganoderma extract; plus the prized ancient ingredient of Panax Ginseng root.
2. For basic black coffee connoisseurs, Gourmet Black Coffee features a classic, robust, smooth flavor, and is enhanced with antioxidant-rich Ganoderma extract.
3. With Gourmet Café Latte, a light, creamy latte is at your fingertips in an instant — minus the wait in line.
4. Guilty of a sweet tooth and tend to crave a sugary pick-me-up in the middle of the afternoon? We have the answer— Gourmet Café Mocha. This instant product offers a rich, cocoa-tinged coffee that’s ideal for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.
5. Organic Green Tea adds an element of instant zen to your day, blending the finest organic green tea leaves with our renowned organic Ganoderma extract for an antioxidant double dose.
6. Prefer a chilled beverage on those hot summer days and nights? Try an instant cup of Black Ice— a naturally invigorating iced black tea that has already been sweetened with pure, natural honey and enhanced with Ganoderma extract and Amazonian Guarana, to revive your body and mind.

8 Reasons to LOVE Ganoderma

It’s at the heart of all of our products, which is why Rae’s Café is such a big fan of Ganoderma, the ancient Chinese mushroom that has long been used in Eastern medicine. Here are just some of the many reasons this precious fungus has been revered for thousands of years, and why Rae’s Cafe just loves it so!

1. The names given to Ganoderma in various Asian languages reflects its potency. The Chinese name, Lingzhi, means “spiritual potency”, while the Japanese name, Reishi, translates as “King of herbs.” The Vietnamese name for the Ganoderma mushroom, Linh Chi, literally means “supernatural mushroom.”
2. With their long brown stems and shiny orange caps, the mushrooms look like something straight out of a children’s book!
3. Ganoderma Lucidum has been recognized by practitioners of traditional Asian medicine as the highest ranked of all herbs found in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. Dr. Shi-Jean Lee — the most renowned doctor of the Ming Dynasty — strongly endorsed the effectiveness of Ganoderma in his famous book Great Pharmacopoeia (Ban Chao Gang Moo), where he wrote that “long-term taking of Ganoderma will build a strong, healthy body and assure a long life.”
4. Today, Ganoderma has become known by modern science for its potent antioxidant properties, and antioxidants have a wide range of health benefits. According to The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Ganoderma contains one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants in any food.
5. Certain types of Ganoderma, such as the Cafe’s Ganoderma Lucidum Mycelium, also contain the polysaccharide Beta-glucan, which has been shown to help stimulate immune function.
6. Because Ganoderma Lucidum respires just like humans — oxygen in and carbon dioxide out — it helps add a quality source of oxygen to the body.
7. At Rae’s Cafe, the Ganoderma is grown naturally in logs, as it was meant to, high in the Wuyi Mountains of China’s Fuzhou region.
8. Finally, Ganoderma is transformed in Organo Gold’s multi-million dollar facility in China into a flavorless powder that adds goodness to all of the Cafe’s delicious products — such as our BrewKups, our pre-brewed coffees, organic teas, gourmet hot chocolate, nutraceuticals, and more!

Mocha Almond Pancake

It’s been a little over a year since the introduction of the delicious BrewKups at P50K in San Antonio, Texas. To celebrate the “occasion”, I want to share with you one of my favorite recipes from the OG Cookbook: OG Brewed Mocha Almond Pancake by Roberto Carlos Cruz from Puerto Rico.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups self-rising flour of choice (if unavailable add 1 tsp baking powder to any flour)
• 2 eggs slightly beaten
• ¼ cup oil
• ½ cup milk
• 1 cup of Chocolate Almond BrewKup
• 1 sachet of Gourmet Black Coffee
• 1 sachet of Café Mocha
• Honey (optional)
• Butter (optional)

Directions:

1. Brew Organo Gold Chocolate Almond BrewKup using the medium size.
2. Dissolve OG Café Mocha and OG Black Coffee into the brewed Chocolate Almond. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, beaten eggs, oil and milk and whisk until well incorporated. Add Organo Gold brewed coffees and chocolate to the mixture. Blend well.
4. Cook pancakes on a hot griddle or pan over medium heat. Turn once and cook until they are golden.
5. To serve, add a small scoop of butter and drizzle with honey.