5 Reasons to Cafe Rae’s Way

 Why drinking coffee every day is good for your health.

Here at Rae’s Cafe, we can come up with countless reasons to drink coffee —namely because we have endless coffee products that are a great addition to any active lifestyle. But there are reasons beyond mere enjoyment and flavor, as many different studies are constantly showing. Here are five great reasons that adding a cup of coffee to your day is not only a pleasure, it’s good for you!

1. Coffee is a great source of antioxidants!
   According to a 2005 study, Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than from any other dietary source — nothing else even comes close. The study also found that while many fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants, the human body seems to most readily absorb those found in coffee. Antioxidants are substances that help prevent the damaging effects of oxidation on cells throughout the body — so they are always a good thing!

2. One sniff = less stress
   In addition to helping people to wake up each morning, simply the smell of coffee has been found to make people feel less stressed! Researchers at the Seoul National University examined the brains of rats who were stressed with sleep deprivation, and found that the rats that were exposed to coffee aroma experienced changes in the brain proteins tied to that stress. So next time you’ve had a sleepless night, a cup of coffee is definitely the answer!

3. Coffee can help protect the liver
   A 2006 study (which  included 125,000 people over 22 years) found that people who drink at least one cup of coffee a day are 20% less likely to develop cirrhosis of the liver (an autoimmune disease caused by excessive alcohol consumption that could lead to liver failure and cancer). Similar studies have also shown that coffee can help prevent people from developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). So whether you are a whiskey connoisseur or a teetotaler, coffee can help protect your liver.

4. Coffee can help make you happier!
   A National Institute of Health study revealed that people who drink four or more cups of coffee per day were about 10% less likely to be depressed than those who had never touched the stuff. The study author, Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, stated that the reason coffee makes you feel good is thought to be because of those trusty antioxidants.

5. Coffee could help protect you from skin cancer. 
   A study at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (which followed 112,897 men and women over a 20-year period) found that women who drink three or more cups of coffee a day are much less likely to develop skin cancer than those who don’t.

 

 

 

 

source/s:

http://www.rachelorsie.organogold.com/blog

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

 

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/

 

Small Business Saturday

Today is Small Business Saturday and in honor, Rae’s Cafe is giving YOU up to 40% off our line of gourmet coffees and teas! We’re also doing FREE shipping on orders over $50, just use coupon code: SHIP50. If you have any questions, please contact me through email or my business number on website. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!!!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE!

 

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.

A Nation of Coffee Lovers

They sure do love their coffee in Italy —it’s almost impossible to picture Italy without those small white espresso cups somewhere in the scene. To celebrate Italian coffee culture, we thought we’d take a look about the history and culture of the humble bean in this coffee-adoring country.

• Espresso is regulated by the Italian government because it is considered an such essential part of Italian daily life.

• Coffee is often drunk quickly, standing up at espresso bars in cities across Italy.

• If your order “un caffè” in Italy, you’ll receive a shot of espresso.

• Coffee was first introduced to Europe from Egypt through the Italian city of Venice, where a flourishing trade between the local businessmen and Arabs enabled a large variety of commodities and goods to be imported, including the precious new commodity that was coffee beans.

• The first “caffe” reportedly opened in Venice in 1683, and soon became synonymous with comfortable atmosphere, conversation, and good food, adding romance and sophistication to the coffee-drinking experience.

• It was two Italians who came up with that we know today as the espresso machine. First, in Turin, Italy in 1884, a man by the name of Angelo Moriondo lodged a patent for a “steam-driven instantaneous coffee beverage making device.” This patent is considered by many to be a precursor of the espresso coffee machine.

• Then, in 1901, Milanese manufacturer Luigi Bezzera came up with some improvements to the espresso machine. He patented a number of these, the first of which was applied for on the 19th of December 1901. It was titled “Innovations in the machinery to prepare and immediately serve coffee beverage.” Bezzera was said to have come up with the idea in order to reduce the amount of time his factory workers spent on their coffee breaks!

• An estimated 14 billion espresso coffees are consumed each year in Italy, and Italians consume approximately 8 pounds of coffee per capita, per year.

The Beneficial Brew

We’ve written before about some of the amazing health benefits of green tea — it can help with cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, boost the immune system, promote longevity, fight against aging, improve brain function and concentration, and even help to ease anxiety. A recent study has also shown that green tea appears to boost the activity of DNA repair enzymes.

Researchers have long reported health benefits in green tea drinkers, but for this new study, Iris Benzie and her colleagues at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University monitored the activity of DNA repair enzymes in lymphocytes shortly after people drank a cup of green tea, and again after study participants had been drinking two cups of green tea each day for a week.

The team found that an enzyme (known as “hOGG1”) which is critical for fixing DNA damage from oxidation, and another enzyme that protects against such damage, were more active after the 16 study participants drank tea compared to when they drank just water.

The team also found 30 percent less DNA damage in lymphocytes 60 minutes after participants had drunk a cup of tea. According to Benzie, the finding “opens up a whole new avenue to look at the molecular mechanisms”of green tea’s effect on cells.

While only a preliminary study, these new findings again reveal that green tea is definitely beneficial, and there’s science to prove it. Thankfully, we love Organo’s Organic Green Tea so much, we don’t need science to tell us to drink more — but the data sure does help!

Sweet Fun Facts About Honey

It offers a seemingly simple natural sweetness to one of our favorite products, Organo Gold Black Ice, which of course is iced black tea flavored with natural honey. Yet there’s nothing simple — but everything natural — about honey. We thought we’d take a look the effort behind this miraculous ingredient.

• To produce a single jar of honey, foraging honey bees have to travel the equivalent of three times around the world.

• The average bee will produce only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime!

• Honey stored in an airtight container will never spoil. Sealed honey vats found in King Tut’s tomb still contained edible honey, despite over 2,000 years beneath the sands.

• Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their sense of smell is so precise it can differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties, and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from meters away.

• A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

• Bees must visit approximately two million flowers to make just one pound of honey.

• The honey bee’s wing stroke is incredibly fast — about 200 beats per second, which is what produces their distinctive buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.

• A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen bee. Worker honey bees are female, live for about six weeks, and do all the work.

So — the next time you enjoy a refreshing cup of Black Ice, think about all of the effort that goes into making that tiny dash of honey that adds a lovely natural sweetness to this amazing beverage!

China: The Birthplace of Reishi

Organo Gold has strong ties to China, not least because it is home to the miraculous Ganoderma mushroom that lies at the heart of all of our products. We thought we’d revisit the remarkable history of the remarkable mushroom that is Ganoderma lucidum.

The History of Ganoderma

• For as many as 4,000 years, Ganoderma Lucidum has been recognized by practitioners of traditional Asian medicine as the highest ranked of all herbs found in the Chinese pharmacopoeia.

• The Chinese name for Ganoderma, Lingzhi, means “spiritual potency,” while the Japanese name, Reishi, can be translated as as the “King of Herbs.”

• 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]. In it, he wrote that “long-term taking of Ganoderma will build a strong, healthy body and assure a long life.”

• Ganoderma mushrooms are unique in that they grow on wood, mostly out of large trees. At Organo Gold, they source only the finest quality organic Ganoderma, grown undisturbed on maple logs high in the Wuyi Mountains of China’s Fuxhou region.

• Our natural log harvested Ganoderma is superior to plastic bag harvested Ganoderma. Some companies attempt to cut corners and use plastic bags to harvest their Ganoderma, but this means the precious spores cannot effectively propagate, which makes the end product much less potent.

• Once our mushrooms are harvested from the maple logs, they are then processed at one of the largest Ganoderma facilities in the world. Here, using the latest technologies and only natural processes, our agricultural and food scientists gently dry, sterilize and process the mushrooms, transforming the tough, woody caps into a fine powder.

• That fine, flavorless powder is then added to the entire range of Organo Gold products, from coffee and tea to supplements and even our soap, body lotion and toothpaste.

It’s our privilege and pleasure at Rae’s Cafe to bring this ancient treasure to the Western world, and it’s such an honor to visit the land where the wonders of Ganoderma were first discovered.

All the Coffee in China

China was the birthplace of tea almost 5,000 years ago, when it is said that tea leaves fell into a pot of water the emperor Shen Nong was boiling. While more legend than historical fact, this tale nonetheless illustrates the central role that tea has played in Chinese culture for literally thousands of years.

But while coffee may have taken a while to make inroads in China, it is rapidly becoming more popular. So popular in fact, it has even provoked alarmist headlines, wondering if coffee will overtake the ancient Chinese affiliation with tea. “Is Coffee a Threat to Chinese Culture?” asked a headline in the Bejiing Review, April, 2013? “As the number of cafés continues to grow in China, could the teahouse become a thing of the past?” queried writer Elvis Anber. That’s unlikely, but the massive recent growth of the coffee industry — and the increasing widespread acceptance of coffee houses amongst the influential younger and more affluent demographic — does reveal a pro-coffee shift in mainland China.

Here are some facts and figures about the history and amazing growth of the coffee market in China:

• Coffee’s history in China goes back to the 19th century. Coffee is thought to have made its first appearance in China when a French missionary planted beans throughout the Yunnan Province in the 1890s. And many Western missionaries and businessmen brought coffee with them to treaty ports such as Shanghai.

• During the 1920s and ’30s, as Shanghai basked in its reputation as the cosmopolitan “Paris of the East,” cafes became one of the many examples of the city’s international flavor, but were shut down after Mao and the Communists took control of the country in 1949.

• The reemergence of coffee shops in Shanghai since the 1980s has been part of the reemergence of China itself on the global stage. As historian and writer Jeffrey Wasserstrom wrote in his essay ‘All the Coffee in China’, the recent proliferation of cafes and coffee culture in mainland China’s big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing represents “both a novelty and a resumption of an old cosmopolitan trajectory that was interrupted for a time.”

• Coffee is seen as a symbol of the Western lifestyle and China’s emerging middle class, and is associated with fashion, modernity and prosperity. Not surprisingly, coffee consumption in China is highly concentrated in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou — appealing to adventurous, open-minded, young, affluent, urban consumers. These consumers are more exposed to Western influences and tend to look up to Western lifestyles.

• “Café chains only really began to appear in China in the late 1990s, and have since grown very rapidly in number,” said Matthew Crabbe, Director of Asia-Pacific Research at Mintel, the UK-based market research company, in a recent press release. Part of the appeal, particularly for the aforementioned young, affluent crowd, are the lifestyle factors associated with coffee and café culture —namely those of exclusivity and luxury.

• According to Mintel research, the number of cafés in China rose to 31,783 in 2012, double the 15,898 of 2007. That’s about 1,025 cafés for each of the Chinese mainland’s 31 provinces and municipalities.

• China’s coffee market has reportedly grown by an estimated 10-15 percent annually over the past decade, in comparison to the worldwide average of just 2 percent.

• In 2006, coffee consumption in China was roughly 45,000 tons. Some industry analysts predict this number could reach 300,000 tons annually by 2020.

Japanese Tea History Part 2

Tuesday, we looked at how tea arrived in Japan, by way of Buddhist scholars who brought it back from China in the early 800s. Since then, tea has grown to become an important part of Japanese culture. Here’s a look at how tea became such an integral and popular item in Japan.

Tea History in Japan: Part 2

• In 1740, Soen Nagatani developed Japanese sencha, an unfermented form of green tea. To prepare sencha, the tea leaves are first steam-pressed, then rolled and dried into a loose tea. The dried leaves are brewed with hot water to yield the final drink. Sencha is now one of Japan’s mainstay teas.

• The other more traditional type of green tea in Japan is matcha, the finely powdered green tea that is the focus of the Japanese tea ceremony. Matcha is prepared using shade-grown tea leaves that are rolled, laid flat to dry and then stone ground to form a bright green, fine powder.

• At the end of the Meiji Era (1868–1912), machine manufacturing of green tea was introduced in Japan, and began replacing handmade tea. Machines took over the processes of primary drying, tea rolling, secondary drying, final rolling, and steaming of the tea leaves.

• The first time tea was exported from Japan was in 1610, by the Dutch East India Company from Hirado, Nagasaki.

• In 1859, when the ports of Nagasaki, Yokohama and Hakodate were opened to foreign trade, tea became one of Japan’s main export commodities, with an estimated 181 tons of tea exported in that year alone.

• The three largest producing regions for Japanese tea are Shizuoka, Kagoshima and Mie. Shizuoka, which is located in the area between Mt. Fuji and the Pacific coast west of Tokyo, accounts for around 40% of Japan’s annual commercial tea production.

• While Japanese culture is now renowned for the elaborate tea ceremony that developed over thousands of years, in today’s fast-paced modern culture, convenience is key. So ready-to-drink green tea products, particularly bottled or iced in vending machines, now account for an estimated 20% of all green tea consumption in Japan.

• Green tea is so ubiquitous in Japan that whenever tea or “ocha” is offered, 99.9% of the time, it is green tea, which of course comes from the same plant as black tea, but does not experience fermentation or oxidization, and instead is steamed soon after being picked to stop the oxidization process.

Of course, we at Rae’s Café have always admired green tea, which is why Organo’s Organic Green Tea is one of our most popular products.