Sweet aroma of green tea

Can you tell the quality of tea by just looking and smelling those green dry leaves?  So, the other day, I attended another interesting tea-tasting workshop.  There is that kind of tasting that you can tell the difference of the quality of the tea from the good one to the bad one by smelling, feeling and physically observing 5 tea samples (You don’t actually taste the brewed tea).We had a fruitful lecture before the actual tasting.  The teacher said that good tea possess sweet aroma.  So this time I paid attention about the odor and wandered for the sweet aroma in the samples.  What was interesting about it was that I found out the second-best tea has the most bold sweetness.  Well of course, the first-best tea also had a sweet odor.  Furthermore, the fourth tea had a sweet smell as well.  Interesting, wouldn’t you think?  They are all sweet but the quality of the sweetness varies.  The first-best one had a fresh fragrance with a green note which comes from the natural quality of tea.   The second and fourth ones had the sweetness with roasted flavor that is reminiscent of corn.  The roasted flavor is called “hika” which is added by roasting the leaves at the final producing process.  Hika literally means fire aroma.  It improves the flavor of tea by giving more profound caramelic flavor and cornish aroma.  You may not find hika on high quality teas, but you often find it on ordinary teas.  I gave the correct answer in this tasting practice.  I kind of relied on the appearance rather than the aroma, though.  I think improving smelling skills are quite challenging because memorizing the smell is not easy.  You cannot lean it by reading so you have to experience it on your own.  I could find the difference on the sweet aroma between the second and forth tea, but I’m not sure if I can remember the difference next time.  I definitely need more practice on smelling, hahaha.  If you have a chance to smell some different leaves, try to look for the sweet aroma and find out the difference of the sweetness.

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Why I Don’t Want You To Click This Headline

I want people to read the pieces I publish online; the more readers I reach, the better. My message reaches a broader audience, and in the long-run, I even earn more money as I gain visibility for RateTea indirectly. So why do I not want people to click on the headline for this blog post?
You're already here, so the headline already got your attention and drew you in. First I have a confession to make: The headline was not fully truthful. On some level, I wanted you to click it, but on another level I did not. Why not? The answer lies in how I feel about sensationalism. I included a less-than-truthful headline, a form of exaggeration, in order to draw in readers.

The part of me that did not want you to click the headline did not want you to because I do not want people to be swayed by sensationalistic headlines. In my ideal world, I would like people to be immune to these sorts of headlines. Below, I explain why I think this would make the world a better place, and how you can help to advance this goal.

What is sensationalism?

Wikipedia has a rather spotty and incomplete article on sensationalism, which, although the article as a whole could use some improvement, I think hits the nail on the head with its initial definition:

Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers.

This definition cites a page about sensationalism on the website of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing media bias and censorship.

Sensationalism causes problems in the tea world:

I want to visit some topics that I have heard people in the tea community complain about frequently:

Inaccurate public impression of science - MY recent post about the tea and prostate cancer headline is an example of how even very mild sensationalism can have a powerfully negative impact on public perception of scientific knowledge.Tea and weight loss fads - Tea, particularly green tea and oolong tea, and to some degree Pu-erh and white tea as well, have become associated in American society with weight loss fads. There are numerous negative impacts to this association, from people being put off from green tea because they try bad green tea sold as a weight-loss product, to negative body image issues promoted by marketing aimed at women. And most importantly, this whole approach takes away from people focusing on the quality and taste of their tea, and enjoying tea and the process of drinking it. And lastly, sites promoting tea as a weight loss product are not particularly truthful; for a more truthful approach I recommend reading Gingko's post on the slimming effect of tea.Myths and falsehoods circulating about tea - A lot of the myths about tea surround the caffeine content of tea, such as the myth that white tea is lowest in caffeine among teas. A lot of other myths pertain to unsubstantiated health claims, which can range from the mundane to the absurd. Fortunately, there are a lot of people out there committed to ending these myths, including such people as Michael J. Coffee who runs Tea Geek, or Brandon of Wrong Fu Cha, who also administers WikiCha and is one of the numerous contributors to TeaDrunk, another great place to get solid info that breaks through myths and misconceptions. I also appreciate the casual skepticism expressed by bloggers like Lahikmajoe, or Nicole in her post Health Benefits Schmealth Benefits. And it's also worth noting the ATB (Association of Tea Bloggers) Criteria, point 6, also get at this issue; another thing I love about the ATB.What can you do?

I think there are numerous things you can do to curb sensationalism in news, especially in how you read news online, and how you participate in social media and various online communities. Some of my recommendations:
Slow down - Sensationalism thrives on speed. Sensationalism flourishes and sensationalistic headlines are rewarded in an environment where people act on snap judgments, rather than thinking deeply, which leads into the next points.Read deeply - Do not just skim pieces. Read them in their entirety and take time to think about them. Does this seem like more work? This leads into my next point.Read less - Be more selective of what you read. As you read more deeply, you may reach a point like I did, where I realized that an overwhelming majority of what I was reading was remarkably low-quality, in that it communicated little new information, or was hastily thrown together, or it cited no sources, or that it was presenting opinions or mere assertions as fact or objective truth. These realizations are a good thing; they will help you to cut out whole media outlets, blogs, and websites. You will also get a better idea of what sorts of topics you wish to read on which sites. You may subscribe to a blog that posts almost daily, like this one, but you may find that only a small portion of the posts interest you enough to actually read them. This is a good thing! When you have less to read, you will be able to read more deeply.Think carefully before sharing - Never share or re-share a post without reading it. Put some thought into what pieces you decide to share or re-share on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, social bookmarking sites, or through linking to from your blog or website. Think about what effect you are having by sharing a work or webpage. Is the work truthful? What effect will it have on the world for you to share it?Sensationalism in the media only thrives when we fuel it. If we ignore it, and instead focus on high-quality, thoughtful journalism, scholarship, blogs, and other media, the sensationalists will just spin their wheels and eventually run out of steam.

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3 of the Most Common Questions About Cardio After Weights!

Should you indulge in cardio after weight lifting? This seems to be the big question, which has been prevailing in the minds of fitness freaks since times immemorial. We carry out these aerobic exercises for the purpose of the purpose of achieving peak physical fitness. This in turn helps in increasing oxygen supply in the lungs and as a result in our blood as well. Cardio exercises also helps in the proper functioning of the cardio respiratory organs of the human body.

The answer to the first question has many contrasting answers. Some people prefer doing cardio exercises as a warm-up for other advanced exercises. Others like to carry out these exercises after the weight lifting process in a bid to tone down the muscles. This allows them to relax their body after a heavy workout schedule. Nevertheless, on a general basis people like to do cardio exercises before their normal routine workout, or when they are not interested in lifting weights.

Does cardio save energy for weight lifting? This question is also there in the mind of many workout enthusiasts. This may have its own logic. Generally, we prefer doing cardio exercises for about ten minutes before the main exercise. This prepares the body for that major role that it has to play while lifting free weights.

Do cardio exercises help in burning of fat after weight lifting? Many people may not agree with this. The fact remains on the amount of workout that you do even for the sake of cardio exercises. These questions often prevail in the minds of people who like to workout on a regular basis.

Pro Trainer Reveals...

If You're Making Even Just One Of These 5 Simple Workout Mistakes You Might As Well Be Skipping The Gym And Sitting On The Couch Eating Ice-Cream.

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5 Dumbbell Exercises for Explosive Muscle Growth

Fitness experts have always debated as to which exercise provides the better muscle growth, free weights like dumbbell exercises or stationary weights like most gym equipment. I believe free weights or dumbbells win hands-down every time. Any method of workout that works more than one muscle at a time has to benefit more than a stationary machine.

Below I will provide some dumbbell exercises that will give you explosive muscle growth and muscle control. After all, what good are big bulky muscles if every time you try to use those muscles you are fumbling all over the place. I have seen guys with massive bulky muscles that can barely tie their own shoes they are so uncoordinated.

For a better overall fitness level you want to work the tiny muscles that surround and support your larger muscles. Complete and coordinated control at all times is what you need and dumbbells are the best way to achieve this.

Bicep Curl

Bicep curls are the best exercise to strengthen your bicep muscles. Remember, always make sure you rotate your arms well when doing bicep curls to get the most benefit from these exercises. Exhale when you bring the dumbbell up and really squeeze your biceps to get explosive muscle growth.

Inhale when lowering the weight and still use your muscles to guide the weight back down. Never let gravity pull it down for you, control the lowering and continue working the bicep on the way down.

Triceps Kickback or Reverse Curl

Triceps are the long lean muscle at the back of your upper arm opposite the front bicep muscle. Take the dumbbell in your hand, lean over a bench or chair if you are at home, raise your elbow so it touches your side, then slowly lift the dumbbell back while straitening your arm out past your butt while doing so.

Really squeeze the triceps as your arm becomes fully extended and then hold for a second or two. Holding and squeezing will really help with muscle growth, control and strength. You will also really feel "the burn" when doing it this way, which is really great for muscle growth. Then lower your arm back down, again resisting the weight and not letting gravity do all the return work.

Dumbbell Bench Press

The dumbbell bench press is great for really defining your chest muscles and getting that rock hard look. Lie down on a flat bench, rise the weight straight up in the air with a dumbbell in each hand and touching. Lower the weights straight down so they almost touch your chest while your arms drop down below you sides.

Inhale while lowering the dumbbell and resist the weights until they almost reach your chest, now lift the weights and exhale at the same time fully extending your arms above your chest.

Dumbbell Fly Lift

The fly lift is very similar to the bench press. You lay flat on your back in the same starting position with the weights held above your chest with your arms fully extended. However, this time instead of lowering the weight straight down, bring your arms out to the side.

Line-up you upper arms with your chest and create a 90 degree at your elbow. Exhale as you return the weight to the starting position above your chest and repeat. Again really squeeze your chest as you do so and hold for a couple seconds.

Dumbbell Row

Position your arm so it is fully extended with the dumbbell almost touching the floor. Lift the weight so that your arm slides past past your side and lift the dumbbell up as high as you can until it touches your chest at the nipple area, hold. Exhale while doing so and then slowly lower the weights again with your arm fully extended and weight just above the floor.

Safety & Warm-Up

Make sure when you are doing dumbbell exercises to have lots of room and don't use a weight that is too heavy for your strength level. Always warm-up and loosen the muscles before you lift any weights. Warming up will prevent injury and allow you to lift more weight and give you explosive muscle growth.

Those are by no means the complete set of dumbbell exercises. If you want further knowledge, explanation and practical use of these exercises, click here at http://www.idealbodyformen.com/ and sign up for my FREE 7 part E-course. Together we can change your body and life forever. Stay strong.

5 Weight Training Mistakes That Can Limit Your Gains

Weight training is the best way to build strength and definition and give your metabolism a boost at the same time. But do it the wrong way, and you'll limit your gains. Even worse, you could end up with an injury that'll keep you out of the gym for weeks. Weight training is more than just picking a weight and lifting it as many times as you can. Here are five weight training mistakes that can keep your muscles from growing and increase the risk of injury.

Not Moving Through the Full Range of Motion

Many people sacrifice form so they can lift heavier. They arch their backs, swing the weights and don't move the weights through their full range of motion. You'll get the most benefits from a weight training workout if you lift lighter at first until you master the proper form. When you don't move your body through the full range of motion on an exercise, you're depriving your muscles of the stimulation they need to grow and become stronger. Stop trying to impress everyone at the gym by lifting heavy. Instead, blow them away with your perfect weight lifting form.

Using Momentum

Another way people cheat, many without being aware of it, is they use momentum. This usually happens when they try to lift a weight that's too heavy. You'll get more benefits if you lighten up. This allows you to focus on moving the weight in a controlled manner before increasing the weight. Concentrate on feeling your muscles move through their full range of motion of the exercise. This makes it difficult to use momentum. You won't be able to lift as heavy, but you'll ultimately get greater benefits if you choose a lighter weight, slow down and concentrate on controlling the movement. Once you've mastered form, gradually increase the weight.

Lifting Too Light

You need to gradually increase the challenge to get strength gains. Muscles grow when they're progressively overloaded. If you do twelve reps of an exercise using good form and the last two reps feel easy, it's time to increase the weight, but do it by no more than 10% to reduce the risk of injury. To stimulate the muscle to grow, the last two reps should feel difficult, and it should be a real struggle to complete the final one. Too many people get into a comfort zone where they don't continue to challenge on their muscles. Then they wonder why they don't see results. Don't let that happen to you.

Not Resting

This is another common weight lifting mistake. If weight lifting builds strength, more must be better. Right? When you lift weights you create microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. They have to be repaired to get muscle growth. This happens when you supply your muscles with the right nutrients and with adequate periods of rest. Never train the same muscles within 48 hours. Give them time to repair and recover so you can enjoy the benefits of having a stronger, more defined body.

Letting Complacency Set In

Muscles adapt to any workout you throw at it. If you've been doing the same exercises for six weeks or more, your body has probably adapted to your routine. This is a good time to challenge your muscles in new ways. Change your routine by adding new exercises, or change the way you're doing your current exercises.

Challenge your muscles with super-slow training where you do the exercise at a very slow tempo. Do drop sets where you complete another set or two using a lighter weight once you've fatigued your muscles with a heavier weight. Wake up your muscles with supersets where you perform exercises targeting opposing muscle groups without resting between sets. All of these weight training variations can give your muscles the extra stimulus they need to grow when you've reached a plateau.

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