Ever wanted to become a hand model?

After the great success we had helping thousands of our readers to become "hair models" (Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow - recommended reading - thank you for all the "thank you" letters!) - call me a philanthropist :-)

It is now time to help all those looking for a career in the competitive market of "hand modeling".

This highly complex but natural and extremely effective hand peeling method is sure to reinvigorate your skin and to give you a very refreshing feeling.

Natural Hands Peeling

Step (1): Rub your hands with olive oil for about 30 seconds.

Step (2): Add a spoon of sugar to rub your hands with.

Step (3): Wash your hands with your favorite dish washing liquid and dry.

Obvious Recommendation: Have the sugar ready prior to rubbing your hands with the olive oil.

Natural Nail strengthener

Rub some lightly heated extra virgin olive oil on the nails and around. This will strengthen the nails soften the skin around.

Do you have any great natural cosmetics tips? Let us know.

The Morning After Tea (Q&A)

Dear Doctors,

The credit crunch is forcing us to entertain ourselves …. at home.

I would also like to add that we are regular readers of your blog. The other night my husband had an epiphany: “Hey Suzie, I just had an epiphany, lets ask Divine Tastes what they recommend for our home entertainment?”

My question to you is: What do you recommend?

Yours truly,

Susie & John Blob - British couple from - Britain.

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Dear Susie & John

Applause for “Britain”.

To Him: I assume by home entertainment you meant 70 inch flat TV, full HD Dolby Surround system, xbox 360… beer with the friends.

However, she probably hoped you meant for something a little bit more romantic – with her. Now, though a tea tasting evening with your wife (on a frequent basis) might be exciting …. if you live in Alaska, drinking tea before your “entertainment” might help boost your game play.

Examples of arousing herbs are ginseng, roseroot, cinnamon, cayenne, cardamom, ginger, damiana, horny goat weed, catuaba, maca, muira pauma and cuscuta.
The herbs can arouse you both by their taste, their scent and by a physiological stimulation on the nerves and blood circulation.

It is equally important to remember the Four Fingers rule…Eat, Exercise, Relax, and Sleep for a better sex life.
Better sex doesn't just involve technique. Keeping a fit mind and body can increase your enjoyment of bedroom antics. A cup of tea can help with both body and mind!

Don't forget to use some tea light candles for a more romantic atmosphere….

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The recipe for the world famous Arousal Tea*:

Use unsalted, raw peanuts which still have their skins. Look for stringy, old, but not dried root ginger rather than plump, young, juicy ginger.

20 raw peanuts
5-6 slices of root ginger
Tea of your choice
850ml (1.5 pints) of water

Wash the ginger and cut five or six slices across the root, each about 3mm (1/8 in) thick. Roughly chop these slices. Take 20 raw peanuts with their skins and use a pestle and mortar or food processor to grind them. Alternatively, you can chop them up roughly with a knife.
Put the ground nuts and chopped ginger into a teapot and add tea leaves to taste. Bring the water to a fast boil and pour into the pot. Leave to stand for 2-3 minutes before drinking.

Caution: Individual results may vary.
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To Her: Call me… ;-)

*Adopted from the book “The way of tea” by Lam Kam Cheuen – pp 123 “Peanut and ginger tea”

Joining nudist colony! Must sell washer and dryer $300.

The Olive Oil Gazette has produced yet another excellent article about the olive oil market. This time it is about the effect of the recession on the olive oil’s quality.
Quality? At 2.20 A Kilo?

I wonder what the situation would be / is like for small manufacturers of high quality tea. Will they survive? What will tea taste like when all is said and done? Will the art of tea be lost by tea experts finding new jobs? (The good news it survived the great Chinese famine)

In other news
Taliban suicide bombers kill …..
Anti-Semitism in Europe is at all time high ….
Iran has enough plutonium for growing mushrooms....
Joe the plumber beats Obama as the NYT best selling autobiography book...
Harry Potter is dead...

The Weather
“Your weather” is sponsored by the “Yellow Label” tea, voted the best tea for 2009-2010

Today will be cold, tomorrow colder.

"Yes we can!!"
www.the7species.com

An Olivewood Story

Italy Winter 1984/5

Reuters & DTs - Breaking News - Prolonged freezes across the northen Hempospheire.
Italy is not spared! Today the temperature in Tuscany reached -25C (10F).

Many olive trees have suffered a deadly blow. For some it would take years of hard work to revive.
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Freeze is one of the worst things that could happen to an olive tree. Trees are killed by it, others explode, at the very least their bark is split. The splitting of the tree leaves it vulnerable to insects and various diseases – much like a human being.


"Tuscan heat"


A closer look will show the huge split in the middle of the tree. (press picture to enlarge)


A tree that "survived" the Tuscan winter freeze of 1984/5 - pictured in 2007 on a lovey trip to the region. (press picture to enlarge)

Many trees were cut down due to the time and energy it would take for them to have a profitable yield.* At some places, due to the increasing popularity at the time (and today) of Italian wine, vine grapes were replanted where centuries old olive tree stood before.

However like all Olivewood stroies there is an happy ending - of some sort.
Rather than burn or shred the wood, as many growers did, an enterprising group of artisans preserved it.

The result of this can be seen in almost any shop through out the Tuscany. The character rich wood is now a days in almost every Tuscan kitchen, decorating all sorts of homes and shops.







*The quality of the olives has not been adversely affected.

"One Lattea, one Latte and a decaf please"

Things I heard/saw recently;

One Lattea

In the begining there was no Lattea - in England.

Towards the late 17th century when tea became insanly expensive and favoured by anyone to have ever set his or her lips on it (and probably even more so by those who have only heared of it from a friend of a friend of a friend) milk was introduced - for better and most definetly for worst.

It was done mainly to dillute the bitter taste (my suspicion is that there were evil reasons for it being so bitter). Very soon, milk became what Mercedes, Private jets and loli pops are today, mainly a symbol of statue.

Put simply: if you had a lot of milk you were poor - (Apart from tea being expensive, I guess the quality of tea one bought was so bad one had to add the cheaper condiment - milk).
whearas the wealthy took their tea undiluted, the middle class poured the expensive tea and diluted it with a bit of milk.
The lower class filled the cup with cheap milk and then added a splash of their precious tea.

So how do you have your Lattea - do you first add the milk or tea?

One Latte

Have a look at this amazing video on Latte Art.

and a Decaf

Did you know that approximattely 80% the tea's caffeine content is released wihin the first thirty seconds of steeping?

Indeed this means that you can Decaf your own tea to enjoy at a minimum cost to flavour. *

* Please see your tea doctor for more details.