Cover Image: The Healing Powers of Tea

The Healing Powers of Tea

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Member Reviews

The Healing Powers of Tea offers a delightful blend of history, health benefits, and mouthwatering recipes, making it the perfect companion for tea lovers seeking improved well-being and a rejuvenated mind.

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My eyes have been opened to the variety of teas and there healthy benefits. I used to see tea as just a drink my mom served every night at dinner and my granny served at Sunday lunch. Now I'm using teas to help heal my body!

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I'm from a family who believes and always teach me the power of tea, so I soon as I saw this book I know would read it. Why I enjoyed the read I was kinda disappointed by the fact I felt like I was reading a very long article in a magazine.

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Being a tea drinker since I was young, I loved this book. I have always believed that tea, whether herbal or caffeinated, is helpful for several different things. I use strong black tea for headaches. It really helps. This book is a wonderful resource for tea and it's many varieties. I will use it often. I highly recommend it!

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I love tea! From the basic English Breakfast tea through a huge range of herbal tisanes and was looking forward to reading this book. The Healing Powers if Tea is filled with information on the history and use of various teas and includes many recipes for creating tasty and healthful concoctions.

An interesting and insightful look at the many different uses of tea as a health drink.

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This is a wonderfully descriptive exceptional book about the use of and benefit of teas. As one who has always had a life long love of only tea and never coffee, I found information here that was new to me and enjoyable to read about. Every type of tea and its remedies are here including recipes.
This book I highly recommend for both long term tea aficionados and people new to the health benefits of tea. A wonderful read that is a treasure for years to come.

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Very informative and instructive. Orey goes into not only how to use tea for ailments but also includes a brief history and background for each type of tea. If that isn't enough to intrigue you, Orey also includes a recipe for each type of tea at the end of each chapter. Matcha Tea Ice Cream, anyone?

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The Healing Powers of Tea by Cal Orey is a wealth of tea information. From black, green, and white teas to herbal teas, it is all covered. The book was well written with perfectly organized chapters. Thanks to Ms. Orey I have rediscovered my love of tea. I will be adding several new varieties to my pantry. The recipes and interviews sprinkled throughout added to the book rather than being a distraction. If you are a tea lover or simply curious about the benefits of tea, I highly recommend it.

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I am a huge tea drinker I feel that it can make me feel better no matter what and after reading this book I have a even bigger passion for tea! This is a fantastic book!

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If I wasn't already convinced of the benefits of tea, which I was I definitely would be now after reading this. My grandmother always drank many cups of black tea every day. I never thought anything of it or joined her in drinking it. I now wish I had. The benefits are tea are numerous and I have been drinking it for many years and my daughter who is almost 7 has been drinking it since she was 2 years old. Herbal tea for her of course, no caffeine .This book is marvelous and tells you all the health benefits of drinking different types of tea. Peppermint tea helps with upset stomachs,black tea has the most caffeine and will energize you. Tea can help you feel energized or relaxed depending on what types you drink. There is tea that may help to prevent cancers and teas are used in many healing and preventive properties. There are delicious recipes included from dinner dishes to desserts. The proper way to brew a cuppa and how to make your own tea blends is included. From cleaning to beauty products and the author's personal tea journey is included. You're going to place this on your keeper shelf and reference it over and over again for it's many benefits.
Highly recommended!
Pub Date 26 Dec 2017
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

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This is a fun and informative reference guide with lot of details on different teas and how they can help relive some symptoms in a safe and easy way.

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I recently have started to enjoy tea, but only herbal. So, large portions of this book were not helpful at all to me, but fascinating. But the sections that did apply were very helpful and educating. I learned quite a bit from this book and am excited to try catnip tea.

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I recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.
I love all things tea, and this book is no exception. The book explains different types of teas and how to make them. There's even a section for health benefits of tea. At the end of the book are tea recipes that sound fascinating.

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I found this book to be repetitive, lacking in solid information, and very dull. While I realize that some readers might find the author compelling (she has written several other books), i kept feeling as if I was reading a "padded" text. She was told to fill up x pages and so she did, by repeating the same thing over and over again.

Just when I thought we might get significant data about the healing properties of tea -- what did I find? The same old standard health advice -- eat right, exercise, lose weight -- with the addition of drink tea. If I'm told to do all those other things often to improve my health -- what does tea add? You won't find that out here.

Another form of padding here are the recipes. Although some of them are taking you beyond basic tea -- do we really have to have, in a highlighted box no less, a recipe for Sun Tea.

Excited by the idea of this book, it's slap-dash quality makes me more delighted to leave it behind.

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I drink some type of tea everyday and wanted to learn more ways to enjoy my tea. This is the exact book I needed. So much information about tea, remedies and cures recipes and delicious pairing all of which I never knew.

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I am so pleased to have gotten to preview The Healing Powers of Tea by Cal Orey. This book comes out December 26th and it is a tea lover's delight. I enjoyed this book so much I have ordered it for myself. I am so looking forward to having this book to hold in my hands! Recipes, health advice, sap treatments, oh and there are recipes too! A great gift idea, pre order this one and it will be delivered after Christmas but the Tea Lover in your life will thank you!

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[Note:  This book was provided free of charge by Net Gallery/Kensington Books/Citadel.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Most people who know me are aware of my fondness for drinking tea and, from time to time, reading and writing about it [1].  My long store of fond memories about tea include many experiences drinking the sun tea that my grandmother would brew in preparation of my arrival home from school, enjoying a fine afternoon tea in Port of Spain, Trinidad as a child on my first trip abroad, and shopping for herbal teas as gifts for friends and families.  Although I do not consider myself a tea snob, I do have definite opinions about what teas I prefer and have had the chance to drink a wide variety of teas and tisanes over the course of my life and have viewed my own personal reactions to those teas as experiments.  By and large, I drink mostly what Americans call black teas, although there are quite a few herbal teas that I am fond of as well, especially those which calm anxiety and aid in sleep, both of which are longstanding difficulties I have faced in the course of my life.  

In terms of its contents, this book has a lot to offer.  After a foreword about sweet tea, the first two chapters of this book look at tea time in the power of tea and the ancient traditions of tea.  The next three chapters serve as a testimonial of sorts for the health benefits of black tea.  After this come three chapters that look at the health benefits of white tea, a more obscure and costly drink that might be out of reach for many but not for the hipsters that are this author's target audience.  Three chapters then look at the health benefits of other types of tea--green tea, red tea, and herbal teas.  The fifth part of the book contains three chapters on the properties of tea that in the eyes of the author make it a suitable accompaniment to the Mediterranean diet, help people lose weight, and reduce the effects of aging.  The sixth part of the book looks at tea cures and home remedies, while three chapters follow giving speculations on the part of the author about the future of tea.  The book closes with two chapters on recipes that accompany or are infused by tea (some of which are included in other chapters), along with tea resources for those curious about knowing more.  Each chapter contains a variety of contents including recipes, personal stories, interviews, and points to ponder and steep on at the end.

This book is a reasonably comprehensive and chatty look at the benefits of teas from someone who modestly does not consider herself to be a tea expert but who clearly knows enough about teas to have her own opinions and her own evangelical fervor about a wide variety of teas.  Her ecumenical attitude towards teas and tisanes allows her occasionally irritating and Progressive sentiments to go down a bit easier, and thankfully she does not harp on matters of cultural politics although they do appear from time to time as she praises progressive tea drinkers, especially of the younger generation.  This book was written in a good style for the sort of work it is, and given the quality of this book, it appears likely that I will enjoy reading some of her other volumes about the health benefits of olive oil, vinegar, honey, chocolate, and other foods that I am fond of eating and choose to eat because of their health benefits given my own particularly challenging situation.  As someone afflicted with a great deal of inflammatory problems--namely an excessively sensitive digestive system and intermittent but serious gout--the anti-inflammatory properties of tea are something that I have long appreciated.  This book strives to avoid crossing over the line that would lead it to be viewed as favoring snake oil cures but the author clearly views diet (and exercise) as vital elements of a healthy life and seems particularly fond of Mediterranean and East Asian dietary pathways.  Take it or leave it, as you wish.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/07/24/book-review-the-complete-idiots-guide-to-coffee-tea/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/05/02/restaurant-review-the-old-spaghetti-factory-hillsboro-or/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016/11/08/liveblogging-the-2016-general-election/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014/11/06/sleep-an-over-determined-problem/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014/05/03/coffee-cake/

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"The Healing Powers of Tea" includes stories from the author about her experiences involving tea, some legends and trivia about tea, and some health benefits of tea. The author is a health journalist, so you'll get the type of information found in magazines: soak your feet in tea or use tea-infused tea products for a spa day. Recipes for making tea-related foods (like scones) or hints on how to use tea or tea leaves in certain foods. Trivia like the first use of tea bags, the origins of some of her favorite tea companies (like Lipton), and mentions of tea in ancient records. Interviews with Tea Masters asking things like how they got involved with tea.

She defined tea terms. She covered basic information about white, green, and black teas and tisanes (spices, fruits, and herbs). She also talked about the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet and suggested possible menus and recipes to pair with your tea. She talked about how people use tea for weight loss, anti-aging, and in beauty products. She had a section on using tea for 50 health conditions, but the information tended to be repetitive. For example, tea is anti-inflammatory, so she recommended it for a variety of inflammatory conditions. She had a new entry for each condition and just repeated her advice each time, but with a new personal story tacked on about how well it worked for her.

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What a great book. So much information about so many different teas.
I never knew how much a cup of tea could mean. From detoxing to relaxing.
This is my new go to book when I want or need a special cup of tea.
Now to go shopping for a new wider selection of teas.
Highly recommended. A must buy.

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