September 25, 2007
Fabulous Finds: "Soleful" Purpose "Eat Your Tea"
by Christine Hassler
Since Starbucks hasn’t yet come up with twenty ways to serve it, green tea remains a healthy, yet slightly boring, beverage. But what if you could eat your green tea and still get all the nutritious benefits?
On my latest trip, I was in an unfamiliar supermarket’s health food isle, looking for a snack that wasn’t just another fruit and nut bar. I stumbled upon the Tzu Thé (pronounced “Zoo-Tay”) green tea T-Bar™. Huh…green tea? I grabbed the bar to investigate the ingredients…no chemicals, no sugar, no partially hydrogenated anything and all natural ingredients. Next, I checked out the nutrition info…only 100 calories, 1 gram of fat, rich in fiber and jam-packed with minerals and amino acids. Sold! Curious to see if I could actually taste the green tea, I ripped off the wrapper like a sugar deprived kid with a taboo Snickers. It was so delicious that I actually went back into the store and bought the remaining ten bars.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the bars at my local health food store, so I went to
the Tzu Thé website (www.tzu-the.com) to see if I could order them. A half hour later, I was still perusing the site, learning more than I knew there was to know about tea (from legends of origin to preparation instructions to cancer-fighting properties), as well as the story behind Tzu Thé. And, if green tea doesn’t make your taste buds sing, you can try the other T-Bar flavors, natural rice or tropical fruit, which still contain green tea leaves without the stronger taste.
Inspired by the T-Bar, I’ve recently started grinding green tea leaves in my coffee grinder and adding it to recipes, like pancakes, smoothies, oatmeal and even salad dressing! (Okay, so I’ve gotten a little carried away, but it makes total sense!) It adds a distinct, yet subtle, flavor and is a creative way to get my 
dose of green tea anti-oxidant powers.
Finally, I have to tell you about my other “find” on the Tzu Thé website because it helped me break a bad consumption habit. A non-conscious result of my “on the run” lifestyle is taking tea to go in a disposable cup, adding my 16 ounces of trash to the world each day. I’ve tried thermoses, but the tea bags break open, creating quite a mess. But, there on the website was the portable Tzu Thé T-Buddy™, which doubles as a tea mug and a tea pot! There is a separate container for tea bags or loose tea that gives me a perfect cup of tea, hot or cold, and an easy cleanup. Very exciting discovery! Why…because now I can have my tea and eat it too!
