Tea Gschwendner : Ritzy as Its Name!

"Make things happen, explore distant shores, and most of all, drink tea."

With this philosophy,  Albert Gschwendner and his wife Gwendalina turned their dreams of a teashop into a reality in 1978.

And it was this tea shop that I discovered in the middle of a very dull country. Because if there is anything that can bring me joy in Riyadh, is discovering a new cuisine or an exquisite food shop.

Gschwendner was one of them and it is now on my Top list to see and check every time I am in the Kingdom tower doing some shopping.

Gschwendner. Yep, it is German. And I admit that the name is a bit hard to pronounce and actually google later when I wanted to write this post. But this name turned out to be as lavish as the products inside!

The small shop in the kingdom is in the ground floor, and you can see a teapot boiling outside as if greeting you to come inside and explore a new world of Tea leaves. And this is exactly what happened. The teapot was enough to attract me inside and discover this Tea Haven!

Hundreds of Tin drawers with different types of dried  tea leaves from around the world!

And another thing that caught my attention, was a small stand with brochures. There it was the " Book of Tea". I grabbed it. And asked the salesman if I can take it with me. He welcomely acknowledged that and poured some tea for me and my family.

The Secret to Enjoying the Perfect Cup of Espresso from Daria Illy

A guest blog post from Darine Sabbagh*

 A few weeks back I had the pleasure of personally meeting Daria Illy, the grand daughter of Francesco Illy, who started Illy Cafe and also invented the first automatic espresso machine for all of us to enjoy. Because Illy want to bring pleasure through their coffee, Daria explained to each of the attendees personally how a great shot of espresso should look like. 

Coffee is an art 

So here are her tips for the perfect cup of espresso and how to drink it:

Matteh, A Healthy Traditional Drink

Throw away your energy drinks! Matteh is much better! 

In winter, our house was like a walk-in industrial freezer. So we had to keep ourselves warm with a heater, and surely with food and drink.
Cocoa milk, hot custard, rice and milk ( riz bi haleeb) were always there to keep us warm and give us energy. Not to mention the whole set of hot drinks, green tea, black tea, zhourat ( i.e flower mix ), rosemary tea, ..and finally Yerba Mate.
Yerba mate was our afternoon tradition, sipping it while eating a chocolate bar aside!
Even during Ramadan, mom made it custom for us after we break our fast to drink matteh ( the lebanese pronunciation). Drinking quinched our thirst, rehydrated our bodies, gave us energy and eased digestion!
Below will be the scientific proofs for all what we felt after drinking it.

History:

Yerba mate has indeed an exquisite history. It is not Lebanese. It is originally a South American drink:

• The Guarani peoples of South America were the earliest to harvest and drink yerba mate.  
• They considered the yerba tree a gift of the gods and they called it the "drink of the gods".  
• Yerba Mates was part of their rituals and as used as a currency of exchange with the Incas and the Charruas. 
•  Every part of the preparation and drinking of yerba mate is in fact a ceremony or ritual.
• When the Spanish conquistadors came to Argentina early in the 16 th century and found the indigenous people drinking yerba mate, they tried the tea, liked it, and learned how to brew the tea.
• This created a demand for the tea all over Europe and by the 1600s the Jesuits were harvesting and cultivating it on yerba mate plantations. It was called the "Tea of Jesuits".

Today it is being cultivated on plantations in parts of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Many attempts have been made to cultivate the herb in similar areas on other continents, but outstandingly they have all failed.
The custom of yerba mate from processing to consumption has basically remained unchanged from early times.
The huge Lebanese diaspora that reside all over the world and mostly in South America, brought this drink and habit to Lebanon when they came back.
Drinking matteh or yerba mate in Lebanon is mostly common among those who reside in the mountains.

Nutritional Content:

Energy Drinks Popularity.. I Blame Marketing

“It is approaching midnight and the student’s eyes about to shut down but there is still few important chapters left for his 8 am final. He decides on over-nighting. But coffee won’t have any effect as he already had 3 today. Perhaps, he will grab a Redbull.” This normal scene happens every time the finals period creeps in the lives of college students.

Perhaps I am not a nutritionist to judge.  But a food technologist do know what a product is made of: mostly affeine and the amino acid taurine, and both of these may have dangerous consequences for the heart when taken together. Read more ). So energy drinks' subject is like the anti-smoking campaigns by  health practitioners!Thus,  you will always hearing me lobby against  energy drinks in the social scene.
Every time I see my friends grabbing this energy drink (

مشروب الطاقة), my food awareness comes alive ....My friends suffer from me, but I would be saving them ...

A Mania ? Or a Savior?  Find Out Below