Tea Bags

What it is -- A variety of specialty teas with the taste of loose leaves in a convenient and disposable mesh bag. How it works --Don't bother purchasing a tea strainer, filter, steeper or any other type of device used for serving up a tantalizing cup of tea. Simply dip these gourmet tea bags into a mug filled with hot water, let the leaves seep for 3-5 minutes and voila. What we like about it --Tea makes for a healthy and hot alternative to the seasonal cup of cocoa. The large leaves, characteristic of gourmet teas, are presented in pyramid-shaped bags that allow for the immediate release of strong flavors.

Is your home ready for its close-up? You've cleared away the clutter, shampooed the carpets and repainted the walls. But selling a home in today's market may require a bit more imagination. Home stagers, who specialize in readying a home for the market, say it's important to set a scene that invites a prospective buyer to linger. Put out a board game in the family room, set the dining room table for a romantic dinner or place a bowl of apples on the kitchen counter. "Staging allows buyers to mentally envision living there," says Barb Schwarz, a Seattle real estate agent who coined the term "home staging" in 1972 and for many years has offered courses in it. Schwarz says she hit upon the notion of home staging one day when she was looking at a property in Bellevue, Wash.

Martha Stewart kept a few bottles of it on the defense table during her federal trial in New York. Ben Affleck drank it during an interview with Playboy. Teen-agers gulp it out of giant bottles with trippy graphics. And ladies-who-lunch sip it out of crystal glasses with a slice of lemon. Yes, we're talking about iced tea, the unofficial drink of summer. Around the country, iced tea is all the rage. According to Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the U.S.A., Americans spent $2 billion on ready-to-drink iced tea last year, 10 times more than we spent in 1990.

  Smoothies are an easy and healthy breakfast option. Just throw a few ingredients into your blender and in five minutes you're ready to eat. Just about every fast food restaurant has caught on to the smoothie fad and added them to  menus. If you take that route make sure you check the nutrition content. Not all smoothies are made the same. Some includes sugar-laden yogurts and sometimes even ice cream. The better option may be just to make your own smoothies at home.

Around the house* Brighten dull vinyl or wood floors quickly. Place a piece of waxed paper under a dust mop and buff floors to a shine. In addition, loose dirt will adhere to the paper.* Make a quick pitcher of iced tea. Steep tea bags by filling half of a plastic, heat-proof container with hot water. Remove tea bags and fill the remainder of the pitcher with ice cubes. Stir and serve.* Remove baked-on grease from casserole dish. Make a paste of automatic-dishwasher detergent or baking soda and water and coat the pan with a thin layer of the mixture.

Dennis Ferguson, out in Easton, remembers the old Carly Simon tune "You're So Vain" and that line about "clouds in my coffee," He says, "When I brew my tea bags on some days, it looks just like stratus clouds ... and on other days it is more circular. Can this have anything to do with the barometric pressure?" Um, no Carly's Web site says the "clouds" represent "the confusing aspects of life and love.

HOW DO YOU MAKE HOMEMADE ICED TEA? Most tea producers sell blends especially suited to serving cold. The designated iced-tea blends are more commonly found in Southern markets than in local ones, but you can make perfectly good iced tea from regular hot-tea blends. I did that with three mass-market teas: Lipton, Tetley Classic Blend and Bigelow English Teatime. But pouring hot tea over ice results in an unpalatably weak solution. To do it right, you have to cool your tea to room temperature.

As part of a nationwide tax rebellion, protesters, in a nod to the Boston Tea Party, have been sending tea bags to their representatives. The trouble is, the tea keeps getting mistaken for a hazardous substance. In Boulder, Colo., the district office of Rep. Jared Polis recently called for help after a lumpy white envelope with no return address arrived in the mail. The Boulder Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Response Team found a tea bag and a note reading "We the People, 1773." Earlier this month in Manchester, N.H., a hazmat team descended on the office of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter after employees opened an envelope marked "tax protest" and found a bunch of tea leaves.

If you're feeling under the weather these days -- from winter doldrums to full-fledged flu -- try Honey-Citrus Soother, a steaming cup of tea sweetened with honey. Place 3 tea bags (green or black) and 1 cinnamon stick in a 1-quart teapot. Add 3 cups boiling water; steep 3 to 5 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and tea bags; discard. Stir in 1 cup grapefruit juice and 1/4 cup honey. Makes 4 1/4 cups. From the National Honey Board. Hidden gems Woo your sweetheart with chocolates on Valentine's Day, and maybe an 8.8-carat diamond necklace valued at $125,000.

Tea may not be as old as water but it's still pretty old, having been around almost five millenniums. Yet it was only a century ago that tea took a turn that has earned it an especially esteemed spot on summertime tables. Fred Thompson relates the story in his book Iced Tea: 50 Recipes for Refreshing Tisanes, Infusions, Coolers, and Spiked Teas (Harvard Common Press, 2002, $10.95). As Thompson tells it, one of the exhibitors at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis was a gentleman tea plantation owner, Richard Blechynden, who planned to give away samples to fairgoers.

A new treatment for malaria - which experts say kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds - might lie in the dregs of medicinal tea formerly produced by an Ellicott City woman's company. Bad flavor might have undermined the lasting success of Diane Winn's first anti-malarial drug, a product called Phyto-Laria tea bags, which her company made until five years ago from the root of an African vine. But now, the only thing Winn hopes to taste is success as a flavorless capsule form of the same drug soon heads for clinical testing and, if approved, a product launch by year's end. Not bad for someone who graduated in 1959 with a degree in biology from tiny Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pa., and who envisioned a long career behind a microscope or as a medical illustrator.

Bessie Y. Fishman, a retired Baltimore businesswoman who was a longtime active member of Beth Tfiloh Congregation, died in her sleep July 28 at her Stevenson Village home. She had celebrated her 100th birthday last month. Bessie Yaniger, the daughter of Russian immigrant parents, was born and raised in East Baltimore near Patterson Park, above her family's grocery store. After graduating from Eastern High School in 1926, she worked as a bookkeeper at Gelfand Mayonnaise Co. In 1932, she married Albert H. Fishman, owner of L. Fishman and Son. The business, which had been established in 1919, supplied buttons and thread - including the thread used on McCormick & Co. tea bags - to Baltimore's then-burgeoning garment industry.

As part of a nationwide tax rebellion, protesters, in a nod to the Boston Tea Party, have been sending tea bags to their representatives. The trouble is, the tea keeps getting mistaken for a hazardous substance. In Boulder, Colo., the district office of Rep. Jared Polis recently called for help after a lumpy white envelope with no return address arrived in the mail. The Boulder Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Response Team found a tea bag and a note reading "We the People, 1773." Earlier this month in Manchester, N.H., a hazmat team descended on the office of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter after employees opened an envelope marked "tax protest" and found a bunch of tea leaves.

Dennis Ferguson, out in Easton, remembers the old Carly Simon tune "You're So Vain" and that line about "clouds in my coffee," He says, "When I brew my tea bags on some days, it looks just like stratus clouds ... and on other days it is more circular. Can this have anything to do with the barometric pressure?" Um, no Carly's Web site says the "clouds" represent "the confusing aspects of life and love.

I would like to try the cinnamon, lime juice and vinegar combo mentioned in your column for weight loss. What is the recipe? My husband is diabetic, so we just started using cinnamon extract made in the drip coffee-maker. How much lime and vinegar do we need to add? How much should we drink? And is the (shudder) vinegar necessary? Many readers want this recipe, and the person who came up with it agreed to share it in detail. Here is Lisa's Weight Loss Elixir: Put five decaffeinated green tea bags in 5 cups of water and bring to a full boil.

Kaye Goble of Salisbury, N.C., was looking for a recipe for her son for Mango Iced Tea. She said he was served the tea when he stayed at a bed-and-breakfast in Savannah, Ga., and found it to be very refreshing and fruity without being overly sweet. Ellen Bourdeaux of Oxford, Miss., sent in a recipe for a version of Mango Iced Tea that comes courtesy of Bobby Flay and the Food Network. The recipe is easy to prepare and quite a nice twist on regular iced tea. I had no trouble finding the mango nectar in my local grocery store.

Is your home ready for its close-up? You've cleared away the clutter, shampooed the carpets and repainted the walls. But selling a home in today's market may require a bit more imagination. Home stagers, who specialize in readying a home for the market, say it's important to set a scene that invites a prospective buyer to linger. Put out a board game in the family room, set the dining room table for a romantic dinner or place a bowl of apples on the kitchen counter. "Staging allows buyers to mentally envision living there," says Barb Schwarz, a Seattle real estate agent who coined the term "home staging" in 1972 and for many years has offered courses in it. Schwarz says she hit upon the notion of home staging one day when she was looking at a property in Bellevue, Wash.

IT IS TIME to pay back Mama. Whether the mama at the top on your payback list is your mother or your wife, there is a good chance that nothing will make her happier than being relieved of the responsibility of putting yet another meal on the table. So for anybody wondering what to do this Sunday I say, "Feed your mama." There are two ways to accomplish this. You can take her out to a restaurant or you can cook a meal yourself. If you are going the restaurant route, I have some advice: Get in line now. Mother's Day is mighty busy at restaurants, especially during brunch.