Getting a cold? The flu? Quick! Drink some matcha!

My good friend, Karen, started a green tea company a few months ago. The sort of tea she sells in the kind used in the japanese tea ceremony...and green tea ice cream. It's a very intensely vegetal tasting tea. You can cook with it, make a latte with it, or use it in the traditional japanese way - as a post-meal digestif.

Last week, I was pretty sure I was getting sick. Achy, sore throat, tired. So, I went to bed early and in the morning, I made a thermos of hot milk and matcha tea - like a big, warm latte. Now, one of the magical qualities of matcha is the sustained release of the intense caffeine and you digest the tea. Because matcha is created from ground up tea leaves dried and then mixed with water, not just those leaves immersed quickly in water like a regular black tea, it has a much more intense caffeine.

All I can say, is that I'm better. I had a totally productive work day, not feeling at all like I had been the day before. My conclusion: Matcha saved my life. I could have taken fatally ill.

So go buy lots of matcha. For yourself. Your loved ones. Your familial holiday obligations. Go on, do it.