Archive for November, 2007

Peach and Apple tea with Cane Sugar (Ito En)

Published November 23rd, 2007 in food and tea. 2 Comments

Yeah, I’ve been trying a lot of new teas lately, but these have topped the others. At around $1 a bottle (on sale), it’s a little more pricey than most, but you get what you pay for. No high-fructose corn syrup, just good old fashioned cane sugar. The tea tastes great, but since the sweetness is not overwhelming (like a lot of bottled teas), you can drink a lot of it and not feel sick to your stomach.

Ito En Apple and Peach Tea

On the website of Ito En, they have several other flavors like Apricot, Cranberry, Lemon, Mango, Raspberry, Orange, Pear, and Grape. Ito En is a Japanese Tea company that specializes in Green Tea products. Read more on wikipedia.

Ito En Apple and Peach Tea

On the Apple Tea label (website):

An all natural, sweetened black tea brewed with the finest Sri Lankan tea leaves, blended perfectly with apple, delivers a purely enchanting taste like no other. Caffeine Content: Approximately 45 mgs per 16.9 fl oz bottle.

Ingredients:
Purified Water, Natural Cane Sugar, Black Tea, Natural Flavoring, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Apple Juice Concentrate.

Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size: 8 fl oz (240 mL)
Servings per container about 2
Amount per Serving
Calories 70

% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.0g0%
    Saturated Fat 0g0%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 15mg1%
Potassium 0mg0%
Total Carbohydrate 17g6%
    Dietary Fiber 0g0%
    Sugar 17g 
Protein 0g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 40%
Calcium 0%Iron 0%

Not a significant source of calories from fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, dietary fiber, vitamin A, calcium, and iron.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

On the Peach Tea label (website):

Tea Peach is an all natural, sweetened black tea blended with the perfect touch of peach to create a luscious, full-bodied taste. Caffeine Content: Approximately 45 mgs per 16.9 fl oz bottle.

Ingredients:
Purified Water, Natural Cane Sugar, Black Tea, Malic Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Natural Flavoring, Peach Juice Concentrate.

Nutrition Facts:

Serving Size: 8 fl oz (240 mL)
Servings per container about 2
Amount per Serving
Calories 60

% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.0g0%
    Saturated Fat 0g0%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 20mg1%
Potassium 0mg0%
Total Carbohydrate 15g5%
    Dietary Fiber 0g0%
    Sugar 15g 
Protein 0g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 40%
Calcium 0%Iron 0%

Not a significant source of calories from fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, dietary fiber, vitamin A, calcium, and iron.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

yadumo black tea with a triad of fruity flavor

Published November 22nd, 2007 in food and tea. 0 Comments

Yadumo Black Tea

Found this tea at a discount grocer and was pleasantly surprised by the taste. if you close your eyes, and try really hard, you can taste the apricot. you can taste the peach. and ultimately, you can taste the honeydew melon. because the Orient Emporium Tea Company would even think to use honeydew to flavor this tea, this is probably my favorite bottled tea right now. by adding peach and apricot they gave this tea a fruity-flavor explosion!

Orient Emporium Tea Company is a brand of Cott Beverages, the company that makes RC Cola and Vess sodas (St. Louis Area). This was the first time I had ever heard of this tea, but it was a very positive experience. There is one weird thing about it — the unique aftertaste. More of the feeling — a tingling, acidic feeling — like I just had a vitamin C tablet. Also a hint of black pepper. Probably just the Citric Acid, but it is rather strong.

yadumo black tea with a triad of fruity flavor

From the ingredient label:

Filtered Water, High Fructose Cord Syrup, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, Black Tea, Sodium Hexametaphosphate,
Potassium Citrate, Potassium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate (preservatives), Calcium Disodium EDTA (To Protect Flavor)

I’d buy it again. Still have no idea what yadumo means.

PERL script that does a search and replace on all files in folder

Published November 15th, 2007 in programming. 0 Comments

Here is a script I wrote a few days ago to make a mass change to one of my sites. I write PERL scripts often, but this one seems like one that I’ll be using again in the future.

Copy this PERL script to the folder you want to process. A backup will be made of all changed files.

For more regular expressions that you can use, search the regular expressions library: http://regexlib.com/

# Takes all files in folder (filter by filename), and uses regular expression to find a string to replace.
# If string exists, it makes a backup (appends .bak extension) and does replacement
@files = <*>;

# regular expressions allowed

# only change these files, $filefilter = "*" for all files
$filefilter = "\.php";  

$searchfor = "google\.com";
$replacewith = "strivingafterwind\.com";

foreach(@files){
	$filename = $_;
	if($filename =~ /\.php$/i){

		open(MYINPUTFILE, "<$filename");
		@all = <MYINPUTFILE>;
		close(MYINPUTFILE);

		$completefile = join("",@all);

		if($completefile =~ /$searchfor/s)
		{
			$backupfilename = $filename.".bak";
			rename($filename, $backupfilename) || die "Couldn't rename: $filename to $backupfilename!\n"; 

			$completefile =~ s/$searchfor/$replacewith/gs;
				# /g to replace all occurances.
				# /s for single line mode (since the file is all one string now)

			#print $completefile;
			open(MYOUTPUTFILE, ">$filename");
			print MYOUTPUTFILE $completefile;
			close(MYOUTPUTFILE);
		}
	}
}

Since I’m running this scripts in Windows, you might need to add the perl shebang (”#!/usr/bin/perl”) at the top if you plan to run this on linux.

xylitol - the magical sugar

Published November 1st, 2007 in food. 4 Comments

during a dentist visit, I was chatting with an assistant about chewing gum. she explained how gums like trident and spry not only loosen food stuck to your teeth and cause you to salivate more (saliva = good, it neutralizes acids), but since they contain xylitol, they can prevent cavities if you chew them after every meal.

The icing on this cavity-reducing cake? Xylitol is a sugar alcohol, so it tastes sweet and makes your mouth feel cool and fresh. So finally, a dentist-approved reason for chewing gum all the time. So I checked the candy isle to see if I could find some trident with this magical sugar in it, and there it was, in plain sight:

Trident, With Xylitol

Xylitol’s awesomeness does not stop there. I’m presenting the reasons I think xylitol is so awesome. xylitol is pronounced like Xylophone. you’ll need to know this when you tell your friends and family how awesome it is.

xylitol is a warrior against bacteria.

so you have probably have bacteria feasting on your teeth right now. bacteria loves sugar, and xylitol is no exception. except when they feast on xylitol they get an unpleasant surprise because xylitol does not contain the nutrition that a growing bacteria needs to become big and strong. in fact it starves the bacteria.

xylitol, the silent killer. of bacteria that is.
Bacteria loves xylitol

you can shoot xylitol up your nose to prevent bacteria infections

perhaps this applies to other body parts too, but so far, I am only aware of nasal wash being readily available. google it. can’t say that about other sugars.

xylitol won’t cause brain damage or cancer

studies have been done to prove xylitol is harmless to humans, and for what its worth, the FDA has approved xylitol as a sweetener, even giving it the safest rating that a food additive can get.

the only known side-effect of xylitol is it acting as a laxative in large quantities.

warning: don’t feed to dogs. it can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) and even liver failure. its bad news for dogs. even one pack of trident.

and this is not to say other sugar substitutes cause brain damage and cancer, but if you are interested, you can read more about aspartame (a.k.a. Nutrasweet or Equal) and saccharine (a.k.a. Sweet ‘N’ Low) on wikipedia:

Aspartame Controversy
Saccharin and Cancer

to prevent brain damage and cancer, i never had aspartame or saccharine as a kid. love ya mom!

xylitol can be used to combat constipation

if you can get your hands on enough of it, xylitol can act as a laxative. around 30-40 grams a day should do the trick.

xylitol has fewer calories than sugar

….about 40% fewer calories than sugar. that means you could eat 1 cup of sugar at about 770 calories OR 1 cup of xylitol at about 462 calories. after a year, that is 281,050 calories of sugar (80 pounds) versus 168,630 calories (48 pounds) of xylitol. by substituting xylitol for sugar, you could lose 32 pounds!

fight bacteria and weight gain at the same time. and constipation, if you are really eating 1 cup a day.

xylitol in your clothes makes you cool

yes, you can currently buy clothes that have xylitol in them. from a clothing website:

Xylitol, which is manufactured from natural white birch or corn, absorbs the heat of perspiration…Regardless of the ambient temperature, Xilitol-impregnated Very Cool clothing lowers body heat by 3 degrees for cooler play.

can other non-magical sugars do that?

xylitol on wikipedia
xylitol.org

Categories

Calendar

November 2007
S M T W T F S
« Oct   Dec »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Random Image

Grand Central Station

Now Reading

None