The Ultimate Tea Diet

A couple years ago a friend and I waxed philosophically about starting a tea business - not because either one of us was particularly passionate about tea, mind you. We just thought it would be a timely business opportunity. We wanted to create a health conscious, tea-focused answer to Starbucks. We thought there would be a huge U.S. market for tea, as there is elsewhere on the globe.

Look, I like tea and I'm well aware of its many purported health benefits, but I usually only seek it out when I have a cold or feel under the weather. I reach for my coffee mug instead of my tea cup 99 percent of the time.

Maybe it's time to change.

When the Parent Blogger Network gave me the opportunity to review a new book called The Ultimate Tea Diet, I took it as a sign.

The universe is trying to tell me to kick my coffee habit and cleanse my body with tea.

"Dr. Tea" is telling me to do that too.

In his book, Mark Ukra aka Dr. Tea, owner of a tea shop in Los Angeles, explains the many health benefits of tea, with detailed sections on how tea affects weight loss and how the reader can incorporate tea into a healthy diet plan. He includes some disturbing caffeine facts about coffee [slurp], and dozens of recipes and tips for brewing and cooking with tea.

If you're already passionate about tea, The Ultimate Tea Diet will fuel those passions even more and reinvigorate your tea consumption in new and different ways. (Oven-roasted tea tomatoes, anyone? Tea Crab Salad in Endive Leaves?)

If you're trying to nix a coffee habit and searching for a new addiction, you, too, might love this book.

If you're like me, after you're done kicking yourself in the shin for not becoming "Dr. Tea" first, you'll find the book interesting and compelling. You'll briefly consider detoxing your body with gallons of tea. You'll go as far as making a tray of tea ice cubes.

And then you'll brew up an extra dark pot of shade grown, certified organic, fair trade coffee. Caffeinated. [slurp]