The tropical cashew tree is an evergreen plant responsible for the production of the cashew seed, the lesser known cashew fruit and is native to the Amazon forests of Brazil. The majority of cashew nuts are produced commercially in India, Vietnam and Africa. The cashew fruit, known as the cashew ...

Chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans, belong to the legume family and are among the most easily digested thanks to their thin shell. You probably know that your beloved hummus (or houmous) is made from chickpeas, but did you know that they were used as an alternative to coffee in the 18th century? They've ...

The kola nut is a seed from a tree of the Sterculiaceae family, with the most prominent species being Cola Vera, Cola acuminata and Cola nitida. This tree is believed to be the first tree on Earth by certain Nigerian tribes. If you feel as though you've never heard of this valuable seed, you may be ...

Basil seeds, also known as 'sabja seeds' or 'sweet basil seeds', come from the well-known basil plant. Originating in India, the many health benefits and uses of these small black seeds has spread across to other countries in Asia. High in vitamins and minerals, they have been used for centuries to ...

Most of you will have done yoga but only a few of you will have turned the intensity up a notch and given Bikram yoga a go. Bikram refers to the founder of the practice 'Bikram Choudhury' a yoga guru from India and involves 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises in a room heated to 42 degrees with ...

Commonly believed to be a grain and prepared and eaten like one, quinoa or 'Chenopodium quinoa', is in fact a seed botanically speaking and is a relative of spinach and chard. The plant is indigenous to South America, originating in the mountainous area surrounding Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia ...

Matcha tea is certainly among the new wave chiefs when it comes to hot drinks with some folks drifting away from coffee to get their caffeine kick by drinking matcha shots. For some of you who don’t exactly know what matcha tea is, it is a special form of Japanese green tea which has been at ...

I can’t function without my morning cup of joe, but sometimes it’s just not feasible. Maybe you have an early morning class and your stomach doesn’t take well to energy drinks when empty. Maybe you’re in the middle of a run, far away from a café; besides, running + tea in hand = disaster waiting to ...

Kombucha has been renowned as the ‘elixir of life’ due to it’s flowering number of health benefits. This currently very trendy health tonic is readily available to buy in health stores, and has even been spotted in Waitrose supermarkets. It is a fermented tea drink, made up of black or green tea, ...

Native to the ecoregion known as The Amazon Basin, Guarana (pron: g'wara-naa) is a climbing plant which produces a reddish brown fruit. The seeds from this fruit are ground down into powder form and are regularly used as a dietary supplement. The Guarana plant is categorised into the ‘Acer genus’ ...