Check It. Tazo Zen tea.

Green tea is often touted as a healthy alternative to coffee--but I find it difficult to choose green tea over coffee.

After a long and emotional weekend, I found myself at LAX early Monday morning about to board a cross-country flight. And in a long line at the airport Starbucks. I was majorly sleep-deprived and needed revitalization, but somehow didn't see relief coming from a strong and steamy Americano. I opted for a Venti Iced Green Tea (they use Tazo's "Zen" green tea). Wow. It was so refreshing and delicious, I made involuntarily "yum" noises. Slight hints of lemon, and the use of spearmint leaves, make all the difference in this outstanding green tea.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: stylehive.com

Check It. Honesty Day.

Today, April 30, is Honesty Day. Ok, so it's not one of the major holidays, but if I can "celebrate" a holiday by drinking delicious organic iced tea, I'm going to go there.

Before you take a sip of Honest Tea's Heavenly Lemon Tulsi tea, you can smell in the clove-like aroma of the tulsi how good it's going to be. It's one of the newer products for the brand, first introduced last fall, and I think it will be a keeper.

Native to India, tulsi is also called "holy basil", and is one of the most important plants used in Ayurvedic medicine, and is grown around Hindu temples. Dr. Andrew Weil notes the herb's importance for treating stress, "The most compelling evidence I've reviewed indicates that holy basil may counteract the effects of stress."

And who doesn't love some good lemon in iced tea? Heavenly Lemon Tulsi contains lemongrass and lemon peel (as well as lemon myrtle, lemon juice concentrate, and lemon extract--all organic).

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: the BEAT

Eat Out. Loveless Cafe.

Hello from Nashville, Tennessee! The Loveless Cafe stands out even among the abundance of delicious food available in the south. They're famous for their biscuits made from scratch by Carol Fay. Check her out (and her Got Biscuits? T-Shirt) on Conan. The buttery beauties are served before every meal at Loveless, with homemade preserves--strawberry, peach, and blackberry. Breakfast is served all day, but their lunch and dinner options are enticing enough to turn down pancakes for. Juicy fried chicken, salty country ham, fried okra, hash brown casserole, macaroni and cheese, hush puppies, catfish ... the list goes on. I had a BLT (toasted pale wheat bread, mayonnaise, deep green lettuce and a generous helping of crisp greasy bacon) with fried green tomatoes (yum!) and sweet iced tea--something I can't get enough of. You literally have to say "unsweet tea" here if you want what we in L.A. consider "iced tea". The whole menu is comfort food precisely how you hope for it in Dixie.

If you haven't had enough by the time you leave the cafe, there's a gift shop next door which sells everything from magnets to preserves to RC Cola and MoonPies, and of course the famous biscuit mix!

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: www.amyengland.net