The Tea Top Brew Mug makes brewing the
perfect cup of tea a snap! Photo courtesy Mighty Leaf.

Whether you’re on the go or relaxing at home, the problem has been solved by this week’s Gourmet Giveaway sponsor, Mighty Leaf Tea. They’ve created the Tea Top Brew Mug, which features a patented Tea Top lid.

To use the mug, simply fold the tea tag in half and thread the tag and string through the underside of the slit on the lid. Add hot water. Once the brew time indicated on the tea tag is reached,* just pull up on the string. This squeezes the flavorful oils from the tea into the infused beverage below and pulls the spent tea bag into a domed area, where it won’t continue brew and release bitter tannins into your cup.

*All Mighty Leaf tea bags provide this helpful advice.

The bag stays mess-free in the dome until you’re finished with the tea and are ready to clean the cup and toss the bag.

You may love the Tea Top Brew Mug so much, you’ll order them as holiday gifts.

Retail Value Of Prize: Approximately $47.00.

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Tea Section and click to enter your email address for the prize drawing.
• For more information about Mighty Leaf Tea, visit MightyLeaf.com.

You can juice up for one-fourth the calories and carbs by turning your juice drink into a sparkling juice “spritzer”:

Just fill the glass 1/4 full with fruit juice and top off with club soda or seltzer. You also can:

• Mix the recipe by using 1/2 juice and 1/2 club soda if you want more juice flavor.
• Use flavored club soda to add more flavor to the drink.
• Add a garnish of fresh fruit—lemon or lime is fine for a squeeze of citrus flavor; apple, peach or other favorite fruit provides a mini snack. A sprig of mint is another option.

“Spritzer,” by the way, comes from the German “spritzen,” to squirt or spray. Americans adapted the word around 1915-1920 to refer to adding sparkling water to give carbonation to a beverage. A wine spritzer adds club soda to wine.

Add some spritz and a wedge to your fruit
juice. Photo by Torsten Schon | IST.

Make pasta with pesto to celebrate
Columbus Day. Photo by Shyman | IST.

Yet, Columbus Day begs for an Italian dinner.

Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506), an explorer from the Republic of Genoa in northwestern Italy, voyaged four times to begin a colony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. This initiated the first widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans and was the beginning of European exploration and colonization of the Americas. (The term “pre-Columbian” refers to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and successive Europeans.)

Perhaps Spanish food should be enjoyed today as well, since Columbus’ voyages were financed by Queen Isabella of Castille, and Columbus Day is celebrated in that country as well as throughout the Americas (except for Canada).

So choose Spanish cuisine if you like; we’re planning an Italian dinner tonight—most appropriately, pasta with pesto.

• Why make pesto? Liguria, the region of Italy that is home to capital city Genoa and the birthplace of Columbus, grows superb basil; the making of pesto began there. Learn the history of pesto.
• Try this homemade pesto recipe.
• Read the history of pasta. It originated in China, traveled to Arabia and then to Sicily, where Genovese sailors brought it to mainland Italy.
• Look for pasta from Alte Valle Scrivia, a pasta-maker located in the hills above Genoa.
• See our review of the best pesto.