How to make tea from your herbs

How to make tea from your herbs

There are so many uses for the herbs you grow in your garden. You use them to make your own candles, soaps, lotions, pot pouri, spices for cooking and even herbal teas. Using your herbs for healthy, steaming cups of hot tea is an easy option. You will enjoy the unique taste of the herb and also get the natural health benefits that come from this particular tea. These benefits range from reducing your stress levels to lowering your risk of cancer.

There are so many herbs that make a good pot of tea. Your options are practically unlimited. Some popular herbs enjoyed as tea include:

chamomile

Lemon balm

Catnip (not just for your cat)

Echinacea

mint

sage

jasmine

Cinnamon

Dandelion

Ginger root

Gingseng

Feel free to experiment by combining different herbs. Sometimes the combination of two or more herbs creates a unique flavor of tea. You only need such a small amount of the herb to experiment with tea. So you don't have to worry about wasting the system unnecessarily. An example of a possible combination would be lemon balm with mint or jasmine and chamomile.

Some have even enjoyed hosting a tea party with their herb garden. Let your guests choose their own herbal flavors and have fun choosing the plants and picking the leaves (or flowers, seeds, roots, stems) and combining the flavors they want to taste. Every cup of tea will be a unique creation! Have a competition and see who can make the best cup of tea. Serve scones and pinky sandwiches and enjoy beautiful teapots and teacups.

Here are some additional tips for using your herbs for tea:

* Don't wait too late in the day to pick your herbs to make the tea. The earlier you harvest them in the morning, the better. This is because later in the day, as the temperature rises, the heat can remove some of the oils on the herb that contribute to its flavor.

*You may also want to collect your herbs at a time when it has not rained. Rain can also minimize these precious oils on the plants.

* Most herbs have the best flavor if you collect them before their flowers bloom.

If you've determined that it's a good time to harvest some of your herbs for tea, here are some general instructions for making the herbal tea:

Herbal teas can be made with 2-3 tablespoons of fresh or dried flowers, leaves, seeds, or roots. Simply cut off the portion you need from your herb plant. The taste is more with fresh herbs. If you use dried herbs, you will probably need to use double the amount. Making tea with the stems, roots, seeds, or flowers of your herb is great, as these parts of the plant may otherwise be considered “unusable” for other purposes.

Once you have assembled the required amount of herbs, place them in your teapot and pour boiling water over the plant parts. Let them sit there for a few minutes. If the herb you use is a little too bitter, simply add honey, sugar, or stevia to sweeten the taste.

Sit back, relax and reap another benefit of your herb garden as you sip the cup of tea you created and feel the stress and tension of the day melt away.