Your garden may be full of flowers, herbs, bushes, trees, grasses, and weeds that make healthy hot teas! As much as ninety percent of a plant may be useful in tea for the taste, smell, or medicinal properties.
Try to include greens, blossoms, and herbs in your herbal tea mix. The boiling water will help release and break down important plant compounds. A tea made from greens from your garden will have a completely unique and different taste! If you like green tea, you’ll love tea from your garden.
What’s so great about drinking tea made from fresh herbs? Herbal tea includes:
- Vitamins and minerals
- Antioxidants
- Essential oils, chlorophyll, and soluble fiber
Just be sure that the herbs and greens you use are safe and clean! Avoid plants that have been sprayed with pesticides or grew along the roadside. And be sure you know a safe plant from a poisonous plant! Check the U.S. Army database of poisonous plants to be sure. www.apgea.army.mil/ento/plant.htm
Do you keep fresh herbs in your kitchen? Don’t be afraid to try them in tea. Basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, and oregano are easy to grow and can be tasty in a fresh herbal tea. Other fragrant herbs like chives, marjoram, verbena, lemon blossom, and lilac can give your tea an aromatic boost! Use greens to give your tea a strong flavor base: dandelion leaves, watercress, parsley, and birch leaves are all good greens for your tea. Dandelion leaves will give your tea a slightly more bitter taste; blackberry or raspberry leaves will give your tea some sweetness. And don’t forget flowers to give your tea flavor and color. Rose petals, dandelion blooms, pansies, lavender, carnations, and violets will round out your herbal tea.
Making your tea is as easy as adding a handful of fresh, clean greens to a big pot or coffee press and adding boiling water. Try to make half of the handful leaves or greens. The other half can be divided between fragrant herbs and colorful blossoms. Let your plants steep for a few minutes and enjoy!
More about tea from Familes.com!