The Art of Formulating Herbal Teas and a Recipe for Women's Everyday Tea
The thing that really brought me into the herbal world is my love of tea. Cup of tea, be it hot or cold is something I enjoy year round. I make multiple cups a day. If I have a work project going on I just brew up my biggest post of tea and the tap flowing! Now, not everyone loves tea, but I think that’s because they haven’t found the plant combinations that resonate with them.
Camillia sinensis which more commonly know as ”Tea” is the plant that black, green and white teas are all made from. Some people stick with only this plant for all their tea needs from Earl Grey and Darjling to Gyokuro and silver needle. The choices are endless. Tea is much like wine, beer, chocolate and cigars, you can become a connoisseur if you explore enough.
I’m not here to talk about the splendid Camillia today though. Today I want to dive into herbal teas.
In today’s online market you can find some pretty spectacular herbal teas. Even the local grocery stores have some decent bagged teas. You can get rooibos chai or mango passionfruit, chamomile and honey to echineaca and elderberry. I consider mushrooms teas part of herbal teas as well. There are some awesome mushroom blends now like chaga and lions mane.
Though I can find all these amazing teas out there, I still prefer to make my own. Maybe it’s the creative person in me, but formulating my own tea is like painting. A great herbal tea starts before you even smell it or taste it. A great tea should be visually appealing. I try to grow or locally source as many of my herbs has possible. That way they are fresh and mostly in whole form. From a flavor and medicinal point of view, the newer and wholer the plant material, the more flavor and nutrients it will contain. I have no idea when the store bought tea I get was bagged and then put in a box and put on a shelf. Was it stored in hot delivery truck for hours or days? Was It ground to powder before they put it in a bag?
When you formulate your own tea you’ll know by sight what parts are in it. From leaves and flower petals to pieces of roots and barks.
Next in a good tea is of course the smell and flavor. Smell and taste go hand in hand. If you can’t smell it, mostly likely it doesn’t have much flavor as the essential oils are gone. When you open a jar of tea it should smell bright and fresh. Not dull or musty.
If you are making a tea just for drinking enjoyment this is called an infusion. Try mixing some different leaves with flower petals or mix together a few roots and bark. My favorite sun tea mix is hibiscus and lemon verbena. While my favorite roots and barks tea is birch, sassafras and wild cherry.
Mix up your teas in small amounts the first time and write it down and give them a try.
Special note: Leaves and flowers steep for a much shorter time than roots and barks. So don’t over do it with steeping unless it’s a cold brew. Leaves and flowers you can steep for anywhere bettween 3-5 minutes. Roots and barks 10-30 depending on what they are.
Women’s Everyday Tea Recipe
This tea is my go to for everyday health. It’s full of leaves, and flowers that are rich in essential vitamins and minerals, from nettles and ladies mantle to calendula and milk oat tops, this tea will help support your body in it’s everyday needs. (Men can drink it too, it’s just formulated with female organs in mind.) The flavor is verdant and floral.
Ingredients:
1/2 part nettles
1/2 part ladies mantle
1/4 part vita (chaste tree berries)
1/4 hawthorne leaves and flowers
1/4 milky oat tops
1/4 oat straw
1/4 red clover flowers
1/4 calendula petals
Materials:
large bowl
measuring implents (cups or spoon)
container with a lid to seal your tea in
How to:
You’ll see I’ve listed the ingredient measures in parts. This is so you can scale up or down with your recipe. I use measuring cups for mine which is easy. You may choose to use measuring spoons if you are making a single serving. I like to make a quart jar’s worth at a time as that lasts me about a month.
Have all your ingredients ready. Measure them out in the large bowl and then mix with clean dry hands or with a spoon until everything is evenly distributed. Then carefully transfer your tea mix to the jar and close the lid. You are done!
When I brew up a pot of this tea I use 1 tablespoon for two cups. I bring the water to a boil and then turn it off and steep for about 10 minutes. I then add a splash of unsweetened plant milk. If you prefer sweet teas feel free to add some honey as well.
If you try this let me know how you liked it in the comments below.
