There are many different types of herbal preparations; all equally as fun to make the easiest being an herbal tea! Now many of you know how to make a tea but do you know how to craft your own tea?
Making a great quality herbal tea involves a basic knowledge of plants and their tastes, if you’re making a medicinal beverage then you would want to go a little bit deeper in the knowledge of plants, but let’s just keep it simple for right now.
Herbal Tea or a Tisane?
When we use the word Tea, what we’re actually referring to is a specific plant named Camilla sinensis. This is your common black tea, white tea, green tea, oolong tea etc. Any “Tea” comes from the Camilla sinensis plant.
An herbal tea is actually a Tisane. So why do we use the word “tea” when it comes to an herbal tea? I think many people use the word tea because its more well known, if you think about using the word Tisane with someone who knows nothing of the herbal world you may get some funny looks.
So for the rest of this article I will be using the word “tea”.
Choose Quality Over Convenience
When you first think of an herbal tea you’re probably thinking of a little box in the grocery store with bags in it. It’s a convenient way of drinking your tea, but there is a downside to making it this way. Have you ever opened one of those little packages? The herbs in those little bags are cut up so small, which means more surface space exposed to air, and that means that the plant looses it’s medicinal qualities much quicker.
Let’s digress a little; when purchasing any herbs whether it’s online or in a store, or even those little tea bags on the shelf, you want to make sure that the herb closely resembles the plant itself. It needs to be vibrant in color, taste and smell. Some companies even go as far as adding in artificial flavoring to their teas. Now that’s not OK with me and that’s why I make my own teas.
You can make teas from fresh or dried herbs. Most people like to use dried herbs because of the convenience of it. Today I’m going to talk about using dried herbs because it is the most accessible. If I have to buy dried herbs, my favorite places to buy them is Frontier Co-Op or Starwest Botanicals. Alternatively if you don’t want to purchase in bulk you could purchase from my shop here at Earth Made Herbals or Rosemary’s Garden which provide 1 ounce sizes.
Beverage Blend
Don’t go in blind thinking “well it came from a plant how harmful can it be?”
Knowing about the herbs you use before hand is always best when creating a beverage blend or even a medicinal tea. But where do you start? I would start with each herb individually and go from there. Brew yourself a tea of each herb and do a taste test. See how you like it and write down any flavors or energetic qualities it may have (cooling, warming, drying etc.)
After you have established what the flavor of the herb is, while drinking your herb, learn about the medicinal qualities it may have and see if you notice anything yourself. Always make sure you know something about the herb before making a tea with it. An herb like Lobelia can cause vomiting if you take too much so just be careful, stick with herbs that are safe (not saying that Lobelia isn’t safe) but just having a general feel for what herbs your going to use is best, don’t go in blind thinking “well it came from a plant how harmful can it be?”
Next after learning about your herbs and what everything tastes like it’s time to make a beverage blend. Go back and look at the notes you took and see which flavors would blend nicely together. Always start small just in case it doesn’t taste like you’d hope. Mix a little of each herb together and make a tea out of it.
Notice the flavors blending together, does it taste good? maybe it needs more of something? play around with it. If your still not sure about making your own blends, check out some of your favorite tea blends and read whats in it. Try making it the same way.
We’ve all got to start somewhere.
Crafting Your Tea
Grab a small bowl and mix your herbs according to taste remember you won’t want a tea that is overpoweringly sweet or way too bitter no one will drink it.
Using parts as your measurement is the easiest way I know to calculate how much herb you should use in your formulas
You can measure by part using a measuring spoon or by calculating grams or ounces
Now put all your herbs together in a bowl; mix then boil that water!
Get the nicest mug you own and a tea strainer; place your just made tea blend in your tea strainer and place that in your mug; poor boiling water over your tea and voila!
You just crafted your own tea! Congratulations!
Now take a moment to sip your delicious beverage blend!
The beautiful thing about making a beverage blend is that you don’t need to have accurate measurements like you do with a medicinal blend. You can add flowers just for the color they provide. Making an appealing tea blend is just as important as the taste.
Always keep a notebook near by and write down how much of each herb you put in your blend. I’ve made a few blends on a whim and forgot to write down the formula, boy do I regret that because they usually turned out pretty darn good!
Medicinal Tea
Don’t go into an herb book and look at all the herbs that are good for the flu and think I’ll just throw in a little of this and a little of that
So now it’s on to making a medicinal tea. This is a lot easier (in my opinion) then making a beverage blend because you don’t have to worry about the flavor as much. Or you can, it’s entirely up to you.
What I like to do when making a medicinal blend is thinking about who it’s for and what it’s for. Don’t go into an herb book and look at all the herbs that are good for the flu and think I’ll just throw in a little of this and a little of that and it should be good. You need to know how the person feels, do they have a fever, is their skin hot or cold? is their nose runny or dry? are they coughing? is it productive or non productive?
Making sure to know all this beforehand will help you to determine what herbs to add to your medicinal tea. So once you’ve figured out what this tea will be for, now is the time to create a medicinal tea.
Creating a Medicinal Tea
Medicinal teas are different from your regular teas because you want it to be medicinal right? So your not going to steep your tea for the normal 5 minutes, your going to cover the tea (because you don’t want the volatile oils to escape, that’s medicine!) and let it steep for at least 20 minutes. Steeping longer ensures you get the medicinal properties of the herb into the water.
If your helping treat an acute condition, like the flu mentioned above, then what I do is make a big pot of it. You don’t want to constantly be making a small cup of tea, especially if your the one who’s sick. I then will take small sips of it throughout the day until all of it’s gone or I’m feeling better.
I hope all of this was understandable and that you will try making your own teas! It’s really fun and the possibilities are endless. If I missed anything or if you don’t understand something please leave a comment and I will do my best to help you.
I will make another post just for herbal formulation which requires a little more information. But for now enjoy making your tea blends!
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