Fruit / herbal Tea

Austin_Allegro

Mint tea is easy. Just pick a few stalks and stick them somewhere airy in the kitchen to dry out. When dry, put down some newspaper and just rub the leaves from the stalks, and pour them from the paper into a jar. Use one of those teapot ball things and a strainer to make tea from them. I think dried leaves taste better than fresh actually - fresh ones can be a bit 'green' sometimes. Mint tea is supposed to be good for your digestion so I have it after meals instead of coffee.

thriftymoo

thanks to all of you for your suggestions, i never thought of just using the leaves lol! i know with a fennel you can eat all the different parts of the plant so perhaps the storks and bits could be used in it too, they all have that strong smell!

thanks penelope, i didnt realise there was another thread, my brain must have been mashed from all the googling with no luck lol!

Austin_Allegro

I love peppermint tea and grow mint (menta piperita) in a pot on my balcony, but the stuff I grow never seems to taste like the packet tea, which I much prefer.

Homegrown mint seems to have a very 'green', chlorophillic taste which although not unpleasant, is not as nice as the stuff from shops.

I've tried drying it, which makes a slightly better brew, but not much.

Any ideas? I suspect the shop-bought tea may be 'cured' in some way.

M.E.

I chopped mint and put it in a glass jar covered with lemon juice in the fridge. Seems nice to me, but then I also like fresh mint leaf tea.

dogstarheaven

you can always add a drop of honey in it to make it more palatable. i've never got on with packet herb teas as they've got that commercial taste about them (esp. the darker fruity ones - yak!) there's loads of types of mints that you can try from apple mint, spearmint (think this is the appropriate one that is commonly used for tea), pennyroyal and eau de cologne. the latter has a lovely flavour but i haven't tried it in a tea just in salad.

sunnyone

As per the title what homemade calming teas do you make, how do they last and do the ingredients make them cost affective?

I would love a reciepy for fennel and nettle tea, I currently use bags and drink two cups per day.

j.e.j.

Someone a few years ago gave us a home-made apple tissane (sp?). It tasted lovely, - I'd like to know how to make this. I wonder if you'd just dry some apple peel and infuse it..

For calming teas, there are apparently camomile plants that grow wild, I wonder if it's possible to use those. You could of course make nettle tea, but I'm not sure if it has calming properties.

booter

Dad use to make feverfew tea for his arthritis

1 teaspoon dried organic feverfew herb (Dad picked his from the garden!)
8 fl oz boiling water

Steep the feverfew leaves and flowers for 8-10 minutes, strain, reheat and sweeten with honey if desired.

I'm guessing that most herb teas are made in a similar way?

zippychick

ive merged this with our herbal tea thread

our fennel thread may also be useful

Zip