One of the best parts of gardening is enjoying your harvest. One of my favorite ways to use my garden’s edible flowers and herbs is to dry them and make an herbal tea. These teas are delicious, beautiful, and fun to make. They can also be nutritious and helpful in supporting the system with minor problems such as nausea, insomnia, fever, and stress. Here’s how you can start making herbal teas yourself.
What Should I Put In My Tea?
You may have grown many beautiful tea herbs in your garden this year. Some of these herbs are often grown for medicinal purposes, while others are often included in culinary vegetable gardens and decorative flower beds.
If you’ve never made herbal tea, it’s a lot more complicated than just picking herbs. Different herbs have different important components. For example, we might use the roots of one plant while focusing on the aerial parts (leaves, flowers, and stems) of another.
Here are some common tea herbs you may be growing and which part to harvest:
- Anise-Hyssop (leaves)
- Ashwagandha (root)
- Calendula (flowers)
- Catnip (leaves)
- Chamomile (flowers)
- Echinacea (whole plant including roots)
- Feverfew (aerial parts)
- Ginger (rhizome)
- Lavender (Flowerbuds)
- Lemon Balm (leaves)
- Mint (leaves)
- Monarda (air components)
- Rose (hips and petals)
- Roselle (calyxes)
- Skullcap (aerial parts)
- Valerian (root)
Additionally, you may have fun tea ingredients on hand or can easily pick one up at the grocery store. This includes:
- Black Tea
- Cardamom
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Fennel seeds
- Green Tea
- Lemon Peels
- Nutmeg
- Orange peels
- Vanilla beans
If you’re out and about, you might want to eat the ingredients for the tea! Just make sure you are 100% sure of your identity. Also, avoid harvesting plants from uncontaminated areas.
- Elderberries
- Chicory
- Clover
- Ground Ivy
- Nettles
- Pine needles
- Raspberry leaves
- Spruce tips
How to Process Tea Ingredients
You can use fresh herbs from the garden, but if you want to make large batches of tea blends to keep around or enjoy tea out of season, you’ll need to preserve your herbs.
You can air dry many herbs, such as mint and lavender. To do so, you will need a well-ventilated area out of direct sunlight. Mint and many other herbs will dry when hung upside down in bundles from the kitchen ceiling or balcony. Avoid hanging them in places where they can be exposed to water or steam, such as a stove.
You can also place herbs in a single layer on an old window screen or similar material that allows good air circulation around it.
However, in our humid climate, it is very hardy for air-dried herbs like roselle calyxes and roots and rhizomes like ginger, echinacea, and valerian. We usually recommend cutting them into small pieces and drying them in a dehydrator.
How to Design a Herbal Tea Blend
To get started, it’s important to think about why you want to make your own tea. Are you trying to make a delicious citrusy blend to drink in the garden? Do you want to make a soothing blend to drink before bed or an energizing morning blend?
Once I have a clear understanding of my goal, I start with the Herbal Academy’s basic recommendation. Generally, they advise including:
- 3 parts basic ingredient
- 1-2 supporting parts
- 1/4-1 part of the accent ingredient
This guide is just the beginning. Start by making a batch that will make a cup or two and change the ingredients as needed.
For most recipes, I’ve found that a teaspoon makes 8 cups of tea when steeped for 5 to 15 minutes. However, you can use more or less depending on how much you enjoy your tea.
Example Herbal Tea Blends you can try
If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few basic mixes that I enjoy. You can start with these and adjust or change the ingredients according to your needs and taste.
Sleep Tea
It is a calming tea that you can drink before bed or when you are trying to relax.
- 1 cup chamomile flowers
- 1/2 cup of catnip leaves
- 1/4 cup lavender flowers
Stomach Soothing Tea
This tea helps with fainting, nausea, and motion sickness.
- 1 cup mint leaves
- 1/2 cup chamomile
- 2 TBS ginger
- 1 TBS fennel seeds
Support Iced Tea
- 1 cup of echinacea
- 1/2 cup of monarda
- 1/4 cup of orange peels
- 1/4 cup of rosehip
If you have some nice herbs coming in from the garden, it’s tea time! You can dry your herbs and create delicious, nutritious tea blends. What is your favorite tea blend?
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