You may also enjoy experimenting by combining various herbs. Sometimes the combination of two or more herbs is a unique flavor of tea. You only need such a small amount of the herb in order to experiment by making tea. So, you do not have to worry about wasting any of the plant unnecessarily. One example of a possible combination would be Lemon Balm with Mint, or Jasmine and Chamomile.
Some have even enjoyed having a Tea Party, using their blooming flower tea herbal garden. Let your guests choose their own flavors of herbs and have fun choosing the plants and picking the leaves (or flowers, seeds, roots, stems), and combining the flavors that they wish to try. Everyone’s cup of tea will be a unique creation! Have a contest and see who can make the best cup of tea. Serve scones and little finger sandwiches and enjoy nice tea pots and tea cups.
Here are a few additional tips for using your herbs for tea:
* Do not wait too late in the day to pick your herbs for making the tea. The earlier in the morning you harvest them, the better. This is because later in the day when the temperature rises, the heat can remove some of the oils on the herb that add to its flavor.
* You may also want to collect your herbs at a time when it has not been raining. The rain, too, can minimize these precious oils on the plants.
* Most herbs have the best flavor if you collect them before their flowers have bloomed.
Once you ascertain that it is a good time to harvest some of your herbs for tea, here are some general instructions for making the herbal tea:
Herbal teas can be made with 2-3 tablespoons of fresh or dried flowers, leaves, seeds or roots. Simply cut off the portion that you need from your herb plant. The flavor is more with fresh herbs. If you are using dried herbs, then you probably will need to use double the amount. Making tea with the stems, roots, seeds or flowers of your herb is great, since these parts of the plant may otherwise be considered “not usable” for other purposes.
Once you assemble the needed amount of herbs, put them in your tea pot and pour boiling water over the parts of the plant. Let them steep there for several minutes. If the particular herb you are using is a little bit too bitter, just add honey, sugar or stevia to sweeten the flavor.
Sit back, relax, and reap yet another benefit of your herbal garden as you sip the cup of tea that you helped to create yourself, and feel the stress and tension from the day melt away.