Growing herbs in your garden or allotment doesn’t only mean having these flavourful, health-boosting plants for your cooking. Making your own herbal teas or tisanes is a wonderful way of using nature’s healing bounty. While the process is quite simple, a little know-how can go a long way to ensuring that every cup is something special.
Making Herbal Teas
The Benefits of Herbal Teas
There are all sorts of benefits to making your own herbal teas at home. For starters, they’re chock-full of antioxidants, vitamins, and various compounds that can combat infections, reduce stress, and give your immune system a healthy boost. They’re also a great caffeine-free alternative to traditional tea and coffee.
Growing, drying, and brewing your own herbs into teas can also save money. Shop-bought teas tend to be on the pricey side, and by the time they reach your teapot, they lack much of the flavour of a freshly made brew. Plus, you can cut down on the amount of packaging you throw out.
Growing Your Own Herbs
Here are a few quick tips if you’re new to growing your own herbs to use in your kitchen:
- Choose a sunny area with gritty, free-draining soil.
- Grow your herbs in containers or raised beds, if necessary.
- Decide whether to grow from seed, cuttings, or plug plants, or to buy full-sized plants from your local garden centre or a local grower.
- Water herbs in pots every one to three days, and water herbs in the ground once a week (depending on the specific herbs, soil conditions, and climate).
- Cut your herbs regularly to promote fresh growth.
- Harvest herbs in the morning, after the dew has dried and before the sun gets too hot.
Herbs to Grow for Teas
Now that you’ve got a few basic growing tips, let’s explore a few suggestions of herbs to grow for making your own teas at home:
Chamomile: This hardy perennial is known for its cheerful flowers and distinct fragrance. You can use fresh or dried flower heads to make tea. If drying flowers, do so out of direct sunlight and store them in an airtight container. Chamomile tea helps reduce stress, encourages sleep, relieves indigestion, and enhances immunity.
Fennel: Use crushed fennel seeds to make an aromatic herbal tea with an aniseed/liquorice flavour. In addition to calming anxiety, fennel can help with acid reflux, indigestion, and other digestive problems.
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis): While you can make tea with any of the leaves on your lemon balm plant, the tips and young leaves contain the most oil. Brews made with this herb are good for anxiety, memory, and sleep.
Lemon Verbena (Aloysia triphylla): Another lemon-scented herb, lemon verbena makes a refreshing, uplifting brew. The leaves can be used to make teas that aid joint pain and constipation, and lemon verbena’s melatonin content also helps with sleeplessness.
Mint: One of the quintessential flavours of the Middle East, mint tea is incredibly versatile, thanks to the hundreds of varieties that are incredibly easy to grow. Mint teas are good for anxiety, colds, nausea, stomach upsets, memory loss, and freshening the breath.
Rose: Use rose hips and petals to make a delicately flavoured, fragrant herbal tea. If using rose hips, harvest them and crush them slightly before brewing them for a fruity, slightly sour tea packed with vitamin C.
Rosemary: There’s more use for growing rosemary than to season roast lamb! Use this powerful herb to make teas that boost memory, focus the mind, ease indigestion and joint pain, soothe the nerves, and improve circulation.
Sage: Use sage to make an aromatic tisane bursting with antioxidants. Sage is good for soothing sore throats, heartburn, and hot flashes, and it can boost memory and improve sleep.
Thyme: Rich in vitamins A and C, herbal tea made with thyme supports wellbeing and is a natural remedy for colds. Some people also swear by it as a hangover cure.
Wild herbs: Often regarded as little more than weeds, some wild herbs make excellent teas. Dandelion flowers, leaves, and roots make an excellent tea rich in beta-carotene, Vitamin C, and various minerals, which you can drink as a detoxing diuretic to support liver health. Or, if you’re one of the 20 million people in the UK living with allergies, you can use nettles to make a tea rich in vitamins, iron, and other minerals, antioxidants, and polyphenols, and drink it as an antihistamine. Nettle tea is also good for anaemia, blood pressure, circulation, digestion, eczema, and joint pain.
How to Make Herbal Teas
When it comes to making the perfect brew using herbs from your garden, you’ll need a kettle of freshly boiled water, a small teapot, a cup, and a strainer. You might also want to add a little honey to sweeten your brew.
If you’re using fresh herb leaves or flowers, wash them thoroughly before putting them into the teapot. Use approximately one tablespoon for one cup of water. If you’re using dried herbs, use one teaspoon per cup. Pour off-the-boil water over them and pop the lid on the teapot to prevent the essential oils from evaporating.
Leave the herbs to steep for five to ten minutes, keeping in mind that the longer you steep them, the more bitter and stronger the flavour will be. Strain into a cup and sweeten with honey if desired.
How to Make a Herbal Decoction
If you’re using crushed bark, berries, roots, seeds, or woody stems, you need to do things a little differently to produce a decoction rather than an infusion. To make a decoction, simmer the plant material in boiling water for 20 to 60 minutes before straining and serving.
If you’re using a mix of leaves and roots, bark, berries, or seeds, simmer the roots for 20 minutes in a covered pot before removing them from the heat. Add the leaves, stir well, cover the pot, and leave it to steep for 10 to 20 minutes. Strain and serve, sweetening with honey if necessary.
Enjoy Homegrown Soothing Sips
Making herbal teas from your garden is a wonderful way to enjoy the incredible flavours, fragrances, and health benefits of these plants. It’s also a chance to get creative by making your own unique blends. Use the information above to brew the perfect pot, then sit back, relax, and enjoy!
