Teas and hot beverages made from herbs are great drinks for winter, relaxing, or managing your health. In fact, if you choose the right herbs, you can have almost as much vitamin C as a glass of orange juice. The options for creating freshly brewed tea and drinks from your herbal tea garden are almost limitless.
Herbs are easily grown on a windowsill or potted and placed on a sunny patio where they look fantastic and add a cheerful atmosphere to your place.
Once the herbal tea garden is established and growing, all you need to do is pluck off a few leaves, flowers, or buds and steep them in boiling water. Then simply let the leaves or flowers sit in recently boiling water for two to five minutes and then strain into your cup. By this process you are trying to extract the oils of the herbs, so it is best to take a stroll in your herbal tea garden and pick the leaves in the late morning when there is the largest oil concentration. On that same note, you should also pinch the leaves right before immersing them in water to help with releasing of the oils.
A hot cup of tea is a good accompaniment to desserts and is also a traditional stand alone beverage for entertaining. Some herbs from your herbal tea garden have medicinal properties that are released through the boiling process. For instance, lavender is known to relieve headaches. Rosemary can lift your spirits out of a depression, as can St. John Wort. Violets add a splash of colour to the herbal tea garden and are full of vitamins A and C and will help ward off a cold. Another amazing hot herbal tea is made from sea-buckthorn berries; this tea has a citrus-like flavor and gives out vitamin C, so if you brew some sea-buckthorn with stevia, you obtain a high flavor - no calorie tea.
Another gift from an herbal tea garden is the delicious ice tea. Mint, rose hips and bergamot work especially well. To make iced tea, use twice as many herbs as you normally would for hot tea and steep the tea for twice as long as well. When the heady brew is complete pour it into a jug large enough so that it will be only two thirds of the way full, then fill up the rest of the jug with ice cubes and put the entire concoction into the refrigerator. Ice tea is especially welcome during the hot summer months. You may like to try combing mint from your herbal tea garden with green tea and you will get a delicious full-bodied thirst quencher and if you are feeling exotic, why not add a splash of apple, currant, or grape juice to your hot tea to make a cordial - it will give your tea an extra kick.
Growing an herbal tea garden is fun and you will always have herbs available to make a freshly brewed tea or drink, a wonderful refreshment to offer your guests or to treat yourself with any time of the year.
Lisa Summerfield is an herb garden lover and author of "Secrets To A Successful Home Herb Garden" - compulsory reading for anyone considering to grow a thriving herb garden. Her website contains valuable information on growing a fantastic herbal tea garden... Even if you have never grown a garden before! For a FREE 10 part mini-course on "The Secrets To Growing Delicious Herbs at Home!" go to http://herbgardensolutions.com
