Non-tea Teas for dummies

[MissAnpassad]

ForgeCorvus asked me to start this topic on herbal tea, as I mostly drink it due to me being sensetive to caffein. And I don't want YorkshireAndy to hang himself in case of a tea related emergency, so here are a few alternatives. There are numerous herbal teas, some you can forage, others you can grow and then there are those you can buy.

Hibiscus tea- grown in places like India and taste just like cranberry juice.

Yarrow- pick the new leaves in spring. Quite a spicy flavor.

Norway spruce- in spring you can pick the new light green growth and make tea from it. Has a fresh taste and is rich in vitamin C.

Linden flower tea- very mild and delicate flavour, but yummy.

Chamomile- mild taste, a natural antiseptic.

Mead wort- special flavor, don't drink to much of it as it contains salicylic acid. Unless you have a fever or a headache that is.

Blackcurrant- pick the leaves. The taste remind a lot of that of the berries.

Common polypody- harvest the roots. Has a sweet bitter liquorice flavor. Don't drink to often.

Common heather- flowers and leaves. Refreshing taste, some compare it to that of regular tea.

Elderberry- pick the flowers, dry them (or put them in the freezer), delicious with sugar and a little bit of lemon.

Common lilac- taste like liquid summer. Preferably use the blue redish flowers and not the white (they taste less).

[MissAnpassad]

I forgot.

Rosebay willowherb- ferment the leaves and it will taste just like regular tea. There was actually a scandal in Sweden many many years ago, when Russia sold fermented rosebay willowherb as real tea to us. It just shows how similar the taste is.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Thanks

[Deeps]

Thanks missus, I'll probably not get round to trying them but I've got the info copied away. I've always found herbal teas a bit subtle for me but I'm willing to try stuff. I don't get the fuss over nettle tea but hey, if I've fought off the zombie legions and there's nothing else I dare say I'll raise a cup of nettle tea, huzzah. Thanks for taking the time to list them, this is the sort of knowledge I'd rather have than not.

[junmist]

Never tried furmenting how would I go about it please. Mind you there was not a lot of rosebay willow herb about this year in my area( I use it for healing) not as a tea

[MissAnpassad]

I haven't done it myself, but my friend did it for me according to this recipe. Used translate as it was one long recipe, so it's probably not perfect.

How I did it: I took a bunch "tired" (couldn't find a english word for it) leaves at a time and rolled them between my palms until the leaves were crushed and started to liquid. Then I pulled them apart from each other and let them lie a few hours in a cool, shady spot. Such treatment makes the whole, crushed leaves darker and the raw, dull green smell attenuated significantly. Instead, the darker tones, which are like weak tobacco, and - yes, black tea. But I also learned that only oxidation is not enough. Between the lines of the scanty information I nevertheless found on Koporje tea implied that rosebay willow herb leaves were fermented, possibly to compensate for their lack of chemical conditions: the herb is after all not a tea plant. A fermentation can be done in many ways. This method works best for me: to pack the first oxidized leaves dense and tightly in plastic bags. Press carefully all the air out of the bag, seal it and place it at a place that sourdough usually enjoy: on the refrigerator. If you are not sure if there is warm enough putt a towel around the bag. In just one day the fermentation take good speed and the leaves begin to tighten silage and earth and tobacco, that smell gets stronger the longer the leaves are left. Two-three days of fermentation is a good aim. Don't ferment for a week, then it starts smelling like a barn. To mimic roasting, I used a metallwok. First I pulled apart all leaves stuck together during fermentation before I put them in batches in the wok on medium heat, and that at least is so hot that I could just hold your hand against the bottom of a second before I want to snatch it away. I picked and throwed around the leaves with my hand so that the blades are evenly and thoroughly heated through. No precise guidelines. I stoped roasting when the leaves started to smell different and feel tender but still slightly moist. The leaves dry during roasting can be easily broken. The length and temperature of the roasting affects the taste: an intense roasting gives a darker flavor and makes the acid clearer, while flowery and subtle flavorings disaper. Let the leaves dry after roasting. I put them on the kitchen table, spread on waxed paper and it rarely takes more than a day before the leaves are so dry that they crackled and ready for tasting.

[itsybitsy]

That's great, thanks for sharing.

[grenfell]

Yes thanks for that , only wish I'd seen it earlier in the year. They are fairly common around here and I've binned loads of the stuff from gardens as they are generally considered a weed.

[ukpreppergrrl]

Chamomile- mild taste, a natural antiseptic.

As an aside, as this is also the Agriculture forum, if you use cold chamomile tea to water seedlings your rarely if ever get damp off. I struggled with seedlings dying until I got this tip from an American gardening forum. Now I only use cold chamomile tea to water seedlings and I've not had a single seedling die from fungus in 15 years!

[junmist]

Thank you I will try it next year if I can find any rosebay willow that is