Nature's Bounty
Herbal Teas
There are many wonderful herbal teas that are refreshing, nourishing and tonifying, that also taste good. The Earth provides us with flowers, leaves and roots that are high in vitamins and minerals and help us feel good. It seems that we have forgotten these gifts as we slug down high sugar drinks and carbonated sodas that leech important minerals such as magnesium from the body. The average American teenage male drinks almost 700 sodas a year with each soda containing the equivalent of several teaspoons of sugar. Most people know that sodas are unhealthy but with the warmer spring weather, drinking a couple sodas a day is easy to do. There is no nutritional value in a soda and the sugar, carbon, and coloring agents are just one more thing that the body has to de-toxify from our system. There are several herbal soda products available now but most of them still contain a lot of sugar and high fructose corn syrup, read the labels on your drinks, you will be amazed. With a little education and change of habit we can begin drinking things that taste good and are good for us! Bring herbal teas into your life! Your body will love you.
Herbal teas that are quick, easy, readily available, and taste good are: peppermint, spearmint rosemary, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lavender, hibiscus, lemongrass, rose hips, calendula flowers, rose petals, chamomile, elder flowers and fennel seeds.
Begin by making an herbal tea with one herb or a combination of two or three herbs. To make an herbal tea, add one tablespoon of dried herb for every cup of water used. If the recipe calls for one quart of tea, use one quart of water and a total of four tablespoons of herbs. Put the water and herbs in a pot with the lid on, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let the herbs steep for one hour. Strain out the herbs and re-heat or chill the tea. You can also make sun tea by putting the herbs and water into a glass mason jar and let it sit in the sun for four hours. After you make the tea, use any combination of fruit, fruit juice, seltzer water, honey, maple syrup, stevia extract or honey to sweeten your tea. Fresh fruits can be squeezed or mashed and frozen as a convenient ingredient to liven up an herbal tea. Here are a few recipes to get started with.
Lavender Lemonade
2 quarts lavender tea
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ cup honey
Elder Flower Fizz
2 cups elder flower tea
1 cup sparkling mineral water
¼ cup maple syrup
Ginger Spearmint Lemonade
1 quart spearmint tea
1 quart lemonade
1 quart sparkling mineral water
5 large slices of fresh ginger root
Hibiscus Cooler
2 quarts hibiscus tea
1 cup cinnamon bark tea
¼ teaspoon of Stevia extract
Rosemary Ginger Ale
1 quart rosemary tea
¼ cup fresh ginger juice
(Put fresh ginger root through a champion juicer)
3 tablespoons honey
Vitamin C Thirst Quencher
2 quarts hibiscus, rose hip, and lemongrass tea
½ cup organic berry fruit juice
Apple Spearmint Pleasure
1 quart spearmint tea
3 freshly juiced apples
¼ cup fresh juiced ginger root
1 tablespoon honey
Herbal Spice
1 quart orange peel, cinnamon, cardamom, sarsaparilla root tea
2 cups apple cider
2 tablespoons honey
The possibilities are endless! Experiment, you may have access to different herbs and fruits than the ones listed here. To save time you can make larger quantities of any of the above drinks and store them in a Mason jar in the freezer for several months. These drinks taste good, are good for you, and within a year of making your own drinks, you will have saved enough money to buy yourself a vacation plane ticket! Do your body and your pocketbook a favor, start creating your own healthy herbal drinks.
Kami McBride has helped thousands of people learn to use herbs in their daily lives in ways that are healthy, safe and fun. She is the director of Cultivating the Herbal Medicine Woman Within, an experiential training in using herbs in the home for everyday health. An intuitive and inspiring teacher, Kami works to revive the cultural art of home herbal care and teaches herbology as a relationship with the Earth and a way of life. For a schedule of classes or herbal consultations Kami can be reached at (707) 446-1290 or sign up for her free herbal e-newsletter at: www.livingawareness.com.
