Floral Tea – Create your own




Recently when my daughters visited they informed that they consume neither tea nor coffee anymore. However when I suggested a floral tea they agreed. They loved the cuppa. I explained to them how to create their own. This method is shared with all now in view of its usefulness. Dear reader you could create your own wonderful floral tea for free or very little expense in this manner

Discovering suitable flowers:

The first step is to make a list of flowers that are available in reasonable abundance in your area. These may be available in the wild in due season or in your own garden. Some dry flowers may be available at reasonable prices in your local market and you may add these to your list. Flowers from some trees are also great. Trees produce these in great abundance in season. Now note, not all flowers in your list will be suitable for tea. Some may even be toxic as for example larkspur and oleander. Discovering what flowers are suitable for a tea is the next step.

Doing Your Research

Not all flowers are suitable for tea. Some are even toxic or poisonous. Therefore the next step is research what flowers in your list are edible and which are not. This can be done fairly quickly through a Google search. A world of information is available out there on most known flowers. Just type in the name of the flower in the search box and scan through the results. You could also repeat the search by adding other words like edible or medicinal uses. Any edible flower is a potential candidate for a good floral tea mix. Choose edible flowers in your list and cross out the others that either not edible or on which you have not been able to find any information, you do not want to take any chance with your health and well being.  You may also check an older post in this blog for a list of some common edible flowers.

Drying Fresh Flowers

Fresh flowers need to be collected and dried for a tea mix. The best way to dry flowers for tea that one has collected is to spread them out on a tray or paper sheets in a shaded part of your home. In a few days they shall dry. You may then store these in a jar with a tight lid for use later. It is a good idea to sun the dried flowers for five or six hours before storing. Flowers that are dried for flower arrangements are collected with long stems, tied up in bunches and hung upside down to dry but flowers for tea and medicine are collected without stems and spread to dry.

Leaves and Herbs

There are many useful leaves and herbs that can be mixed in to a floral tea such as those of jasmine, holy basil or the white mulberry tree. For this new leaves of the bush or tree are collected and dried similarly. However there are many leaves that may have medicinal uses but are not suitable for a nice delicate floral tea consumed regularly and it would be best to skip these for creating your own floral tea.  If one is not averse to traditional black or green tea then it is great to mix in that into the floral tea mix as well.

Preparing Your Mix

Once you have collected your dried flowers, you are ready to create beautiful floral teas. At first do not mix the different flowers or other ingredients you propose to use but mix them in different proportions at the time of preparing a cup of tea. Once you have zeroed in on a mix you like then one may pre-mix to save preparation time later. Use no more than four or at the most five ingredients in a mix so as not to dilute individual effects.   There are other things that one can add in the mix too. My favorite is cinnamon. If you add some to the mix, break the stick into small pieces and mix in.

Preparing the Tea

The final step is preparing your tea. For this, bring water to a boil, add in about two teaspoons each per cup of tea, boil for another 10 seconds and then turn off the heat. Leave for a few minutes, less than five to brew, and then strain directly into cups or a preheated teapot to serve to others as well. You may sweeten the tea with a little sugar but the best is to add a teaspoon of honey per cup for this elegant and exotic tea.

Once you have zeroed in on a mix, do research again in more detail the four or five ingredients that you have chosen to know the benefits you are getting from it. Remember with any food or drink, it must smell and taste good too aside from being beneficial for mind, body and soul. May the tea you so discover add beauty and happiness in your life.

 Food feeds the body, beauty feeds the soul.


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