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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