Herbal teas

Who doesn’t like a cup of warm tea, especially on a chilly afternoon? A dozen or so years ago, I started having an afternoon cup of tea as though I was British. I would mainly sip on herbal teas, such as tulsi and peppermint. I wasn’t think about any potential health benefits. I was just simply enjoying a cup of tea every afternoon.

Herbs have been used throughout modern history for soothing many of our common complaints. You can make tea from fresh or dried plant material. You can grow your own or purchase prepackaged bags from the store or online. Always purchase herbs from a reputable supplier being wary of clever marketing schemes.

The most common way to prepare a tea is through infusion, which basically means you soak the plant material in boiling water for a designated period of time. Leaves will infuse their compounds into the water faster than other plant parts, like flowers, that may require up to ten minutes of steeping. For stronger herbal infusions, plant parts may be steeped for four to eight hours or longer depending on the particular plant used.

According to the University of Wisconsin, the shelf life of tea is shorter if the plant parts have been crushed and bagged ahead of time. They recommend using these preparations in a few months. Whole herbs can be stored in an airtight container for about a year. http://www.fammed.wisc.edu/files/webfm-uploads/documents/outreach/im/ss_herbal_teas.pdf.

On the link above, the author shares ten different herbal teas noting their medicinal uses, level of research and scientific evidence for each particular use, safety, potential side effects and other possible interactions with medications. They studied some interesting herbs. Not all of which do I think would make for a pleasant tasting tea. They looked at chamomile, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, lemon balm, motherwort, nettle, peppermint, rosemary and valerian.

Some of the medicinal uses listed in the above study included relieving gastrointestinal complaints, lowering glucose and cholesterol, helping with respiratory issues, alleviating certain types of pain, and aiding with insomnia.

If you are considering trying a true herbal infusion or drinking tea for medicinal purposes, then please talk to your healthcare practitioner ahead of time.

Last year I had some DNA testing done and found out that my ancestry is, indeed, British. Maybe this explains that afternoon cup of tea I was learning to enjoy. Over the years, I have expanded that one cup of afternoon tea to having multiple cups of tulsi every day, a bit of sage tea at lunch followed by an afternoon pick-me-up using green or white tea. I also sip on chamomile in the evenings and even began experimenting with herbal infusions of oatstraw and nettle.

We will talk more about how to grow some of these plants for ourselves in the coming spring.

Kelley Rawlsky has an M.S. in horticulture and is the director of Bringing People and Plants Together, an organization dedicated to bringing horticulture education and therapy to the community. For more information: PeopleAndPlantsTogether@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook.

 Originally published in Broomfield Enterprise - Jan 14, 2018