Whether it’s summer or wintertime I have an afternoon rhythm of putting my feet up for a spell and sipping a cup of hot tea.  I’m half way through the day and must take a moment to catch my breath before the evening ensues. I keep a large mason jar in the cabinet with a variety of my favorite teas.  All jumbled in the glass together, they are a veritable colorful eye candy.  Some without wrappers or strings, some with sweet motivational tags, some with fabulously fun names and others with the oldest of tea name tradition.  My tea packets come in squares, circles and pyramids for steeping and each afternoon they delight my taste buds with lovely flavors!

With so many teas on the market, this project is meant to inspire you to make a few “homemade-from-the-garden-blends” of your own.  I believe these herbs will prove enjoyable to taste in teas as well as being healthy for you.  Below I’ll explain the properties of a few herb selections so you can achieve your maximum tea experience.  Between the varied dried and fresh color combinations, these teas are beautiful in and out of the cup!  This is a great gift to make as well as a very affordable method of stocking up on tea for months of pleasurable drinking.  Think of it as summer in a cup!

In preparing this project, it seems the best method to create herbal tea blends is in “parts”.  So whether you have cups or teaspoons, this method of proportion works. Make small batches at first to see what you like and grow from there. Once tea blends are combined we will create the Tea Sachets for individual cup steeping. Of course, please please please, if you have any concerns about any of these herbs and their effect on you, contact your physician for explanation prior to preparing and drinking.

Look who’s coming to tea!:

• Angel Wings Rose ~ hips have high vitamin C and acidity, may be boiled fresh or dried and ground
• Organic Chamomile ~ fresh daisy-like edible apple-scented flowers have calming effect, may be dried
• Hidcote Lavender~ blooms have relaxing scent and stems are savory sweet
• Borage ~ edible flowers drive away melancholy, soothing qualities, aides in circulation, blue flowers may color tea in pretty blues
• Organic Heirloom Stevia~ natural sweetener with a slightly licorice aftertaste
• Organic Calendula~ dried flower petals are used for anti inflammation and stomach soothing properties, nice orange and yellow colors in teas
• Hyssop Lavender ~ also known as licorice mint, leaves and flowers are edible fresh or dry, used to relax anxiety and calm stomach irritation, tastes really good!
• Rosemary ~ leaves and flowers are edible, has a piney fresh essence, aides with circulation
• Organic Heirloom Lemon Balm ~ lemony mint flavored leaves, aids with insomnia and upset stomachs
• Heirloom Spearmint ~ mint leaves are refreshing, aides with calming nausea and indigestion, does have quite a bite so check with peppermint too
• Organic Purple Basil~ Lovely flavor flowers fresh or dried, makes tea pretty purple color
• Organic Heirloom Lime Basil~ nice lime essence from leaves and flowers
• Bee Balm~ lemony flowers are pretty and very flavorful, nice tea addition for fresh and dried leaves a well
• Carnation~ all carnation flowers are edible, (remember that you need to know where they’ve come from, organic home grown is best!) flowers have essence of cloves
• Heirloom Thyme~ a great herb for anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, perfect addition when preparing “under the weather” tea
• Organic Heirloom Parsley~ high in vitamin C, great dried and fresh
• Heirloom Fennel~ mix with basil for a very enjoyable flavorful licorice essence tea
• Organic Heirloom Fenugreek~ sprouts, leaves and seeds have spicy essence and almost maple syrup flavors

Supplies for drying:

• cheesecloth
• any combination of the above herbs and flowers
• cooking twine
• glass jars with labels

Start by growing or gathering the herbs and flowers you would like to make into tea.  You can either dry the herbs by gathering the stems together with twine and hanging them upside down surrounded by cheesecloth (which I have not shown but it keeps the bugs away) or you can place them on a dish in a dry cool location covered in cheesecloth.  Give 1 to 2 weeks to dry thoroughly and sprinkle into individual labeled glass containers with lids.  With the moisture dried out of the plant, it should keep for months like your other dried cooking herbs.  Experiment with combinations that look appealing, 1 pinch of each herb in a tea ball would work.  Steep in hot water for 1 minute or less.  After drinking, if you like that combination, combine it in larger amounts. With tea taste-testing complete, we’ll make the Tea Sachets.

Supplies for making Tea Sachets:

• T-Sac tea pouches (made from material similar to coffee filters, chlorine and bleach free)
• 100% cotton sewing thread (use different colors to help identify which tea combination is in which sachet)
• sewing machine or hand sew individual sachets
• scissors
• pinking sheers (for zigzag look on edges)
• small strips of cardstock for tea tags
• pencil for labeling (my kids labeled some of the tags, all the better!)

Directions:

Sew 3 sides of your T-Sac tea pouches first.  After choosing, combining and thoroughly mixing your recipe, add 2 teaspoons +/- of tea into the sachets.  In an assembly line fashion, fill each sachet.  Now sew the last side of each sachet closed but before cutting, sew for an additional 6 inches and sew through paper tags. Cut the thread.  With that completed, clip the edges of each sachet with pinking sheers and label the tea ingredients on their respective paper tags.

Personalize your tags with labels such as “floating on a cloud, love and sweetness, tummy trouble, oh so sleepy, revive redeux, purplicious punch”…….you get the idea.  This type of labeling is what marketers use on the teas we see in the store.  Put yourself out there a bit with fun labeling.  Who knows, it may help you choose next time you open your cabinet for afternoon tea inspiration! Enjoy!

In Simple Creativity~ Sam