I was sick with cold/flu/COVID-19 symptoms for many weeks in the first two months of 2025. A temporarily blocked nose, an odd fever, and countless retching, terrifying coughs. It was some dark days.
One of the few bright spots during those days of sickness was the herbal tea mix a friend had prepared for me. She mixed dry ingredients that helped to reduce inflammation, soothed my throat, and calmed me down for better sleep. The taste and the smell were very pleasant. And I could feel that the tea did me some good. I appreciated it so much that I decided to look into making tea from common herbs found in a garden like mine.
I soon discovered that the options are plenty (and many of these herbs and shrubs are already in my kitchen garden).
So, I’ve got myself a new project: increasing the number of tea-brewing plants in my garden for spontaneous use (instead of store-bought tea bags).
- The Benefits Of Growing and Making Your Own Herbal Tea
- 15 Plants That Can Be Used for Herbal Tea
- How to Make Herbal Tea With Fresh Leaves and Flowers From Your Garden
The Benefits Of Growing and Making Your Own Herbal Tea
- Fresh leaves at your doorstep
- A certainty about what is actually in your tea (no funny additives whose names you can’t pronounce)
- Mix and match unique flavours to your liking
- Save money on tea bags
- No extra waste like the packaging of store-bought tea
- Regular cuttings (for brewing tea) can boost the growth of many herbs so you also get more for cooking
Disclosure: There are medicinal benefit claims attached to many types of herbal tea. However, it should be up to individuals to look up the proof if you want to use a plant as medicine. Being Vietnamese, I am accustomed to herbal recipes used regularly as a preventative measure and occasionally for acute problems like a mouth ulcer or a sore tummy. Herbal medicines are often our first measure as they have been tested in the family for generations. We don’t do an efficacy test of each of such “treatment”, but we use the herbs because they worked before. So, I will do me regarding the herbal tea’s health benefits, but please, you do you when it comes to your health.
15 Plants That Can Be Used for Herbal Tea
Here’s a list of 15 tea-friendly plants that grow easily outside in Northwestern Europe:
- Peppermint
- Lemon Balm
- Chamomile
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Liquorice
- Lavender
- Calendula
- Hibiscus
- Raspberry
- Lilac
- Fennel
- Lemon Verbena
- Echinacea
Disclosure: Of this list, I have the first 12 as plants in my garden or seeds in my box await sowing. Yet, I have only made fresh tea from five of these home-grown herbs and shrubs (peppermint, thyme, lavender, liquorice, and lilac). So, I will try out the rest this year, both growing and drinking.
How to Make Herbal Tea With Fresh Leaves and Flowers From Your Garden
At the very core, here are the steps:
- pick the fresh leaves and flowers
- check to make sure there are no little bugs within the harvest
- give a quick rinse if there is any sight of snail or slug trails or the like
- sip in hot water for about 10 minutes or longer if you find that you prefer the stronger taste of some leaves
I often mix a few herbs together to make it more interesting.
When I have plenty of leaves and flowers, I also dry them to use in the dark and bare months of northern winter. My favourite tea last winter was a mix of liquorice roots, lavender flowers, and lilac flowers. It was gently sweet with a warming purple colour and a lovely smell.
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