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To prepare your own herbal tea ingredients, you don’t need to spend a fortune as a lot of plants are freely available in the nature. If you need more plants references, I encourage you to check this post about some of the various plants for making herbal tea. Those lucky enough to live or spend the weekend in the countryside will naturally bring home fresh plants that still are picked in dry, mature, and full bloom (with respect to the flowers).
Some of these plants benefit from being consumed as is, but if there is enough quantity, you may want to dry them for a better conservation.
To do this, it is important to wait the shortest time possible after harvest. We will place the plants in a well dry, clean, and quite sunny place, but never in direct sunlight. A small fan or a light stream of air will probably be needed to accelerate drying. After about six days to at least 20 degrees, all that remains is to keep the plants dried, free from air and light, usually in a smoked glass jar, sealed with a lid, and this for a maximum period of one year to a year and a half.
Flowers
Flowers, are more fragile, require special care. After being freed from their stems and dry-cleaned, they are spreaded separately on a paper.
Fruit
The fruits, which are just ripe harvested, are like the dry flowers, the only difference being that it is essential to return them, from time to time, in order to homogenize the drying process. Some people experimented with putting fruit under a pyramidal wooden structure helps them dry instead of rot… To be verified by yourself if you want to!
Small leaves and seed
Small leaves and seeds can dry together in small bunches and hung by a thread, head down. When they are dried, you can easily separate the stems from them by crumbling.
Roots
The roots, in turn, should be harvested after the death of the plant, that is usually in the fall, except for that one tear dandelion in the spring. They should be washed thoroughly with water and then, after eliminating any that would tend to soften, they are cut into pieces on a sheet of aluminium. After three to six hours in an oven at low heat, they finish drying for six days in a sunlit room.
Bark
Bark, finally, must be detached from the tree, at the descent of the sap in the fall. After cleaning to dry, they just break into small pieces and are allowed to dry slowly on a paper.
So what are your drying techniques and how do you store plant the best?
Top 10 Plants to Make Herbal Teas
Anis: This is a great tasting herbal tea that provides for comfortable digestion, promotes the expulsion of gas and calm aerophagia. Needed to prepare a decoction of three minutes at a rate of one teaspoon per cup. Then take a cup ten minutes before the meal.
Basil: This herb is widely used in cooking, but quite likely to be consumed in tisanes, enables the slow digestion, and the fight against digestive spasms, abdominal wind, colic gas, stomach pain and constipation. The infusion is prepared in ten minutes at a rate of one teaspoon per cup. To be taken after meals.
Roman Chamomile: This is quite a bitter herb it is a nice aperitif before dinner, good after digestion, and also combats flatulence and gas. We will prepare an infusion for ten minutes.
Chicory: Consumed at the table in leaves form or in tea form of roots, chicory or Cichorium intybus is excellent for general tonicity. Chicory is also purgative, diuretic, and especially a powerful choleretic doubled with a relatively efficient bile duct. It is revealed primarily in renal bladder, liver and many problems in constipation, but also in cases of anorexia, asthenia, anemia, weak stomach, arthritis, or UTI … One can only advise to incorporate almost every day the chicory salad with dinner, but also to drink before each meal, a cup of decoction of chicory roots for about thirty grams per liter.
Lavender: This fragrant plant is soothing and antispasmodic, diuretic and diaphoretic. It can therefore be used in case of flu, cough, asthma, whooping cough, insomnia, headaches, dizziness, or rheumatism … The infusion is prepared by dipping a teaspoon of flowers for ten minutes in a cup.
Mint: Quite useful as a stomachic, nervous system stimulant, stomachal antispasmodic, carminative, intestinal antiseptic. Mint fights very well, especially when there is sluggish digestion, flatulence, gastric spasms, and gastrointestinal toxicity. Fresh or dried mint leaves a re infused for ten minutes, and you can drink three cups a day, after or between meals. Caution: Do not drink too late in the evening, because mint can prevent sleep if taken in high dose.
Rosemary: Excellent stimulant, rosemary is helpful in times of stress or burnout, and is ideal for respiratory infections, fevers, and uterine disorders. It regulates both the gallbladder as the liver, and facilitates, in addition, the digestion. Finally, it is a good diuretic. The tea is prepared by Rosemary decoction with a tablespoon per cup for at least two minutes, then letting it stand for five to ten minutes.
Savory: This plant is above all stimulating. Some even see it as an aphrodisiac. But it also helps to digest heavy meats and starches, and it avoids intestinal fermentation. The infusion time is about ten minutes for a tablespoon per cup. To be taken after each meal.
Sage: In tea or hot soup, the first fight against colds and respiratory infections such as bronchitis or asthma, but its other therapeutic uses are many, since it is both antiperspirant, toning the stomach, stimulating, balancing the nervous system, soothing if menstrual pain, febrifuge … The tea is prepared by decocting a tablespoon per cup, for two minutes, then let steep five minutes.
Linden: This plant is known as a very soothing sedative, hypnotic and antispasmodic. In addition, lime thins the blood significantly. So we will use in case of hyperviscosity, and hypercoagulability of blood, and in case of atherosclerosis, and, of course, insomnia, spasms … or even migraines (leaves only). The infusion should be well proportioned and not too focused on pain of becoming exciting, that is due to a pinch per cup, and we will drink two to three cups a day, including one at bedtime.
Thyme: This herbal with multiple indications, is particularly appreciated in cases of coughs, bronchitis, sore throats and flu, but also as a general stimulant (physical, intellectual, tract …), as a vermifuge and finally as a diuretic to relieve gout, arthritis and rheumatism.
Verbena: Verbena The Mediterranean is the “verbena”, or “lemon verbena,” not to be confused with the “Verbena officinalis”, which itself is odorless and has many therapeutic uses. The lemon verbena, although still digestive and antispasmodic, is especially appreciated for its taste. A ten-minute infusion at a rate of five leaves per cup at the end of the meal, especially in summer, may well replace a mint tea.
Anis: This is a great tasting herbal tea that provides for comfortable digestion, promotes the expulsion of gas and calm aerophagia. Needed to prepare a decoction of three minutes at a rate of one teaspoon per cup. Then take a cup ten minutes before the meal.
Basil: This herb is widely used in cooking, but quite likely to be consumed in tisanes, enables the slow digestion, and the fight against digestive spasms, abdominal wind, colic gas, stomach pain and constipation. The infusion is prepared in ten minutes at a rate of one teaspoon per cup. To be taken after meals.
Roman Chamomile: This is quite a bitter herb it is a nice aperitif before dinner, good after digestion, and also combats flatulence and gas. We will prepare an infusion for ten minutes.
Chicory: Consumed at the table in leaves form or in tea form of roots, chicory or Cichorium intybus is excellent for general tonicity. Chicory is also purgative, diuretic, and especially a powerful choleretic doubled with a relatively efficient bile duct. It is revealed primarily in renal bladder, liver and many problems in constipation, but also in cases of anorexia, asthenia, anemia, weak stomach, arthritis, or UTI … One can only advise to incorporate almost every day the chicory salad with dinner, but also to drink before each meal, a cup of decoction of chicory roots for about thirty grams per liter.
Lavender: This fragrant plant is soothing and antispasmodic, diuretic and diaphoretic. It can therefore be used in case of flu, cough, asthma, whooping cough, insomnia, headaches, dizziness, or rheumatism … The infusion is prepared by dipping a teaspoon of flowers for ten minutes in a cup.
Mint: Quite useful as a stomachic, nervous system stimulant, stomachal antispasmodic, carminative, intestinal antiseptic. Mint fights very well, especially when there is sluggish digestion, flatulence, gastric spasms, and gastrointestinal toxicity. Fresh or dried mint leaves a re infused for ten minutes, and you can drink three cups a day, after or between meals. Caution: Do not drink too late in the evening, because mint can prevent sleep if taken in high dose.
Rosemary: Excellent stimulant, rosemary is helpful in times of stress or burnout, and is ideal for respiratory infections, fevers, and uterine disorders. It regulates both the gallbladder as the liver, and facilitates, in addition, the digestion. Finally, it is a good diuretic. The tea is prepared by Rosemary decoction with a tablespoon per cup for at least two minutes, then letting it stand for five to ten minutes.
Savory: This plant is above all stimulating. Some even see it as an aphrodisiac. But it also helps to digest heavy meats and starches, and it avoids intestinal fermentation. The infusion time is about ten minutes for a tablespoon per cup. To be taken after each meal.
Sage: In tea or hot soup, the first fight against colds and respiratory infections such as bronchitis or asthma, but its other therapeutic uses are many, since it is both antiperspirant, toning the stomach, stimulating, balancing the nervous system, soothing if menstrual pain, febrifuge … The tea is prepared by decocting a tablespoon per cup, for two minutes, then let steep five minutes.
Linden: This plant is known as a very soothing sedative, hypnotic and antispasmodic. In addition, lime thins the blood significantly. So we will use in case of hyperviscosity, and hypercoagulability of blood, and in case of atherosclerosis, and, of course, insomnia, spasms … or even migraines (leaves only). The infusion should be well proportioned and not too focused on pain of becoming exciting, that is due to a pinch per cup, and we will drink two to three cups a day, including one at bedtime.
Thyme: This herbal with multiple indications, is particularly appreciated in cases of coughs, bronchitis, sore throats and flu, but also as a general stimulant (physical, intellectual, tract …), as a vermifuge and finally as a diuretic to relieve gout, arthritis and rheumatism.
Verbena: Verbena The Mediterranean is the “verbena”, or “lemon verbena,” not to be confused with the “Verbena officinalis”, which itself is odorless and has many therapeutic uses. The lemon verbena, although still digestive and antispasmodic, is especially appreciated for its taste. A ten-minute infusion at a rate of five leaves per cup at the end of the meal, especially in summer, may well replace a mint tea.
