Mint Tea Led to Herbal Tea Adventures

Turkey Tracks: June 27, 2020

Mint Tea Led to Herbal Tea Adventures

Look at this adorable little teapot I found in the back of a cabinet when I took everything out to wash and reorganize. I had totally forgotten about it—which makes sense as I have not been able to drink tea, given my Histamine Intolerance issues. (Black and green teas are fermented and inhibit one of the two enzymes one needs to process an overload of histamine.) I think it might have been a gift, but I have long since forgotten who gave it to me—along with its two adorable little cups.

So these days, I drink coffee. A lot of coffee, it seems. Probably too much coffee. The other day—after finding this pot—I really wanted to use it. Most commercial herbal tea mixtures have a lot of ingredients, to include a lot of “natural” flavor additives, which are chemicals I cannot tolerate. (I think, as well, that these chemicals are standing in for the real ingredients.) And the single herbal teas are…expensive.

This little pot comes with an insert where one can put a loose tea. I stuffed it full of my dried mint—which I dry every fall. And I added some sprigs of fresh mint and tarragon from the garden and let it steep while I ate my lunch.

It was DELICIOUS! Look at the depth of color it has. And I savored it with my fruit salad dessert, while I caught up with my Word2 games online.

I may have partially been swayed by watching THE GOOD WITCH—a tv show on Netflix which is a Hallmark production that is partly Canadian made. There, Cassie promotes drinking a lot of healthy healing teas instead of caffeine. I’m finding this sweet little show to be full of the kind of values with which I grew up and which seem so lost right now. It’s soothing to watch it, for me at least, in these challenging and turbulent times. The “right way,” for Cassie, is to find the way through a problem that does not trample on the needs of other people AND to work through what is really a better choice for our own lives.

Hmmmm… Fresh sage came in my food from Hope’s Edge CSA farm (Community Shared Agriculture). What if I dried it, flowers and all, to make tea? I had, at one point, bought herbal sage tea. It was…expensive, especially given the amount one needs to really get a strong flavor.

AND, I have sage in my garden. And it is blooming. And what about drying tarragon? One jar of these herbs is…expensive. And it would take about half of the jar to make one pot of tea. AND, I’ll be cutting more mint to dry right now rather than waiting for fall.

I really love having fresh herbs in my garden in the summer. And sometimes it is nice to just cut up some veggies and a meat protein for lunch—topped with fresh herbs, salt, and a bit of good olive oil. I’d add vinegar if I could.