Friday, November 22, 2013

Herbal Iced Tea

When you're trying to reduce your food bill, the last thing you need to do is spend money on store bought iced tea. What are they, like $2 or $3 per gallon? It adds up quickly.

Not only is it cheaper to make your own, it's healthier. And it's super easy.

You can buy herbs in bulk or grow them yourself or forage them yourself. You can buy them in tea bags, too, and that's ok, but if your goal is spending as little as possible, that might not be the most economical.

This time, I used the teaberry leaves I picked when my family and I went teaberry picking. We picked some leaves as well as the berries on these beautiful little plants:

I threw some teaberry leaves as well as last of the fresh mint in a pot (I took this picture a few weeks ago--where I live, there is no fresh mint to be found outside anymore!) Years ago, someone gave me a snip of mint from their yard, and it's grown like crazy in my yard ever since. It takes over everything if you let it!

Let it simmer awhile.

Add ice and sugar.

Sometimes we add raw honey instead of sugar, which is definitely healthier. If you do that, add the honey while it's still hot, before you add the ice.

Teaberry leaves contain salicylates, just like aspirin, so you have to limit how much you drink (just like you have to limit how much aspirin you take). The tea will help ease headaches, aches, and pains. It's what Native Americans used for aspirin. I also read that colonial Americans drank teaberry leaf tea when they stopped drinking English tea during the Revolutionary War.

If you want a tea that you can drink cup after cup after cup, try chamomile or mint.

No comments:

Post a Comment