I am making a conscious effort to make more herbal gifts this year. I was looking at my pile of containers filled with herbs and thinking I need to make something from the herbs I have. When you have a lot, it is easier to make something. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm always looking for tea on a cold winter's day and since it is the first day of winter, it's in the 50's! Ridiculous.
OK, the photo above is measuring out the herbs. The tea blend I made is of lemon balm, lemon verbena and spearmint. I found it in an
Savoring Summer Iced Teas from The Herb Companion by Maggie Oster and click on winning iced tea combinations, you will see different combinations. I thought this one would be good hot as well. It is two parts lemon balm, one part lemon verbena and one part spearmint. So what you ask is a part? My definition of a part is any measurement you want it to be. In my case, I made a part, a cup. So the recipe becomes 2 cups of lemon balm, 1 cup of lemon verbena and 1 cup of spearmint. If you only have a teaspoon or so, a part would be a teaspoon size measure.
I combined all of the leaves into one container and took some scissors and snipped through the leaves. You can do this as you are putting them into the main container. I thoroughly mixed all of the herbs together and then put two teaspoons into my make your own tea bags from
Nichols Garden Nursery out in Oregon. The directions just calls for one teaspoon, but I was generous and used two teaspoons and the bag seems to last for at least a couple of cups. Even if I crush the bag before brewing the first cup, it seems to be better for the second cup. I thought it was good hot, but you may enjoy it cold as well. That is how it is meant to be served.
Finally got a wreath up on our new door, but of course, there is controversy about which wreath to put there! I'll show you in an upcoming post. Winter solstice is upon us and it's in the 50's! Just weird! Hope you're having a great day wherever you may be. Talk to you later.
