Medicinal teas in the US
In exploring the types of teas offered in the US, I'm including a popular brand of herbal medicinals. A friend gave me these teas for Christmas. They commented that they didn't know how good they were, but figured I could give them a try. I know that some people with asthma swear by the breathe easy tea, but I decided to start easy with the echinacea tea. I have an easy time believing that echinacea flowers were used in herbal preparations in the past because the flowers grow here so abundantly in the summer. All of these teas are blends of several herbs, so I'm not sure of how local all of the ingredients would be to this region (okay, I highly doubt West Indian lemongrass is grown naturally anywhere around here).
So I poured my hot water over the bag, and steeped covered for 10 min. The instructions say 10-15 minutes, and they are very specific that the cup should be covered.
Here's the resulting brew. It wasn't nearly as dark as I remember this brand of tea brewing. Granted it has probably been close to a decade since I tried this brand of tea. Surprisingly it didn't smell too bad. I took a sip and realized that I could indeed finish this cup of tea. When I looked back at the ingredients, they had some spearmint in the blend. While I'm not normally a fan of spearmint, it did add a pleasant taste to the tea. It's certainly worth a try using this tea if I'm not feeling well since I tend to react badly to over the counter decongestant medications.
So I poured my hot water over the bag, and steeped covered for 10 min. The instructions say 10-15 minutes, and they are very specific that the cup should be covered.
Here's the resulting brew. It wasn't nearly as dark as I remember this brand of tea brewing. Granted it has probably been close to a decade since I tried this brand of tea. Surprisingly it didn't smell too bad. I took a sip and realized that I could indeed finish this cup of tea. When I looked back at the ingredients, they had some spearmint in the blend. While I'm not normally a fan of spearmint, it did add a pleasant taste to the tea. It's certainly worth a try using this tea if I'm not feeling well since I tend to react badly to over the counter decongestant medications.
I do see a lot of medicinal teas in health food stores. (Never tried them, though!)
ReplyDeleteGinger is the one herbal I believe the most in. It tastes good, and does seem to help settle the stomach.
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