Since ancient times, people have known the healing properties of herbal teas. They were used not only for the treatment of ailments, but also as a preventive measure, increase vitality, and overall health promotion. In addition, unlike chemical medicines, herbal teas are a completely natural product that has a pleasant taste and wonderful aroma.
Herbal teas
Herbal teas, tinctures, decoctions - all these drinks came to us from distant antiquity. Already in those days, their useful properties were used by people with might and main. Then every housewife was a little witch and knew what herbal teas can be drunk. All natural gifts were used: roots, herbs, berries.
From time immemorial, herbal preparations have been prepared that relieve fatigue, tone in the morning, and help to fall asleep in the late hour. Medicinal teas relieved diseases, restored the body's supply of vitamins and minerals. The best herbal teas are still used by people.
Properties of Herb Teas
What is herbal tea good for? Recipes (at home you can easily make any tea) are diverse not only in their content, but also in purpose. In addition to herbs, the collection may include various medicinal components: fruits, roots, buds. Sometimes traditional tea is also put in herbal teas. Fees may contain up to ten components.
Herbal preparations for tea are usually divided by effect on:
- Therapeutic.
- Preventive.
- Tonic.
- Soothing.
- Vitamin.
Ready-made herbal teas can be purchased at any pharmacy and supermarket. However, it is hardly worth relying on their quality, because no one will guarantee that they are made from natural and environmentally friendly raw materials. Since we consume a lot of unnatural foods in our daily lives that are harmful to the body, we need natural herbs with all their beneficial properties to maintain health.
The best option is to independently assemble all the necessary plants. Preparation itself is a very interesting and fascinating process that will bring you many pleasant minutes of unity with nature. Only you need to know the rules by which herbs are harvested.
In the conditions of living in a megalopolis and lack of time, not everyone will be able to allocate time for the collection of plants. Then you can advise you to buy all the necessary herbs on the market, as a rule, there are grandmothers who sell ready-made plants.
How to make tea?
We want to immediately note that for medicinal purposes only one plant is brewed. Then the finished drink will have a targeted action. A group tea will have a whole range of therapeutic effects, because it will contain a large number of biologically active substances that are contained in different plants. At the same time, our unique organisms independently select the necessary elements from the entire presented complex and send them for processing into metabolic processes.
As a rule, herbal tea contains general strengthening and immunostimulating components. And most importantly, they do not have caffeine, so drinks can be given to children.
The main components of teas
What is included in herbal tea? Recipes at home, you can come up with a variety of. However, first you need to figure out which components are used in different situations.
So, let's list the most commonly used components:
- Flowers of oregano, chamomile, linden, etc.
- Leaves of raspberries, mint, currants, wild strawberries.
- Herb of lemon balm, oregano, sage, thyme, valerian, St. John's wort.
- Fruits of raspberries, hawthorn, sea buckthorn, currants, blackberries, mountain ash.
We emphasize once again that these are far from all the components; in fact, there are a lot of them. It’s good to add different spices to the collections, they give an exquisite taste and aroma, and also add additional vitamins. For such purposes, you can use cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, cloves.
Healing tea
You need to understand that any medicinal herbal tea (recipes at home can be invented and modified) has no instant effect. After all, this is not a pill, and therefore it takes some time. However, regular use of it will help to cope with the problem. Herbal teas for every day (we will give recipes in the article) will help establish processes within the body:
- To relieve stress, savory and licorice are added to tea.
- With a cold, wormwood, sage, licorice root helps well.
- With a tendency to depression, you should regularly use St. John's wort, ginseng, rosemary.
- If the pain in the stomach is disturbing, then dandelion flowers, fennel seed and dill are added to tea.
- Tea with valerian, hop cones, chamomile, lemon balm, and verbena helps to cope with sleep disorders.
- If you get annoyed at the slightest occasion, have some tea with valerian and lavender.
- To relax and calm you should use a drink from lemon balm, hops, strawberry grass.
- For heart problems motherwort will help.
- Linden tea (we will discuss the beneficial properties and contraindications later) has a wide range of qualities - antiseptic, choleretic, expectorant, diaphoretic, diuretic effect.
- Frequent headaches will help mint, thyme and sage.
Grated ginger can be added to any of the listed fees. It enhances the anti-inflammatory, expectorant, stimulating effect of tea on the body.
Multivitamin herbal teas for every day
The recipes of such teas are not difficult, but the benefits from them are very great. They can be prepared on the basis of fruits and berries. Herbal and fruit teas are a storehouse of vitamins. The most beneficial substances are found in rose hips. Also, mountain ash, blackberries, strawberries, black and red currants, sea buckthorn are used to prepare decoctions. Not only healthy, but also delicious herbal teas are obtained by adding aromatic herbs: lemon balm, mint, oregano.
To get a multivitamin drink, all components are put in equal parts. Such a drink is brewed according to general rules. In the cold season, tea is drunk in the form of heat with the addition of honey and ginger. In summer, all decoctions and infusions can be consumed cold with the addition of ice. Such drinks tone well in the heat.
Strawberry tea: strawberry leaves (10 g), St. John's wort (2 g), mint (2 g) are poured with a glass of boiling water. The drink is infused for ten minutes.
Heather tea: heather flowers (2 g), rosehip leaf (2 g), strawberry leaves (10 g) pour a glass of boiling water. Insist from five to ten minutes.
Rowan tea: dried fruits of mountain ash (30 g), raspberry berries (5 g), currant leaves (2 g). Infuse for five to ten minutes and use as tea leaves.
Tonic fees
For daily use, tonic teas are suitable, they not only taste good, but will also have a positive effect on the body. Juniper, hawthorn, blackcurrant, mountain ash, rosehip, oregano, blueberry, St. John's wort, calamus, mallow, clam walnut, valerian, calendula, mountain arnica, fireweed, coltsfoot, blueberries, plantain, drupe and incense are put into the collections.
Such fees in the winter should be consumed hot, and in the summer chilled. Quench thirst and invigorate cold teas with a slice of lemon or zest, raspberry and blackberry leaves. In hot weather, you can add mint to green tea.
How to choose a tasty drink?
It's no secret that any herbal tea is bitter. Therefore, you must independently choose for yourself a fee that will be to your taste. As a rule, one plant dominates the collection, and the rest only harmoniously complement it, emphasizing the taste.
Compositions are always made up according to the scheme: spices + fragrant grass + leaves of a berry plant. As spices are usually used allspice, cinnamon, vanilla, anise, cloves, star anise. All these ingredients are in perfect harmony and open in a very special way if citruses are added to the tea.
What are the nuances of teas you should know?
How different can herbal tea be! Recipes at home can be used in a wide variety. They will help to diversify your regular menu, even if it is not about food, but about drinks.
At home, you can prepare herbal teas from the following components:
- Orange slices, cinnamon, raspberry leaves.
- Slices of lemon, star anise, mint.
- Cloves, lemon balm, sage, allspice.
- Lemon zest, oregano, thyme.
- Strawberry and cherry leaves, vanilla stick.
All components for teas are best stored in paper bags or cloth bags, but not more than two years. But the roots can lie for three years. Over time, herbs lose their taste, smell and all useful trace elements.
Shredded zest of citrus fruits to green or black tea should be added in advance (for example, a couple of weeks). In a closed vessel, orange peels will give their aroma to tea petals. And as a result, you get a fragrant drink without artificial flavors.
I want to note that you should not use the same collection for a long time. The human body has such a feature as addiction. Grass in this sense is no exception. Over time, the usual collection may not have the desired effect. Therefore, it is better to alternate tinctures.
Lime tea
The largest number of nutrients is found in lime flowers. Essential oils and flavonoids are the main therapeutic components. Linden blossom destroys bacteria in the human body, reduces heat, removes sputum.
For colds and flu use tinctures. With convulsions, rheumatism, diseases of the kidneys, gall bladder, stomach and intestines, colds and fever, they are taken two or three glasses a day. The drink is prepared as follows: a few tablespoons of linden flowers are poured with a glass of hot water.
Linden tea (useful properties and contraindications are given in the article) has a calming effect on the nervous system, significantly reduces blood viscosity. A drink made of flowers has completely unique properties. It contains a large number of vitamins and other therapeutic components. In addition, this tea is very tasty and has a strong aroma.
Linden drink is used for hypertension, inflammatory diseases of the stomach and intestines, cystitis, pyelonephritis, urolithiasis.
As for the contraindications to the use of lime, there are not so many of them. But still, it should be remembered that the broth has healing properties. Linden increases the body's defenses and has a diaphoretic effect. Therefore, tea gives a burden on the heart. People with heart disease should not get carried away with such a drink daily.
Herbal tea is brewed similarly to green or black, however there are some nuances. Typically, two hundred grams of water put a tablespoon of the collection. Brew a drink in a teapot, wrapping it with a towel. You can also use a thermos. In it, the tea will turn out to be stronger and more saturated.
The brewing process itself lasts:
- Three minutes if we brew leaves and flowers.
- Five minutes for seeds and leaves.
- Within ten minutes, the kidneys and roots are brewed.
The finished drink should be filtered.
Healing recipes
Herbal tea for cough: pour a teaspoon of mint with a glass of boiling water and insist for ten minutes. Take up to five times a day.
Restorative drink: blackcurrant leaves (1 part), raspberries (1 part), oregano grass (1 part), incense leaves (3 parts).
Soothing tea: linden blossom (1 part), mint leaves (1 part), hawthorn (1 part fruits and leaves), lemon balm (1 part).
Vitamin tea: Raspberry leaves (1 part), strawberries (1 part), nettle and blackberry (one part), apple peel (1/2 part).
Fortifying infusions, multivitamin and soothing can be drunk as regular tea after meals three times a day, or in smaller quantities. For example, calming before bedtime, and vitamin in the morning.
Drink for neuralgia and back pain: thyme (1 part), black elderberry fruit (1 part), lime blossom (2 parts). Tea is drunk in a long course up to four times a day (3 glasses).
Tea for gastritis and gastric ulcer: incense (1 part), mint (2 parts), chamomile (1 part), sage (2 parts), St. John's wort (2 parts), thyme (1 part). Drink up to three glasses per day.
Are there any contraindications to the use of herbal teas?
People prone to allergic reactions should remember that a drink can cause an allergy attack. Therefore, for the first time using the new collection, drink quite a bit of it and make sure that there are no side effects.
Most often, with an allergy to herbal preparations, dryness and irritation of the skin, a small rash appear. Edema can appear much less frequently. In general, people with bronchial asthma should treat herbal teas with great care.
At the first manifestations of allergies, you should stop drinking the herbal drink and take Suprastin or Tavegil.
Medicinal teas should be consumed only after consulting a doctor or as prescribed by a herbalist. The fact is that any herb, except for beneficial effects, can have a negative effect on the body. Therefore, do not self-medicate, so as not to aggravate the state of health.
If you still choose the collection for yourself, then before using it, carefully study the indications and contraindications for the use of each individual component.