Where to Find Tea
This chapter discusses where to find tea and herbal teas. It lists Internet resources that can be used as tea guides, some of which illustrate what the different types of tea look like. It also addresses how to grow your own herbal tea garden and lists twenty common botanicals to grow for herbal tea use.
To find loose leaf and herbal teas, check out your local health food store. Look in your area for coffee and tea shops that sell loose leaf tea. Explore your local neighborhoods.
There are various tea companies that specialize in online sales of loose leaf tea. Some of the more popular online tea sellers are www.mightyleaf.com, www.adagio.com, www.culinaryteas.com, www.artoftea.com, www.teavana.com, www.englishteastore.com, and www.ezentea.com. All of these websites depict tea in its dry form, and sometimes brewed. As with any online shopping, pay attention to customer reviews.
There are also tea rooms and houses, and if you like their tea, you might ask where they get their tea and how you can purchase some. Wherever you go to buy tea, it is recommended that you buy loose tea and buy organic. You can be sure that loose tea is not put together from fannings and dust, and so it has the best flavor and most nutrients. As with food, organic teas have a better chance of not containing chemicals and hormones that you probably would not want to imbibe. Because organic fertilizers are certified organic, the tea will retain more and better quality nutrients as well.
Going to a place that sells loose leaf tea can be very overwhelming. Here is a suggestion for what to do. When you visit a tea shop or purchase a tea online, you will notice that loose leaf tea is sold by the ounce. You only need one teaspoonful of tea per cup, sometimes less, depending on your individual taste. According to the website www.youmeandtea.com, one ounce of tea provides eight to fourteen cups of tea. The reason for the variation is because some teas are lighter in weight than others, so you get more or less of an amount of tea per ounce. Also you may prefer to brew your tea light, medium, or strong, and some consumers will want to do a second potting or more. It is recommended that you purchase only a small amount at first (such as an ounce) to try and see if you like it, and then reorder in a larger quantity.
Internet Resources
Here is a list of websites that you can use as good references to illustrate what the different types of tea look like. They also refer to studies on health and give brewing tips.
Where to Get Herbs
Herbal tea drinkers who want to make their own blends or drink a single ingredient tea often purchase their ingredients at natural food stores that offer herbs conveniently dried, pre-cut, and sifted in amounts that are more than a person usually can cultivate in the garden and/or which do not grow in all climates.
Other tea drinkers will prefer to gather their own herbs in the wild for freshness. Unfortunately, many herbalists do not recommend gathering herbs in the wild for making infusions unless you know for sure that the area has not been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. People may think that they can go to the local playground and pick some dandelions, but this is not always the case, as those areas are often sprayed to eradicate weeds and insects.
Nowadays, too, there is the alarming GMO (genetically modified organism) problem to contend with. The effects of these genetically altered crops do not stay within the confines of their fields. They spread potentially dangerous and unalterable modifications far and wide by wind and runoff. GMOs can change the internal structure of an herb forever. Such changes have the potential to destroy the beneficial characteristics of the plant. The sad truth is even in the wild, truly organic organisms may soon cease to exist.
If you still wish to gather plant-based edibles on your own, here are some tips:
Growing Your Own Herbal Tea Garden
Perhaps you cannot find a reliable supplier, or maybe you yearn to understand the herbs you incorporate into your body at a more fundamental and profound level. If this description fits, you are a likely candidate to grow your own herbal tea garden. After all, people have been growing herbs in pretty much the same simple ways for centuries.
Advantages of cultivating your own are that you will know exactly where your herbs come from and they will be as fresh as possible. Also herbs are one of the few “crops” that have never been genetically modified. There are too many of them and they grow everywhere and probably modification does not pay the big producers. So when you drink an herbal tea, basically you are drinking the same product with more or less the same taste with the same nutrients your ancestors enjoyed. This makes herbal teas great choices for better health.
Gardening is doubly healthy for you because it gives you a good physical workout. An herb garden is also bound to attract beneficial insects and pollinators to the rest of your yard and keep it in the pink along with your body. If you live in an apartment or do not have space to plant an herb garden, hints on how to create a kitchen window garden will be offered later in this chapter.
Laying Out an Herb Garden
Botanical gardens have formed part of the landscape since the Middle Ages, and probably before that time, too. The earliest documented herb garden plan is from a ninth-century Benedictine monastery. In those days and into the Renaissance and beyond, gardeners planted botanicals in more or less separate areas devoted to herbs for seasoning, medicine, fragrance, dyeing, and fiber. Each garden was walled by a number of methods to ward off pests and create an intimate, sheltered spot to delight the senses. The medicinal garden often consisted of raised beds laid out in rectangles or squares with brick or gravel pathways in between to make caring for the plants and harvesting easier. Each bed housed a single plant. As time went on, more elaborate designs were created, including a series of complicated knots, spirals, and the like.
You do not need to go to a lot of trouble to create a useful, enjoyable herbal tea garden. The idea of a single species in each raised bed is a good one because many herbs such as borage and the mints are notorious spreaders that will take over the garden if you are not vigilant about keeping them confined.
Here is a simple, effective design: Arrange four 4-by-4 raised beds in a block around a central circle. Inside the circle you can plant a strawberry pyramid, or a bush like a rose or rosemary. Construct little pathways between the beds with pebbles or bricks. In the square beds plant four of your favorite herbs in rich, organic soil. Water thoroughly and regularly and keep the garden weed-free.
If you are ambitious, you might want to extend a long rectangular bed across the back of the garden and plant taller herbs or bushes. Make sure the back border is on the north side so that the taller plants do not shade the low-growing ones in front of them.
To add variety, position at convenient locations some pot herbs such as basil, dill, parsley, or even a real tea plant; that is, a Camellia sinensis. Remember that you will need to move your tea plant inside for the winter unless you live in a tropical or semi-tropical climate. Potted tea plants do well as long as the soil is kept well-drained and you mist them frequently.
If you like to travel and are looking for inspiration on growing an herb garden, there are three famous gardens that are often recommended by herbalists and tea lovers alike. Although the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon is magnificent, it is too grandiose to act as a model for a humble home herbarium. Instead, go to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. It is located in the heart of Portland’s Chinatown (239 Northwest Everett Street, Portland, Oregon 97209). The garden with its teahouse, pond, and other buildings covers only one city block, but once inside, you will think you stepped into the house and grounds of a secluded Chinese country estate.
Second on the list is the Chelsea Physic Garden, a walled herb garden tucked away in the heart of the Chelsea borough of London, just steps from the busy King’s Road and the Thames Embankment. The garden was founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries for its apprentices to study the medicinal qualities of plants. This gem of an old-fashioned herb garden is located at 66 Royal Hospital Road, London, SW3, England.
Last, and perhaps a favorite of many, are The Cloisters, a branch of the New York Metropolitan Museum, located in Fort Tryon Park on the north end of the island of Manhattan. The Cloisters are dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. The area includes four herb gardens laid out in true medieval fashion with hundreds of plants, most of them used during the Middle Ages. Do not miss the espaliered pear tree that has been trained to grow on a trellis. This makes a great way to plant a bush for herbal infusions if you have limited space.
It goes without saying that when you visit different tea gardens, you are not allowed to pick your own herbs from the gardens. Some of these gardens, however, occasionally have herbs/plants for sale in the gift shop area.
Indoor Tea Herb Gardening
If you cannot have an outdoor herbal tea garden, you can garden indoors. Even people who live in cold winter climates can always bring some potted herbs inside to place on a sunny window ledge to enjoy fresh herbal infusions year round. Even better news is that the Camellia sinensis, the true tea plant, does well in a large pot because it prefers filtered light like the kind you get indoors. Tea plants also prefer rich, well-drained soil.
For any herb/plant that you bring indoors for the winter, you need to help acclimatize it to the indoor climate. Prune by removing dead leaves and branches up to one-third of the plant. Any more than that and you risk killing the plant. Wash off thoroughly any aphids or other pests clinging to the branches and leaves. Keep the plant away from drafts and heat blasting from your radiators. You will always lose some leaves, but the plant should remain healthy.
If you have several small windows, an ideal way to garden is to plant each herb in a separate flower pot with drainage holes. Cover the holes with a single layer of cheesecloth or a coffee filter so that soil does not work its way out through the bottom. Set each pot in a saucer and put the saucer on top of a metal trivet on the window ledge. That way, you do not leave water stains on the sill. If you are handy with a hammer and saw, you can build your own narrow rectangular container from wood or metal to fit your window precisely, and plant more than one herb in it.
Fill your containers with a mixture of organic potting soil and planting compost. Some indoor gardeners prefer to buy small container plants at a garden center instead of sewing seeds because they do not want plants to germinate all over the place and intermingle. Rotate the flowerpots or turn the window box around every couple of weeks so the plants will grow straight and strong. You will harvest leaves as you need them, but for window gardens, it is essential to keep the plants clipped back so they do not grow into each other.
Most herbs are comfortable with good soil that is not too rich. Lavender, for example, actually thrives best in poor quality soil. You only need to fertilize once a month or so whether the botanicals are planted in the house or outdoors. Here is another tip. Whenever you water, mist under the leaves to discourage aphids, spider mites, whitefly, and other pests. If your plants are in fairly small containers, you can give them a monthly treat by bathing them in the kitchen sink with the sprayer.
Twenty Easy-to-Grow
Tea Garden Botanicals
Following are descriptions of twenty herbal botanicals that have been cultivated for centuries to make beverage and medicinal teas. They all flourish just about anywhere in the US. Once established, you will have a hard time killing them off. Rose bushes are the exception; as queens of the garden, they can be finicky. One type that survives just about anywhere and that puts up with all sorts of abuse is the wild rose, also known as the dog rose.
In the following list, you will see listed the botanical’s height so you know whether to plant it at the back of the garden, in the middle or as a border. Useful information, such as flower colors for aesthetic reasons, parts used in herbal medicine, how the botanical tastes in a tea, and other tips are also given.
Angelica—perennial or biennial; height: 3–6 feet; exposure: prefers partial shade; soil: moist rich, slightly acidic; flowers: greenish-white honey-scented flowers that look like umbrellas; parts used: leaves, seeds, roots; taste: celery-like.
Borage—an annual, but it reseeds so readily it can be considered a perennial; height: 1–3 feet; exposure: sun to partial shade; soil: fairly dry; flowers: nodding clusters of flowers that look like little blue stars and attract hoards of bees; parts used: leaves and flowers; taste: cucumber-like. Note: Borage proliferates madly, so sowing it in a raised bed is strongly advised. This plant tolerates poor soil conditions well.
Calendula—annual, but the flower heads produce so many seeds, all you need do is save them to sow the following season; height: 6 inches to 3 feet; exposure: full sun; soil: average; flowers: bright orange, parts used: flowers; taste: saffron-like, slightly bitter. Note: Only the small, orange-flowered calendula (pot marigold) is used in herbal medicine. Plant marigolds as borders because of their short height and also because they repel nematodes and other pests.
Chamomile—perennial; height: 3 inches to 1 foot; exposure: sun to partial shade; soil: well-drained; flowers: daisy-like with yellow centers and silvery white petals; parts used: flowers; taste: apple-like.
Chrysanthemum—perennial: height: 1–5 feet; exposure: full to partial sun; soil: sandy and rich; flowers: daisy-like white or yellow disc florets; parts used: flower; taste: artichoke-like, aromatic. Note: Before horticulturalists started creating different varieties, all chrysanthemums used to have button-like, white and yellow flowers. These are still the kind the Chinese use today to scent tea.
(Red) Clover—perennial; height: 2 feet; exposure: sun; soil: average to fertile, neutral to alkaline; flowers: pinkish-purple flower heads; parts used: dried blossoms; taste: sweet.
Fennel—perennial; height: 3–5 feet; exposure: sun; soil: lime-rich garden soil; flowers: flat, yellow, umbelliferous; parts used: seeds; taste: licorice-like. Note: Pick the seeds before they have time to scatter unless you want to raise hundreds of little fennel plants.
Lavender—perennial; height: 2–3 feet; exposure: sun; soil: dry, chalky; flowers: purple spikes; parts used: flowers; taste: clean, aromatic. Trim off the dead spikes to keep the plant healthy and encourage more blooms.
Lemon balm—perennial; height: 2–4 feet; exposure: sun to partial shade, but some of my plants do okay in a lot of shade; soil: average—this plant is not picky; flowers: tiny white flowers along the stems display modest blooms, but the leaf fragrance is reminiscent of lemon sherbet; parts used: leaf; taste: lemon-like, refreshing.
Marjoram—perennial; height: 1–2 feet; exposure: sun to partial shade; soil: light, but moist and alkaline; flowers: clusters of small, pale white or red blooms that grow on spikes; parts used: leaves; taste: oregano-like with hints of sweetness and warmth.
Mint—perennial; height: 18 inches to 4 feet, depending on species; exposure: partial to full shade; soil: any type, but prefers moist; flowers: depending on the variety, small, unremarkable, white, purple or violet grow at the top of spikes; parts used: leaves; taste: depending on the variety, peppermint, orangey, lemony, pineapple-like, spearmint, apple minty, chocolate minty. Note: All varieties taste minty and refreshing, some have fruity overtones. The newer leaves concentrate more of the flavor. Be sure to plant mints in raised beds because they spread rapidly and are difficult to control once established.
Monarda (also known as bergamot, bee balm, and oswego tea)—perennial; height: 1–3 feet, tends to spread horizontally (at least mine does); exposure: sun to partial shade; soil: moist (but not too wet), acidic; flowers: pretty, two-lipped scarlet, pink, violet, or white blossoms; parts used: leaves and flowers; taste: citrus-minty. Note: If you want to approximate the taste of Earl Grey tea by making your own, add some of the leaves to China black or Darjeeling.
Nettle—perennial; height: 1–8 feet, though I have never seen it grow so tall; exposure: sun; soil: moist and rich in organic matter; flowers: clusters of small, greenish blossoms; parts used: dried leaves; taste: tasteless, but can be perked up by adding mint or citrus peels. Note: Please be cautious around nettles. The hairs on the leaves contain formic acid, which stings and blisters the skin horribly. The dried leaves are harmless.
Parsley—biennial; height: no more than a foot; exposure: partial to full shade; soil: rich, moist; flowers: greenish-yellow or white; parts used: leaves; taste: no surprise here, it is parsley-like, which means cool and refreshing. Note: Parsley makes a good kitchen window container plant because of its contained habit. Harvest the leaves before the plant blooms.
Rose—perennial in most places, though I lose a bush or two every year here in Colorado, where temperatures can plummet; height: depending on the variety, several inches to several feet; exposure: full sun; soil: well-drained and enriched; flowers: stunningly beautiful often fragrant blooms in just about every shade imaginable, although pink, red, yellow, and white are most common; parts used: petals and rosehips, the round fruit that develops from spent flower blossoms; taste: the hips are tangy and aromatic, the petals taste delicate and flowery. Note: Roses are especially susceptible to aphids. You do not want to use a commercial spray on them or you will not be able to drink them in a tea. Organic gardeners recommend using an organic insecticidal soap or pyrethrum spray that is based on chrysanthemums. If you have only a couple of bushes and do not mind tedious work, you can remove the aphids using dampened cotton balls or cloths. Let your bushes blossom in late spring and early summer. Deadhead them for the petals and to produce more flowers for tea until mid-summer. After that, let the flowers die naturally. In time, dark red hips will form. Not all roses bloom more than once during a season. If you do not have repeat bloomers, leave half of the blossoms on the bush to form healthy hips for teas.
Sage—perennial; height: 2–4 feet; exposure: sun to partial shade; soil: dry or sandy, limy; flowers: purple or blue blooms that form on tall spikes; parts used: leaves; taste: somewhat like camphor, aromatic, slightly bitter and reminiscent of poultry seasoning, which is partly composed of sage.
Strawberry—perennial; height: 6–10 inches; exposure: full sun, although my plants do well in partial shade; soil: rich, moist, well-drained; flowers: five-petal white flowers with yellow centers that transform into fat, juicy red strawberry fruit; parts used: leaves, although herbal tea drinkers sometimes add slices of fruit as a garnish in the teacup; taste: slightly strawberry-like, but adding the fresh fruit slices helps augment the flavor.
Thyme—perennial; height: 2–12 inches, depending on the variety; exposure: sun; soil: dry and lime; flowers: various shades of purple that are a magnet for bees; parts used: leaves; taste: pungent, and in my opinion, not very pleasant, but can be improved by adding lemon balm or lemon verbena. Note: This is a good plant for kitchen containers and it possesses many medicinal virtues. Common thyme, which grows to around 8" tall, is the best-tasting for tea, although all thymes taste highly balsamic. Many herbal tea drinkers prefer the lemon thyme variety, which grows to 1 foot, and so is best suited to the outdoor garden. The leaves are an antiseptic. They also keep a person from having muscle and coughing spasms, help expel gas from the digestive tract, helps a cough sufferer cough up phlegm, and helps bring down a fever. Drink a decoction to remove intestinal worms. Externally, the tea is used to rid a person of lice, crabs, parasites, and fungal infections like athletes’ foot.
Valerian or garden heliotrope—perennial; height: 4 feet; exposure: sun to partial shade; soil: heavy and moist, and the plant does not mind clay; flowers: clusters of lavender, blue or pink blooms appear on the ends of long stems; part used: root; taste: strong, but soothing. Harvest the root in the fall, and leave some to regenerate the following year.
Yarrow—perennial; height: 3 feet; exposure: full sun; soil: likes fairly poor soil and is drought-tolerant; flowers: large clusters of mainly yellow or cream-colored flowers, although there is also a red-flowered variety called “paprika”; parts used: leaves and flowers; taste: astringent, sagelike. Note: Be careful with yarrow as it spreads readily through the garden and once established is hard to eradicate.