I consider all dried stuff that you boil water and pour it over or simmer in and

Hi Writer, I tried making apple mint jelly once, it was totally gross, you should send me your recipe because I rather make my jelly for my lamb than to buy it from the store with all that corn syrup in it.. Babystar, like writer said, I make mine another way as well as using the tea ball. I usually use the tea ball for my dried mint, but during the summer when more tea is consumed and it is fresh, I grab a handful of fresh and washed mint leaves, and just fill the coffee filter on my coffee pot, add water and turn it on. Unlike the tea ball where tiny little bits end up in the tea, this tea is nothing but water and mint flavor and because it goes through the pot, it gives the tea a stronger mint flavor than if I put the leave in the tea ball. If you are worried about mint taste for your coffee, you can purchase a separate machine, but personally, the taste is barely noticeable and usually after one pot of coffee the taste disappears altogether.

I'd b e honored to. Depends on what you have to do tea with. If you have a tea ball or any other shape metal tea thing, like the ones that are double-cupped strainers, you stuff them, close them and put them in a pan of hot to boiling water. Take the pan off the stove and let it "steep" for a while. 15 to 25 minutes. I like the double strainers or tea baskets best. You can see what is going on. They don't last as long as a tea ball, those solid metal things with holes punched in them. Some people use cheese clothe cut into a large square or circle or an old pillow case or sheet torn or cut into a large sheet or circle. Then put the tea in the middle and sew or bast it up and drop that into a pan of boiling or just under boiling water and take the pan off the stove. The amount, you'll have to play with. A teaspoon to a tablespoon is usually enough for a person per cup. Some people like a weak tea (that would be me) and some like a strong tea (that would be my husband). Some people roll the leaves to bruise them or cut them up first. It releases more flavor and oils. I would start with weak and go stronger afterward if that was too little an amount for you. Sipping tea, esp. one you haven't had before is advised. Many people like it with milk or to infuse other things with the mint like mint in vinegar or in honey. The vinegar goes well with meat. The honey goes well with ice cream or sweet and sour dishes for either the vinegar or the honey. Mint doesn't get away from me. I make everything I can with mint. Apple mint jelly, chocolate mint milk, mint cookies, etc. I used it every day for a month one year in or on something different like with pork or lamb. It works great planted around houses to keep ants away, most kinds, but I wouldn't eat the ones too near the house because of roof run off. They smell great when you run over them with a lawnmower.

For a totally different way to make mint tea, try the responder #2 Carmelanirel on the first page. I think she uses a coffee brewer. I gave you mine, but you might ask her and like her way better.

Well we all like what we like. Taht is an awesome array of teas for one place. The first pine needle tea I had tasted like turpintine, that was white pine, but the Canadian pine was awesome. Way differnt taste. Rosemary and fennel, I would think they would be very strong. Maybe that's what keeps the volunteers and workmen coming back? That sounds great for teas. Many people have fibromyalgia here, so that other tea sounds very interesting. Thanks, very interesting response and take care.

I love the smell of the teas, but just the taste is disappointing! I can't stand any of the citrus ones, probably why I never make them. Rosemary makes a very 'savoury' tea. The trouble is, the smell of it makes you hungry! Occasionally I make a tea with a bay leaf too. Same problem, though everyone seems to enjoy it. A calendula flower makes any tea look good. I've started drying them for this. Personally, I like teas with a spot of chilli in. Sometimes I'll make one with chilli, ginger and cinnamon which I enjoy, but I didn't think that counted for the discussion as I don't grow the ginger and cinnamon.

Well, you probably could grow our wild ginger from the states, the ones in stores need more specific climate and nutrients to where they're normally grown. Cinnamon comes from a tree in a specific area, so probably not. so spiced teas are more to your liking. That's interesting. You could grow your own chili, peppers grow everywhere. My brother grows some every year in his house. He loves the colorful ones. Have you tred sage tea? GardenGerty above recommends it.

Interesting way to look at this, and maybe something to consider. I wish there was a way to get Green tea for cheaper than what I mostly see, as like I said I Love green tea. Maybe this is something I should check out once I can do a little more walking.

I think I saw coffee plants you could buy for green houses or window sill gardens. So if coffee plants have been grown and sold to people, then maybe tea plants could be found to be sold to you? Green tea is a stage of the tea. It goes thru differnt stages. Not sure if any wild teas taste all that much like regular tea. Glad you found my take on tea interesting and you're making plans for when you feel better. It's all about he journey my friend, all about stop and smell the roses along the way. Take care

A lot of extra work? You pick a leaf, you pour hot water over the leaf. I'm picking stuff anyway and going for walks anyway. Because right now walking is a problem for you, maybe it seems that way. But I'm walking and picking things anyway. Plus $2.99 for a few ounces of dried leaves. That's an outrageous amount per pound. Like 10 or 20 bucks a pound. Now if someone gave you a mint plant that you had on your window sill and you liked mint tea, you would see what we mean. Fresh mint that isn't dried has an awesome taste. Besides, getting in a car and driving 8 or 24 miles to buy what's in my backyard seems like a lot of gas money for nothing and a lot of traveling to me. I hope that some day, your leg heals enough so that things like this seem easy to you. I know when I had 4 chemos every other week, nothing was easy for me. To your health. May your health become awesome someday!

I think I may try carmela's approach and put some leaves into coffee brewers. I think I have heard of parsley tea for digestion. I will probably try the lavender this year. This is the first I have actually had plants survive very long at all.

Yes, isn't lavender finiky for cold areas? I find it to be so.

Lavendar tea I have heard of. The rest, I would think maybe lemon thyme might be a good tea. I just heard about sage tea the other day. It seems like that would be really strong to me. But it is supposed to be very healthy.

Motherwart certainly needs to be mixed with something, it's kind of tough on the tastebuds. See response #1, purists and the British, only one kind of dried plant is tea period.

Well, that is just too poo poo for me.

That sounds like a wonderful assortment of teas. Elder is good as long as it is cooked, I think I read that it was poisonous uncooked, I'm sure you know that but for people reading this who don't know. Elderberry jam is a big deal up here, lemongrass sounds good to me as a tea.

Really? I didn't know that about the flowers being in drinks. How interesting!

I never ate the berries raw, only in the form of jam, but you are right, we have to be careful. And some elder species are not edible at all. I think the flowers are safe when raw, because they are used for champagne and other drinks.

That would be cool! I've had elderberry fritters and they were good, so I'm looking forward to making the tea. You don't know how tempting it is to pick the blossoms from that little apple tree, though!

My foraging teacher told us number rules. Let's say you have a ton of something like an acre of cat nip. 1 in 3 can thee pick. One for you, one for the cats in the neighborhood and one for the bugs, all nature has to live. So if there is a lot of something, you pick one in three. If there is not much of something, say 10, then 1 plant out of the 10. If 21 plants, then 1 in 7. One for you and 6 to continue the "circle of life."(Or one for above the Earth, one for below, and one for each of the 4 Directions if you want to get technical about it) To reproduce and hope you have more later. It's been my experience that our apple trees produce more flowers than they can have apples for and some of the apples fall off(it could also be diseas, lack of water, or not enough nutrients). So picking a few blossoms to make a cup of tea, is probably just going to make the remaining apples bigger. It's like people who like zuchini blossoms stuffed and also like zuchini. If you only take a blossom here and there, like one per vine, it's not a big deal. So pick a number like 10 or 21 and only pick one in every so many. Since you've never had it before and don't even know if you like it, I'd just pick about 4 blossoms-total and see if it's a decent tea.

I haven't had apple blossom tea, but I have had apple blossom honey and I can tell you that is awesome. Many areas have their own wild mint. Like there is an Adirondack mint that only grows here, but you hear of it, never see it in pictures. Bet I run into some hiking this summer. If I get some wild strawberries leaves, I'll Personal message you and we'll see what we can do. But my timing usually is bad. Once the flowers start or the leaves turn red, I don't use them. Elderberry flowere make good fritters, haven't had them as a tea.

Chamomile, true. Had seeds for them, but they didn't come up. The wild pineapple weed comes on my lawn and is related, but tends to grow in the driveway so it's suspect. Linden tree or lim flowers, never heard ot. Please tell me more. I still like pass me the tea, pass me the tisane sounds inane.

Lime trees are very common in England. I guess that they aren't so common in the States, though I believe that you call them 'basswood'. This Wikipedia article has pictures of the leaves, flowers and seeds which may jog your memory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_tree Pineapple weed isn't usually made into a tea. I think that it has a bitter taste (though it smells like pineapple when crushed). It lacks the white corolla of chamomile though otherwise it's fairly similar. I believe that buying plants of the right variety would be more reliable than growing from seed. Other plants which, off the top of my head, I recall as being used as infusions are nettles and dandelions but these are used more as medicines than as pleasurable drinks. This page gives some general information and, perhaps, ideas: http://coffeetea.about.com/od/teaandtisanebasics/a/TisaneBasics.htm I was expecting to find several good pages on the preparation and uses of 'herbal teas' or 'tisanes' or whatever people call them to distinguish them from Camellia sinensis but I am either not on form today or there aren't any sites of the kind I was expecting.

I believe that you Americans once tried to make tea with salt water without warming the pot first. No wonder you lost the taste for it

My husband told me a trick once he saw in a movie, if one is really hot and thirsty, take a fresh mint leave and chew on it and then take a sip of water. The cooling effect is wonderful. Chocolate mint doesn't taste like chocolate mint? If it has a taste like Vicks vapor rub, then I think the only time I'd drink it is if I had a bad cold where it probably will loosen the mucus and I won't be able to taste it well..lol

I was surprised too that it wasn't chocolatey. no it's just the cikir if tge stens abd the underleaf. A friend thought she was doing me a favor when she bought it. It over-ran my peppermint and was nasty. Apple mint, I'd like to have that in the house, it's supposed to be suttle and fruity. Yes, chocolate mint seems like medicine to me. But other people don't think so, maybe it's just my tastebuds.

Like you, I definitely prefer my mints fresh. It's O. K. to dry some for winter, but the fresh is incredible and anyone who hasn't tried fresh should. No, the chocolate mint tastes like camphor. A really strong medicine. Think tasting vic vapor rub. But then my taste buds like suttle, not overpowering, maybe it wouldn't taste like that to you.

Interesting, the tess from the Phillipines. I wonder if any of the ingredients are wild or imported or what, you know? I love the mints. I'm thinking about potting some up for my kitchen window. I really miss it during the long winter months. Thanks and take care.

Well, welcome to the world of infusions, tisanes, tinctures and all kinds of stuff. I leave those technical terms for when dried stuff is used as medicine and must be more exacting. I wonder if the old ones where you are know of some wonderous flavors in plants that grow there. I also wonder if they know of some not so great tasting medicines that grow there. I agree with you, many people just use commercialzed teas. But there are wonderous ones everywhere. Thanks for responding. You never know, this might open an entirely new world of plants for you. Thanks for responding and take care.

yes there are a lot i do not know about and i am glad you shared this with us..

Your first sentense is what I want to do. Dry the leaves when they're ready and then dry the berries when they're ready. That seems like a natural to me, but catching everything when it's ready is a challenge. Glad you love all kinds of teas. I had different kinds of mints, but one will dominate and kill the otheres unless you put them in different garden beds, just so you know. Good luck and hope you get lots of all kinds of mint that you will love and enjoy.

Yes, you are right, raspberry bushes and mint leaves do grow like weeds in most places. We have about an acre of raspberry bushes and we only started out with a couple. The mint doesn't get away from us because I could eat some every day. Mint tea, mint jelly, mint on lamb, mint on pork, etc. It has a rough time gettin ahead of me. Mint with chocolate milk, etc. I really love mint, esp chocolate mint ice cream. Thanks for responding and take care.