Blending my own tea
Hello All. My name is Bob and I am a Canadian tea drinker. Having IBS, I cannot handle caffeine so I drink mostly herbal teas. For many, many years I have been drinking Lipton’s Quietly Chamomile tea and it has been my lifesaver many a time when my IBS is acting up. Recently, Lipton has discontinued this teas which has been quite a jarring experience for me. I was getting left over boxes on the internet for awhile but that seems to have dried up as well. I am wondering now if I can blend my own tea using some or most of the ingredients of that Quietly Chamomile. I have the ingredients off the box (without the measurements of course) but I don’t know how to get started. Getting the chamomile tea itself is not hard but I’m wondering about some of the other ingredients such as Rosehips and Hibiscus Flowers. Are they readily available and do I need to do anything with them or just dry everything and sprinkle in with the chamomile to make a blend. I just need some advice on getting started. Any comments would be appreciated.
both rosehips and Hibiscus can be easily found (and already dry). you can start with a local ethnic grocer, I often can find them there. also, here are 2 good herbal suppliers you could check out. proportions might be hit and miss, but you could just start blending small batch, test, repeat…till you find a balance that works.
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/
http://www.starwest-botanicals.com/
finally I want to mention that I love celestial seasonings tummy mint for my digestive issues, if you can not find it local, It can be found on amazon.
Thank you for the quick reply. I will see what I can find here at the health food and grocers. As far as mint teas, I find any peppermint or spearmint in my tea unless it’s just a touch to be too much for me. I do drink Starbucks Tazo tea occasionally and the mint in there is just about the max I can handle. This is the reason I think I will try to blend my own because all the commercial blends have something in it I don’t like. :-(
right. I have a friend who cannot have mint, chicory,camomile. rooibos or stevia. thankfully she can have true teas (though her mother is allergic to the tannins now so can only have white tea!
Actually it’s not that I CAN’T drink mint, I just really don’t like those high note flavors in my tea. Don’t like any mint or sweet fruity notes. I like my tea to be really really neutral.
If you are going to be blending on your own, I recommend trying each herb/flower by itself to know how it will impart the taste on the rest of the blend. Also, start with small portions of hibiscus because it is very easy for hibiscus to take over a blend with very small amounts. For herbals I tend to use a total of 1-2 teaspoons of the mixture per 8oz of water steeped for 5 minutes. Usually that is a good starting place.
Indeed, very good advice. Before blending your herbals you should try them each and see what flavor and taste agrees with you more.
Usually when making your own blend you should be careful as to add a flowery note (The best part is that you can choose whatever flowers you like from chamomile to violet flowers or the petals of dandelion, rose or calendula.), a flavor note (You can use dried nettles or dried raspberry leaves, but these options are always opened for change. You need to add two parts of this particular ingredient in the blend), a fruity note (usually hibiscus) and a cooling ingredient (like mint leaves).
FYI. I was able to find all the herbal ingredients at a health food store and with a little patience I was able to blend them into a tea that’s pretty close to the commercial product. I couldn’t be happier. Thank you all for your help.
An update on this. I found that the dried orange peels weren’t giving enough essence to cover the harsh chamomile taste and found that fresh orange peels were the way to go.
So happy that you have found a satisfactory alternative to your favorite, discontinued tea. I always find the ones I love the most seem to be the quickest to be discontinued! So aggravating!
Oh, would you be willing to share your recipe? It sounds like something I’d like to try.
Sure. My ingredients list is as follows. 1/2 tsp chamomile tea, about 2 inch square cut up fresh orange peel, 1/2 tsp rosehips, 1 whole allspice seed, pinch of hibiscus, pinch of licorice root. I crush all the ingredients except the chamomile tea and the orange peel. You can find all the ingredients at a health food store. This recipe is close to Quietly Chamomile but you can adjust the ingredients yourself if you want a slightly different flavor.
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