Making Your Own Herbal Tea (and dealing with imbalanced Hormones)

This post comes from Sustainable Preparedness Blog (www.SustainablePreparedness.com/index.php/blog )

So many people always ask me how to make tea using bulk herbs. Most people just get little tea bags and stick it into their mug of hot water. But what do you do when you want to make your own herbal combination or mix? Well, here is a simple step by step breakdown of how you can make your own.

Herbs come in a number of different forms: Leaves, Flowers, Roots, Seeds, Barks, and powdered herbs. Unless special instructions come with the tea or tea combination you are using, then use the following directions:

For Leaves, Flowers, or Powdered herbs (dried, of course):

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil.
2. Add 1 tsp of the leaves or flowers, then immediately cover and remove from hot surface.
3. Let it steep for 15 to 30 minutes.
4. Strain and drink fresh for most teas. Some can be stored in a cool place. Most can be made once in the morning for the whole day.

For Roots, Seeds, and Barks:

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil.
2. Add 1 Tbs  of roots, seeds or barks.
3. Let gently boil for 15 minutes.
4. Then steep for 15-30 min.
5. Strain and drink!

Now you can combine any of the herbs and do them altogether. For example, I make a tea combination that really helps balance my hormones that has Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds all in the same jar of tea. Instead of making two different pots of tea (one for the leaves and flowers and another for the seeds), I do it this way:

Balancing Hormones:

I bring 2-3 cups of water to boil. Then once it’s boiling, I’ll add the Chaste Tree berry (seeds) and let it gently boil for another 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes are up, then I add Red Clover (flowers) and Red Raspberry (leaves), remove it from the source of heat, cover and let sit for 15-30 minutes. Then I like to dilute it with another 1-2 cups of water (so it’s not so strong) and add a hint of lemon juice, honey (to sweeten), and salt (helps with electrolytes, and amazingly makes it much more palatable) to taste.

This works wonderful for me, and you can see that it is very easy to combine any herbs in the same pot. So give it a try (you are welcome to use my recipe and let me know how it works for you!!) and enjoy!

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