I'm having a quiet and peaceful weekend after a frantic week. I've been thinking for a while about making my favourite warming tea, but today I finally got around to it. Before Chris left home to go and play with his friends in Wales (boys never grow up, do they!), he left me a bag of large oranges on the kitchen table.

My favourite tea at this time of year is one made from flax seeds. I got the idea from Rebecca Hartman. I take a tablespoon or so of flax seeds and put them into a saucepan along with around a pint and a half of water, a cinnamon stick scrunched up, some cut orange peel, some orange juice and today I threw in a handful of fresh rose hips I picked last weekend. The idea is to bring the water to the boil and simmer until it has evaporated by about half its volume. This takes 20-30 minutes on a gas flame. Strain and add honey to taste. It tastes as if someone is hugging you - soothing, nourishing and generally wonderful. It makes you sit and savour it.

What is your favourite tea?


Sarah

Ohhh I recall trying that tea during one of your winter workshops last year, it really was lovely. My current favourite isn't a tea as such as its made with cloudy apple juice, I blogged about tea making recently and put my favourite recipe of the moment on there. Here it is...

Chamomile & Spiced Apple Tea

1 Mug Organic Cloudy Apple Juice
1 tsp Chamomile Flowers
1/4 of a Cinnamon Stick (or a good pinch ground cinnamon)

Method - Put the apple juice, chamomile and cinnamon in a pan and gently warm through, don’t let it boil! Leave it to infuse for 5 - 10 minutes and strain into a mug. really warming and soothing and great tea to aid digestion. I've found adding a pinch of mixed spice or ginger also tastes lovely with this brew.

Debs

Just found a new favourite herbal tea bag for autumn and winter, its called Revitalise and is made by Pukka Herbs, it contains cinnamon bark, ginger root, cloves, black pepper, elderflowers, orange peel, liquorice root, green tea and spearmint leaf. It's really warming and wakes me up. I can see this being something I'd drink lots over the next few months, especially now the nights are drawing in. I know 'instant' herb teas aren't to everybody's taste. But what I love about Pukka teas is the facts that they are organic and its all real herbs and spices inside the bags and not 'flavourings' like in most commercial herb teas. Great that I can carry them with me and have a lovely brew where ever I am as well.

The 'Pleasure' tea by them is lovely to, as I'm trying to avoid caffeine, hot chocolate is out, so a mug of pleasure at night helps, it has a lovely spicy chocolate aroma, it does contain 0.4mg of caffiene per bag but that's a heck of a lot less than coffee or hot chocolate. Pleasure contains roasted chicory, cocoa beans, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel seed and liquorice. Has anybody else got any favourite herb teas that they make themselves or instant herb teas they buy?

I've been asked to give a talk on herbs to a care home locally as part of a series of hedgerow herb talks to older adults. I've been told the staff are very keen to have recipes to make teas for their frail elderly clients.

I'm going to take the cinnamon/orange/linseed tea, lemon and ginger root, nettle latte (which I may make from a nettle/rose syrup with hot milk) and a home made chai.

Does anyone have any other ideas for nourishing teas?


Sarah