This is Recipe Roundup, episode 110. We are nearing the time of year when nothing hits the spot better than some nice ice tea. While grocery stores these days have a huge variety of teas, herbal or otherwise, it can be a fun project to make your own blends! Recently, I’ve been experimenting with different herbal and tea mixtures and it’s really fun! This would be a fun activity for the whole family – at least those who drink tea! 

Unless you have a wealth of your own herbal and floral garden, the best place to source your ingredients will typically be a health food store. Most have a shelf of dried herbs and tea varieties for bulk purchase. And while you may be able to find similar ingredients at a typical grocery store, bulk jars allow you to completely control how much of a given herb you purchase.

I’m a big fan of floral ingredients, like rosebuds and lavender. They provide a unique flavor that to me feels fresh and magical. Other flowers can provide a lovely color – hibiscus flowers turn hot water a bright pink and butterfly pea blossoms a beautiful blue – with the added magic of turning purple with the addition of lemon juice!

There’s also a variety of dried fruits and roots that provide a lot of flavor – dried apples, bilberry fruit, dried ginger, and orange or lemon peel are great options to boost the flavor of your mixture – though please note that it takes very little citrus peel goes a long way. 

Then there’s ingredients that have medicinal properties, such as damiana, mugwort, chamomile, and mint! There are so many herbs with different properties that it’s definitely worth some research before going to the store. And a big word of caution when dealing with any whole ingredient that you are unfamiliar with might be a source of allergy, so please be careful!

Finally, if you are okay with caffeine, you can include some tea leaves. White, Green, Black, and beyond there are many different types of tea bases with their different properties. Tea is typically full of antioxidants and add a nice bitter flavor to the drink.