White Tea with Chamomile, Ginger & Lemon Mint

So far this week I've posted two tea recipes using the black teas Assam and Ceylon as the base, and then yesterday's tea recipe called for herbs only with tulsi or holy basil as the base.


Today's recipe calls for either a green or white tea base.
White tea is increasingly popular, but to tell you the truth, beyond tasting a subtle difference between white and green, I had to use google to find out that white tea is labeled such because the leaves are picked when they're basically still buds covered in fine, white hairs.

Whereas green tea leaves are harvested later, when the leaf is no longer covered in white hair, has matured and thus is fully open.

And Green tea leaves are partly fermented whereas white tea leaves are not fermented. (Black tea is fully fermented.) Apparently the less fermented the leaves the greater the antioxidant levels in the leaves with white tea having the highest concentration of healthful antioxidants.

I discovered that tea leaves with obvious little white hairs still on them i.e. Silver Needle Tea, is considered by tea connoisseurs as the "Rolls Royce" of white tea.

Odd that anyone would associate tea with cars, although yesterday I did make reference to drinking enough spicy chai to launch a rocket, in other words the tea I brewed was so strong it was akin to rocket fuel.

The tea used as the base for today's recipe isn't the Rolls Royce of white or rocket fuel black; actually it can be any white or green tea of your choosing!

White Tea with Chamomile, Ginger, & Lemon Mint
Into a tea pot toss
1) A heaping teaspoon of white or green tea
2) A heaping teaspoon of chamomile (you could use a plain chamomile tea bag or buy dried chamomile in bulk)
3) A half teaspoon of freshly chopped or grated ginger root
4) Several lemon mint leaves and if you don't grow lemon mint, you could use regular mint with a little grated lemon peel for zing.
5) Fill tea pot with 2 cups boiling water and let tea steep for 3-5 mins, depending on your preference for a subtle or stronger flavored tea.

And that concludes my posts on brewing your own teas. All the recipes I've shared have come via Cindy Lawrence, a Boulder-based Yoga Therapist. As per Cindy's suggestion, you can either source the herbs used in the teas from your garden or you can buy them fresh or dried.

The spices used in the various teas can be purchased in bulk and then they're best stored in glass, canning jars. Or you can buy the spices already in small bottles. I buy my spices in bulk in the bulk section of Whole Foods. I like to be able to pick and pay for only what I need and then decant them into glass once home.

The teas, black, green, white, are available loose from various online tea stores, or you can buy them loose at Whole Foods. Loose-leaf tea always has more flavor than tea bag tea; simply it's better quality than the ground tea used in bags.