The Health Benefits of Echinacea (Echinacea species) Tea

Echinacea is one of the most used herbs when it comes to colds, flu and boosting the immune system when one is sick.  the actions and uses of this echinacea are as follows from Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing:

Fights inflammation and bacterial and viral infection.  Stimulates certain white blood cells.  Good for the immune system and the lymphatic system.  useful for allergies, colic, colds, flu, and other infectious illnesses.

Nutrients: Calcium, iron, magnesium, maganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, vitamins B1, B2, B3, and C.

Caution: It should be used with caution by people who are allergic to ragweed or to plants in the sunflower family.  Should not be taken for prolonged periods by people with autoimmune disorders, as it stimulates the immune system.

I’ve taken echinacea both as a supplement in both tablet and liquid forms, and as a tea.  I found the teas helped me just as much as the supplements.  Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care tea is blended with peppermint leaves, licorice root, roasted chicory root, natural menthol extract, eucalyptus leaves, ascorbic acid, lavender flowers, stevia leaves, star anise and zinc.  Alvita, another popular tea company, carries both Echinacea and Echinacea with Goldenseal, which can give your immune system an added boost.

From Alvita,

Echinacea/Goldenseal is an excellent combination of herbs for all kinds of viral & bacterial infections, strengthens the immune system against pathogenic infection by stimulating phagocytosis & T-Cell formation, blood cleansing properties, acne, bronchitis, colds & flu, congestion, psoriasis, tonsillitis, wounds, ear infections and stimulates the immune system.

I recommend you seek out this wellness tea if you haven’t tried it already.  It definitely help me when I feeling under the weather.  I even take it when I just need a little boost; as I did today.

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Celestial Seasonings – Sleepytime Throat Tamer Tea Review

There are so many amazing tea companies from Colorado, and Celestial Seasonings is another one of them. I’ll be reviewing one of their caffeine free herbal supplement teas today – Sleepytime Throat Tamer.  To start, the ingredients of this tea are chamomile, licorice, tilia estrella (a flower), ginger root, slippery elm bark, spearmint, west Indian lemongrass and natural lemon and ginger flavours with other natural flavours (contains soy lecithin).  Phew what a mouthful – no pun intended.  The dosage of the first 5 ingredients are:

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) (flowers) 550mg
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) (root) 260mg
Tilia estrella (Ternstroemia pringlei) (flowers) 150mg
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) (root) 70mg
Slippery Elm Bark (Ulmus rubra) 35mg

The purpose of this tea is to soothe minor throat irritations that may occur between seasonal changes.  This is all too common when the harsh cold winter turns into spring!

Herbal supplement in a cup

I brewed this caffeine free tea with water that was almost at boiling point for 6 minutes or so.  With herbal teas you can always steep longer to get a stronger flavour without risk of it being too bitter.  After steeping the tea became a dark golden brown.  It smelt heavily of lemongrass and chamomile when I first dipped my nose into the tea.  Now comes the sipping.  This tea was very light in body and is very soothing.  There was a strong kick to the tea from the licorice, ginger and slippery elm.

If you’ve never had licorice as a root before, there is the possibility that you may not like this herb!  Licorice as a herb gives off a sweet and almost minty type of sensation in your mouth.  It can be very refreshing and cooling to the body.  it’s great for reducing inflammation and detoxifying.  Please note licorice root is not safe for pregnant or breastfeeding women, so if you are, do not take this tea.

Overall, I recommend this tea, if you need something soothing to sip throughout the day, in the evening or at night to sooth the throat and cool the soul.

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Two Leaves and a Bud – Alpine Berry Herbal Tea Review

It felt like Christmas morning!

I got this package from Two Leaves and A Bud last week and I finally had a chance today to review one of the teas. I’m seriously contemplating doing a tea week dedicated to these guys because of the sheer amount of samples they sent me. If I go forward with this, this will be 1/15 teas. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Two Leaves and a Bud from Colorado is one tea company that I would be proud of owning.  Their packaging design is colorful, fun and engaging!  Their packaging and press kit actually reminded me of my website.

I decided to kick start off, hopefully, Two Leaves and a Bud Week with the caffeine free Alpine Berry.  I’m not a fan of berry teas, but I’m optimistic.  The ingredients are: hibiscus, apple peel, rosehips, blackberry leaves, orange peel, and natural berry flavors.

Yum!

I brewed the tea with almost boiling water and steeped for several minutes. The liqueur instantly became a brilliant burgundy.  The color reminded me of a deep red wine or pomegranate juice.  The smell of the tea is very light.  It’s smelled of baked apples and strawberries.  Now comes the taste test.  Wow.  I love this tea.  It is completely unlike many of the berry tea experiences that I’ve had in the past.  The flavours are rich and fragrant.  I feel like I’m drinking plump raspberries, blackberries and strawberries in a tea.  I’m used to berries being very sweet so I would definately add some honey into my tea in the future.  I think this would also make a fantastic iced tea – add some apple and lemon slices with some honey and you’re good to go.

I highly recommend this tea to people who are looking for a berry based fruity herbal tea that is caffeine free.

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Osmanthus

The very first “tea” I fell in love with

If you have never tried osmanthus tea or gai fa in Cantonese. I encourage you to seek it out in its purest form, as a flower, not blended with green tea.  There is no other tea that compares in aroma and taste to osmanthus.  The picture on the left is actually from 2005, I found it when I was going through my pictures.  As you can see I choose not to use a tea ball or any strainer. I love letting the flowers expand and swim in the water naturally.  The flowers are edible anyways, so many times I rather let them be free then trap them in some mechanism.  I highly recommend the addition of a bit of honey, maple syrup or agave nectar into the tea to further bring out the floral notes.  The body is light and golden.  It’s aroma possessing strong apricot, peach and honey notes.  I also recommend cooking with it.  Chinese people use it in desserts ranging from gelatin to sticky rice balls to ehance flavours drastically.  This flower is definitely in my top 5 favourite floral teas. ♥

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