Happy Sunday! 🍵 What's everyone drinking today?
Is it a single herb, a homemade blend, something you foraged yourself, or a favorite from the tea shelf?
I'd love to hear what's in your cup and why you picked it today.
Feel free to share a photo if you have one. It's always fun seeing what everyone is brewing. 🌿☕️
An herbal combination for Peace and Calm with Rose and Jasmine for their slight sedative nature and meadowsweet for some peace and harmony.
I never intended to become an herbalist. I spent my career in law enforcement until my daughter's fever sent me down a path I never expected.
The first herb that completely changed my perspective was elderflower.
Most people know it as a pleasant tea, but I was fascinated by the traditional way it has been used to support the body's natural fever response rather than simply trying to suppress it.
I'm curious...what herbal tea completely changed the way you looked at herbs?
A slightly philosophical post about decisions about tea. Pictures are random from everywhere, please don't mind any particilar products as they they are truly random.
Imagine you are standing in front of a supermarket shelf full of herbal teas 💭☕️🍃
You didn't come for something specific like chamomile or peppermint. You just want to try something new.
What makes you pick one box and not the others?
- Ingredients?
- Single herb or a blend?
- Organic label?
- Brand you already know?
- Nice packaging?
- Price?
- Claims like "Sleep", "Digest", "Immune"?
- Or just some herb you've never heard about before?
Do you have some kind of strategy or you just go with your feeling?
I realized I probably have my own decision making pattern, but never really thought about it before. Curious how other people do it.
Hi everyone!
One of my projects is a small herbal tea stand in a shopping mall. Most of my customers are curious everyday people: young professionals, couples, families with kids, summer tourists and the occasional retiree. They're not necessarily herbalists, but they enjoy discovering something new.
Instead of filling the shelves with the same chamomile, peppermint, and hibiscus that everyone already sells, I'd love to introduce people to herbs and infusions they probably haven't tried before.
So I'm asking the tea people here:
If you could add just one or two herbal teas or traditional infusions from your country or culture, what would they be?
I'm especially interested in things that are genuinely underrated, delicious or have a fascinating story, visually attractive or aromatic, uncommon outside their region, something you'd be excited to discover in a tea shop ;)
I'd love to hear about forgotten local traditions, indigenous herbs, flower teas, roasted seed infusions, unusual roots, leaves, fruits - anything that deserves more attention.
Who knows... maybe some of your suggestions will end up on our shelves 🌿☕
I need an alternative to coffee: caffeine and similar compounds free, but stimulating my organism in a different but vivid way.
Statistically it is true. Maybe not for most r/HerbalTea's members, but worldwide it is really a big difference. Almost everybody drinks herbal tea on occasional basis, some - often or always. Yet coffee makes an unprecedented leader in terms of habits and addiction! What's your coffee/tea ratio during the week? I almost don't drink coffee and I take herbal tea a few times a day - I'm literally a herbal tea addict :) I have a few friends and collegues who believe I'm a herbal freak!
Just curious, what's the case with you?
If you follow perfect sleep hygiene but still find yourself staring at the ceiling at 2 AM, it's often an internal imbalance rather than a lack of "willpower."
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), insomnia isn't just one blanket diagnosis—it’s divided into different patterns based on what your body is experiencing.
Here are 3 gentle, food-therapy-grade herbal teas you can try at home depending on your symptoms:
• The Pattern: You are physically exhausted, but your brain simply refuses to shut down. You might experience vivid dreams or mild anxiety. This is often due to Heart and Spleen Deficiency (very common after childbirth or heavy mental work).
• The Fix: Dried Longan fruit (龙眼肉) nourishes the Heart blood, while Lotus seeds (莲子) calm the mind (An Shen).
• How to brew: Simmer 5-8 pieces of dried longan and a small handful of lotus seeds in hot water for 15 minutes. Drink the tea and eat the ingredients!
• The Pattern: You feel a sudden surge of heat, restlessness, or irritability before bed. In TCM, hormonal fluctuations often cause rising Yang energy or Liver Qi stagnation to disturb the spirit.
• The Fix: Dried Rosebuds (玫瑰花) gently soothe Liver Qi and move emotional stagnation, while Goji berries (枸杞) nourish Yin.
• How to brew: Steep 5-6 rosebuds and a teaspoon of goji berries in hot water for 5-8 minutes.
• The Pattern: The moment you lie down, you feel your heart pounding hard against your chest, even though you are tired. This is often Heart and Kidney Non-communication.
• The Fix: If you don't have time for tea, try massaging the An Mian (安眠穴) point. It’s located just behind your earlobe, right behind the bony prominence. Gently press and circle it for 3 minutes on each side before bed to quiet a racing mind.

Quick Safety Tip: If you are currently taking Western antidepressants or sleep medications, always space your herbal teas out by at least 2 hours to keep your system safe!
What does your insomnia feel like? Let's chat in the comments! 🌿
Hi, I felt like sharing this zero-waste elderberry life hack: after straining my elderflower syrup, I don't throw the blossoms away.
Instead, I transfer them to a glass jar with just a little of the remaining syrup and keep them in the fridge. Whenever I want a cup of tea, I simply spoon out some of the blossoms and pour hot water over them.
The tea is lighter than fresh elderflower tea, but it's still pleasantly floral, and it feels like getting a second life out of the same harvest.
I'm curious:
Do you reuse the blossoms after making syrup?
Do you make tea with them?
Compost them?
Turn them into something else?
Please share ideas - they can help many tea lovers
Weekend edition 😊
What's everyone drinking today?
🌿 A single herb?
🍵 A blend?
🌸 Something you're trying for the first time?
Feel free to share a picture if you have one. I always enjoy seeing what everyone is brewing.
Water comes first, of course. But if you had to choose one gentle herbal tea, which herb would you trust most—and how would you prepare it?
No known food allergies or specific health problems that might create obvious limitations.
I'm curious what different cultures and families use.
A friend of mine contacted me recently with a question "How do I recover memory which deteriorated immensely after years of smoking weed?". ​
Disclaimer: I never smoked myself, but I am a 4th generation herbalist, so I decided to take a look what experts have to say about this from my area of interest: herbs and herbal tea. ​
After the study I made I'd rank common tea ingredients roughly like this: ​
Lion's mane (not exactly a herb, but it is claimed to be useful when the mushroom used was properly grown, dried and stored). Btw, I'm a big fan of mushrooms, too. ​
Rosemary - traditionally used for memory and mental clarity, and some studies suggest it may support cognitive performance. ​
Gotu kola - in most supplements today it is used for focus, circulation, and nervous system support, wach of which directly affects memory quality ​
Sage (Salvia officinalis) — often overlooked but has surprisingly good evidence for memory and attention. I read a study about improved cognitive function in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease - for me it is an impressive result and I see no reason for ignoring it ​
Peppermint - doesn't sedate people the way lemon balm, chamomile, or passionflower can. Instead, it usually reduces mental fatigue while increasing subjective alertness - quite a combo in my pov ​
Cinnamon - my fave, frankly, though it turned out it does have a reputation for supporting memory and cognition, but the evidence is not as strong as for lion's mane or as extensively studied as some other nootropics. I've personally been using cinnamon on a whole lot of people, starting with myself, for a stimulating "memory massage" ​
Eventually I recommended this tea blend to my friend: ​
Rosemary +
sage +
cinnamon +
peppermint +
lion's mane ​
Pictures: I've prepared a cup for myself (all ingredients except for rosemary - I ran out of it when I cooked Bolognese sauce a few days ago :) ​
Please recommend your variants and blends of tea for someone recovering from cannabis-related brain fog and memory problems 🤯🍃☕️
Please brainstorm with me on what could that be for a man of almost 50 y.o., businessman, active lifestyle (kayak, racing, biking), happily married, loves tea in all natural forms, denies any artificial aromas and loved tea ceremony that much that he has a special tea ceremony set in his car all the time :)
Every spring I admire these beautiful purple flowering trees and this year I decided to follow them till the fruits.
Apparently they are ornamental crabapples (Malus sp.).
I started looking into scientific papers and was surprised how little attention these fruits get considering they seem to contain anthocyanins, chlorogenic acid, quercetin derivatives, procyanidins and plenty of other polyphenols.
Has anyone here actually made herbal tea from them?
Fresh or dried?
Simply infused or simmered like rosehips?
Any good in blends?
What about the flowers? Anyone tried them?
These trees are planted in plenty where I live and I don't remember ever seeing anyone collecting the fruits. Makes me wonder whether they are one of those forgotten herbal resources or whether there is a good reason nobody uses them.
Would love to hear your experience, recipes or any scientific papers I may have missed.
Thank you!
Hi, I bought a nice pack of very good looking dried blue lotus flowers - they look very attractive and I know they make a very healthy tea. I don’t want to reply on internet or AI advices - please share your real people practical tips and recommendations on does and don’ts.
Thank you! 🪷☕️