Drying tea

[Dee]

I was out early this morning to work in the garden and I got my first tiny batch of leaves to dry into tea.  I do it in the oven at about 165 degrees.  I think it takes a couple hours but since it's my first for the year I'm not positive of that.  I'll just keep checking after an hour or so to see if they're dry.

 

There will be plenty more to come later.  It's so good on a winter evening.  Each sip reminds you of summer.

 

The one on the left is chocolate mint.  The other spearmint.

 

 

[snapshotmiki]

I don't know why I hadn't thought to do this.  i have a large mint plant, so will do this soon!  Thanks, Dee!

[Ambergris]

I always dried mint in hanging bundles on the back porch, or on paper plates in the attic crawlspace.  Does any chocolate flavor actually come through for you?  It always disappointed me--unlike orange mint.

[Dee]

Ambergris, yes it comes through for me.  Very mild but good.  I've never had orange mints.  Sounds very good.  Does the taste of that come through?

[Mother]

The chocolate taste doesn’t come through strongly but I do enjoy its brighter flavor.  The orange and pineapple mint are very fruity tasting in my opinion.  The problem with mints is that grown near each other they often take on a similar flavor or are taken over by the stronger mints.  Still, it is so much fun to grow some of the dozens of varieties of mint.  😁😋

[Becca_Anne]

I need to harvest my mint! I have a nice patch. I planted it right by where my hose bib attaches to the house since I didn't want to worry about trampling anything there or grass to grow so that the hose wouldn't get mowed. Has turned out to be a great place for it. Smells great every time I go to water the plants 

[Mother]

For those making your own teas, in case you don’t know, there are dozens of ways to prepare your leaf teas.  There are all sorts of disposable empty tea bags. (Easily found on Amazon or ?)  Most have drawstrings to close them but some are heat sealed.  There are wonderful tea ‘spoons’ or ‘balls’ to fill and all kinds of tea strainers to use.  You can make tea in most coffee makers using coffee filters and if I’m making a large quantity I use my very old non electric drip coffee pot.  My favorite way to make tea is as sun tea in a jar.  
 

Root or bark teas often take some simmering though and are better prepared loose in the water and then strained.  
 

How do you prepare your home grown or foraged teas? 

[Ambergris]

I've had some orange mints that didn't do much for me, and others that were delightful.  I just pulled out the weak ones (mostly) for today's tea or fish or whatever and encouraged the strong ones.  I kept buying new ones when I'd pinch one at a nursery and find a great, strong scent.  The plants would grow wild through my yard and get weaker or stronger here and there.  The only mints I've found locally are what was called apple-mint, which didn't have much of a minty or apple aroma for me, and another spearmint and a peppermint, the last two of which I was given starts of but accidentally gave to PM when I thought I was giving her half--and she gave them to someone else.  Oh well.  

 

Since my 2020 illnesses (that my medical records say was not Covid) although much of my sense of smell is back, it's not evenly back.  The dog poop smell that turned my housekeeper's stomach is something I only noticed when she mentioned it, and I barely caught any raw-meat aroma around the pig yesterday.  People sometimes exclaim over mint aromas that I find quite vague.  I used to have one of those "extra" senses of smell, so I don't know what to say anymore.

 

I have made a lot of sun tea and will again when I get the right jar for it, but here I mostly either simmer a potful of ingredients until the aroma is right (for me, which is different now) and filter it into a heat-safe little pitcher or for leaves and blossoms I bring the kettle to boil and pour it over, then steep that until I remember and circle back to check the color and all for intensity.  I don't worry about keeping it hot.  Once it's steeped enough, I can add hot water to bring it up to drinking temperature.  

[Littlesister]

I have a lot of mint in pots but never thought to dry them in the oven. I am going to try that. Might work out better for me than as I didn't have any luck tying them in small batches  and hanging them to dry. Maybe I wasn't doing that right but not sure. I drink a lot of hot tea more so in the winter months. I did have some chocolate mint someone gave me but it didn't make it. Next year I want to try so other types of mint and get more of the chocolate mint. I did like that one.  

Mother I need to find some pineapple mint. I haven't seen that one and I love pineapple. 

Think I need to take another trip to the feed and seed store. 

[Dee]

I dry mine in the oven simply because of the humidity around here.  Like you Littlesister I've tried hanging small bunches, but it never seemed to work.  The drying in a low oven works perfect.

 

[Mother]

I do hang some herbs, especially woody ones, to dry, mostly for the nice aroma in the house and to use as aromatic fire starters or additives. Most of my tea or medicinal herbs and greens I dry in my dehydrator.  When I had my herb shop with its extensive herb beds I dried herbs in a cabinet sized home made solar dehydrator but finished them off in the oven to ensure sanitation and dryness. 
 

Something to think about is how to dry herbs in a SHTF situation.  You can buy or make hanging mesh drying racks similar to the cylinder type that they use for toys in kids rooms.  They can collapse to almost nothing to store and are enclosed enough to keep bugs off and keep the drying leaves from blowing around in a breeze. 

[Littlesister]

Mother I have one of those mesh bags for that. I bought it a couple of months ago but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. We have been having daily rain again so thinking during the next dry spell I will give that a try. I have some mint that I want to try in it as well as some chives.