A young teenager died this summer in Keller, Texas, apparently from poppy tea. Poppy pods and seeds are widely available in e.g grocery stores and now there is a warning that bewing them into a tea might cause a morphine intoxication and even death. The police, after finding a strange bottle with tea and poppy seeds, suspects that the teenager used the tea to get high.
There is a lesson to be learned – kids, not everything you brew is good for you.
Yes! Just like peppermint, you can use basil leaves to prepare a tea and it’s just as good! Surprisingly basil tea is smells very much like chai – it has that sweet, cleansing cinnamon aroma, a pale liquor and a refreshing taste. In India this tea is called Tulsi Chai and it’s not only very popular, but also part of a long tradition of tea drinking.
You can prepare it in various ways, but first you need 10-15 fresh basil leaves. You cut off the stems, pour boiling water over them and let steep for 5-10 minutes. Optionally you can boil the leaves along with water in a small pan. If you want something more exciting you can also make a camellia sinensis-basil tea. First bring the water and basil leaves to a rolling boil, lower the heat and let them steep for 3-4 minutes. Then put the heat back up and add some camellia sinensis leaves. If it’s a green tea you don’t have to boil it, but if it’s a black tea you want to steep it in a higher temperature. Now that the tea is done, you can add some sugar or lemon to taste. Adding milk for this tea is not recommended.
Generally, there is no set way of preparation and you can do whatever works best. There are many tea vendors that offer ready-made Tulsi Chai, that you just buy and infuse like regular tea. Some of the benefits of drinking basil tea is improved digestion and cardiovascular system, it contains vitamins K, A and C as well as calcium and iron. It is is perfect along with nay kind of meal, and it can be served to persons of any age.
If you like homemade remedies and herbal medicine ginger tea is perfect for fighting colds, flu and improving digestion. It also kills the bacteria in your mouth and throat, thus helps the sore throat. Ginger is a very aromatic and spicy root and the tea you make of it will also have those qualities, so if you don’t like spicy things, you should try to experiment which how much ginger you need for a milder taste. Ginger tea is available to buy in powder-form as a ginger drink, but it’s even easier to make it yourself with fresh ingredients. All you need is ginger root and boiling water, optionally honey and fruit juice.
How to prepare
1. Cut off a a 2 cm piece of ginger from the ginger root and cut it up into thin slices. The thiner the slices the better because it will be easier for the water to penetrate the ginger, as it is quite solid.
2. Put the slices in a mug and pour over boiling water
3 Optionally you can add honey which makes the tea taste nicer and less harsh. If you’re making ginger tea to fight a cold you can also add fresh lemon juice or otherwise any juice you prefer to add some flavor.
