Herbal Tea Archives - Journey With Healthy Me

The Best Herbal Teas for Cold and Flu Season

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure Policy for details.

This post is inspired by real-life events. A few days ago, Greg exhibited cold symptoms including sneezing, sniffling and itchy eyes. Like me, he doesn’t typically take over the counter meds. He does not need to. I know exactly which herbal tea to prepare for him.

After only one cup of hot tea, he felt better. His eyes stopped itching and I didn’t hear a sneeze the rest of the evening. The next day, after two cups of herbal tea, one in the morning and one in the evening, his cold symptoms completely disappeared.

I love healing naturally, especially when it takes the form of a cup of hot tea.

Check out the best herbal teas for cold and flu season. When dealing with bugs, colds and flus, reach for one of these soothing drinks to speed healing.

The Best Herbal Teas for Cold and Flu Season title meme

The Best Herbal Teas for Cold and Flu Season

We are currently in the midst of cold and flu season. In fact, it is quite severe in my area. This year scary reports of a new strain of flu, the corona virus, is creating alarm.

When the sniffles strike or the flu causes you to curl up under a blanket with a box of tissues nearby, create one of these ultra-healing teas. The hot herbal drinks relieve congestion, soothe a sore throat and ease headaches and tense muscles.

Add a spoonful of raw, organic honey to combat coughs. Squeeze fresh lemon or orange juice into the tea for a boost to the immune system. And sip on these teas all day. Another important benefit from drinking tea is hydration, which helps clear mucus from the nose and lungs and restores health more quickly.

Chamomile

This tea, made from the flowers of the herb chamomile, is well known for helping the body relax into sleep. However, chamomile’s anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties fight against cold and flu bugs while eliminating head and chest congestion. The herb soothes sinus headaches associated with the flu and it really does relax the body. While healing from a cold or the flu, a good night’s rest is helpful and restorative.

Steep two teaspoons of dried chamomile in a cup of very hot water, for 15 minutes.

Chamomile Tea — The best herbal teas for cold and flu season – chamomile

Echinacea

A member of the daisy family, this flowering herb is also known as purple coneflower. It is commonly found growing in fields, fence rows and flower borders. I grow this flower in my backyard garden. Due to its powerful anti-inflammatory properties, echinacea reduces the risk of catching a cold by more than 50%. During cold and flu season, drink a cup of this herbal tea every day to minimize the chances of catching a virus.

Echinacea helps the body to heal more quickly if it is under attack from a cold or flu bug. It eases sore throats, relieves sinus and chest congestion and soothes an ear ache. And it provides natural pain relief for the achiness that accompanies the cold or flu.

Steep two teaspoons of dried echinacea, or a couple of fresh blooms, in a cup of very hot water for 15 minutes.

Echinacea Tea — The best herbal teas for cold and flu season – echinacea

Ginger

This flavorful herb is a powerhouse of healing benefits. It soothes the body struggling with the cold or flu. Ginger’s anti-inflammatories and its antiviral and antibacterial properties fight against infection. The herb relaxes tight throat muscles and eases muscular pains throughout the body. Additionally, ginger relieves headaches and heals sinus and ear infections. And because ginger aids the entire digestive system, if nausea is present due to flu, this herb helps calm the stomach.

Add one teaspoon of freshly grated ginger to a cup of very hot water. Steep for 10 minutes. Add a dollop of raw, organic honey and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice for a powerfully healing hot drink.

Ginger Tea — The best herbal teas for cold and flu season – ginger

Peppermint

Ahhh, peppermint, my go to herb for almost everything! Peppermint is a member of the mentha family, along with spearmint. The menthol in the herb’s leaves soothes a sore throat while calming a cough. Menthol relieves congestion as well, while its antiviral properties fight cold and flu viruses…and symptoms.

Like ginger, peppermint restores the entire digestive system, a bonus when the flu causes an upset stomach.

Add two teaspoons of dried peppermint to a cup of very hot water. Steep for five to ten minutes. Or use a sprig of fresh peppermint instead of dried.

Peppermint Tea — The best herbal teas for cold and flu season – peppermint

Nettle

When Greg’s cold symptoms appeared, I immediately grabbed this herb. Nettle, also known as nettle leaf, supports a body under stress. When attacked by cold or flu viruses, the body goes into reactionary mode. This potent herb is packed with phytochemicals, anti-inflammatories and alkaloids. They calm the reactionary symptoms in the body, relieving itchy, watery eyes, sniffles and a scratchy throat.

Nettle fights infections of all kinds and it is a natural pain reliever. At the first signs of flu or a cold, brew a pot of nettle tea and combine it with other herbs for the most benefits.

This is my favorite cold remedy:

Add two teaspoons dried nettle leaf, two teaspoons dried peppermint and two teaspoons dried lemon balm to a mesh tea ball. Drop into a teapot and add boiling water. Cover teapot and allow tea to steep for 15 minutes. Add raw, organic honey if desired, and freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice.

Sip on this tea throughout the day. I rarely catch a cold, however if I show symptoms this herbal tea eliminates them within 24 hours.

The Best Herbal Teas for Cold and Flu Season Nettle — The best herbal teas for cold and flu season – nettle

Fight that Cold or Flu and Win

Ginger is available in the produce section of most grocery stores, such as Natural Grocers or Walmart.

Pick up dried herbs below, to make your own herbal teas. Fight the battle against the cold and flu and win, while naturally boosting your immune system. A strong immune system is the best defense against the viruses that create those miserable symptoms.

Journey With Healthy Me is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This affiliate program provides a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com, all at no extra cost to you.

Health Benefits of Honeysuckle Tea

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure Policy for details.

Ahhh, honeysuckle. That sweet scent transports me back to my childhood and long, hot summer days. The vine didn’t grow in my yard. However, the flowering plants covered the neighbors’ fence, across the street. In fact, honeysuckle covered one corner section of their yard, creating a small “secret garden”. I’m grateful for the kindness of this dear couple. Looking out their window, they often spied me sitting quietly there in the corner, breathing in that tantalizing scent.

Later my grandfather, an avid gardener, nurtured a honeysuckle plant in his backyard. I brought home a start from that plant, as an adult with a yard of my own. Sadly, that plant did not thrive.

Now I have a honeysuckle vine, gracing a trellis near the front porch. It is a European variety, showing off cream colored blooms tinged with bright pink. Last fall, as I studied foraging for wild edibles, I discovered that fragrant honeysuckle flowers are suitable for tea.

I’ve patiently waited for spring and for my honeysuckle to bloom, so I can sip on my first cup of honeysuckle tea. Days of heavy rain finally gave way this afternoon to sunshine. To my delight, the first honeysuckle flower fully opened to the warmth.

Health Benefits of Honeysuckle Tea

Beyond its amazing scent, which has benefits as well, honeysuckle is a medicinal plant, used for thousands of years to boost health in a variety of ways. The flower has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Traditionally used in tea form, honeysuckle is available also as an essential oil.

Honeysuckle offers these impressive health benefits:

Powerful Detoxifier

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, honeysuckle tea is known as a natural way to remove heat and toxins from the body, making it an excellent tonic for the liver.

Heals Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Honeysuckle is an potent remedy for colds, flu symptoms, bronchitis, COPD, asthma, fever and pneumonia. The plant acts as an expectorant, helping to relieve congested air passages.

Relieves Digestive Disorders

This flowering plant is helpful in treating digestive disorders such as ulcers, diarrhea, nausea, bloating, Crohn’s disease, urinary tract disorders and pain and inflammation in the small intestine.

Improves Oral Health

Honeysuckle’s antibacterial and astringent properties improve gum health. Create a natural mouthwash by combining two cups of boiling water with half a cup of honeysuckle flowers and leaves. Let steep for at least five minutes. Remove flowers and leaves and allow mouthwash to cool completely before using. Gargle and swish in mouth daily.

Health Benefits of Honeysuckle Tea

Helps with Type 2 Diabetes

Studies show that honeysuckle decreases high blood sugar levels and reduces insulin resistance when used over a period of time.

Eases Arthritis and Auto-Immune Disorders

Honeysuckle’s powerful anti-inflammatory abilities bring relief to those suffering from arthritis symptoms. The plant shows promise in helping those with auto-immune disorders also, such as rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, lupus, bursitis and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Heals Skin Infections

Native Americans boiled fresh honeysuckle leaves and bathed skin wounds with the tea to prevent infection and speed healing. Today, honeysuckle oil is added to skin creams and ointments to help heal skin rashes, eczema, psoriasis and rosacea. Honeysuckle slows the aging process as well, fighting free radicals that damage the skin and cause wrinkles.

Aromatherapy

I’ve recently learned about the benefits of aromatherapy. Inhaling the sweet scent of the honeysuckle flower relaxes and calms the body. Further, the scent stabilizes mood, relieves stress and helps to prevent depression.

Possible Side Effects of Honeysuckle Tea

There are a few possible side effects with honeysuckle. It is not recommended for pregnant women or for young children. Because it regulates blood sugar levels, do not use honeysuckle tea if you are already taking medication for this condition. And there are a few people who are allergic to this plant and may experience mild skin irritation. Talk to your doctor before drinking honeysuckle tea, if you have concerns.

Preparing Honeysuckle Tea

Preparing the tea is simple:

If using fresh flowers, add two or three large blooms to a mug. Pour boiling water over the flowers, cover and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Strain and sweeten with honey, if desired.

When fresh flowers aren’t available, add 1 – 2 teaspoons dried honeysuckle to a cup of boiling water. Cover and steep for 15 minutes. Strain and sweeten with honey, if desired.

I plucked that first honeysuckle bloom this afternoon, and added another that appeared close to blooming. After steeping in hot water for 15 minutes, I tried my first sip.

The freshly brewed tea was light green in color, with a delicate slightly sweet aroma. And the taste? Honeysuckle tea is similar to green tea, with a mild, earthy flavor. Although it doesn’t taste like honeysuckle smells, there is a distinct honeysuckle quality to it, a hint of flavor from that sweet nectar within the flower.

I enjoyed it very much!

Health Benefits of Honeysuckle Tea

Tastes Like Summer

For me, honeysuckle tea tastes like summer. Inhaling the scent as I made tea, sipping on the hot liquid, had the same effect as sitting in the secret garden created by those fragrant vines. I felt peaceful and full of joy, centered and whole.

I could easily see back through the passage of time, to my younger self, sitting happily in that corner garden, thinking big thoughts and watching the bees dance among the honeysuckle flowers. In my imagination, she turned to look at me. I raised my cup of honeysuckle tea in acknowledgement and appreciation.

She smiled.

Health Benefits of Honeysuckle Tea

Want to experience another wild edible tea? Try Sweet Violet Tea.

Check out Lowe’s Garden Center, for a variety of honeysuckle plants.

And you can order dried honeysuckle by clicking on photo below:

Journey With Healthy Me is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This affiliate program is designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com, all at no extra cost to you.

Sweet Violet Tea Benefits

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure Policy for details.

A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed foraging for tea in my own yard. Spring announces itself with a flurry of early blooming flowers and plants. I learned last fall that many of these harbingers of spring are edible, making them suitable for tea.

Since that day, I’ve enjoyed delicately flavored lilac tea and earthy redbud tea. From the backyard I gathered dead nettle and henbit. It grounds and centers me to gather wild edibles and savor them as tea.

I had one last tea to try, before this first blooming season ended. Sweet violet tea offers many health benefits and the gift of beauty as well.

Sweet Violet Tea Benefits

Sweet Violets

This common flowering perennial, which is considered an herb, is among the earliest to appear after winter. The hardy plants favor the edge of woods and are not too shy to show up in lawns and gardens, uninvited. The herbs prefer shady areas. Look for them near house foundations, in areas of the yard and garden protected by other plants and on the north side of structures.

The flowers range in color from dark purple to lilac to pale yellow to white. The plant, which reaches a modest height of four to six inches, has dark green heart shaped leaves.

In the late Victorian era, the sweet scent of the violet proved popular in fragrances and perfumes. The French created violet syrup and the Americans used this concoction to make violet scones and violet marshmallows.

Culturally, Shakespeare mentioned this sweet flower in these now famous lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, with sweet musk roses and with eglantine.”

Sweet Violet Tea Benefits

Medicinally, sweet violets have been used for centuries, valued for their healing properties. The entire plant is edible and rich in vitamins A and C and full of bioflavonoids, alkaloids and anti-inflammatories.

Benefits include:

Anti-cancer properties that are effective against lung, skin, stomach and breast cancers.

Soothe respiratory ailments such as coughs, bronchitis, congestion, asthma and sinus infections.

Contains high amounts of rutin and salicylic acid which act similarly to aspirin. This makes the herb helpful for treating aches and pains, inflammation, flu symptoms, headaches and arthritis pain. Those same compounds help to prevent blood clots as well.

Eases nervousness, anxiety, stomachaches, indigestion, ulcers, insomnia, swollen glands, canker sores and gum disease.

Lowers blood pressure.

Added to baths, the flowers and leaves help treat psoriasis, eczema, rashes, sores and skin cancer.

Purifies the blood, strengthens the heart and detoxes and cleanses the entire body.

Sweet Violet Tea Benefits

Sweet Violet Tea

This herb is available online or at health conscious stores as dried tea, capsules, syrup, tinctures, extracts, creams and salves. Fresh flowers and leaves are suitable additions for salads, smoothies and fruit bowls.

However, in early spring it’s fun to gather sweet violet flowers and leaves and create freshly brewed tea.

I gathered a handful of delicate flowers and several small leaves from plants clustered in shady areas of my yard. When foraging, choose a patch of violets that are in a familiar area, where no chemicals or fertilizers have been used.

To brew sweet violet tea, cover 2 to 4 teaspoons of fresh or dried flowers and leaves with 1 cup of boiling water. Cover and allow tea to steep for 15 minutes. Strain and sweeten with organic honey if desired. Or for fun, leave the flowers and leaves in the tea.

Sweet Violet Tea Benefits

Enjoying Sweet Violet Tea

I sipped my first cup of sweet violet tea and savored the mild flavor. The brewed tea is a pretty shade of pale green, the perfect representation of spring’s arrival. My freshly prepared tea paired well with a bowl of apple slices, creating a simple afternoon tea.

I might get to enjoy a couple of cups of sweet violet tea before the flowers fade away.

It’s just the beginning of the growing season, however. Dandelions are popping up all over the yard. And while some see these cheerful plants as weeds or wishes, I see tea!

Sweet Violet Tea Benefits

Start a tea time tradition. Pick out your favorite teacups below.

Dandelion Tea

Warm temperatures today and the arrival of spring tomorrow lured me outdoors this afternoon. I enjoyed the meditative task of transferring young flowering plants to clay pots, and strolling through my awakening gardens. One of the harbingers of spring is the appearance of bright yellow dandelions. For the first time, I gathered tender green dandelion leaves, and the sunny blooms, and created a healthy tea.

Most people consider the dandelion to be an obnoxious weed. However every part of the plant is edible and there are many health benefits associated with this spring flower.

According to Anthony William, in his book Life Changing Foods, the dandelion’s defining characteristic is bitterness, and it is that very property that is restorative to the body. Says Anthony, “Dandelions shake you out of hibernation, getting your blood pumping and your organs cleaning house from radiation, toxic heavy metals, DDT, and other poisons.”

The dandelion flower, which is mildly bitter, cleanses the hollow organs such as the stomach, intestinal tract, gallbladder, bladder, lungs, uterus and heart. The leaves, being slightly more bitter, purify the blood and cleanse the lymphatic system.

The stem, more bitter still, cleanses dense organs such as the spleen, liver and brain. And the root, which is the most bitter part of the plant, purifies those dense organs at a deep level.

These cleansing properties make dandelion helpful for conditions such as lymphoma, kidney stones, obesity, blood disorders, inflammation, infections, liver disorders, digestive problems and fluid retention.

I was excited to try a healing tea, made from the tender young plants popping up in the backyard. I plucked six yellow blossoms and four leaves to make dandelion tea. I soaked the flowers and leaves in cold water while I heated a cup of water, and then rinsed them well.

I have found that using a mesh wire basket in a tea mug is a great way to brew fresh herbs. You can pick up your own handy set through the link below. I steeped the flowers and leaves for 20 minutes, covering the mug with its lid.

Curious about the degree of bitterness, I chewed on a dandelion leaf, and then popped a whole flower into my mouth, while the tea brewed. Although the blossom was slightly sweeter, both were fairly bitter, and yet entirely edible. I didn’t mind the taste at all.

After 20 minutes, I cautiously sipped my hot tea. What a wonderful surprise! The tea wasn’t nearly as bitter as the fresh leaves and flowers. Light and refreshing, the tea had an earthly taste that was pleasing and grounding. I didn’t add raw honey, choosing to drink it without.

In the past, I have been diligent about removing dandelions from my yard and garden. I will still remove them. But what a bountiful harvest I will have, for soups, salads and the healthy and cleansing dandelion tea. It is the perfect spring drink.

Check out Life Changing Foods for more incredile heslth information. And get your own tea brewing mug. I love the ease of creating teas from freshly picked herbs and plants.

<br />

I am an Amazon Affiliate and may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for considering making a purchase of these products, or any other items, through my Amazon links!