# Wow! Herbal tea with fresh herbs!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-herbal-tea-with-fresh-herbs/354078>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 25, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-herbal-tea-with-fresh-herbs/354078 "2006-04-25T01:03:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-herbal-tea-with-fresh-herbs/354078/1 "2006-04-25T01:03:19Z")

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At a friend’s house, I was served a delicious tea made with sage and hops. It was so good I googled for sage tea, and found that you can make it with fresh sage. Coincidnetally, I found myself with a spare butternut squash on hand and decided to make some squash soup, for which one naturally _must_ have fresh sage, and they had some at the Farmer’s Market, except of course you can only buy it as a whole _bunch_, so I had lots of sage after I made the soup, so . . . _deep breath_ I made some tea out of it.

Oh. My. God.

I’ve been drinking two cups of it a night ever since.

So very, very good.

My question is, what other amazing fresh herbal tea am I missing out on? It’s about time to plant herbs in my flower box again, and I’m suddenly thinking of it as my own personal caffeine-free tea estate. 🙂 I always grow sage, 'cause I like it with veggies and it’s pretty, so that’s a done deal. I’ve heard that catnip makes good tea, too. It sure smells nice. Anything else I should try?

Mostly, I’m overjoyed to have discovered a whole new way to be a tea snob. 😃

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**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-herbal-tea-with-fresh-herbs/354078/2 "2006-04-25T01:21:37Z")

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Add lemon balm (sweet melissa) to tea. I’ve never made pure melissa tea, but added to plain ol’ black pekoe, it’s divine.

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-herbal-tea-with-fresh-herbs/354078/3 "2006-04-25T14:17:44Z")

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I’ll have to see if they have any of that at the Farmer’s Market!

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-herbal-tea-with-fresh-herbs/354078/4 "2006-04-25T14:23:11Z")

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Lemon balm is da bomb! Don’t underestimate peppermint, either. I like to do a peppermint/spearmint blend - it’s my own Doublemint Tea! Red clover makes a yummy tea, although I always dry it first. Hibiscus flowers are simply amazing - they make a tart, bright red tea, and are great with other teas (they’re the "Zinger’ in Celestial Seasonings zinger line.)

If you like sage, you might like thyme as well. Also basil, or thai basil if you like the warm spiciness of sage.

Almost anything you can make tea from can be made from the fresh plant as well as the dried. Just use more of it, since it has water already in it.

Happy tea making!