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People are divided into three categories: the first loves to drink tea, the second cannot live a day without a mug of aromatic coffee, the third loves both tea and coffee. There is indeed a fourth category, those who do not like these drinks, but today we will not talk about them. Tea and coffee are the drinks with which many of our readers start their mornings, certainly for me. Some scientists believe that a properly prepared mug of coffee in the morning can speed up your metabolism by 10% faster. In addition, coffee can lift your mood and increase your productivity, this becomes especially important in the cold, when it is so difficult to force yourself to get out of bed. As for tea, the most popular green and black teas also have a number of beneficial properties, which we will talk about another time. Today, I would like to talk about what ingredients can be added to our favorite drinks so that, firstly, they don’t get boring, and secondly, make them even more aromatic, tasty and healthy. Among the most common additives, my favorites are lemon and vanilla, as well as dried fruits for tea and milk for coffee. But my friend loves to drink coffee with cognac in winter, and tea with fresh berries in summer.
Coffee additives
Vanilla
Making coffee with vanilla is as easy as shelling pears, but that’s only at first glance. You can, of course, throw a couple of spoons of vanilla sugar into the finished drink and voila! But it’s best to stock up on a vanilla stick and dip it for a few minutes during cooking or after, into the finished drink. A drink made from vanilla and coffee can be called doubly energetic, since this spice also increases brain performance. But unlike coffee, the aroma of vanilla is soothing, helps relieve stress and brings a feeling of real pleasure.
Lemon
Lemon, many will tell me, is best suited for tea, since the sour taste kills the aroma of coffee. But remember that adding a slice of lemon to coffee neutralizes caffeine, which reduces the likelihood of high blood pressure. And besides, lemon coffee relieves headaches, relieves fatigue and helps to cheer up!
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is not just a spice that is usually added to coffee to enhance the aroma or attractiveness of the drink. Firstly, nutritionists recommend drinking coffee with cinnamon to all those who are struggling with excess weight. The fact is that cinnamon and its aroma reduce cravings for sweets, so after drinking a cup of coffee with cinnamon, you can refuse dessert. Secondly, cinnamon is an excellent antidepressant: its aroma allows you to get rid of bad thoughts and depression. Doctors recommend drinking coffee with cinnamon when you feel like you are getting sick, when weakness appears in the body.
Cardamom
Coffee with cardamom is drunk in many countries, and recently this drink has been gaining popularity in our country. The fact is that cardamom in combination with coffee perfectly refreshes, tones and invigorates, and also helps prevent colds. In addition, when added to coffee, cardamom has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, stimulates brain function, and helps relieve tension and depression. In addition, cardamom neutralizes the effects of caffeine.
Milk
Milk is a great addition to both coffee and tea. When milk gets into coffee, it enhances the antioxidant properties of the drink and compensates for the harm of caffeine, prevents the leaching of calcium from the body and protects the gastric mucosa from irritation.
Additives for tea
Ginger
Tea with ginger is not only delicious, but also healthy, especially during cold and flu season. But besides this, ginger helps the skin remain young for a long time, making it beautiful and toned.
Dried fruits
Dried fruits are traditionally served with green tea instead of sugar. Dried apricots, dried apples and figs, cut into pieces, will give black tea and rooibos a new rich taste and aroma, and will also help improve stomach function.
Citrus peel
Add orange or lemon peel to your tea; it contains a large amount of vitamin C, essential oils and flavonoids.
Fruit juice
In spring and summer, do not forget that you can add fruit and berry juices to your tea, preferably natural ones. This additive is an excellent substitute for sugar, which only kills the taste of real tea.
Greenery
You can add any greens to tea. The most popular additives are mint, bergamot, oregano, thyme, and sage. Mint helps with loss of appetite, diseases of the digestive system, cough, headaches. Tea with bergamot brings great benefits to the body and is also an excellent aphrodisiac. Try adding lemongrass to your tea. It is simply irreplaceable during a cold, relieves fatigue, improves mood and is considered an unrivaled aphrodisiac.
Milk
We have already said that milk with coffee is a healthy and tasty drink. As for tea, people have been drinking tea with milk since ancient times. Daily intake of such a drink normalizes the general condition of the body, repeatedly increasing tone. Tea is a source of natural antioxidants. In addition, tea contains many vitamins necessary for humans, in particular, almost the entire group of vitamins B, vitamins C and PP, and microelements - compounds of potassium, copper, iodine and others, and in combination with milk, they are absorbed much better.
The Russian people, just like the British and some other nationalities, cannot imagine their life without tasty, aromatic tea with a velvety aftertaste. That's just the residents "foggy albion", that is, Great Britain, drink tea at 5 pm. Russian people love this invigorating drink so much that these residents drink several cups of tea a day. Representatives of creative professions and freelancers are especially guilty of this. And the question is increasingly becoming relevant “what herbs can be brewed and drunk instead of tea”.
The fact is that black tea, like green tea, is very invigorating, and the increased consumption of tannins and caffeine, which are contained in these varieties, negatively affects the nervous system. Since drinkers understand the harmful effects of tea on tooth enamel and nerves, they are looking for an alternative. What herbs can be brewed and drunk instead of tea? In ancient times in Rus', people brewed all kinds of plants that had a very beneficial effect on the body - they strengthened and healed it. Among the popular herbs at that time you could find fireweed, thyme, fireweed and many others. But the variety doesn't end there. More and more often, not only herbs, but also spices, dried fruits and berries are added to teas. Some herbal drinks still have contraindications.
Homemade herbal teas - advantages
You can drink various herbs instead of tea every day if you have read the contraindications. This is a huge plus. The more you drink, the stronger and more resilient you become. At the same time, herbal infusions have many additional amazing properties.
- The immune system is strengthened due to the high content of essential oils and antioxidants. Are you tired of catching a cold in the off-season? Switch to herbal teas.
- Such herbal drinks, which we mistakenly, out of habit, call "tea", perfectly treat intestinal dysbiosis and eliminate the consequences of poisoning. If your stomach hurts and you hear rumbling, be sure to include herbal teas in your diet after every meal.
- If you add spices or grated ginger with honey to the herbal tea combination, this will help the body warm up in cold weather and also cure a cold.
- Herbal drinks are not addictive and do not negatively affect the nervous system, so they are great for children and the elderly.
- This tea is a very economical option for any family. In addition, it perfectly saturates the body with vitamins and does not interfere with their absorption if you drink additional complexes.
- Herbs for tea not only have a powerful therapeutic effect, but also do not cause swelling.
- If you have hypertension or other cardiovascular diseases, drink only these teas and exclude black varieties, which contain uric acid, from your diet.
Homemade herbal teas - disadvantages
Sometimes even herbs can have harmful effects on the body. The fact is that herbal tea usually includes a wide variety of plants that have one or another healing effect. Some increase blood pressure, others decrease it. The same is true with potency. Some herbal drinks can negatively affect your health, so you should familiarize yourself with the contraindications in advance.
- If a young couple drinks mint tea in excessive quantities, this may affect the conception of the unborn child. It is especially not recommended for representatives of the stronger sex to drink a lot of mint tea.
- Nettle, oregano or thyme are not the best options if you are planning to become a mother. It should be remembered that some plants can cause uterine contractions, and this can lead to premature birth or miscarriage.
- Herbal drinks are not recommended for chronically ill patients without consulting a doctor.
- It should be remembered that chokeberry drinks can affect people who have stomach diseases.
- It is advisable not to drink thyme or birch buds for people who have kidney disease.
- If you have hypertension or are planning a child, it is better to avoid herbal drinks made from licorice root or St. John's wort. These herbs, like mint, can affect male potency.
Even if you have no contraindications, be careful when choosing herbal tea for every day. After consumption, analyze your body’s reactions: are there any headaches, allergies, shortness of breath or discomfort in the stomach.
Herbal tea blends for every day
If you are not allergic and have no contraindications to herbs, you can safely mix any of them in the required proportions. It is recommended to take one plant as a basis; black or green tea will do. The last two can be drunk by those who do not have cardiovascular diseases. So, what should you brew in herbal tea? It depends on your taste preferences and the goal you want to achieve: vigor, calmness, or increased concentration in work and study. Below are the most interesting and delicious flavor combinations.
- Rose hips with the addition of lemongrass or lemon balm.
- Black tea with the addition of cardamom and mint boxes.
- Vitamin tea made from currant leaves and berries, as well as rose hips.
- Brewed raspberry leaves with cinnamon on the tip of a knife and orange zest.
- Chamomile tea with dried cherries, blueberries or blueberries.
- Oregano, St. John's wort, mint with the addition of dried and crushed lemon zest.
- Chokeberry with the addition of thyme sprigs, raspberry leaves or dried cherry berries.
- Leaves of strawberry, black currant with linden blossom. Rowan berries are added to add color.
You can add spices to any of these teas: a vanilla stick or a whole cinnamon stick, anise, dried ginger, clove buds. They will warm you up during the cold season and give you strength.
Blends of tonic herbal teas
Why is it necessary to tone the body? For vigor and good mood for the whole day. Toning teas are drunk strictly in the morning after breakfast. However, you should not add sugar to them.
To add vigor, choose ingredients such as ginger, lemon or lemongrass, green tea, anise, rose hips, fireweed, any dried berries, citrus zest.
Soothing Herbal Tea Blends
It is logical to drink teas for relaxation before bed. They will set the body to rest and calm the nervous system. But the miraculous effect of soothing herbs does not end there. It is useful to brew herbal teas of this type for problems with the digestive system. They not only put the nerves in order, but also soothe the walls of the stomach and intestines, and also remove toxins.
Suitable ingredients for soothing teas include mint, lemon balm, chamomile, thyme, motherwort herb and valerian root, lavender, and jasmine flowers. Infuse such herbs for at least 5 minutes in a tightly closed container. If the tea turns out to be highly concentrated, it can be diluted with water or milk. It is recommended to drink such herbs every day before bed for 2-3 weeks to completely improve the nervous system.
Blends of herbal teas that reduce blood pressure
For hypertensive patients, nature also has its own medicine - these are herbs for tea that reduce blood pressure. These include leaves and flowers of strawberry, knotweed, string, barberry berries and chokeberry. You can add these ingredients to any herbal tea with the exception of black and green.
Detox tea blends
More and more often we hear about detox systems that perfectly cleanse the body and remove toxins. While detox smoothies are suitable for hot weather, teas are best drunk in autumn, winter and spring. For this purpose, you should take the following ingredients: fennel, elderberries, plantain leaves. They perfectly cleanse the entire body of mucus. Chamomile flowers, corn silk, immortelle, marigold flowers (calendula), dandelion root and even wormwood have remarkable choleretic properties. It is allowed to add a little sugar to such teas.
Burdock and dandelion flowers are good for removing toxins. If you have lung problems, it is recommended to drink more oregano and violet leaves. If you do not want to deal with constipation in your life, we recommend that you brew senna, rhubarb (root), buckthorn or joster. To cleanse the cardiovascular system, leaves of black currant, white mistletoe or Japanese sophora.
Versatile Herbal Tea Blends
Overweight women experience toxicity in the body to a greater extent than others. At the same time, their vessels are clogged not only with cholesterol, but also with salts. In such cases, you can brew any herbal teas. We recommend paying special attention to St. John's wort, strawberry roots or leaves, immortelle, chamomile flowers, and birch buds. Tea made from these herbs is drunk without sugar or sweetener.
The most useful herbs for tea - look for it, find it, brew it
As you can see, many herbs and berries can be drunk instead of tea, and nowadays they are not difficult to get. Pharmacies, online stores and small markets are at your service. But it is much more pleasant and interesting to collect herbs or berries yourself, armed with certain knowledge. If you want to drink herbal teas every day, you will have to stock up on pleasant-tasting herbs, excluding tansy or yarrow. Now let's talk about the rules for collecting and brewing tea.
- Collect herbs away from roads, but it would be a good idea to arm yourself with knowledge about certain plants. Flowers should be collected during flowering in eco-friendly areas. In this case, the weather should be dry and clear.
- When buying herbs in pharmacies, pay attention to the quality certificate or the inscription on the box “passed radiological control”.
- Dry the leaves, berries, and herbs in a dry, dark place (while avoiding direct sunlight).
- After drying, pack them loosely into a jar, screw the lid on well and label. Keep out of the reach of children.
- To speed up the process, you can dry the plants in the oven by turning it on for at least 2 hours.
Herbalist Secrets: How to Brew Delicious Herbal Tea
Compatibility. When brewing, do not mix ingredients with strong odors. Try to create a harmonious composition so that they do not overpower each other with taste and aroma. Fresh herbs should be finely chopped.
Welding. As with other teas, first rinse the kettle with boiling water and only then pour the prepared ingredients into it. Infuse the plants for 5 minutes to half an hour. The longer, the stronger and more versatile the drink will be.
Adding bark and spices. For a richer range of flavors, the spices must first be crushed in a mortar and the bark boiled for at least 10 minutes.
Ceremony. There is no need to brew herbal teas and drink them with anyone. This is an intimate matter. Call your best friend or mother, you and your husband can create a tea ceremony and prepare candles. You will remember such solitude for a long time.
Meditation. If you are alone, rejoice, you can do a wonderful meditation. The Chinese advise you to first enjoy the shade of tea, then its aroma and only then the taste. Relaxation and peace are guaranteed!
Don't get attached to your habits, try new herbs and spices, get creative, mix and create your own amazing mixtures. At the same time, you will always have a full variety of drinks for home and guests.
People all over the world love tea and drink it every day: in the morning - to cheer up; in the evening - to warm up; during the day - at work, visiting or in a cafe. But few people know how to brew it so that it gives out all its taste and aroma to the last drop.
We propose to figure out how to properly prepare this magical drink.
1. There are only 6 types of tea
All varieties of tea are obtained by processing the leaves of the same tea plant - Camellia sinensis. The inscription on the packaging “green tea” or “black tea” is only the processing technology with which it was obtained.
Everything else - herbs (like mint), fruits (like raspberries) and so on - becomes not tea, but an infusion.
Never pour boiling water over tea, otherwise you may burn the tea leaves. But pouring boiling water over herbs or fruits is just a great idea.
The temperature of the brewing water can be determined without a thermometer. As soon as steam appears and the kettle begins to vibrate a little, this is approximately 65-75 °C. And when the water starts to bubble, it is 85-90 °C.
When water is boiled repeatedly, minerals settle on the walls of the kettle and scale forms. Oxygen, which is necessary for proper brewing of tea, is also evaporated from the water.
Never add an extra spoonful of tea. By adding it, you will not make it stronger, it will simply lose its unique aroma.
The only time it is worth preheating a kettle with boiling water is when it is made of thick porcelain or very thick ceramic.
This saturates the leaves with oxygen and helps the aroma to develop.
If you drink tea brewed in a teapot, pour the milk into the cup first, and only then the tea. This way the milk will heat up to the same temperature as the tea, and the drink will be more flavorful. If you add milk last, then cool the tea itself.
8. If you brew a tea bag, then add milk at the end
Place the bag in hot water for 3 minutes to allow it to steep, remove it, and then add milk. If you pour in the milk right away, the fat may coat the leaves and prevent them from brewing.
9. Remove the leaves from the teapot after it has brewed.
Don't throw away the leaves; you can re-brew them later.
Otherwise, you will squeeze out the tannins and the tea will become bitter. Just take it out. If you like strong tea with a slightly bitter aftertaste, try second flush Assam or Kenyan tea.
Loose leaf tea has a wider leaf surface, resulting in a deeper, richer flavor. Especially if you brew it in a large teapot, where the aroma comes out best.
Tea bags are designed to brew tea quickly. Yes, the leaves in it are much smaller and may not be of very good quality. The compromise is pyramids, which give you the benefits of loose leaf tea and the convenience of tea bags.
Since all varieties come from the same plant, all teas have approximately the same amount of caffeine, including green tea. And no one can guarantee that one tea contains more antioxidants than another. Because it depends on the quality of the tea, weather and other conditions.
And to relax, it is better to drink decoctions of chamomile and honey.
Tea can rightfully be considered one of the most ancient drinks. It is believed that it was discovered in China long before our era. It was originally used as a medicine and later became widespread as a drink. Over time, its taste becomes boring and people add various herbs and fruits to tea for taste and aroma. These tasty and fragrant additives make tea completely unusual and allow everyone to come up with their own, individual taste. What is added to tea?! We will look at the most popular ingredients that make up the TOP tea additives.
1. Mint
Well, here’s the thing, probably everyone in our country drank mint tea. It perfectly relaxes and calms the nerves. In addition, it also has an excellent healing effect - it normalizes the functioning of the stomach, alleviates the symptoms of acute respiratory viral infections and acute respiratory infections, and helps with coughs. Mint owes this effect to menthol, which is present in its composition and has an antibacterial as well as a tonic effect.
2. Anise
Its fruits are also often added to tea. It not only adds an indescribable aroma to the drink, but also helps with ARVI and bronchitis. If you feel an unpleasant rough sensation in your throat, or have a cough, drink anise tea and you will recover much faster.
3. Jasmine
Jasmine tea was popular even among the Chinese emperors, as it was an excellent way to cope with a general loss of strength and was an excellent tonic, raising low blood pressure and stimulating appetite. This is an excellent remedy for symptoms of chronic fatigue.
4. Rosehip
Tea with the addition of rose hips or their decoction is a truly multifunctional medicinal drug! Rose hips alone contain 50 times more vitamin C than lemons. It helps with colds and copes with fever, and has a good diuretic and diaphoretic effect. It is also good as an energy boost for the body. Thanks to antioxidants, it prevents aging of the body and supports the smooth functioning of the heart.
5. Ginger
Ginger root is usually grated and brewed with boiling water, and only then the decoction is added to tea, although some people simply throw pieces into the brew. Ginger tea perfectly invigorates, activates metabolism and warms in cold weather.
6. Calendula
Once you add calendula flowers and seeds to tea, it turns from a drink into a medicine that has a bactericidal effect and fights colds and sore throats.
7. Lavender
This is a useful addition to tea, which I often recommend to older people. And no wonder! It has a strong sedative and antispasmodic. Also, drinking tea with lavender will have a magical effect on insomnia and help with neurosis.
8. Sea buckthorn
Sea buckthorn is considered one of the healthiest berries due to the huge amount of vitamins and microelements that it contains. Tea with the addition of sea buckthorn helps with a wide variety of diseases: the digestive tract, the cardiovascular system, and high blood pressure. It also improves the overall condition of the body, improves the condition of the skin and complexion, and also helps smooth out facial wrinkles.
9. Schisandra
Schisandra is not a lemon at all, although the leaves of this plant emit a lemon-like aroma. The fruits and leaves of lemongrass make a healthy and pleasant-tasting drink, a cup of which energizes and gives a lot of strength. That is why tea with a decoction of the fruits of this shrub is popular among drivers, travelers, as well as people leading an active lifestyle. Schisandra is added to tea due to its pronounced anti-inflammatory effect and tonic effect.
10. Melissa
Melissa is in many ways similar to mint, but its aroma is lemon-mint, and its taste is refined and soft. We recommend drinking tea with the addition of lemon balm for insomnia and stress. It is useful for colds and ARVI. One cup of this tea is a huge dose of vitamins, magnesium, zinc, selenium, and copper. That is why it is recommended for children and pregnant women to drink.
Do you like drinking tea? If yes, then this article is for you. Why I’ll clarify – it’s just that not everyone likes to drink tea, and even fewer people take this issue seriously enough to read about it on the Internet.
In fact, the tea drinking process can and sometimes even needs to be analyzed. Now I’m not talking about the quality or brewing process, I’ve already talked about that, but about what we prefer to drink tea with. Tea itself is an amazing product, the wonderful properties of which we will definitely talk about in future articles, but what we drink it with... If we do not understand some very important properties of products, even very valuable initially, you can provide yourself with a healing drink instead of - quite dangerous carcinogens.
What do they like to drink with? tea? The classic is when with sweets of all varieties (sweets, marshmallows, gingerbread, cakes), some with all kinds of sandwiches, and some with smoked braided cheese or ham, with crackers, and some just like that - at a glance. Surely, there are some other extraordinary options, but my imagination is not enough for this.
The most common option is with sugar. Without hesitation. 3-5 spoons per standard 200-300 ml mug. Well, this is normal at a young age, when a person is very active and needs carbohydrates to produce energy, build cells, and improve brain activity. It is better for older people to refrain from taking sugar in its pure form (read: adding it to tea), it is already found in many products; you just need to carefully read the labels for the same sausage. In general, scientists have mixed feelings about mixing sugar with tea. It has been noticed that in countries where it is not customary to add sugar to tea, there are fewer cancer diseases. But sugar does not affect the valuable properties of green tea, and even enhances the absorption of catechins contained in the drink.
If you really can't drink tea without changing the taste, when adding sweets, try to limit yourself to cane (brown) sugar, or even preferably honey.
Although there is a subtle point here too. When exposed to high temperatures (over 40° C), honey turns into a carcinogen. It destroys an enzyme such as diastase, and fructose (also contained in honey) is oxidized, and the oxidation product can cause malignant neoplasms in the stomach, intestines and other organs of the digestive system. So add honey to tea at a comfortable temperature that you can already drink.
The same applies to lemon. This is a classic example of the traditional Russian perception of the benefits of tea. Supposedly without lemon it is useless. In fact, you need to be more careful with acid - when interacting with tannin, substances can arise that provoke the formation of kidney stones. And if you throw a slice of lemon into very hot tea, the coveted vitamin C, as well as other valuable components, are completely destroyed.
There are different opinions about milk tea. Some scientists believe that milk negatively affects the antioxidant potential of tea, negating the unique healing effect of catechin. Namely, this most important component of tea neutralizes the effect of free radicals, inhibits the development of diabetes and 
cardiovascular failure.
However, other studies indicate that when milk is added to tea, B vitamins, vitamins C and PP, as well as microelements - compounds of potassium, copper, iodine and others are better absorbed. At the same time, it was noticed that the tone increases and the general condition of a person improves.
How can this discrepancy be explained? Perhaps, banal features of immunity... So, in this case, I think it remains to focus on your feelings.
And yet there is nothing better - namely, tastier and healthier - just tea. Without any extraneous components, which may add pleasantness and solemnity to the tea drinking process, but completely change the real live taste of the drink, and sometimes even gradually harm the body.
