Tea balls, flowering teas, making our own.

[Toddy]

I like tea. I like our native 'tea' plants too though.
My husband gave me a set of teaballs at Christmas time. I8 different flowering teas. A lovely present, and I wondered just how they were made. So, I had a looksee, and I had an online search, and lo and behold, this is easy and the following video shows them made from dandelions. I think though that having seen how simple it is that there's no reason I couldn't make rose tea, or one using jasmine or nasturtium, nettle, heartsease, selfheal or ....well, the potential is as rich as we can find suitable plants
I'm going to give it a try

 

[Kav]

Groan- It took me three years to collect a Simpson’s copper kettle,
Vintage Sadler Brown Betty, sterling strainer, sugar and milk set, Loose and jammed spout implement mistaken for pickle spears, sugar tongs, teacups and spoons, serving tray, knitted cozy, loose tea, Demerara sugar cubes, digestives, proper water source and milk. Then people ask if there’s coffee for my high tea.
And now, now you raise the bar again.

 

[Toddy]

You should have some amazing flowers where you live.
Maybe not some of the cactus ones though.....

 

[Woody girl]

I just picked up one of those glass teapots with a built in loose tea /fresh herbal tea strainer to brew the tea without having loads of bits of leaf or flower floating about in it. I be planning some wild teas with it next year.
It works great with mint tea, which is all I have to hand at the moment. I also have some dried camomile, so will have a go with that too soon. Rose petal tea is something I did last summer, using fresh very fragrant petals. It was lovely with some local raw honey to taste.

 

[Kav]

I actually do enjoy some herbals.
The problem? Every so often Carlos Casteneda and his FICTION
Gets rediscovered and someone dies from Jimson weed, or clove cigarettes and the mess of legalized marijuana with new problems. A neighbor was harvesting Rosemary for cooking until I pointed to the freeway traffic fouling the air mere feet away and concentrated in same.
It IS fun and good on you.
Slurping a working cuppa of black Keemun and a bit of Lagavulin and
Wildflower honey.

 

[TLM]

Ilex vomitoria just might grow in the south of the British isles. Never tasted it but it is a relative of Mate so could taste a bit alike. Contains caffeine. Apparently goes by the name Yaupon tea, spelling might vary.

 

[Kadushu]

Are there any common plants in the UK that taste similar to actual tea?

 

[Toddy]

Camellias will grow here. I grow a real tea plant in a big planter in my garden. I don't get a lot of tea from it, but I do get some.

If you gather the leaves from willow herb, lay them out to wither, and then before they're dry and crisp, roll them between the palms of your hands, they curl up and 'ferment'.
Dried and stored for a couple of months to age, it works as a tea.
Same thing with raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant and bramble leaves.
Mullien leaves, comfrey leaves, coltsfoot leaves and burdock root.

I think those are pretty much the best of the native ones for similarity to tea.

Herbal teas are very good though. Any of the mints for instance.
You can enrich any of the herbal teas, if you can take it safely, by adding an infusion of liquorice root to them. It's a cheap, sweet filler in most herbal teabags. Adds a flavour base to them too.

To answer your question though, no, there is nothing native to the UK that makes tea/tea.

 

[SaraR]

I've got a glass teapot for green/white teas and flower teas, but I prefer using a taller cylindrical glass vessel for the flowering teas as they look pretty for longer that way. I repurposed an unused French press, which works great.

 

[Toddy]

I've got a glass teapot for green/white teas and flower teas, but I prefer using a taller cylindrical glass vessel for the flowering teas as they look pretty for longer that way. I repurposed an unused French press, which works great.

Oh good idea, I'd just been using a pyrex jug, but I think I'll have a go with the spare cafetiere pot

 

[SaraR]

Oh good idea, I'd just been using a pyrex jug, but I think I'll have a go with the spare cafetiere pot

I think it works really well. Just clean it out if it's been used for coffee obviously.

 

[Toddy]

I'm a fussy besom, I even scrub out my teapot

Most of my teaballs are fine in the glass teapot, but the ones that bloom upwards, like a bouquet instead of a nosegay, they would look lovely in the cafetiere pot.

 

[TLM]

Camellias will grow here. I grow a real tea plant in a big planter in my garden.

Really, did not know that. What seems to be their cold tolerance? I know people on the Med grow their own here and there and apparently in Georgia too. Commercial operations in the Azores (with lots of bats flying over them during daytime).

 

[Toddy]

I really don't know. I do know that they don't like being frozen if their roots are sitting sodden wet, though. They like moist but well draining soil.
I take my pot into the cold greenhouse to overwinter, but that's mostly just because the greenhouse is not subject to incessant rain.
There are tea plantations in Scotland (you would not believe how expensive the tea is....40g, yes grams, is over £90) and I think about a dozen all told in the UK. Kind of a niche market.
I think if you have dry cold winters, you might get away with it where you are.....small plants cost about 8 pounds here from Amazon.

Just looked it up. H4 hardiness says the RHS, so -10 in well drained soil. Will survive better in sheltered micro climate kind of sites. Old walled gardens seem to be popular here.

M

 

[Kav]

Don’t forget all the spices from a Indian grocery! I discovered cardoman chai by accident and it has a prominent place in my rotation.

 

[Toddy]

Chai is very, very good

 

[Tengu]

We have tea in Cornwall. Darjeeling, I believe.

(I normaly drink China tea, but Chai is good.)

 

[Kadushu]

Camellias will grow here. I grow a real tea plant in a big planter in my garden. I don't get a lot of tea from it, but I do get some.

If you gather the leaves from willow herb, lay them out to wither, and then before they're dry and crisp, roll them between the palms of your hands, they curl up and 'ferment'.
Dried and stored for a couple of months to age, it works as a tea.
Same thing with raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant and bramble leaves.
Mullien leaves, comfrey leaves, coltsfoot leaves and burdock root.

I think those are pretty much the best of the native ones for similarity to tea.

Herbal teas are very good though. Any of the mints for instance.
You can enrich any of the herbal teas, if you can take it safely, by adding an infusion of liquorice root to them. It's a cheap, sweet filler in most herbal teabags. Adds a flavour base to them too.

To answer your question though, no, there is nothing native to the UK that makes tea/tea.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply, Toddy, I'll have to give a few of those a go. Mullein and comfrey shouldn't be hard to find right now. I already grow several types of mint and its relatives - bergamot, lemon balm, etc. No liquorice but maybe fennel would be an approximation.

 

[demographic]

Oh good idea, I'd just been using a pyrex jug, but I think I'll have a go with the spare cafetiere pot

I have a small stainless steel cafetiere that just fits in my van cupholder and I've been using it for looseleaf tea as well as coffee while I'm at work.
I just put boiling water in my flask and have the choice of tea, coffee or even cheapo noodles (to be fair, I don't put them in my cafetiere though )