Huge bushels of sage and mint fresh from my garden are dried and ground up into tea leaves for this heart healthy, anxiety reducing, immune system boosting sage mint tea.
It’s that time of year again when my garden is going insane. Not everything is quite ready yet (tomatoes, eggplant, figs), but a few of my crops have been incredibly bountiful for the past couple of weeks, mainly my zucchini and herbs. I have many recipes planned for my zucchini, so stay tuned for those, but for today I have a super easy recipe for what has already become my go-to beverage for relaxing evening: sage mint tea.
This sage mint tea is super simple, and can be made by either drying the herbs for a few weeks and then tossing them in a food processor, as I did, or by mincing the fresh herbs and simply steeping them in hot water. Either version works great, but the dried herb version resembles more what we are used to seeing tea leaves look like, and will ensure that you can make this tea all the way into winter. I was actually inspired to make this sage mint tea from by step-mom Nicole, who recently made a huge batch of nettle and mint tea. For those of you who don’t know what nettles are, they are a pretty invasive weed that grow like crazy and have tiny stinging hairs on their leaves that are very irritating to skin, leading us to call them “itch-weed” when we were kids. Despite this, and their incredible annoyance to most gardeners, they actually have a bevy of health benefits, leading Nicole to smartly dry them and grind them into tea leaves.
Nicole’s batch of nettle tea made me think about my own garden woes. And while I wouldn’t call it a woe, my sage plant has been pretty put of control since early in the spring. It was actually one of the only plants that survived the winter in the ground, and as soon as warm days were upon us the sage was growing like crazy. Ever since then I’ve been thinking up ways to use my abundance of this savory herb (sage simple syrup, sage marinated chicken) and I finally decided to dry it in huge bunches and use it in tea so that I would last me longer. Like Nicole, I decide to throw mint into the mix (only a little bit is needed, mint is a pretty strong flavor) to add a depth of flavor to this tea.
Tons of fresh sage from my garden!
I know most of you probably don’t have mounds of sage and mint growing in your yard, but this recipe is still one to try even with ingredients bought from the grocery store, due to sage’s health and relaxation benefits. Sage has incredible antioxidant qualities, as well as being known to help control blood sugar levels in diabetes. It has also been known to sore throats, headaches, belly aches, and even help with the common cold. And even if you’re not experiencing any of these ailments, a steamy mug of this sage mint tea with some honey can help to calm and relax you after a long day, as I’ve learned over the past few weeks.
- 4 cups fresh sage
- 2 cup fresh mint
- Dry herbs by wrapping stems with twine and hanging in cool dry place for 2 weeks. Remove stems and add leave to food processor. Pulse until finely ground. Brew tea with 1 teaspoon herbs per cup in boiling water, steeping for 2 minutes.
I’m sat enjoying a cup of fresh sage n mint tea. Very nice. Just found out mum has form of dementia which is hereditary. Sage apparently is good at working to prevent it. Figured it’s worth a try!