If you’re going to grow herbs, you should use them. There are lots of culinary and medicinal uses of herbs but which ones should you grow in your garden for making teas and cocktails?
BORAGE
The blue flowers have a soft cucumber flavour and look great in cocktails such as pink gin and tonic or a traditional Pimms Cup. You can freeze the flowers in ice cubes to use later and make a soothing tea from fresh borage leaves.
MINT FAMILY
HERBAL TEA
You can make herbal tea from many herb varieties using fresh or dried leaves and flowers – you just need to experiment to see which you like best. For most herbal teas you can add the leaves (slightly crushed) or petals to a pot of hot water (off the boil) and let them steep for a few minutes to release their flavours. The longer you steep them, the stronger the flavour. Do strain them before you serve so you don’t find yourself with a mouthful of chewy herbs. When it comes to cocktails, you can use sweet herb flowers as garnish or muddle the leaves to release their flavours.
There are many different types of mint that you can use in a lovely soothing tea: chocolate, apple, ginger, lavender, lemon and of course good old common mint Menthe veridis which is also great for muddling in cocktails. For classic mint tea, use fresh or dried leaves from Peppermint Mentha piperita or Spearmint Mentha spicata.
OTHER SOOTHING TEAS INCLUDE:
Lemon Balm Melissa offinalis – use the leaves ; Chamomile Matricaria recutita – use the flowers; Holy Basil, also known as Tulsi, Ociumum tenuiflorum – use the leaves.
LAVENDER
Lavender has a beautiful soft fragrant flavour. You can add the petals to tea but the flowers can be chewy so it’s good to makes a lavender infusion with hot water – let the petals steep for a while and then strain. Keep the liquid to add to cocktails with gin or vodka, sweet wine and add to peppermint or iced teas. Use flower sprigs to decorate cocktails and champagne.
FLAVOURS:
Experiment with the herbs in your garden and try creating your own mixtures of citrus peel, mint, lemon grass, rose petals, lavender petals, sage leaves, ginger, fennel seeds and cinnamon. You can also add them to green tea and sweeten with honey.
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