Herbal Tea - Storing and Drinking

Life has been chaotic for me lately. Not very busy, just turbulent. So I have spent my time online with relaxing things like netflix, fanfiction and polyvore... But I'll try to get out that second post about herbal teas now. Summer and herbal tea harvest season is over here, but maybe where you are summer is still in full swing and you can have some use for this post. Otherwise I guess there is always next year! ;)

Read part one about harvesting and drying herbs here. This second post will largely be photos of tea and a bit of information about what plants are good for tea. But first a bit about storing your dried herbs.

Here is most of my harvest. Each herb in its own jar. I use both ordinary glass jars and metal tea jars, with various types of lids. Air tight lids are supposedly best, but I use whatever I can find. It might be tempting to store the pretty herbs in glass jars where they are visible, but they stay good for longer if stored in darkness. The herbs should not be crushed to pieces. They retain much more flavor if stored whole. I write the name of the herb as well as the year of harvest on the lid so that I can be sure how old that particular herb is.

White clover flowers.

Rose petals.

Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium), leaves and flowers.

Yarrow, leaves and flowers.

Pansies and violets.

I have made a few herbal blends but I prefer to store each herb on its own. This doesn't stop me from drinking blends. I usually choose a blend of several different herbs (whole) to put in my cup before adding hot water and a bit of honey. Here are some pictures of pretty and tasty herbal teas!

White clover flower tea. This is a herbal tea for the beginner! The taste is very sweet and almost a bit honey like even without sweetener. The flowers even look very pretty!

Lady's mantle leaf tea (Alchemilla Vulgaris). I really like these leaves, they taste quite sweet and look very pretty.

Rowan leaf tea. Not quite as sweet as white clover or lady's mantle but still a pleasant mild herbal tea.

Fireweed leaves and flowers.

Fireweed tea (leaves and flowers). This is one of the prettiest of herbal teas! The milky color is just gorgeous and the flowers turn from dark purple-blue to sheer and delicate white in the hot water! Tastes very good too. fresher and greener than white clover or lady's mantle.

Hibiscus flower tea. Rather cool purple color isn't it? Doesn't taste very much or very good though. 

Meadowsweet flowers and leaves (Filipendula ulmaria).

Meadowsweet flower and leaf tea. I have always loved the sweet, almond like, scent of this plant and that scent translates into taste too! The taste is sweet with an almond undertone, absolutely delicious! And don't they look pretty!

Pansy flower and yarrow leaf.

Pansy flower and yarrow leaf tea. These yellow pansy flowers give the tea an intense yellow color but the taste is quite subtle and frankly not very interesting. I am more fond of the stong herbal taste of yarrow but yarrow tea isn't very pretty... So the combination of pansy and yarrow gives both mouth and eyes pleasure.

Orange pansy and raspberry leaf tea. This orange pansy is also rather pretty, but it doesn't give the tea as intense a color. Raspberry leaves are a classic herbal tea, they taste sweet and lovely and are supposed to have medicinal effects (though I haven't noticed any).

Linnaea flower and leaf tea. I really like how these tiny flowers look in my tea cup, but unfortunately the taste is a bit too subtle for me. Just a hint of sweetness and not much more. I will have to use these in combination with something of stronger taste or when I'm in the mood for something subtle.

Finally a picture of my favorite tea. Labrador tea! I love the strong herbal taste and scent of this one! I store this tea in the freezer rather than dried as I have found thet the taste isn't really preserved well in the dried plant.

Other plants that I have harvested:

• Rose petals - Give a subtle scent and taste of rose.
• Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) - Are pretty and blue but not much else.
• Red clover flower - Not as sweet and not as pretty as it's white sibling.
• Veronica (esp. Veronica chamaedrys) - Traditional tea plant, tastes nice and sweet.
• Blueberry leaf - Tastes wonderful, quite fresh and green!
• Lingonberry leaf - Tastes virtually nothing. Said to be a cood treatment for urinary infection though.
• Strawberry leaf - Sweet and tasty, quite similar to raspberry or lady's mantle.
• Violet flowers - Look pretty and have a subtle sweet taste.
• Mint and peppermint - I love to blend these strong flavored herbs with something pretty but boring!
• Hops - Really interesting, rather beer like, taste. Supposedly good as a sleep-inducing evening tea.
• Black currant leaves - Really strong and unique flavor! I love blending with blander but prettier herbs.

Those are the plants I have harvested and tried as tea! I have tried a lot of different blends too but I suggest that you experiement and find your personal favorites. Feel free to ask questions, I am sure that I have forgotten something...

Perfume Review - Twyla Perfumes and Apothecary

I have read so much about Twyla lately, and only rave reviews! So when I got the opportunity of a little discount I ordered some samples right away. I ordered Bone Flower, Dryad and Occula but I also received Chocolate Violets ( a limited edition Valentines scent) and Love & Squalor.

Bone Flower is a gorgeous scent! I ordered this because I thought that I might like tuberose, now I know I love it! In the vial it is very delicate and creamy but it blooms when it hits my skin. On wet this is heady and almost unsettlingly sweet, cloying in a way that I enjoy so much! As it dries it becomes softer and all too soon it is only a vague creamy white floral that clings very thightly to my skin. I love this one, I really, really love this one! I just wish it had a bit more sillage and longevity on me. It only lasts for about three hours and only for the first hour does it have any sillage to speak of. But I still feel tempted to buy a full bottle, I could wear it to bed and at home!

Dryad reminds me a bit of Mephistopheles when I first put it on, which is strange because, as far as I know, the only note they share is patchouli and that is not what I smell. Compared side by side the two are no longer as similar. Dryad is definitely more woody and resinous. I don´t think smelling Dryad after smelling Bone Flower is a good idea, somehow the heady smell of tuberose overpowers my nose and makes Dryad meek and uninteresting. Dryad is a bit difficult for me to make sense of, it is woody, resiny with som earthy patchouli thrown in, but it somehow manages to be delicate and almost powdery on my skin. I can´t really smell any of the notes clearly in this blend and it isn´t quite what I expected. I expected powerful resins and woods but this just falls a bit flat on my skin and fades fast. Perhaps it just doesn´t agree with my chemistry. Sillage and longevity are both minimal on me.

Occula is an interesting one! In the vial I can only smell the patchouli but on wet I get a strong flash of cloves that then linger and blend very nicely with the patchouli. In the background I get hints of honey and tuberose. I love this stage, it is spicy and creamy and dark! Unfortunately this one as well fades quite fast on my skin and, while I really enjoy the wet stage, almost all scent is gone by the time it is completely dry. By then the only thing left of this intriguing blend is only a rather flat and uninteresting patchouli and clove.

Chocolate Violets and Love & Squalor are scents that I would never have ordered myself but I found them surprisingly enjoyable. They both contain florals, but this is definitely the real stuff, not synthetics!

In the vial Chocolate Violets seems like a powerful chocolate scent of the kind that I generally dislike. Once I put it on I do get a strong chocolate at first, but that only lasts a few moments and then the violet takes over! This is a violet that doesn´t quite strike me as floral, but is rather more like violet flavored candies in scent, and I love those! The scent doesn´t really change much after this, so it is not very complex. Chocolate Violets doesn´t last very long, a few hours maybe, but it has more sillage than all the scents above!

Love & Squalor starts with a powerful note of jasmine. And I kind of hate jasmine. And, indeed, the first half hour or so is quite horrible. On my skin, jasmine is cloying in a way that I definitely don´t enjoy! But, yes there is a but, when the jasmine calms down this is actually a great scent that really likes my skin. Except for the jasmine I can´t really identify any other notes. It is very floral, so I really should hate it, but it is also both deeply complex and delightfully creamy! Out of these five scents, this one, the über floral one, is the one that has the best sillage (medium) and longevity (about 4-5 hours) on me. How is that for irony... I really wish this scent was more "me" as my skin seems to love it...

In the end I enjoy all of these scents, even the dreaded florals! I might even go so far as to say that, to my surprise, the florals were the best of the lot! I never though that I would actually enjoy a jasmin scent and I didn´t know that violets were so amazing! Unfortunately none of this scents had the longevity and sillage that I am used to with perfume oils. I don´t have dry skin, so that is not to blame. Perhaps these oils are just meant to be rather delicate and soft but I definitely prefer more power and longevity!