Herbals/Tisanes

I like herbals, especially at night. But I do get where you are coming from about the health benefits. Overall, though, at least drinking tisanes are better for me tham my old diet coke habit! Good idea about the blending!

What is the shelf life for herbal teas?

Cofftea, I haaave to have my Mate in the mornings not unlike you with your Matcha sometimes I have Mate the whole day through and I love a few flavored Rooibos blends too! I’ve don’t think I’ve mixed black tea with either but I mix Mate and Rooibos alot.

Threewhales, I was wondering the same thing. What is the shelf life of herbals, Rooibos and Mates? I also wonder what is the proper storage for Rooibos and Mates?

I love rose bud. It tastes sweet and looks so romantic :-p
Chrysanthemum is another favorite of mine. I like to use it to make ice herbal tea for parties.
Many other herbal drinks, I mostly boil them to make “soup” instead of “tea”. For “soups”, I love hawthorn (it seems this fruit is not harvested in America but is grown as decoration), dried longan (a sweet Asian fruit), and osmanthus.
In Korean stores, you can find jars of “grapefruit tea”. It’s called tea, but not really tea. It’s grapefruit sliced peels infused in honey. Very delicious! One tablespoon in a cup of hot water makes a great hot drink!

Caffeine really bothers me (I stop drinking caffeinated coffee around 2pm and caffeinated teas around 7 pm) so I’ve recently begun to drink herbals/tisanes. My steepster cupboard is flooded with caffeine-free teas right now and it’s working/helping. I’ve discovered Chamomile helps me sleep while the other herbals/tisanes taste good. Rooibos and Honeybush teas are sweet when I crave something like that in the evening while the Teavana herbals are for when I want something really tart.

I do something like what Gingko reported above – I usually have sliced lemons (sans seeds) in a jar that I filled with boiling water, sealed, cooled and then refrigerated. These sliced lemons make a great “tea” with honey or included in other teas if you like lemons.

Recently, I read a book about herbal teas, so every once in a while, will drop in some fresh herbs that I have in the kitchen (e.g., rosemary, thyme, peppermint, fresh ginger) to my teas in the evening. I also have a nice supply of dehydrated fruits (strawberry, pomegranate, blueberry & raspberry, here http://tinyurl.com/y6jenow ) so I drop a handful of that into my evening decaf/uncaf-teas or herbals. Plus, I have Adagios herbal basics (e.g., lemongrass, here http://tinyurl.com/yyongh5) which I add to different decaf/uncaf teas. My decaf tea right now is Harney & Sons decaf tea sampler (here http://tinyurl.com/y5ev53s) which I use as a base.

I guess necessity (um, sleep deprivation, really) has made me experiment with herbals/tisanes!

I have almost a full bag of Chamomile. I don’t seem to like it. What is it suppose to taste like? Any advice or tips on brewing?