Monday, November 07, 2005

Infusion du jour


When the days get darker (alias now), I crave for more hot drinks, especially in the evening. I drink lots of tea, but in the evenings I want something without caffeine, so I usually go for various herbal infusions. I know these are not proper 'teas', but that's how they were called at our house, and I find it difficult to call them otherwise. My favourites are peppermint tea (from my mum’s garden), camomile tea and linden tea – all at various times. I can happily have peppermint infusion for breakfast, which seems a bit odd to some of my friends. Camomile obviously helps me to unwind and calm down, and mixed with honey this is the ‘first aid’ remedy against colds. Linden always reminds me of the huge linden tree at my grandparents house and collecting its crop with my cousins...

And my current favourite concoction is quite unusual but extremely pleasant. I mix couple of pieces of dried raspberry twigs and leaves, some sage and some lemon balm.

Again, as they are from my mum’s garden, it reminds me of home. And it is a perfect cure for any homesickness, should it occur. Believe me, give it a go!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Pille,
Yep, I can do peppermint at breakfast too. An refreshing, cleansing start to the day. So does your mum sent you raspberry twigs and things through the post to brew up..? That would be very cool!

Anonymous said...

I can do peppermint at breakfast too! :) Looks lovely to make the teas like you do, with whole twigs etc.

Anonymous said...

I love herb teas and drink them all the time, especially when the weather gets colder.

Paz

Pille said...

Iain - nope, I stock up whenever I'm visiting, which is usually 2-3 times a year. I once brought over a pile of semi-fresh peppermint, sprigs and leaves. They were squeezed into a plastic bag and didn't really smell minty at all at that stage. I was very worried that they want to check my luggage at the customs and I might need to explain what's in my bag:) Once I got them out of the bag, and air-dried, they regained their nice minty smell luckily:)))

Tanja - well, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only peppermint for breakfast person. I guess I've been surrounded by lots of black tea or strong coffee drinking people. I've converted some of them into drinking peppermint tea, but only as a late night option...

Paz - I agree, there's nothing as warming and comforting as a cup of hot herbal tea on a cold dark night...