By Moonroot, blended by hand.
Most herbal tea that tastes flat or bitter was brewed wrong, not blended wrong. Here's how to brew herbal tea properly: water at 90°C, a saucer on the cup, and five minutes on the clock.
Use water just off the boil, around 90°C
Boiling water's fine for black tea. Flowers and leaves are a different thing.
Chamomile heads, lemon balm, rose petals and lavender buds are delicate. Hit them with water at a rolling boil and the cup comes out harsher than it should, with the soft top notes gone before you've had a sip. At 90°C you get the flavour without the scald.
You don't need a thermometer. Let the kettle sit for a minute or two after it clicks off, and you're close enough.
Cover the cup. It's the one thing almost everyone gets wrong
A lot of what makes a herb smell like itself lives in its oils, and those oils leave with the steam. Leave the cup open and your kitchen smells lovely while the tea goes flat.
Put something over it. A saucer, a small plate, the lid of a teapot. Anything that sits flat will do.
When you lift it off, tip the drops on its underside back into the cup. That's flavour you'd otherwise wipe off.
Five minutes for flowers and leaves, longer for roots and seeds
Flowers and leaves give up their flavour quickly. Roots and seeds are denser and slower, which is why a single root or seed brewed on its own usually wants longer.
We build our blends around five minutes. Seeds like fennel, caraway and anise get lightly cracked before they go in, so they open up in time. We do it with a rolling pin, two passes. If you can smell it strongly across the room, it's been crushed too far.
So for any of our four blends, five minutes is the whole instruction. Set a timer. It's easy to wander off.
Taste it hot, then taste it again at 40°C
Bitterness hides in a hot cup and shows itself around 40°C.
That's why we taste every blend twice before it's finished, once straight from the pot and once ten minutes later. A blend that only tastes good hot isn't finished. If your cup turns bitter as it cools, shorten the steep next time before you reach for honey or blame the herbs.
Valerian's the herb that taught us this. We wrote about it in what valerian root tea really smells and tastes like.
One bag, one cup: how far can you stretch it?
Each of our pyramid bags holds 2.80 g of herbs, and the blends are built for 250 ml of water. That's a normal mug.
Use a bigger mug and the cup gets thinner, not gentler. That's fine if you like it light, but it's a different drink. For a small teapot of around 500 ml, use two bags and keep the same five minutes.
Can you re-steep a herbal tea bag?
Yes, once. The second cup's paler and lighter, so give it a minute or two longer.
Brew the second cup soon after the first. Don't leave a wet bag sitting out overnight and come back to it in the morning.
Questions people ask about brewing herbal tea
What temperature should water be for herbal tea?
Around 90°C, just off the boil. That's hot enough to pull out the flavour of flowers and leaves without scalding them. Let the kettle stand for a minute or two after it clicks off.
How long should you steep herbal tea?
About five minutes for blends of flowers and leaves, covered. Roots and seeds on their own usually want longer. If the cup tastes bitter, shorten the steep before you change anything else.
Should you cover herbal tea while it steeps?
Yes. Much of a herb's scent lives in oils that leave with the steam, and a saucer keeps them in the cup. Tip the drops from the saucer back in when you lift it.
Can you reuse a herbal tea bag?
Once, straight after the first cup. The second one's paler and lighter, so give it a minute or two longer. Don't keep a wet bag overnight.
None of this needs special kit. A kettle, a saucer and five minutes you don't rush is the whole method.
All four of our blends are made to be brewed exactly this way. See the four blends
Safety. Herbal infusion. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication, preparing for surgery, or managing a medical condition, consult a healthcare professional before use. Keep out of reach of children. Each blend carries its own warnings on the box. Please read them before you brew.