Thursday, May 24, 2012

How to Make Strawberry Leaf Tea/Tisane


The first thing you should know about tea will blow the teapot lid right off everything you thought you knew about tea. As it turns out, a drink can only be called tea if it’s made from the actual tea plant, Camellia sinensis. Every other drink that’s labeled as “tea” should technically be called “tisane.” For the sake of accuracy, today I am going to show you how to make strawberry tisane. But - for the sake of simplicity - I will erroneously continue to refer to it as strawberry tea.

I first got the idea to make some homemade tea from my garden. I planted some mint that Donna and I would use every now and then in our store bought tea to flavor it a little. Pondering how hard it was to make your own tea, I did some research on the Internet for easy to make tea recipes. More than once, I stumbled across recipes for Strawberry Leaf Tea.

I should warn you first about how I use the Internet. The Internet has no filter for erroneous information. I consider this one of its worst attributes. Any thought, idea, or story can be disseminated even if its 100% false. What I do when I find something I want to try is I see if I can find it referenced, mentioned, or talked about in more than one reputable website. I will leave it up to you to discern if a source is reputable, but for the most part if I can reach a consensus across a broad swath of sources, then I assume something is at least partially true.

Such was the case with Strawberry Leaf Tea.

Making Strawberry Leaf Tea is very, very simple. First you look at your strawberry plant. (I have one growing in my garden.) You find the biggest, cleanest leaves and pick them. It’s very important to inspect the leaves for blemishes, bugs, fungi, or any inconsistencies in the leaves. You want them to be green and pristine.

Strawberry leaves

This next part is VERY important. There are only two ways to consume strawberry leaves: completely fresh OR completely dry. There is no in-between. The in-between stage is dangerous because as a leaf decays there’s actually a chemical decomposition occurring and it is not healthy to consume these leaves. The easiest, which I used, was to pick them straight off the plant and use them immediately. (Some people like to dry them and save them for later.) I also picked some mint leaves and threw them in the pile to add a little flavor. 

Mint leaves

Once you have picked your clean, pristine strawberry leaves, wash them and place them in the bottom of your mug.  Bring a pot of water almost to boil and then pour the hot water onto the tea leaves. (I read from one source that boiling water will actually cook them leaves more than you want.) Let it steep for ten minutes. To create a sweeter flavor, you can add honey, sugar, or Splenda. Donna took hers with Splenda and I took mine the same with a small bit of honey.


Letting the leaves steep for ten minutes

As is the case with any raw plant you consume, I was afraid the taste would be peculiar. I brought in Donna to be my guinea pig. When it comes to tea, Donna is a woman of discriminating tastes so I knew if it got her seal of approval then Strawberry Leaf Tea was a legitimate contender. As you can tell from these before and after photos (which I should note were NOT staged) the Strawberry Leaf Tea tasted darn good! 




Beyond the great taste, Strawberry Leaf Tea is incredibly healthy. According to www.livestrong.com, Strawberry Leaf Tea promotes digestive health, helps alleviate arthritis, and contains many healthy nutrients such as iron, calcium, and Vitamin C.  

While my strawberry plant isn’t the most prolific strawberry producer, it is quite good at producing leaves - a nice consolation now that I know how to make Strawberry Leaf Tea! 

20 comments:

  1. sounds intriguing :) but does it actually TASTE like STRABERRY? but i'd love to try it out anyway :) brilliant idea.

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  2. when you make the tea you can add one strawberry for each cup.. taste great.

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  3. when you make the tea you can add one strawberry for each cup.. taste great.

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  4. Ahh this is so cool and helpful, I feel inspired!

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  5. I love strawberry leaf tea (tisane ;-) ) and will try making it at home. It's a really wonderful homeopathic remedy for psoriasis/eczema, too! ;-)

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  6. I'm late getting into the conversation, but can you also use strawberry hulls to make the tisane? That way you're not destroying your plant.

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  7. How often can you cut leaves off a strawberry plant and it remain. Healthy??

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    1. When you remove the leaves, take only 1/3 or less of the overall plant.

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  8. thank you i,m going to try this

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  9. Thank you. it also helped when i had joint pain.

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  11. Wow thanks for this post! I totally appreciate your advice to check several sources to compile a "truth" before making any herbal preparation! True! Going to head out to my garden now and get some FRESH leaves! Kudos also to Donna the Trusted Tisane Guinea Pig ��

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  13. I wonder can you do a yoni steam with them?

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  14. You mention only using fresh leaves, do leaves on picked strawberries count as fresh enough, or will they have begun to decay and be harmful? I bought some at a farm shop yesterday, the strawberries were not picked at that farm, but two counties away. Thank you

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    1. The leaves this recipe refers to are not the leaves on the strawberry itself, but the much bigger leaves that are on the strawberry plant shown in the first picture.

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  15. Thanks for sharing such beautiful information with us. I hope you will share some more information about strawberry leaves. Please keep sharing.
    Health Is A Life

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  16. Hi,

    Can I use brown strawberry leaves for tea?

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  17. HOW MANY LEAVES DO YOU PLACE IN THE CUP? I LARGE PER CUP OR ?? T.I.A.

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