Recently I made some fresh mint tea and it was delicious:

a big handful of clean, fresh mint leaves, crushed by twisting them
1 qt. boiling water
1 tea bag (orange pekoe or I used English Breakfast because it was close to hand)
honey to sweeten to taste

put the mint and tea bag in a quart container; pour the boiling water over and let steep for at least five minutes, more if you like a stronger mint flavor; pour the tea in a pitcher, sweeten to taste, let cool, then chill; you can use any kind of tea bag, black tea, oolong, or even herbal.

Yummmmm...refreshing!

Teresa

I made mint simple syrup a week or so ago and unsweetened tea, which makes it easy for me, since "what's his name" does't like mint flavored anything.lol

jude

I like jasmine blossom tea. It's hard to find bagged let alone in bulk these days. I like the flowery essence it gives tea. I bet roses would be good too, or other scented edible flowers.

Such great ideas! Please, keep them coming. I like the idea of the mint simple syrup. That way I'm not committed to an entire half gallon of mint tea before I can try another one! And I hadn't thought of rose petals or even rose hips. I don't have any roses, but my next door neighbor does. We share the bounty from our vegetable gardens with each other, I bet she'll share some rose petals/hips with me.

Monarda....aka bergamot....nice addition, as is lavendar.

"Chrysanthemum tea has many purported medicinal uses, including an aid in recovery from influenza, acne and as a "cooling" herb. According to traditional Chinese medicine the tea can aid in the prevention of sore throat and promote the reduction of fever. In Korea, it is known well for its medicinal use for making people more alert and is often used to waken themselves. In western herbal medicine, Chrysanthemum tea is drank and used as a compress to treat circulatory disorders such as varicose veins and atherosclerosis.

In traditional Chinese medicine, chrysanthemum tea is also used to treat the eyes, and is said to clear the liver and the eyes. It is believed to be effective in treating eye pain associated with stress or yin/fluid deficiency. It is also used to treat blurring, spots in front of the eyes, diminished vision, and dizziness.[1] The liver is associated with the element Wood which rules the eyes and is associated with anger, stress, and related emotions."

That was from WiKi.

Also check this amazing flowering tea out:

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: Tea

Donna, you asked for herbal but how about herbage? One of my very favorite teas is raspberry leaf tea. It makes excellent ice tea as well as hot tea. The dried raspberry leaves can be bought easily in health food stores bulk, but you can dry your own too. I'm glad I remembered this because my wild black raspberries are about ripe and I'll have to remember to dry some leaves while I'm out picking. The tea has many medicinal uses as well. Calms the stomach, said to help cramps, relieves diarrhea, and more. Mostly it's just a really great tasting tea. If you do happen to have any fresh raspberries around they can be added when you make the iced tea to make it in a very special brew for you or guests. I actually like it just plain. You can find the raspberry leaf tea as bags but of course buying it bulk makes it very reasonable. Think the last time I bought it at a health food store it was about five dollars for a half pound or more of the leaves.

I also do love rose hips tea as iced tea. I have ruba rugosa roses just so I can harvest the hips. Saw the other day there are some nice hips developing this year.

Coconut-nj, I have never even heard the word "herbage", so I had to look it up. I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind. You mentioned raspberry leaves. Do the leaves impart a hint of actualy raspberry-like flavor, or just a "good" flavor? And I had thought about actually mashing up fruit to put into the tea, but wondered if that would hasten spoilage of the tea itself. If it takes me more than a day to drink it, will it still be good? TIA

It is raspberry-ish, but not. It's different than the fruit but is sort of fruity..lol.. big help, eh? So, it's like you said, more of a hint, but maybe more than a hint. A good suggestion perhaps. Smiles. Using the real fruit will make it last not as long but it's good for a couple of days. And you're welcomed.

I bought some pineapple mint this year just for the beautiful varigated leaves to use in a porch box. I am loving adding it to beverages. I am NOT a mint fan but this is very mild and had a great pineapple flavor. There is also lemon balm and apple mint, which both are great with tea and other beverages. I second the rose hips and rose petals, but you want rugosa hips, the other ones are too hairy inside and not worth the trouble (ask me how I know!). Also you want organically grown, since a lot of people spray roses with nasty chemicals to control their many pests. I almost always throw a hunk of candied ginger into my tea to snazz it up. That goes good with the aforementioned mints too.

There are so many fun herbs to grow to add to tea. This year I am trying lemon basil. One year I grew cinnamon basil. And I totally love fennel with tea. And it's not exactly an herb, but cardamom is GREAT in tea!

I make a huge jug of ice tea every few days, but haven't added any herbs yet, although I have several growing in the garden.

I've heard basil is supposed to be nice in tea. And somewhat along the same idea, I have been wanting to try a basil mojito recipe that I have.

Pineapple sage is an excellent herbage, and a beautiful plant, too. Vigorous and large for a sage.
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I was reading the following article on sage tea:

You can use sage leaves in teas to treat headaches, anxiety and tension, insomnia, coughs, indigestion and fever. You can also cool and store your sage tea so you can use it as a wash to treat skin irritations and bites, abrasions, bruises and inflammation.

Sage tea is helpful in another important way. In one study, researchers gave women 300 ml of sage tea twice a day for four weeks. Their HDL (the "good" cholesterol that gets rid of plaque in your arteries) levels went up by 50 percent! The same study found that sage tea increases levels of SOD, what I call you body's "master antioxidant." It's 3,500 times more powerful than vitamin C. And after drinking sage tea, SOD activity jumped by more than 30%.

If you have dried sage, boil a teaspoonful brewed in a cup for no more than 2-3 minutes. It should never taste bitter. If it does, the tea was brewed too long, the sage was old or powdered, or you have the wrong sage.

For fresh sage, use a handful of the leaves and stems, and brew for about five minutes, and strain into another cup. I would stay away from sage tea bags because you don't know how long the herb has been in the bag. It may have been on a store shelf long enough to lose its medicinal value.

Our local paper had this tea 'story' (meant to post sooner, sorry)

Here is a link that might be useful: Phila. Inq.