Fermented tea made from leaves of garden and wild plants (master class)

Zhenya, I also have doubts that he is growing here.

Hello to all tea makers)
I brewed fireweed so well, it began to smell like honey when brewed, the infusion darkened significantly, although I thought that I had ruined it - I put it in a plastic bag and remembered about it a month or two later, when it already smells like hay. It is good that the tea does not spoil, but only gets better, otherwise I was worried that we had not drunk all of it yet, but the new season was just around the corner. Hands are itching to ferment something
My neighbor's plot is overgrown next to my house, there are a lot of plum shoots, which are now blooming, but practically bear no fruit. I’m thinking, maybe we can dry the flowers as a decoration for future teas? Nobody tried it?)

Here's what information I found, I don't know whether to believe it or not (posted on the website of an online tea store). Speech, of course, about some kind of Chinese plum, but suddenly ours is no less good:

Plum blossoms are a traditional flower supplement that goes very well with pu-erh tea and is less commonly used with green teas.

Look, taste and aroma
When brewed, it has a bright, golden-green color, gives the tea a rich tart aroma and light acidity.

Brewing recommendations
Unblown plum buds are brewed. Plum flowers are added to pu-erh tea or green tea to taste. The water temperature is selected depending on the type of tea.

Properties
Plum flowers have a wound-healing effect, are useful for joint diseases and metabolic disorders, have a pronounced cleansing effect, and are useful for the digestive system. The infusion of plum flowers strengthens the immune system. The presence of coumarins in plum flowers helps prevent thrombosis as an anti-sclerotic agent.

Interesting Facts
Flowers in China are correlated with certain moral qualities. Ancient Chinese poets called the plum, peony, lotus and chrysanthemum "four noble men." Zhang Chao wrote: "Plum flowers inspire lofty thoughts ... chrysanthemums bring nature back to life, lotus helps to renounce sensual pleasures ... the peony awakens dormant forces." Almost every Chinese garden has a tree of happiness - a plum. In China, the plum blossom is the emblem of winter. Its five petals symbolize good luck, prosperity, longevity, joy and peace. Since the plum blossoms in winter, it also represents strength, resilience and triumph.

It costs as much as 445 rubles for 50 grams) Tomorrow I'll go pick it while there are still buds. I'll try)

Girls, they brought me pine buds 4-6 cm, I was at a loss, tell me if these are suitable for tea and how to make them, I read somewhere, but I do not remember on which page. Can they, too, through a meat grinder and dry immediately without fermentation?

Natushka, our doctors are not there, everyone is at the dachas, maybe Veronica will drop by. I used to make needles in winter, just twisted and dried. Don't you want to cook the jam, does Lina have a recipe there?

[elena kadiewa]

elena kadiewa, Helen, thank you for your prompt reply. Then I'll try to scroll and dry tomorrow, if the doctors don't answer. I don’t want jam and so many sweets are obtained, jam, cakes, buns, but you need to lose weight - the pressure torments. Ahh, and then you can wash the meat grinder? I just touched them, so now my hands are sticking and stuck to the bag.

[natushka]

natushka, you will wash the meat grinder, but it's hard to twist the needles!

I picked a few plum buds yesterday. Here's what spring beauty came out:



I haven't brewed it yet. The smell is very unobtrusive, difficult to define.It seems to me a beautiful addition to loose tea)

[Darika]

Darika, beautifully! But what a pity, how many plums were not born.

[Elya_lug]

Elya_lug, do not be upset! I collected flowers from an abandoned garden, from a growth that will be in the shade in summer and will not bear fruit. The garden has become so wild that last year we barely found ten fruits in the dense wilderness. So it is unlikely that such gentle thinning will affect the harvest. If you saw how this plum creeps into the garden and captures more and more territories, you would definitely not regret it))
In my neighbor's abandoned garden there is a real tea plantation, everything grows so densely that almost nothing bears fruit, but the leaves from young bushes of cherries, plums, pears, raspberries, apple trees are heaps) We wanted to buy this plot, thin out, leave good big trees (there is a gorgeous barberry bush, quince, blackberry - it was a good garden once), but the owner broke the price inadequate for his narrow 10 acres with destroyed buildings.

[Darika]

Darika, then it is understandable, let the flowers-leaves benefit in the form of tea!

Hello dear tea masters !. For over a month now I have been reading and following your progress in making tea. I firmly decided to try making tea myself. This process was launched yesterday. The first batch let us down (the first pancake is lumpy), but the second seems to be a success. I will not make plans yet. Prepared a mix: Apple, cherry, felt cherry, irga, hawthorn, pear, strawberry, strawberry, viburnum, rhubarb, raspberry.
Thank you all !!!! It was only your experiments that prompted me to try to become a tea master. And now I registered on the site to thank everyone. And another question (maybe someone did this already). I don’t have an oven in my dacha, can the drying process be carried out in a multicooker, for example, on heating?

[Lucilia]

Lucilia, Lyudmila, we welcome and rejoice and envy! As for the multi - on heating, the temperature is different for everyone, but it rotates about 70-75 degrees. It will not be enough, the area is small and it is inconvenient to interfere ... But try it in a frying pan - the girls were drying. And the heating can be regulated. And in a mul't it is good to ferment if there is a manual temperature control.

Thank you for accepting me into your ranks. I’m familiar with you all in absentia, no joke, a month to read and re-read your posts almost every day. You have so "infected" me with this process that my hands "itch" too, so I want to chew with something. Everything is just beginning to bloom with us. I look forward to the weekend to go to the dacha for raw materials and ........ I will definitely write about new successes ... or defeats!

[Ludmila]

Ludmila, keep us updated! Ask, if something is not clear, we will help! Soon our inspirer and teacher will be back from days off, and here is a new tea-maker!

and here is a new tea-maker!

Yeah, and go to the tea house, we're all there.

But what about rhubarb tea? Did I read somewhere that rhubarb leaves are poisonous? Veronica, judge.

The leaves and mainly the root with rhubarb rhizomes are considered poisonous, but at the same time they are also a medicine. Looking at the composition of the substances included in the leaves, no special poisons are found. If you add young leaves to the mix - I repeat, young ones - and ferment and dry, then you can. I confess I overlooked rhubarb in the composition ... But why is it in the mix? I don't think it will give any taste. And for the mass it is better to put an apple tree, and it will give color. In general, young rhubarb leaves are even added to soups and cabbage soup - heat treatment allows.

My hello to the chaedel!
You painted everything so tasty that I also contracted this wonderful disease - tea-making!
I really want to make my own tea. Tell me, pliz, for a beginner, what leaves can you collect now? Like, of those that are collected later, tea tastes better, richer? Or can young leaves be harvested?
I also wanted so badly to make tea from fireweed, but here it does not grow. And it can be sown at a summer cottage and are Ivan tea seeds sold at all?
I really hope for your help and tips!

it can be sown in a summer cottage and are Ivan tea seeds sold at all?

young rhubarb leaves are even added to soups and cabbage soup - heat treatment allows.

And without heat treatment, they are good. I ate it myself. Only VERY sour.

[mylik.sv]

mylik.sv, Pancake, and you do not grow it? In our forests, this is a real weed (more precisely, in clearings and swamps).

Ivan tea is not a southern plant, as a weed does not grow, that's for sure. If only in the mountains where ... It is necessary to breed.
When using rhubarb, you need to remember about the contraindications that each flavor has.

is it not growing with you? In our forests, this is a real weed (more precisely, in clearings and swamps).

Not her, it doesn't grow ... I generally live by the sea (in the Odessa region), we have no forests, the steppe is all around ... now I planted it on my site, I walk I cherish ...

[Pancake,]

To be honest, I have no idea if it is growing here or not. I have never seen. That's why I wanted to plant, maybe I would grow up in the country.
Pancake, thanks for the tip!
And for the young leaves of the apple tree, etc., no one will tell you whether to pick them now or is it better later?

[Elena]

Elena, if you want to get a harvest from the apple tree, then wait until the fruit sets. This applies to all fruits.

[paramed1]

paramed1, Veronica, thanks for the advice! Now everything is clearing up a little.
And what can you make tea from now?

I also wanted so badly to make tea from fireweed, but here it does not grow. And it can be sown at a summer cottage and are Ivan tea seeds sold at all?

Who said that fireweed does not grow here? Shaft! In the forest in clearings, along forest clearings. You just have to ask the locals. When we used to go to the forest for mushrooms, this fireweed, like pus ... Only here we often call him Ivan tea. Fireweed not all know the name.
I also want to look closer this year - in the vicinity of the dacha.

[Elena]

Elena, you grow up earlier. See for yourself. If there is an opportunity to pull wild-growing raspberries, apples, pears, cherries, cherries, poles, that is, where the fruits are not important, then you can harvest when the leaves unfold. You have a lot that we do not have. But do not embark on adventures such as acacia leaves or sorrel - there is no need. Look for delicious leaves! Probably, strawberry and strawberry leaves are already ready.
I don’t know how near Kiev, but in Moldova there is fireweed, or willow tea, practically absent. I remember it. They searched, did not find.

[filirina]

filirina, paramed1thank you for the tips!
We need to ask the locals at the dacha, maybe Ivan tea is growing here, but I don't even know. That would be happiness for me!

Good afternoon to everyone, everyone, everyone and a deep bow !!! I ask you to be accepted into your ranks. I read everything from the first page and was simply stunned. What are you all great. I am still the same tea-maker, I really love yellow and green teas. We dry herbs for tea in our family, I am generally just a fan of herbs and every year at my dacha I plant something new, except for five types of mint, I have tarragon and badan, lemon balm and chamomile, salvia and thyme, hyssop, and much more, the same chokeberry (blackberry), viburnum, blackthorn, honeysuckle, but you can't list everything. This spring, Chinese lemongrass and Kuril tea were planted (but they will still become human). Usually she harvested the grass since May, always rolled it into cigarettes, but fermented it for no more than two hours, then cut it and dried it (as my grandmother did), but it takes up a lot of space. I have a special cupboard for tea additives. I also dry all kinds of flowers (rosebuds, peonies, daylilies, calendula, chrysanthemums, lilies, asters, flowers of fruit trees). Now here is the color of cherries, plums, thorns, and irgi dry land (I cut off a little, all the same, the trees drop some of the fruits, and so I simplify the task for them) But what I read from you just killed me on the spot. I thought that I was an ace, but it turned out "U dvas". I did not think that you can twist teas from the leaves. In summer, I always cook herbal compote from leaves and unripe, and then ripe fruits, with honey, lemon. In the bathhouse and after it, he drinks so mentally. I also love to make herbal infusions in the bathhouse, rinse with such an infusion as you throw off for ten years. But after your stories, I really want to spin my own tea, since the raw materials are growing.I always looked at the leaves of a pear, an apple tree and thought. It’s a pity that it is unnecessarily lost, but it turns out that you can simply put it into action and enjoy your tea. I have three thorn bushes, I really like pickling its berries, and I process overripe ones for candy in the fall. It's very tasty with green tea. I apologize for having written a lot here, perhaps too much. Girls take the soy team. Of course, I have already done all the experiments for myself, I will try and fill my hand in the tea business. Still, I really want to get advice and comments from the pros. No one is immune from mistakes. Now I think maybe the color I am preparing incorrectly can be correct in a completely different way. I got used to it in the microwave for a minute with breaks on baking paper to dry, a day, another still dry and in the bins. Please answer if I'm doing everything right ???

Yes, about the apple blossom, my grandmother also dried it and said that it made a louder voice from it. Once (about 7 years ago) I tried to dry the apple-tree leaves myself (I just dried them), but they did not inspire me (if only then I met tea-makers), I let them into infusions for the bathhouse. In general, if for two years I always let the grass on infusions, I do not throw anything away. Rinse your hair and it smells like summer. I wanted to ask about Ivan-tea, they say that it does not grow here (North Kazakhstan), but last year at the spring I noticed a plant that seemed to be similar to it. How will I go to the spring and if he has already looked out, I will definitely put a photo on the court, the girls will help with the identification ???

First try. I collected raspberry leaves from the aisle, which needs to be weeded out, put them in the freezer, now I'm going to grind and ferment. Do good luck doing for the first time.

Oh, I reread it again, I better go to twist the raspberries.

[Margarita]

Margarita, we accept, naturally, with open arms! Get involved in the process!
The flowers dry at low temperatures and dry quickly. The main thing is not to allow discoloration. It is possible in the micro, select the mode - probably, you need not at full power. It can be done in a multicooker or in the oven.

About the collection time. The tannins contained in the leaves and needed for tea tend to accumulate as the leaves grow and mature. Therefore, the color, aroma and taste of teas from young raw materials differ from those from adult raw materials. And the fermentation process goes on differently - follow the progress!

[Mirtilla]

Mirtilla, you just follow the plant and then observe, it is easier to say for sure when both the young plant and its flowering are visible.
Margarita,write in more detail, how do you dry flowers in a micra? How many times a day do you turn on the micra, what is the break between turns on? maybe I'll dry the flowers, and after the applesauce in the micron, I very much record all the microwave processes -

Good evening! I read almost the whole topic, and got very fired up with tea making. Now I only have mint, so I wanted to ask, if I twist the leaves in a meat grinder and dry, the resulting mint granules will no longer have the healing properties of ordinary dried mint? It's just that I always dry mint and brew it with hawthorn or one as a soothing, from the heart, etc.
And about a tea rose a question, I may have missed it, but I didn't seem to read it, is it possible to ferment the petals and then brew? Just dried flowers are very fragrant, but brewed ones have no taste or smell.

[Lesya]

Lesya, ferment the mint for a short time, 2 hours, then dry it at a temperature not exceeding 65 degrees. The healing properties will remain less than in just dried leaves.
Rose petals do not need to be fermented, like all other flowers. Just dry and add to other teas. It is better to add before storage, i.e. store the mix already. The smell will appear in 2 months, just keep the dried raw material tightly closed.

Ksyusha, I didn’t understand why several times a day to turn on the micra with petals? Dry them immediately! Turn on medium power for a couple of minutes, stir and look at the state, then again, but immediately.

[Veronica]

Veronica, I thought, what kind of secret is there: like cooling-heating?

Oh! How many newbies we have! What professionals! Imagine how much foliage we harvest and process!
Girls, we are very glad to see you! They will always help, prompt, it's not for nothing that we've been together for almost a year, and we're not going to leave!

Thank you, Veronica, Elena. What do you think, is it better to make different types of mint separately or together? Probably all the same separately, you can always mix.
Probably I'm still pulling on raspberries tomorrow, otherwise a lot of it climbed out, and it's a long time to wait until autumn, I want to try the tea.
Margarita, do you also add dried peony flowers to your tea? Do they smell, or give a taste?

Once again, I would like to draw the attention of everyone who ferments spring raw materials. The tea will turn out lighter than summer and autumn, closer to green, since the leaves have not yet accumulated a sufficient amount of tannins for strength. Luda wrote about this at the very beginning of the topic. And raspberries alone will not go through a meat grinder, the granules crumble.
Mint, if the plants have a different smell or they are of different types, it is better to harvest separately. Then mix if you like.
Oksana, the petals dry quickly, they are thin! I dried the rose in the airfryer for about 15 minutes a whole bunch of petals. It still lies perfectly.

Yunna I also started the process today, now I am fermenting cherry leaves.
Veronichka! The berries are already set

Margarita, do you also add dried peony flowers to your tea? Do they smell, or give a taste?

Peony petals dry very quickly, I add both to tea and to decoctions, very good for coughing and as a sedative, soaked petals then like a mask on the face for about 20 minutes. They (like petals also have tannins, so I collect them at the time of full flowering before they start to crumble.

write in more detail, how do you dry flowers in a micra? How many times a day do you turn on the micra, what is the break between turns on?

Yes, a couple of times for a minute and that's enough. Again, depending on how much. Dries very quickly with a strong almond smell. During the break, I mix it carefully. I dry it for a week in linen bags (again, according to the weather, dry or rainy) and in the bins. All bags in iron cans, without access to sunlight. Only they are very delicate, neatly with them, otherwise they will crumble into dust.

Zhenya, don't poison your soul with memories of early cherries! How many times in my childhood I flew from these trees, and the same number of times I got it in the ass ...
Collect, ferment and sushi! In the meantime, we wash the container, clean the ovens, pans and airfryer - let's get ready, in short.

And what is the minimum amount of leaves to collect, so that in dried form you get a more or less worthwhile result?

Information for the southerners, but probably already belated - the magnolia has faded.
"Along with a rose, magnolia is often called a royal flower. Dried magnolia flowers can be added to any type of tea, it will add a unique sweetish aroma with an admixture of vanilla and lemon shades to the drink.
Magnolia has a tonic effect, improves heart function and lowers blood pressure. It should be added at the rate of 1 flower per 1 liter of water. "

🔗

[natushka]

Girls, they brought me pine buds 4-6 cm, I was at a loss, tell me if these are suitable for tea and how to make them, I read somewhere, but I do not remember on which page. Can they, too, through a meat grinder and dry immediately without fermentation?

natushka, I just appeared on the site - I was away, without an Internet. So your shoots are probably gone. But they are still on the pines. Therefore, they can still be done.
I wrote about pine shoots in the recipe itself. Look at the 1st page. They are famously twisted in a meat grinder. There is no resin in the shoots. Then they are dried in a dryer.