I came across one little article, maybe someone will be interested.
NATURAL TEA SUBSTITUTESThe main material of the tea mixture is usually (predominantly) leaves of woody or herbaceous plants. Fruits are added to the mixture in a relatively small amount only to improve or give the tea different flavors.
Harvesting of leaves. It is recommended to harvest the leaves while they are not yet coarse, that is, for most plants in the first half of summer. At a later time, you should be limited to collecting young, tender and perfectly healthy leaves, discarding tough and damaged ones. The collection of leaves should be done on clear sunny days in the morning after the dew has dried. The leaves are torn off, trying not to damage the plant itself. If the harvested leaves for some reason will not be immediately processed, then, in order to preserve, they should be dried. It is not recommended to dry the leaves in the sun, as they can lose their aroma and even color. Leaves are usually dried in the shade under a canopy, and in a rainy season in a heated room. For drying, spread a clean cloth on the floor and spread the leaves on it in a layer no more than 5-10 cm thick, turning them over from time to time. But it is better to dry the leaves not on the floor, but on specially arranged hanging frames or on shelves (at a temperature of 45-50 ° C).
In the absence of a special room - a dryer - the leaves can be tied in small bunches and hung in a warm, dry, ventilated place. The dried leaves should be stored in wooden or iron boxes, which are carefully closed and stored in a dry place.
Plants suitable for use in the production of tea substitutes
* Prof. Cerefitinov recommends collecting the leaves:
cherries, apple trees and strawberries - August-September,
blackberries in June-July,
fireweed - in July-August,
lingonberries and blueberries - in May-July
Harvesting fruits and vegetables.Fruits and vegetables are harvested after ripening. Harvested fruits are recommended to be dried immediately. Drying of fruits can be done in the sun and indoors.
Before drying, large fruits are cut into slices, small ones are left intact. The most accessible drying of fruits indoors is drying them in a Russian oven or oven, where the fruits are usually placed after baking bread (in the "free spirit"). For a longer preservation of heat in the furnace, it is recommended to lay an intermittent row of bricks (at intervals) under it, placing iron sheets on them in the form of a second hearth so that these sheets touch the sides of the furnace, but do not reach the back wall by 5 cm. iron bottom, under which hot air will circulate, install flat baskets (wicker) with fruits and close the oven with a damper. So that there is no stagnation of air in the furnace, it is recommended to install the damper on the bricks, that is, leave a gap at the bottom, and also make a gap in the damper itself, cutting a hole in its upper half with a diameter of 10-15 cm.
After a while, the braids are taken out for viewing, the fruits are mixed, and, as the latter dry up, the hole in the oven damper is gradually reduced, and then completely closed.
But, of course, it is best, if possible, to dry the fruits in special fire dryers.
Before drying, carrots are thoroughly washed, and the pumpkin is peeled from the skin and the inner seed part. The vegetables prepared in this way are cut into small noodles and dried in an oven or dryer. During drying, small noodles curl up, twist and take the form of tea leaves.
Chicory and dandelion roots are harvested in the fall before frost. The dug roots are washed in water, then cut with a knife into two longitudinal plates, and the plates are crumbled across into small pieces. The latter are sent to drying. Fruits, vegetables or roots dried for storage are poured into bags, which are laid out in a dry room on shelves or hung.
PRODUCTION OF TEA SUBSTITUTESProcessing of leaves. As already mentioned, the main raw material for the production of tea substitutes is the leaves of certain plants. It is recommended to start processing the leaves immediately after collecting them. Only as an exception, when there is no way to proceed with immediate processing, the leaves are dried for long-term storage.
Teas of two types can be obtained from the leaves: green and black. To make green tea, the freshly picked leaves must first be dried in the shade. To do this, the leaves are scattered under a canopy or indoors and kept in this position until they become completely lethargic, soft. Depending on the hardness of the leaves and the air temperature in the room, withering takes from one to several hours. After withering, the leaves are subjected to so-called languor. For languishing, the leaves are laid tightly in clay pots. The pots should not have any foreign smell, as the latter can turn into tea. It is best to use new, pre-steamed pots for this purpose. Leaves of one type of plant are laid in each separate pot. The pots are tightly closed with a lid with a lining of a clean soft cloth to prevent moisture evaporation. The pots loaded with leaves are placed in a Russian oven (the heat in the oven should be like after baking bread) for simmering overnight. The next day, the steamed leaves are removed from the pots and dried in the usual way. In the case when for the preparation of such a semi-finished product of green tea it is necessary to use already dried leaves, then the leaves are moistened artificially (abundantly watered with water and allowed to rest), subjected to languishing in pots.
The leaves are processed in a slightly different way to obtain a semi-finished black tea.
Black tea has a wider range of consumers due to its better aroma, special taste and strong infusion (green tea gives a weak infusion in color).
For this purpose, freshly harvested leaves are first withered according to the above method.The withered leaves are fermented. Fermentation of leaves is carried out as follows. Withered, soft leaves are rubbed and rolled with hands between palms or on a board until juice emerges from them. Sufficiently rubbed leaves, when squeezed in the hand, usually stick together into a lump.
The grated leaves are allowed to ferment, for which, in a warm (25 ° C) room, the leaves are laid out on shelves or in boxes in a thin layer (3-5 cm) and covered with wet, but completely clean rags so that the leaves do not dry out on top. In this position, the leaves should be, depending on the type of plant, the room temperature and the future quality of the tea, from one to several hours (usually 6-8 hours), that is, the time necessary for sufficient development of fermentation processes in the leaves. To catch the moment of sufficient fermentation of the leaves is a very important and often decisive matter in the production of tea substitutes: with the correct fermentation process, the leaves lose their herbaceous smell and taste, acquire aroma, etc. flavoring properties, very closely resembling natural tea, if not, the leaves have a pungent, even unpleasant odor, bad taste and give a very dark infusion.
Thus, determining the duration of fermentation, determining the readiness of leaves for further processing is a matter of experience and production skill.
Leaves that have gone through the fermentation process are laid out in a thin layer on braids and sent to the drying (Russian oven). The drying process can also affect the quality of the tea. Drying at a temperature of 100 ° C and above stops the fermentation processes and enhances the taste sharpness of the tea. Drying at a low temperature will not only not be able to stop the fermentation processes, but, on the contrary, will intensify them, resulting in tea with all the negative properties of a too fermented product.
To avoid mistakes, it is recommended to dry the leaves at a temperature of 70-80 ° C. But since overdried leaves may also be required to create varietal tea with different flavors, for this purpose a small part of normally dried leaves should be lightly fried in a pan and have those in stock when making tea mixtures. Dried leaves are stored separately (by plant species, processing methods) in tin or wooden boxes, boxes, etc. in a tight container so that the aroma of the product is not lost, but at the same time, so that musty is not formed.
Fruit and vegetable processing. Dried fruits (berries), such as raspberries, currants, strawberries, etc., do not require further processing. Only for some cases, a small amount of berries is lightly roasted and used as such for mixing.
But apples, hawthorn and mountain ash must be roasted. Almost always, you should also roast the waste of extraction plants (pomace of berries, fruits), which again helps to improve their tea qualities.
Vegetables - carrots and pumpkin - are fried until dark brown. You also need to fry the roots of wild chicory and dandelion.
TEA MIXTURE COMPOSITIONBlending is the final process in the production of tea substitutes and is the composition of a mixture of various semi-finished products, the individual qualities of which must add up to a product that meets the consumer's requirements.
Composing tea from semi-finished products, that is, from the leaves, fruits and vegetables prepared by the above methods, is made in various proportions depending on the grade of the tea and the requirements for its taste. The correctness of mixing is checked in each individual case by tasting (a sample of the infusion to taste).
To enhance the strength of the infusion, you need to add toasted material, for example, chicory nibs, pumpkin or carrots. To enhance astringency, add the material that contains more tannins, for example, rowan fruits. To improve the taste and aroma - add berries, for example, black currant and others.
In order to enhance or even completely change the aroma, fragrant flowers with the required aroma should be laid in the leaves.The leaves absorb the smell of flowers and retain it for a long time. Flowers should be removed before drinking tea.
Thus, the final process of tea production - preparation of a mixture - cannot be a routine process: it must be varied and changed depending on the availability and quality of raw materials, as well as on the requirements imposed on it.
By virtue of the above, that is, so that there is no stereotype in the preparation of the mixture, here only as an example the case of mixing is given, which gives a satisfactory tea drink.
Strawberry tea. Strawberry leaves 50 percent; apple tree leaves 40 percent; black currant leaves 5 percent; fruits, berries, chicory 5 percent.
In a similar way, you can make cherry tea (named after the predominance of leaves), Comorian tea from fireweed leaves, etc.
* According to Professor Tserevitinov, a good tea drink is obtained from dry or fresh leaves of fireweed (ivan tea, koporsky tea) according to the following processing methods:
- dry leaves are placed in a tub, poured with hot water at the rate of 2 parts of water per 1 part of leaves and closed tightly with a lid for 1.5 hours, after which the leaves are removed from the tub and subjected to twisting and drying;
- Fresh leaves are first withered for 20 hours, then rolled up, fermented for 6-8 hours and finally dried at 100 ° C (45 minutes).
© "Encyclopedia of Technologies and Techniques" Patlakh V.V. 1993-2007
