Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mint-Rose Tea

Rose - Mint Tea

I seem to go a little wild in ethnic food stores. As some of you may remember, I enjoy blending my own herbal (and regular) teas from scratch, and I love tea!

Package of rose buds

When I was at the Jasmine Market in San Rafael, I spied this bag of dried rose buds, and it was all over.

Fresh dried rose buds

So I measured some out in a sake cup.

Fresh dried mint

And I measured some peppermint out in a sake cup as well. I put both into a strainer in a tea pot and steeped the mixture in hot water. It came out as the first picture, a light flavor with a predominantly mint taste, yet had a hint of roses.

Last night I tried another experiment using a large pot to make tea with whole hibiscus flowers, the rose buds, and mint. It was a light pink pleasant drink that tasted a lot like Wu Wei Tea. However, Wu Wei is made from Wu Wei-zi which is Schizandra Berry, a red berry with medicinal properties. I enjoyed my concoction just as well.

3 comments:

Catherine said...

I'm going to get some of those rose buds too! They're so pretty and I'd love to try a rose lemon tea!

Anna Haight said...

Yes, and they are SO fragrant when you first put them in the heated water!

Selba said...

I love the smell of rose.. would love to try mint-rose tea someday :)