Blending herbal teas

If you follow me on Instagram, you might know that I am currently participating in a herbal course in my home country, Estonia. We’ve already covered a great deal of theory and are now beginning to put our knowledge into practice. Last week, everyone was required to bring something they had made. It was wonderful to see everyone’s creations—there were salves and tinctures, bath salts, herbal wine, and someone had even made chocolate truffles with fly agaric mushrooms (a valued remedy in Estonian folk herbalism).

I made a salve and a herbal tea blend. We were given a few weeks to create our items, and interestingly, I whipped up the salve in no time, but I wasn’t able to finish the tea until the day before the deadline.

From the outset, I knew I wanted to use blackcurrant leaves as the main ingredient in my blend. Over the past few months, blackcurrant has become one of my favourite plant allies. To me, this plant carries the wisdom and strength of my ancestors; it brings clarity and focus, and I absolutely adore its aroma and flavour too.

I experimented with different ingredients, variations, and ratios, but nothing felt quite right. I realised that I was missing an intention and a deeper meaning behind the blend. I came to understand that this tea wasn’t just for me but for everyone feeling heavy-hearted right now (edit - post was written when the war in Ukraine had just started). Once that became clear, the suitable ingredients came to me with ease, and this tea blend turned out better than I could have hoped.

This tea is meant to give us strength and comfort for our aching hearts. It has simple ingredients that anyone would love - it contains blackcurrant leaves and buds, freeze-dried lingonberries, cinnamon, dried apples, and rosehip powder. I felt that if I were to share a cup with you, you would enjoy it.

And here is the finished product! If you get a chance to make it yourself, I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Maria