I’m keeping it simple this Christmas and giving homemade tea blends as gifts

Wonderfully fragrant and ready in five minutes: I’ll show you how to make three tea blends to suit every mood.

Relaxing evening blend

For this soothing blend, you need lavender, camomile and lemon verbena. Thanks to its essential oils, lavender’s said to have calming properties. In addition, the violet blossom gives the mixture an intense floral and pleasant aroma. The fragrance immediately whisks me off to the sauna and makes me feel instantly relaxed.

Camomile’s also said to reduce anxiety and nervousness. Its aroma is on the subtle side. Visually, the whole camomile flowers make the mix look like a wild herb meadow. The third calming herb in this blend is lemon verbena, which has an intense, slightly lemony aroma.

Brewing time: four minutes

Invigorating morning blend

This blend is also simple, as it only contains white tea and mint or lemongrass. As it’s a wake-up drink, it needs to pack a punch. In this blend, the boosting tea tastes nice and smooth, as white tea’s made from the same plant as black tea, but dried shortly after harvesting. This gives the herb a mild, floral flavour.

The lemongrass adds a refreshing and tangy note to the blend. If you prefer an invigorating mint flavour, you can keep it simple by adding a few leaves of morning dew tea. The blend already contains a large number of herbs such as Bulgarian mint or lemon thyme. There are also blue flowers in the tea, which add a nice splash of colour to the infusion. If you want this effect to be stronger, just add more of the blue edible flowers.

Brewing time: two to three minutes

Warmth for the soul

The most elaborate blend I have for you is also the most flavourful. You’ll need liquorice, dried oranges, ginger, cinnamon sticks, black and red pepper, rooibos, dried apple and aniseed. Not a fan of one of the ingredients? Then just leave it out. This blend captures the essence of winter, much like a punch. I use rooibos tea as a base. This plant, which originally comes from the mountainous regions of South Africa, has a mild, smooth aroma reminiscent of vanilla.

The dried oranges and apples give off a fragrant and warm scent that harmonises perfectly with cinnamon and aniseed. The liquorice adds some natural sweetness, while the pepper and ginger provide a fiery finish. The tea tastes intense, depending on how much of each ingredient you add. I recommend using cinnamon, aniseed and pepper sparingly, while you can add plenty of dried fruit.

Please keep in mind that liquorice root’s said to increase blood pressure if consumed in excess. So probably best to hold back. Better safe than sorry.

Brewing time: three to five minutes

Want to dry the oranges yourself? I’ll show you how it’s done using a regular oven in the following article.

A sight to behold

Jam jars or preserving jars are great containers for tea blends you want to gift. They protect the tea from moisture and look really pretty, too. You can add a personal touch and help the person receiving the gift navigate the varieties by labelling the jars with the name of the tea blend.