How to Make Home Made Herbal Iced Tea

When Things begin to bloom in my herb garden, it’s a sign it’s iced tea making time. You’ve seen me dry and save tea leaves in my preserving video. Well I’m happy to say you don’t have to dry tea leaves before you use them! We are so used to getting packaged teas with crumbled dried leaves, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Lemon Balm grows in abundance at our farmhouse and I am now using it as much as I can.

Today I’m going to share how you can use the freshest leaves and herbs from your garden to make iced tea from the source! If you have herbs growing in abundance, there is no need to go to the grocery store for boxed iced tea. You’ve got it already!

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When we traveled to Ukraine last year to finish our international special needs adoption we purchased several boxes of tea. After arriving home I served my brother some of the Ukrainian peppermint tea we’d brought back, only to discover it wasn’t peppermint tea at all. It was lemon balm tea! In the U.S. lemon balm tea isn’t very popular but I found the light calming flavor was very nice. Since then, I’ve done what I can to preserve it and harvest it from our own garden.

Why Make Fresh Iced Tea?

When the garden is growing and herbs are ready to be picked, they are at their best nutritionally. Here’s a few reasons to make your tea with fresh leaves and herbs.

Drying may take away some of the nutritional properties such as lowering vitamins C and A
Fresh leaves take less time because there’s no extra step to dehydrate
It’s a treat. There is no other time of year you can serve tea from the garden!

A large Ball canning jar filled with finished iced tea sits on a lace tablecloth next to some lemon balm leaves and a filled glass cup of iced tea.

Iced Tea Flavors

There are many options for making your own iced tea but here are a few of my personal favorites:

Peppermint
Lemon Balm
Lavender
Raspberry Leaf
Blackberry Leaf
Chamomile

a basket of green lemon balm sits on a kitchen counter surrounded by cups and mugs.

You can also add:

Echinacea, rose hips, herbs like sage or basil.

An English style garden blooms in front of an old yellow farmhouse porch.

How to Make Homemade Herbal Iced Tea

Pick and wash herbs/ leaves.

Fill a saucepan with 3-4 cups of water and bring to boil.
Place about four cups of herbal leaves and small stems in the heating water. If you have a metal colander you can also place the leaves in that and put it in the water. Make sure thee water covers leaves.