23 Types Of Herbal Teas, Explained

Herbal tea, which many people request before they go to bed or when they are getting over a cold, is the perfect way to warm your body up without the zing of caffeine. However, perhaps calling herbal tea, tea, is in fact incorrect. The definition of herbal tea is that it is an infusion of various leaves, fruits, barks, and roots, which come together to flavor water. What makes herbal tea not actually tea is that is it not from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. Camellia sinensis leaves are the base for all major types of caffeinated tea, which include black, oolong, green, white, and red teas.

So, although herbal teas may not be technically teas, they are still hugely beneficial for our bodies. Many herbal teas, made from leaves, herbs, roots, or spices, are rich in antioxidants and can ease digestion, or relieve mental and physical pain. Sounds pretty good, right? If you know which teas can help with which ailments, then you will be better equipped to combat your next cold or round of body aches. Keep reading to learn how these common herbal teas can help your body in specific ways and keep you feeling good.

Mint has a place in many elements of our food. Something about its bright, fresh flavor makes it incredibly alluring and a great addition to sauces, dips, and ice cream. But that is mint, and we are talking about peppermint. The difference between mint and peppermint is simple. Mint is an overarching name for all mint plants, while peppermint is a specific variety.

Peppermint specifically is known to help with digestion, ease migraines, and clear your sinuses. When brewed, the leaves also release a natural sweetness that combines perfectly with the minty freshness that this multipurpose tea is famous for.

Ginger, the ultimate aromatic, is wonderful dried, fresh, candied, pickled, and in so many other forms. This root, which can be spicy, sweet, and fragrant brings an irresistible zing to many soups, stir-fries, and smoothies. In its powdered form, ginger is an essential addition to our favorite desserts like pumpkin pie and gingersnap cookies. This multipurpose root will continue to surprise you, because, along with being delicious and comforting, ginger is also very beneficial for your health.

Ginger tea, ginger chews, drinks, and candies can relieve nausea or motion sickness. Along with being a good way to settle your stomach, ginger also helps manage blood pressure and is beneficial for your heart.

Aside from having a name that is a bit difficult to pronounce, echinacea tea is delightful and comes from beautiful flowers. Echinacea flowers, which bloom naturally from the midwest all the way south to Texas, come in various shades, with the most popular being a light purple.

The purple flowers give off a mildly sweet flavor that has floral and grassy undertones. Echinacea tea also tastes slightly of straw and turns a pleasant golden red when it is brewed. Echinacea tea is also known to be an immunity enhancer, making it a great choice for the next cold season.

Perhaps you know passionfruit, and perhaps you love it. If so, there is a lot to love. Well if you are enamored with passionfruit, you may be slightly deterred by the similarly named, yet slightly differently flavored passionflower. Passionflowers are absolutely stunning. They have striking offshoots that surround the center like a little mane and are incredibly fragrant.

It should come as no surprise that passionflowers, along with being beautiful, are also delicious. Passionflower tea can reduce anxiety, ease menopause symptoms, and help with the quality of your sleep. Additionally, passionflower tastes great. It has a sweet floral flavor that is fantastic either hot or cold.

What a beautiful tea this is. Butterfly pea tea is a great way to brighten your cocktails, dinner table, or evening cup of tea before bed. When the butterfly pea flowers are soaked in hot water, they transform into the most vibrant, dark blue color that borders on purple.

When you go a step further and pour some milk into your tea, the final cup is colored a delightfully creamy shade of baby blue. In addition to being absolutely stunning, butterfly pea tea boasts a lot of health benefits. It is great for your eyesight, combats inflammation, and helps stabilize your blood sugar. Altogether, the fantastic color of butterfly tea along with its impressive benefits makes it a great tea option to have around.

Another fantastic iced tea option, barley tea is the ultimate summer drink. With absolutely no sugar needed (or even recommended), and it is simply enjoyed as is, barley tea is refreshing, simple, and delicious. Usually roasted and then dried, barley tea has notes of nuttiness from the barley that infuse into the water in a wonderful way.

The nuttiness of this tea is reminiscent of other roasted teas like hojicha, but with all of the flavor and none of the caffeine. On a hot summer afternoon, there is nothing as delightful as a tall glass of this cooling and rejuvenating tea.

Dandelions are very multipurpose plants, so it is a real shame that they are so invasive and difficult to remove from a lawn. If you can get past their peskiness, hopefully, you can see dandelions for the delicious and versatile plants that they are. In addition to being able to eat dandelion leaves, you can also eat its flowers.

You can eat the flowers in a variety of ways. They are great in tempura or mixed into cookie dough, but one of the simplest ways to use dandelion flowers is in tea. You can dry the flowers so that they are shelf-stable, or you can steep them while they are fresh and plump. Either way, dandelion tea is known to be anti-inflammatory and help with cholesterol, making it an incredibly valuable weed.

Lemon balm can often be confused with lemongrass or lemon verbena, but it is a separate herb. Lemon balm is actually part of the mint family. The way you can tell this is by feeling its stem, which is shaped with the same distinctive sharp, square edges as a mint stem. Somewhat similar to mint, lemon balm also has scalloped edges that can look feathery and soft; this is especially apparent the larger the plant.

Lemon balm is also a type of herbal tea that can be brewed more than once. This means that after you do one infusion from a set of leaves, you can use them one or two more times to make more cups. With each cup, the flavor of the tea will change. How it changes all depends on your technique and end goal in mind.

Licorice root tastes very specific. And it's no surprise that it tastes like licorice. Some people love it, and some people don't. Regardless of if you love this flavorful root, licorice root tea is very good for you. Like licorice candy, licorice root is also very good for your digestion and can help regulate any stomach or gastrointestinal troubles that may be bothering you.

Licorice tea is great for your skin and teeth and can help minimize the impact of the everyday head cold. With its unique minty and spicy flavor that also tastes somewhat like anise, licorice root tea is great, especially when paired with something sweet and buttery to cut through the licorice flavor.

Raspberry leaves are certainly not the most famous product from the raspberry plant. In fact, you may be surprised that you can even consume the leaves of this spiky green bush, but the truth is out. You can, and, moreover, they are very good for you.

In fact, raspberry and blackberry plants have similar benefits. The most significant of which are helping relieve menstrual cramps and easing digestion. These super leaves can also ease pain in the late stages of pregnancy and help regulate menstrual flow by strengthening the uterus which eases blood flow and even assists in childbirth.

Tulsi tea, which comes from the holy basil plant, is a type of tea renowned for its health benefits. This tea tastes slightly of basil, but with more astringent notes, especially depending on how long you brew it for. Tulsi tea is known as one of India's most important teas due to its healing properties.

These healing properties include bringing mental clarity, easing stress, and boosting the immune system. Tulsi tea is so valued for its positive effects on the body that it is a highly valuable and sacred herb that is used as a preventative and prescribed medicine.