can I pick basil early?

[IOWABOY]

Well I bought a basil plant about a week ago and I am coming down with a cold like thing. I have heard that basil tea can heal stuff like this but the leaves are not even an inch long. Should I pick them or use the store bought herb tea?

[applestar]

How many leaves does it have? If it has more than 4, rather than clipping individual leaves, pinch/cut the plant stem above a pair of leaves. It'll grow side shoots at the base of the leaves and get bushier.

[IOWABOY]

It has about 3 stems with some 10+ leaves.

[jal_ut]

I think I would wait to harvest that basil. It seems so small.

My cold remedy is to take some broth, add onion, garlic and hot pepper. Not a lot of pepper, just a piece of dried jalapeno about half an inch long.
Boil it until the onions are tender, then sip it.