Best Herbs to ADD to green and white tea

[benali]

I drink green and white tea.

I'm wondering what are perennial herbs I can grow to add to this tea for extra flavor or spice.

(I'm not interested either in growing tea itself or growing herbs to make herbal infusions or "herbal tea").

Right now, I grow peppermint, spearmint, and lemon balm.

Any other perennial herbs that make great flavor additives to green and white tea?

Thank you.

(zone 5, great lakes region, good black dirt)

[applestar]

Do you want it to be winter hardy perennials for your zone?

Right now, only things I can think of that I add to my green tea are tender perennials that get brought inside for the winter: Jasmine flowers, Ginger leaves and root, Pineapple sage leaves and flowers, various citrus tree leaves, Lemon verbena leaves, Lemongrass leaves....

Have you tried with the mints and lemon balm? I like mints on their own. My lemon balm has a strong citronella scent to it so I tend to prefer the more lemon-like lemon verbena and lemongrass.

[benali]

Hi Applestar,

Yes, I'd like perennials hardy for my zone (5b) that can over-winter outside.

I frequenlty use the peppermint, spearmint, and lemon balm in my tea. I just add one leaf to either green or white tea (usually Salada or Darjeeling, but sometimes other brands or varieties, too).

The peppermint a little too strong for me (it's like drinking peppermint tea), but the spearmint has a more subtle flavor and is lovely. The lemon balm is wonderful too, it gives the tea a smooth, soothing lemon flavor.

The only other herbs I could think to add (which is why I posted this question) are other kinds of mint (catmint, chocolate mint, etc), which grow pretty well around here. Maybe anise too? I hoping someone may have some more ideas that I could try.

Thank you.

[rainbowgardener]

Pretty much most of the things you might make herbal tea out of could be added to your green or white tea. Hardy perennials would include perennial chamomile, anise hyssop, raspberry leaf, St. John's wort, rose hips, rhubarb, chrysanthemum flowers, Rose of Sharon flowers (a hardy hibiscus). I make lots of herbal tea blends that have lavender in them, but I'm not quite sure how that would be in regular tea. Might be nice in the white tea, which is delicate, especially in a mixture with the lemon balm or lemon grass. Bee balm, sage, yarrow, rosemary, marjoram are other perennial herbs I use in herbal tea blends. Some of them might be too strong flavored for your delicate teas, but you could experiment. All of them are nice things to have in your garden anyway, attractive to bees, etc.

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... p?p=100328

Other things to add include orange or lemon peel (you can grate it and dry it for adding to tea), fennel, roselle.

[benali]

Hi Rainbowgardener,

Thanks for all the great ideas. I think come this spring I'm going to have some real fun, growing and trying out some of the various herbs you mentioned.

Best wishes.