Customer Reviews

Herbal Teas: 101 Nourishing Blends for Daily Health & Vitality

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I adore this boook - it's creative, well-written, informative, and with a wealth of ideas and information. I use it constantly to reference for my business, and use it personally to make teas for myself and as gifts for family. The names are a hoot! This truly shows you how useful, versatile, and helpful herbal teas are, with a wide range of ingredients, flavors and moods. if you're interested in making your own teas, get this book! May be a bit daunting for herb "newbies" but don't be scared, you don't need to buy all the herbs mentioned in this book. Just pick one recipe at a time and start to experiment. A great way to learn! I've been playing with herbs for years and still find a new one or two to taste, explore and learn about with this book. ...

Lovely, informative book. I took it with me to the health food store so I could have a better idea what to look for. Bulk herbs can be a bit intimidating if you are new to using them. I think this book would be very useful to anyone new to making teas, as well as those who are more experienced.

I like that there are several recipes for teas that have the same effect, such as energizing blends, and that each of the energizing blends is different. For example, The "Good Morning Blend" consists of peppermint, rose hips, ginger, ginko, rosemary, orange peel and anise. "Stamina City" includes dandelion, sarsaparilla, siberian ginseng, rehmannia, cinnamon and licorice. "Damiana Daytime Delight" incorporates oatstraw, damiana, gotu kolo, lemon balm, and clover blossoms, and "Sassy Root Revival" is sarsaparilla root, Siberian ginseng, Korean or Chinese ginseng, yellow dock root, ginger, cinnamon, licorice and orange slices.

I like that rather than tell you how many cups or table spoons of each ingredient, they tell you how many parts (1 part peppermint leaves, 2 parts oat straw, etc), so you can make any quantity you like.

When I went to buy herbs, I looked at all four energy recipes and bought a few ingredients from each (couldn't afford all of them and some herbs are more expensive than others). Although I haven't actually tried a recipe, I can tell the authors know what they are talking about. The cool thing is, you can tweak things and create your own blends, and you don't have to follow the recipes to a "tea".

Also included is a section on brewing and blending, gathering and storing, and getting to know the herbs. The recipes are divided by category based on what you wish the tea to do for you. For example, there are detox teas, teas to combat acne, tummy aches, female issues, teas for sleeping, and stress, as well as many others.

The book is well laid out and easy to understand. In the back of the book, the herbs are alphabetized with a section about each herb. Each herb gets about half a page describing the history, taste, part of herb used, how to brew it, cautionary advice, vitamins, and there are nice, easy to reference side notes that give the health benefits. The pages have subtle green and blue hues that are pleasing to the eye., and the book is small enough to take with you to the store (about 8"x8" x 3/8".

Each tea recipe has a nice, modest monochromatic photo of the creator of that blend, and a page about her (or him). They don't go over board with the mini-biography. In fact, I would usually get annoyed, but it was not at all bothersome, and in fact, quite a nice, personal touch.You will also find some lovely photos and subtle artwork throughout the book. They in no way detract from the content and are pleasing to the eye.

There is also a nice table of taste characteristics. For example, under the category "sweet', there is a list including anise, licorice, stevia, vanilla, and rehmannia .Included are are 10 taste categories.

This is my first tea book and I doubt I will buy another. This one has everything I need. In fact, using the information presented, I look forward to creating my own special blends to give as gifts for my loved ones, and I am inspired to grow my own herbs to make it more affordable. There are 101 blends in this book, which is more than enough for anyone, but the added information enables one to create infinite personalized blends that work in harmony with your body and senses.

This is a delightful book with excellent medicinal tea recipes that actually taste good. It is well layed out, informative and all of the recipes are easily followed, use readily available herbs and are effective to use. Great for beginners as well anyone looking for great recipes for making medicinal teas. I was so happy with the book that I have purchased copies for family and friends and all have rave reviews for it.

I am loving this book. Each time I find more information that is so helpful to me. I never thought creating my own tea blends to satisfy ME would be so easy and fun too. It is so easy to personalize my blends with this book.

Overall rating: 3 stars
Number of plants: 3 stars
Treatment lists: 3 stars
Treatment details: 3 stars
Picture types: none of plants
Plant identification: 1 stars
Who will find it useful: novice to experienced herbalists, working stiffs, zombie hunters, hipsters

Notes: This book is a good introduction to herbal teas with 101 different recipes for general health as well as curative action. It lists the medicinal properties of many herbs along with their flavors and proper techniques for turning them into flavorful teas. The book guides you through creating your own special blends of good tasting healthy & medicinal teas. Thanks to this book my desk drawer at work is filled with a dozen different herbs so I can quickly whip up the right tea to get me through the hard day. Am I tired? Do I have a headache? Is my nose stuffed? Am I just dang grumpy? Am I cramping..wait, that's not a problem I have. Anyway, teas for all these issues and more are covered. Sidenote: it also includes tea recipes to help both men and women with "after hour" actives . Woo hoo!
Techniques for making infusions, decoctions, tinctures, elixirs, and syrups are covered along with different tea-making methods and devices. It has a decent cross-reference between symptoms/illness and what herbs will offer relief. It is assumed you will either buy or grown your herbs and so there is no information on wild plant medicinal properties.

Good book. It would be nice to have a bit more instruction in the area of harvesting. If looking for a book with tea recipes, then this one will suit the needs.

Very informative and entertaining. Wish there were a few recipes with only one or two ingredients that would make it easier for a beginner.

This book has wonderful herbal tea recipes! It is a great companion to Mary El-Baz's book, The Essence of Herbal and Floral Teas.

This was a gift for my daughter who loves her tea and garden. Great ideas to create your own personal tea!!! Lots of tea mix recipes and blends.

I have a nursery and friends who enjoy picking Linden flowers, nettles and such from the wild to make their teas. This book has been a big hit with many of them. I've had to buy more than 1 copy to give it to someone who saw mine. Folks who think they know it all find this is just too useful to pass by. I've not tested all the recipes, but the ones I've done have been good. It is an attractive book and interesting and I have never seen a more useful reference on the topic. Not long and dry reading, just a cookbook for tea, but giving you the herbal remedy applications as well for each recipe.