Healing Herbal Teas: Learn to Blend 101 Specially Formulated Teas for Stress Management, Common Ailments, Seasonal Health, and Immune Support

by Sarah Farr

Freshly blended herbal teas offer more healing power than do pre-packaged tea bags. In Healing Herbal Teas, master herbalist and author Sarah Farr serves up 101 original recipes that not only offer health advantages but also taste great. Formulations to benefit each body system and promote well-being include Daily Adrenal Support, Inflammation Reduction, and Digestive Tonic. Additional recipes that address seasonal needs such as allergy relief or immune support will attune you to the cycles of nature, while instruction on the art of tea blending will teach you how to develop your own signature mixtures to give your body exactly what it needs. This book is an enchanting and delectable guide to blending and brewing power-packed herbal teas at home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Health, Cooking, Reference, Tea, Food

451 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Janis Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would like to thank Storey Publishing for providing me with a free ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

I don’t know what it was about this book, but I just didn’t gel with it. Please, please, PLEASE realise this doesn’t make it a bad book. In fact I found the book to be filled with very useful, very comprehensive information to help readers interested in tea as a drink as well as a way to heal themselves. I feel that was the problem for me, there was just too much information. And as good as it was… I found it swallowed up the recipes and really killed my desire to learn. There was just too much. But this is really just a personal choice thing and I am sure many will disagree with me and feel I am dead wrong. Cool, then they should write some glowing reviews about this book on their blog. ;-)

When you actually do get to the recipes the formatting is clear, precise and easy to read/ follow… but I often found the actual recipes too few and far between as there was yet more information, herbal spotlights and many gorgeous pictures taking their place.

I guess I just found the overall layout of this book didn’t sit well with me? I don’t know? I hate sounding harsh and it is not my intention as some of the tea recipes sound just the sort of things I would love to make and drink… I am aimply trying to give my honest opinion. And that is, I obviously wasn’t the right reader for this book.

Would I recommend this book to others?

I don’t know… maybe? Well, the extremely thorough information this book contains would definitely be of use to those who know nothing about tea making, herbal infusions and the like and such readers would clearly benefit from this book. But I also feel they might get too swamped and suffer information overload if they chose to read it all, rather than just skip to the recipes. And, quite honestly, I feel you would do this book and author a severe injustice if you skipped all the information she has shared and just race to the recipes. It’s an all or nothing sort of thing… If that makes sense?

Would I buy this book for myself?

Sadly no, and I think I’ve already given my reasons as to why that would be. There is a great wealth of information within this book and it is fantastic that it has been shared with us all… but I couldn’t connect and enjoy. I am still putting it down to the overall layout just not suiting my tastes more than it being a bad book – it is not a bad book!

In summary: an extremely comprehensive and informative book on how to make the best herbal teas for taste as well as health. I just wasn’t the right reader.

[Katya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Budding in the art of hand blending teas, this book was a good springboard for inspiration. Sarah Farr resides in the Puget Sound and therefore specializes in the ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. She has a good understanding of the nuances of herbs and their medicinal, healing actions. I admire the honoring of nature's intelligence, our connection to local landscapes and the unique conditions of varying ecosystems and environments.

"Herbs grown in your specific bioregion are specifically conditioned to local weather and seasonal patterns and deal with the same stressors and climate fluctuations that you do." - here's to leaning into the abundance of what grows nearby, and a tribute to how powerful the medicine from the land around can be.

"Like plants, our bodies need to be part of an interconnected community too. Our physical and emotional health depends on knowing and communicating with our environment. Herbal teas - simple infusions of healing herbs in water - offer a daily reminder of our place in nature and open our hearts and minds to the ways in which plants can realign us."

Throughout the text, Farr pays tribute to the many peoples, civilizations and indigenous cultures who have been cultivating the art of tea blending for centuries. She does not go in depth here, but shares the origin of herbs, their cultural lineage, significance and use which shows me a degree of integrity, as well as social and environmental responsibility.

"Although the goal is to honor life and be part of a community that appreciates and supports all the local biodiversity, my opportunities are shaped by a history of colonialism, land-use choices, and a culture of entitlement. I must work to create a new culture that ensures a different legacy for this place I love."

Over 100 tea blends formulated with care and designed for common ailments, seasonal afflictions and a variety of imbalances. Look them over and make them catered to your taste or needs!

[Karen R · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
― C.S. Lewis

This book caught my eye as I love everything about tea, from flavors and blends, to tea sets, to brewing methods, rituals, and healing potential. My cupboard is full of tea, but I wanted more. I wanted to learn how to formulate my own. This book was exactly what I was looking for and provided the extra bonus of an innovative approach. It starts off with some history and then is broken down into 3 parts; 1. the art of blending, 2. recipes and 3. ‘living amid your medicine’. The author has an appealing conversational writing style and hits on fascinating facts such as those surrounding the chemistry of taste. There are a number of recipes that include readily available ingredients but there also are numerous ones where I will need to do some detective work to find the ingredients such dong quai, astragalus, horsetail, kukicha twig, milky oat tops.

A wonderful, in-depth book about one of my favorite things.

[Lady Saga · Rating 5 out of 5]

We use the book to learn about herbs in our homeschooling lessons and it works nicely for the kids.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros
1. This book has a great recipe section and Farr succinctly explains which system it supports - be it circulatory, digestive, etc.
2. Lovely images throughout! Well organized into different sections.

Cons
1. Many of the herbs, etc. I cannot grow well (ginger, tulsi), so I would have to source them, which is fine - but I was hoping to harvest my own herbs for teas and only a few recipes allow me to do that in zone 6.
2. I was more interested in learning about the best practices in harvesting and preparing the tea ingredients, so this is not a book for that.

[Zee Monodee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good book for health lovers who want to brew their own tea. However, the info is very much on the tea aspect and not a lot on the why of every blend (like, why this herb and not that, and why/how does this herb work for your health). This is a great tea-making resource, but it would be supplemented by a herbs encyclopedia or something. I'm also not sure if anyone would actually be able to have so many plants or even source all they'd need for their teas, so this is really for the die-hard tea lover who also has to make his/her own brew.

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredibly rich, accessible guide to basic herbalism through teas. Most of the herbs are easy to come by and the recipes look delicious as well as medicinal. I particularly loved the entire chapter on seasonal teas.

[Paige Ovanisian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty brilliant recipe book on blending herbal teas. While I didn't find all of the information to be conclusive, medicinally anyway, this is a pretty solid collection of recipes to get you started on blending your own herbal teas.

There's a section on sourcing herbs (local, overseas, fair trade, direct trade, organically grown), but no information on reputable sources, so you'll have to do your own research. I liked that there was a highlight on writing everything down and keeping a journal, an important practice to utilize when doing any type of work involving chemistry. Different methods of brewing including hot infusions, cold infusions, and decoctions are briefly explained, and while I found it a bit too general I was appreciative that it was included at all as it seems like most people believe the best or only way to brew tea is as a hot infusion. I also enjoyed reading about blending methods, whether for pure enjoyment or medicinal purposes, and how to layer flavors via The Formulation Pyramid and Free-Form Formulation. Then there is a whole section on tonics (nutritive, rejuvenating, and aphrodisiac) with some corresponding recipes, which were laid out in a really lovely way that also included steeping instructions along with flavor profiles. I want to briefly mention that the ingredients used in the medicinal teas definitely matches up with what I've learned about which herbs are used for which complaints taught in herbalism programs. I also loved the section on seasonal teas, which has inspired me to start planning more of my blends seasonally. Near the end there's some general information on growing your own herbs and some practical methods to plan out your garden (sun map, plant list, etc), as well as some information on starting your plants from seeds or cuttings, how to harvest your plants, drying, storing, seed saving, and wildcrafting / foraging.

A few things to mention is that you'll have to do your own outside learning if you truly want to understand how to properly blend herbal teas for medicinal purposes. Understanding human anatomy regarding complaints, looking through herb monographs in your materia medica, and understanding terms like constituents, adaptogens, and so on is vital. There wasn't much information on herb safety, and no information regarding ethical sourcing or foraging. Essentially, like I mentioned earlier you'll need to pair this book with other sources to be fully informed on tea-making. My one personal quibble is not all recipes had photographs, which isn't a big deal but I would have preferred if they did.

In the back of the book, Body Into Balance by Maria Noel Groves is recommended for further reading, and as it's one of my favorite books on whole-body herbalism I definitely recommend it as well.

[Rainbowgardener · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this for myself, not the Kindle edition but the paperback. I am trying to teach myself some basics of herbalism / herbal healing and I thought it would hel to have a book. Physically this is a beautiful book, on heavy glossy paper, with lots of illustrations. There's lots of good stuff in here about how to make teas, how to formulate your own combinations based on the properties of the herbs, and more. I will keep studying it.
But in a lot of ways it is just too advanced for where I am. She preaches a whole discipline of dedicated herbalism, mindful study of each herb individually and the combinations. I am not at a point where I can devote that much of my life to this. And the heart of the book is the 101 recipes. But the recipes are complex, almost all with seven to ten ingredients. And to me starting out, the ingredients seem esoteric, difficult to obtain and probably expensive. They include milky oats, honey bush, gotu kola, reishi mushrooms, astragalus, codonopsis, Eleuthera, kukicha twig tea, etc.
In my cupboard right now, I have lavender, chamomile, mint, lemon balm, bee balm, yarrow, tansy, mullein leaf, raspberry leaf, Thai basil, anise hyssop, chrysanthemum flower, rose petals, all home grown. I could dig echinacea root and ginger root. I also have all the culinary herbs, sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, tarragon, etc also all home grown. Nonetheless there is not a single one of her 101 recipes that I could make as written with what I have on hand. Disappointing.

[Sandy Wilmering · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has everything you need to know about the tea-making process, including sourcing your herbs, the basic equipment you need, and how to blend and store your herbs and teas. It discusses the various formulations and herbal actions, such as sour, sweet, bitter, salty, umami, and pungent and spicy. There are tonic recipes for holistic health, remedial and medicinal tea recipes, and seasonal tea recipes. Each recipe provides spotlight information on an herb, as well as what taste, herbal action, and systems of the body will be affected by the tea. The book finishes off with chapters on starting an herb garden, and wildcrafting for a better world. I realistically can't see myself having the time to grow, or source, many of the herbs listed in the book, which is the reason I didn't give a 5 star rating.

[Tobia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Schwerpunkt dieses Buches waren die 100 verschiedenen Rezepte.
Als ich das Buch erhielt, war ich auf den ersten Blick ein wenig überwältigt, da ich viele Zutaten sah, die ich nicht zur Hand hatte oder nicht besorgen wollte. Aber nachdem ich das Buch von vorne bis hinten durchgelesen hatte, fand ich mehr als genug Mischungen, die ich ausprobieren möchte oder die mich inspiriert haben.

Interessant war die Verwendung von Pilzen in Teemischungen.
Mir gefiel, dass es auch so genannte Sonnentees gibt, die kein kochendes Wasser benötigen, sondern die Wärme der Sonne nutzen, um die Nährstoffe der Pflanzen zu extrahieren.

Ich hätte mir eine Glossar oder etwas mehr Informationen zu bestimmten verwendeten Begriffen gewünscht. Selbst als Kräuterliebhaberin, die sich. seit einigen Jahren mit dem Thema beschäftigt, fällt es mir schwer, das alles zu behalten.
Gut finde ich die Übersichtsseiten am Ende, die alle Tees noch einmal mit den Zutatenauflisten. So. kann schnell geschaut. werden welche zutaten gerade geerntet wurden und Verwendung finden können.
Auch sehr informativ fand ich die Kräuterpyramide, die für Anfänger eine einfache Formal des Teemischens an die Hand gibt.

Das Buch ist auf jeden Fall eine interessante Lektüre, aber vielleicht sehr nischenorientiert, und man bräuchte eine riesige Vorratskammer, um sie alle herzustellen.

1/2 Stern Abzug weil mir tlw. mehr Hintergrundinfos fehlten
1/2 Stern Abzug weil tlw. sehr viele exotische Zutaten benötigt werden
1/2 Stern Abzug weil mir die Autorin an einigen Stellen etwas zu esoterisch daher kam

[Danielle Goold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book easy and fun to read and bookmarked several recipes I want to try. Like several of the other readers I was disappointed that there is probably only one recipe I can make with the plants and herbs I have on hand/growing in my garden. Nevertheless this book has inspired me to do more reading and research on herbalism and herbal teas with the hope of improving my herb garden this year.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was pretty informative! Loved the recipes for healing herbal teas. I'm going to try the pain reduction one for my arthritis; the anti inflammatory should probably be tried, too! I liked all the info on using teas as tonics during each season and how to use them to boost the immune system. Anyone who enjoys tea should take a look at this book.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

New knowledge of medicinal plants

I liked the wide range of herbs and plants included in the blends. Thouthgt it would be all about black, green or white tea. To make a blend requires 6 or 7 herbs or parts of plants, but once you read the ones you want to try you can decide which herbs to buy or plant and don't be overwhelmed by the cuantity of herbs on all the recipes.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up for inspiration as to what to do with all the herbs I grow. The book is beautifully laid out with easy to follow recipes; however, it is not for beginners. Most of the recipes call for a lot of rate ingredients that could become expensive for an amateur quickly. I look forward to trying out some of the recipes this summer as my crop starts coming in.

[Vanellope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot! I just wish there were more simple recipes-- most if not all of these required a lot of ingredients that I've never heard of or are hard to get. It feels like the intro information was geared towards beginners (which I found helpful) but the recipes seemed advanced, so I don't really know who it was geared towards. Very pretty and well organized, though.

[Dakota Bri (brisbookbag) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring and informative read on herb gardening and preparation! A must have book for the inspiring herbalist! Sarah even includes an entire section with recipes to try out and their medicinal properties.

[Ericka Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative book with many recipes. Unfortunately, finding some of the ingredients may be hard to find in a local store but in this day of online shopping obtaining the ingredients is easier.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars Good guide to botanicals that can be made into different teas (with recipes) to assist in overall well being. Each recipe explains the "taste" "herbal actions" and "systems affected". Informative read plus the author's website sells some of the mixtures all ready for brewing.

[Sobia A Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mainly for those who are serious about their organic and natural herbs and teas. However, the author is very against using international herb/teas. But then again where can we find most of the ingredients lists in the book ?? Some of the recipes are very interesting and familiar.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book on herbal teas for different purposes. A really lovely book, lots of interesting descriptions, and more info. Some people might struggle with the "parts" but you could easily translate to something easier like 1/4 cup is 1 part...that's what I'm planning on doing!

[Sarahtar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for something a little less "buy a ton of exotic ingredients online" and more "grow this in your yard and make tea from it."

Formatting kinda sucked, too. It's a tea recipe - there's no reason the whole recipe can't be on one page.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in love with this book and the information it provided!! Renewed my love for herbs and brewing tea once again!

[Charlotte Ruswick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative

i liked the images, diagrams, and the recipes were insightful and detailed! overall i would recommend this book if you are interested in starting to make teas.

[Devi Brookins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted more recipes

I liked the book i was just mainly looking for recipes. This was informative and had a few recipes and information.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent comprehensive guide with great recipes and plenty of inspiration for creating original blends.

[Joanne McKinnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great end of winter read. Inspiring and a great role model for wildcrafters

[Rachel Schardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to understand and a good introduction to learning how to make your own herbal tea blends.

[Bailee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love learning how the different herbs that go into my teas affect my body. It helps me figure out the perfect blends for each individual day and mood.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really easy read. Informative and engaging without becoming bogged down. I plan to try multiple of these blends this fall and winter.