Linden Tea for a Summer Afternoon

June and July are the best time to pick and put away till winter linden tree flowers famous for its therapeutic properties. Linden tree starts blossoming in June spreading around wonderful delicate scent. It is covered with small yellowish-white color flowers. Linden flowers have anti-thermal, emollient and expectorant action and therefore are used for making tea treating colds and influenza. The tea stimulates abundant perspiration, decreasing body temperature.

Collection of linden tree flowers.

Linden tree flowers should be picked when most of them already blossom, but some are still in buds. This usually happens between mid-June and mid-July. The collection should not be done on a rainy day. Once flowers are picked, they need to be dried in a dark place with good air flow. Simple conventional oven heated to 100-110F (40-45C) could be a good place for drying linden blossoms. Dry blossoms should be stored in a paper bag, linen bag or ceramic pot placed in a dark place away from rays of the sun. Plastic or glass containers will make linden blossoms to lose their medicinal properties and potency.

Note: Even without any sweetener taste of linden blossoms tea feels like honey tea. Its color could vary from red to bronze, depending on how strong linden flowers infusion is.

Linden blossoms tea is prepared as follows:

Note: If you have not drunk your tea while it was hot, do not flush it into the sink. Freeze it into ice cubes and use them to wipe your face and neck – this will give nice silky feeling to your skin and eliminate spider-web wrinkles.

Recently I came across TeaVivre tea company with a unique collection of green & white teas from China. If you have a minute visit their site, they also have gorgeous class tea sets.