Tissanes

[Mottmott]

Lemon verbena and mint are rampaging my garden. I've made mint tea for years, even drying some to use over the winter. But so far, I've not used the lemon verbena. Do you use it fresh, dried, both? When in the midwest I used to make sassafras tea, but haven't seen sassafras in Phila.

What other sorts of tissanes do you make. Do you use fresh or dried ingredients, grow them, purchase them?

Mention was made of hibiscus (purchased). Can that be made from organic plants at home? Just the petals?

Inquiring minds need to know.

[jpr54_]

lemon verbena can be used for sorbet-

and as a tisane-

[andiesenji]

lemon verbena can be used for sorbet-

and as a tisane-

And to flavor a syrup that keeps practically forever - I have some 4 or 5 year old stuff that is still potent.

It has one very great advantage. Unlike citrus based syrups, it will not cause milk to curdle.

You can also make an extraction with alcohol and concentrate the flavor. You need to really pack the leaves into a jar, cover with alcohol and then using something like a muddler, crush the leaves, close the jar and shake it well, let it settle and crush the leaves some more.

Put it in a dark place for several days, making sure the leaves are completely covered by the liquid - (I have a small round and heavy lid from a little stoneware jar that just fits into a wide-mouth caning jar.)

After a week or so, take a tiny bit of the flavoring in a spoon and taste it. It should taste as lemony as lemon zest, if not leave it another week, crush the leaves some more.

[Mottmott]

Thank you so much for all that info. One more question, slightly OT for Tea: if a recipe for, say a panna cotta. custard, etc., calls for a couple teabags of lemon verbena, which is dried, how much fresh would you substitue to infuse the milk? And I assume you use only the leaves.

[andiesenji]

Actually there is little difference in the flavor extracted from the fresh as compared to the dried leaves. If you are measuring by weight you have to note that the fresh leaves weigh a lot more than the dried. So you use twice the weight. The volume is also changed.

However it takes only a couple of days for the leaves to dry, just strip them from the stems, put them in a wire colander and toss them every so often as you walk past.

If you are in a humid climate put them in your oven (in the colander) with the light on. This will give enough heat for them to dry.