You might be getting the idea by now that I’m all about natural remedies and solutions when they can be found. I think drugs and medications are fantastic and have saved me on more than one occasion, but I also think that for many non-life threatening ailments and illnesses that we should seek out natural treatments whenever possible.
I’m famous for travelling with peppermint tea bags in my purse for “emergencies” and I swear it has saved my sanity more times during a bad cold than cold pills ever have! So when I was given the opportunity to get a pre-release copy of The Healing Benefits of Tea: Simple Teas & Tisanes to Remedy and Rejuvenate Your Health I was ready to learn about more teas I should be adding to my purse “emergency kit” 😉
I honestly thought I already knew a lot about different types of herbal tea going into this book but that’s where I was wrong, because herbal teas aren’t even tea. They are herbal infusions. To be considered an actual tea, the leaves have to come from the Camellia sinensis plant meaning that only black, green, white, yellow, oolong and pu-erh teas are true teas. Not that the terminology is probably that important to the average person, but I thought that was interesting (and showed just how little I really know about tea!).
This book starts off by walking you through all of the different types of teas into categories (black, green, white, etc.) and then breaking down the varieties within each type. You guys. I had no clue there were so many different kinds of each variety of tea! I thought there was green tea, and that was all there is too it, but apparently there are 13 common types of green tea alone!
Another interesting thing I learn, that I was able to put into practise immediately was regarding de-caffination of teas. When purchasing a decaffeinated tea (meaning one that has had the caffeine removed) you need to check to see what process was used to decaffeinate the leaves. Some manufacturers remove the caffeine with ethyl acetate which is a highly flammable solvent (you may recognize it as an ingredient in nail polish remover). Even though your exposure to any remnants of ethyl acetate would be limited in the tea, even small amounts can cause sore throat, dizziness, cough, headaches and nausea. Instead look for teas that have been decaffeinated using carbon dioxide and water which is both environmentally friendly and completely safe. The book mentions that Celestial Seasonings is one brand who uses the later method, and I checked our decaffeinated green tea from President’s Choice, and it too uses this method.
The remainder of the book is pretty straight forward, they go through all of the herbal infusions as well as common add-ins (think honey, cinnamon, etc.) and their benefits. I really like that you can search by two different ways – either looking at the infusions/add-ins in one list which lists all of the benefits (and precautions) of each ingredient, or in the back you can look up your ailment and see what is recommended for that problem.
I really enjoyed the educational aspect of this book, as it also goes into great detail on how to properly make tea, infusions and tisanes and has provided me with a wealth of new information to use in natural remedies. My only complaint is that my advanced copy is the e-book version, and I think I would find the physical book more useful as I could quickly and easily flip through the pages finding what I am looking for. But as far as complaints go that is pretty mild! If you are someone interested in natural medicine and herbal teas – I mean infusions 😉 this would be a great resource for you!
You can preorder the book online here so when it is released on November 8th it’ll be on it’s way to you immediately!
Disclosure:
Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. provided me with an advanced copy of this book free of charge in exchange for my honest review.
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