If I had to choose between coffee and tea, I’d choose tea hands down. I could give up coffee any day of the week, but ask me to give up tea and I’ll put up a fight. I come from a family of tea drinkers and it makes the perfect gift during the holidays. No surprise here, but my grandmother and I each gave each other tea for Christmas this past year. Perhaps it’s programmed into our DNA.
We love all kinds of tea – white, black, red, green, herbal – we’ll make a cup happily. There are so many great varieties out there and I have to watch myself not to hoard too many.
This past Christmas I was poking around on Pinterest and came across some recipes to make your own loose leaf tea. We celebrate what my family calls “Pinterest Christmas” where each person picks one name and has to make that person a gift. I got my grandma and knew instantly what I was going to make her – tea. She typically drinks a cup of tea first thing in the morning, but I wanted to make her a decaf herbal blend she could enjoy at night to unwind before bed.
I’m a visual person so whatever tea I was going to create for her had to be just as pretty as it was tasty. Because of its relaxation properties, lavender was a must and chamomile helps you sleep so it was added to the recipe as well. One of my favorite teas is called Lady Gray and has beautiful tiny rose buds in it, pretty and smells good? Rosebuds made the cut for the tea recipe.
After deciding on my three base ingredients I researched other tea recipes and created what I like to call a starry night herbal tea blend. Here’s how you can make some at home.
STARRY NIGHT HERBAL TEA
- 1 Tbsp dried lavender (buy online here)
- 2 Tbsp dried chamomile (buy online here)
- 2 Tbsp dried rose petals (buy online here)
- 2 Tbsp dried hibiscus (buy online here)
- 2 tbsp dried mint leaves (buy online here)
Mix all ingredients gently in a bowl and loosely pack into tea bags – I use these. Fill a teacup with boiling water and steep the tea bag for 5 minutes. Sip and enjoy!
Like I mentioned earlier, I gave my grandma this tea for Christmas (along with a homemade teacup). Originally I filled a french square jar with the tea mixture and printed a label with the ingredients on clear sticker paper.
But, because tea tags are just so darn cute (and fun to design!), I redesigned the label into printable tea tags for you to use.
Make a big batch of the Starry Night loose leaf tea, fill multiple tea bags and attach the tag. Give as a gift or keep for yourself to help lull yourself to sleep at bedtime. It’s basically a prettier version of sleepy time tea.
You can download and print your copy of the Starry Night tea tags from THE LIBRARY, my freebies library full of the blog’s best art prints, downloads, and other fun printables. There are 18 tea tags per 8.5 x 11 inch page – simply print, cut out the tag, score and fold down the middle, string your tea tag through the middle fold and staple the tag at the top. Easy peasy!
Leave a Reply