Help Me Help My Neighbor Start A Tea Garden in Florida 10A

[Coconut Cream]

One of my very sweet neighbors has asked for my help with her garden. She grows some fruit but her real passion is making teas of all kinds. I've tried a few of them and it's wild how she combines ginger and turmeric and mulberry leaves and various fruit rinds into a hot or cold beverage.

She wants to expand what she is growing into a full blown tea garden. I made some basic suggestions like Roselle, Lemon Balm, Lemongrass, and Blue Butterfly Pea Vine. What else comes to mind that would work well and look nice in Florida 10A?

[xesoteryc]

Tumeric makes the best tea for sure. I know people use passion flowers / leafs.

Hibiscus is an excellent addition. The most calming tea there is IMO

[Nicola!@#]

All gingers, normal, turmeric, black ginger and all the rest of it. Passionfruit grows well from seed, anything citrus, vegetable, fern, tons of bananas, especially plantain, gynura, both varieties chaya, sauropus androgynus, all sorts of sweet potato, cassava, lemon grass. At the beginning I would stick some annuals under the trees. Also Brazil spinach, gotu kola, all sorts of taro, they look great. One of the nicest teas is the root of mondia whitei, if she doesn't want produce but tea.

[Galatians522]

True tea, allspice, and cinnamon come to mind. Yapon holly was used by the Seminole and is one of the few North American plants that contains caffeine. Yerba Mate is also a Holly that is used for tea in South America. American Persimmon leaf has been used for tea, too.

As I ponder further...Silk Bay Persea humilis makes my favorite wild tea. A Florida adapted mint would be another good one. Sour soup and Guava are sometimes consumed for health benefits.

[Pokeweed]

Fascinating thread! Loquat leaves, grape leaves, mimosa flowets. D

[SpeciesOfSubstance]

To add on to Ilex vomitoria (yaupon), Ilex paraguariensis (yerba mate), but also Ilex guayusa (guayusa) would probably do well in Florida.

Bet you would do well with a Camellia sinensis var. assamica of some kind. A tea garden is hardly complete without actual TEA! 

Valeriana officinalis (valerian) is an excellent tea. It is always one of the first plants I recommend to anyone in their home garden. Smells a little strange if you are not familiar, but the taste is deeply comforting, and the effect is extremely soothing. Excellent for issues with sleep, anxiety, and certain inflammatory conditions.

It also is an effective counteragent to caffeine due to its specific flavanoid content (as is Matricaria recutita, common chamomile, and Scutellaria sp., the skullcaps.)

[Galatians522]

For what it is worth, I did not care for the taste of Yerba Mate. It tasted like a mix of dried grass and green shrub clippings. One cup was my first and last. However, some people love it. I would advise tasting some before planting. Apparently, Yapon outscored Yerba Mate in a blind taste test conducted by University of Florida. This may be due to the milder flavor and lack of tannin in Yapon. Neither was scored very high by the majority of the tasting panel.

On the other hand, I keep a jar of wild foraged Silk Bay leaves in my spice cabinet. The taste is hard to describe other than to say that the sweetened brew tastes like "Christmas Spice." I could see a blend of Yapon and Silk Bay becoming a very popular native tea option. Really, I think that is the key for native teas. They must be blended. That way you get the caffeine from Yapon and the tasty flavors of Silk Bay. I rank it equal to the teas that I made from cinnamon and allspice leaves. Cinnamon/Yapon would probably be another good blend, but that is pure speculation.

On another random note, some other tea options would be Elder flower (made from elderberry flowers) and Pandan tea (which is made from the pandus plant and is popular in Thailand. Also, has anyone tasted Okra seed coffee? Some people apparently like it quite a bit.

[roblack]

I mix Yerba mate leaves with other stuff (Ceylon cinnamon, holy basil, lemon grass, hibiscus, passiflora, mint, turmeric, ginger, galangal, noni leaf, piper nigrum, etc) and it tastes fine. Not making a thick drink like the traditional one, just adding it to the mix. Helps with allergies and the sniffles.

[Coconut Cream]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I made up a list and I will go over them with her to figure out what she wants (probably everything). I already have some Pandan Leaf planted so I can give her some slips to get that one going. Thank you everybody who took the time to reply 

[BP]

This thread is very interesting to me. Any of these types grow in 8b well? Or, what kind would you rec for me to zone push with

[BeyondOrganicLife]

Mexican mint marigold. Also coffee leaves and cherries.

[JCorte]

Josh Jamison (Cody Cove Farm) says Lippia alba - Juanilama makes one of the best teas he's ever tried.  I have a plant being delivered today.

Chrysanthemum morifolium, Bo-ju-hua, considered to be superior for making chrysanthemum tea

Backhousia citriodora - bright lemon flavor for tea, also used in cooking and as a dried spice.

Lemon verbena is one of my favorites, smells like lemon drop candy.  Great for tea and also makes a great lemon infused simple syrup to make sorbet.  Just steep long enough to release the glandular trichomes that store the essential oil on the leaves without getting the bitter flavors from the leaf, about 5 minutes.

Lemon balm

Cinammon zeylanicum already mentioned.  I love this plant. 

Tulsi vana, Ocimum gratissimum is another staple in my garden.

Janet

[Galatians522]

Very interesting, I'd not heard of the Juanilama.

[JCorte]

He's selling cuttings but doesn't ship outside of Florida. 10 cuttings for $13, what a bargain!  Support his nursery if you can.

https://codycovefarm.com/product/lippia-alba-juanilama-excellent-herbal-tea/

Janet

[Galatians522]

He's selling cuttings but doesn't ship outside of Florida. 10 cuttings for $13, what a bargain!  Support his nursery if you can.

https://codycovefarm.com/product/lippia-alba-juanilama-excellent-herbal-tea/

Janet

I do, he is a great guy! 

[JCorte]

Here is a great blog post from The Botanist in the Kitchen on the evolution of lemon flavor and a great technique for making fresh herb syrup.

https://botanistinthekitchen.blog/2013/09/02/evolution-of-lemon-flavor/

Janet

[BP]

Here is a great blog post from The Botanist in the Kitchen on the evolution of lemon flavor and a great technique for making fresh herb syrup.

https://botanistinthekitchen.blog/2013/09/02/evolution-of-lemon-flavor/

Janet

Cant wait to try those techniques. That was a very interesting read thanks