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Herb Teas and Tisanes

France has never abandoned her herb teas, or tisanes, as has happened in English-speaking countries under the pressure of British merchants' propaganda for their East Indian and Ceylon tea. Frenchmen daily consume great quantities of tisane d'anise, de camomille, tisane de vervaine (verbena), tisane de menthe (mint), de tilleul (linden), and d'orange (orange leaves and flowers), especially at garden parties and al fresco gatherings. In the late evening even city folks sit outside in their sidewalk cafes (heated by open charcoal braziers in winter) over cups of these soothing herb brews, and a late call on a French family usually coincides with the appearance of a lovely heirloom tea service and the dainty tisane ritual which calms nerves and induces sweet sleep. No milk muddies these teas; only sugar, and perhaps slices of lemon, makes them more palatable. Nor is any food taken with them. We eventually acquired this pleasant habit in Paris, and went to bed nightly on a cup of peppermint or linden tea, our two favorites. Since home-dried herbs are tastiest, French families are seen, during summer holidays, gathering their own and making a gay party out of the task, and we might take a tip from them, the makings for a cup that cheers, however, can now be garnered in any revived herb patch, as was done in Colonial times, especially during the boycott of British tea preceding the Revolution. Our ancestors utilized many more than are now common in France: fennel, lavender, sage, pennyroyal, catnip, wild bergamot, dittany thyme, clary, periwinkle, the gas plant, bee balm (Oswego tea), wintergreen, basil, summer savory, nasturtium, sweet marjoram and yarrow-all went into the garden party tea pot in turn.

A taste for some of these needs to be acquired, just as we must accustom ourselves to the bitterness of coffee before we can enjoy its aroma, but all herb teas for pleasure drinking will compare to happy advantage with the bitter doses once made from some of the more medicinal herbs, the horehound tea grandmothers used to give children for colds, the infusion of hops they took for their own nerves, the dandelion root tea that cured spring fever, the packaged Garfield tea that was a kind of 19th century cure-all, and hot drinks made of tansy, wormwood, rue, and a dozen other homely plants that furnished household remedies.