How to grow your own tea

We all know that countless cups of strong coffee and even black tea are not good for us .

Keener on the carrot than the stick, I wanted this year to extend my repertoire of herbs and garden plants that are delicious to drink as infusions.

Many of us enjoy the taste and freshness of a tisane. But when it comes to growing a choice of flavours, the UK lags behind northern and southern Europe, which have much stronger traditions of growing and making a range of herb teas.

^{Camomile growing in a border (JONATHAN BUCKLEY)}

Camomile flower, fresh mint and lemon verbena are already popular, but which are the best mints and what about scented-leaf pelargoniums? These are delicious as flavourings for cordials and cakes, so why not teas too? They’re easy to grow, and with the protection of a greenhouse you can harvest them from May to December.

We planted 20 different herb tea varieties this spring, and in the past couple of weeks we’ve tasted the lot. In each case, a similar-sized bunch has been torn up and left to infuse for five minutes before pouring. We’ve tested eight varieties of scented-leaf pelargonium, three basils, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon grass and six mints. There are some clear front runners, delicious day or night, boiling hot, or chilled with a lump of ice. All of us should aim to find room for some of these next year in our gardens or doorstep containers.

Taste test

Lemon verbena is our top-ranking home-grown herb tea, easily outdoing lemon balm and lemon grass in our trials. Lemon verbena’s flavour is brighter, stronger, cleaner and very lemony.

It’s a tender, deciduous shrub, but planted with good drainage in a sheltered spot in a south-west-facing corner at Perch Hill, it has overwintered now for 10 years even in our heavy clay. It’s also very happy growing in a pot, which can be brought in to a shed for the cold winter months .

Close behind lemon verbena in our taste trial was lemon basil, with the flavour exactly as it says, a nice, warm, basil flavour, but nicer in tea for its hint of citrus. In a tisane, we preferred this to straight or cinnamon basil. These are all easily grown from seed and best sown direct either in a greenhouse or in a sunny spot in the garden.

The scented-leaf pelargonium 'Attar of Roses’ has been our favourite for tea here for years. It’s easy to grow, prolific, quick to strike from cuttings and nice-looking, with its downy, bright green leaves and pale pink flowers. It has a lovely rose flavour, reminiscent of Turkish delight, mixed with a bit of lemon.

^{Pot luck: galvanised container filled with Pelargonium 'Sweet Mimosa’ (JONATHAN BUCKLEY)}

We picked so much of this last year that the plants were almost bald, so this spring we made a tea bed in the greenhouse and have discovered some new outstanding pelargoniums. Our favourite is 'Mabel Grey’, an Elizabeth David rave, used for her blackberry and apple pie, and it turns out to be marvellous for tea too, with a bright, sharp flavour of lemon sherbet. It has a strong flavour, so you don’t need to use many leaves.

Next in the pelargonium stakes is P. longifolium, a variety used in Greece to flavour jams and drinks, and bright and fragrant in tea. It is followed closely by 'Sweet Mimosa’, similar in flavour but slightly spicy and warm.

All these scented-leaf pelargoniums produce oil that is antifungal and antiseptic. The medicinal use of the plant is not well documented, but the leaves are traditionally used to ease anxiety and stress, and are ideal for a tea before bed.

Mint on trial

True Moroccan mint is a spearmint (Mentha spicata var. crispa 'Moroccan’) that famously has the best and most intense flavour for tea. It rated highly in our trial, but did not come top in the mint brigade. The number one spot was taken by black peppermint (Mentha x piperita 'Black Mitcham’), which is intensely minty, with a strong and delicious aftertaste. It seems to be prolific and easy to grow, allowing for a continual late- spring and summer harvest.

This was followed by Moroccan and then orange mint (Mentha x piperita f. citrata 'Orange’), which is fragrant and, with its hint of citrus, reminded us of Lady Grey, the Twinings black tea.

These mints make delicious tea and they’re good for us too, excellent at soothing an upset stomach and aiding digestion, ideal for drinking at the end of a meal. Mint calms the muscles of the stomach and improves the flow of the digestive juice and bile secretions, aiding digestion. Several studies support the use of mint for indigestion and irritable bowel syndrome, where it has been shown to ease pain, bloating and gas.

You must ensure that you use the right mint, as garden centres may try to sell you the wrong one. True Moroccan mint has a bright green, smooth leaf, pointed at the tip, with a leaf surface quite strongly indented by its veins, so it looks almost frilly. It has green stems that are purple at the base.

Black peppermint (I got mine from herb grower Jekka McVicar) has bigger leaves than Moroccan mint, which is smoother and less indented, with dark crimson main and leaf stems. They are both upright growers. Orange mint is more of a sprawler, with rounded leaves so smooth that they are almost shiny.

The mints are growing in pots and troughs here in the garden and in out-of-the-way corners, so that it’s a joy, not a bane, when they romp away. Mints are famously invasive, but whatever people say, you can’t just leave them in the same pot for years at a stretch. The soil elements needed for the synthesis of the essential oils, which give them their flavour, will become depleted over time and you end up with leaves that are almost tasteless. If grown in containers, mints need to be replanted in new soil every year to maximise their taste. And keep harvesting so that the roots continue to produce fresh, strong-tasting leaves.

Our top five rankers – lemon verbena, lemon basil, Pelargonium 'Mabel Grey’, black peppermint and Moroccan mint – reduce or totally avoid caffeine, so are healthy as well as delicious.

Tea or tisane?

To make a herb tea, tear a small palmful of leaves into small strips and place in a jug or tea pot. Or, if you have one, into the central chamber of a tisaniere.

A tisaniere is a glass teapot with a central chamber. This holds the leaves but allows them to infuse the water with flavour. The clear glass allows you to see the beautiful green leaf and judge when the tea is ready.

Pour over boiling or nearly boiling water and leave to infuse for five minutes – or to taste.