Sea buckthorn tea: an occasion to show imagination and the opportunity to prepare a unique drink
Sea buckthorn is one of the most unusual and incredibly healthy berries. It has a bright orange color, grows throughout Russia and around the world. The sunny berry is consumed in its pure form, jam is made from it for the winter, compotes are made, added to desserts. Sea buckthorn tea is also very popular. In addition, it is not just a tasty and fragrant drink, but also a real healing elixir.
Useful properties of sea buckthorn
There are legends about the incredible benefits of sea buckthorn for human health. By the content of vitamins and microelements, this berry surpasses many fruits. That is why sea buckthorn was given to athletes before the most important competitions. And in the era of the reign of Alexander the Great, a healing drink was prepared from the berries, which was called "decoction of longevity."
Moreover, this berry was included in the obligatory menu of people who became victims of the terrible disaster in Chernobyl. We list the main properties of sea buckthorn, which everyone should definitely know about.
- Prevents the occurrence of atherosclerosis, as it helps to reduce the amount of cholesterol in the body.
- Favorably affects the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
- The berry is effective in the complex therapy of liver ailments.
- Promotes the removal of harmful substances from the body.
- Helps to fight problems of the cardiovascular system.
- Strengthens the natural forces of the body, increases its resistance to viruses and pathogenic bacteria. Sea buckthorn has more vitamin C than even citrus fruits.
- Compensates for the lack of vitamins.
- Helps to relieve nervous tension, restores sleep.
- Helps fight joint problems (gout, arthritis, etc.).
- It is an effective natural antibiotic, characterized by bactericidal and anti-inflammatory action.
- Helps relieve flu and cold symptoms.
Child use
If the child is not allergic to sea buckthorn or to the component that you want to add to tea additionally, then you can safely offer him such a drink. Young children will especially like it, because sea buckthorn tea is not only tasty, but also very bright and beautiful, really sunny. Delight your child with such a drink in winter, during the period of colds, to strengthen his immunity.
There are no age restrictions for this tea, it can be drunk by any child from 2 years old. It is only important to gradually start adding this product to your regular diet.
Even for pregnant and lactating women, sea buckthorn tea will only benefit if they do not have individual intolerance to the berry. Drinking a drink while carrying a child helps prevent the development of viral diseases in mother and baby. After the birth of a child within 3 months, it is better to be as careful as possible and stop drinking sea buckthorn tea. But then you can not limit yourself in it. It is only important to monitor how the baby reacts to such a product.
Contraindications
Almost everyone can eat sea buckthorn and drink tea with it.However, people who suffer from cholecystitis and gastrointestinal diseases in acute stages (ulcer, hyperacidity, acute gastritis, cholecystitis, etc.) are not recommended to drink such a drink.
It is also worth limiting the use of sea buckthorn to those who have disorders in the functioning of the kidneys and liver, gallbladder.
And of course, those who have an individual intolerance to such a product. Therefore, if you want to include a sunny berry in your regular diet, but are not sure how the body will react to it, be sure to consult your doctor. So, from sea buckthorn you will only benefit, not harm.
calories
100 grams of sea buckthorn tea, prepared according to the classic recipe, contains only 40-50 calories. So, it can be safely included in your menu for people who follow their figure. The exact number of calories depends on the additives that you plan to include in the drink.
For example, if you drink sea buckthorn tea with sugar or syrup, then the calorie content will increase significantly. And if you add a sweet cake or any other dessert to tea, then tea drinking will definitely not be low-calorie.
Preparation of berries and leaves
To make really useful and high-quality sea buckthorn tea, you need to properly prepare the material for it - leaves and berries. But to do this is much easier and faster than picking a berry. After all, the branches of the sea buckthorn tree are completely strewn with small and sharp needles.
Therefore, you need to have a certain skill in order to get the precious solar fruits. But you can choose an easier way: buy berries in a store or from private gardeners.
After the fruits are harvested, it is important to sort them out to remove foreign debris, twigs, and also to exclude rotten and damaged berries. Then the sea buckthorn must be thoroughly washed. Usually the fruits have a fairly dense skin, which allows them to be washed under running water without damaging them. But if the berries are overripe, then it is better to wash them in a separate bowl.
Next, you need to dry the berries from excess moisture. You can do this by simply laying them out in a thin layer on a clean towel. If there are too many berries, then it is better to distribute them in bags or containers and send them to the freezer. The quality of tea when using frozen fruits will not deteriorate at all.
In addition to sea buckthorn berries, it is also worth harvesting leaves, because they contain no less useful substances. To do this, the leaves also need to be sorted out, rinsed thoroughly and dried. There are 3 easy ways to do this at home: place the leaves in an even layer on a tray, secure under a canopy in the fresh air, use a special dryer or oven.
Prepared leaves should be distributed in bags that are sewn from natural fabrics or placed in wooden / paper boxes. The shelf life of such raw materials is no more than 2 years.
If you plan to make tea immediately after drying the leaves, you can grind them. But if you have collected raw materials for long-term storage, leave the leaves whole, and only then chop if necessary.
Recipes
There are a huge number of options for making sea buckthorn tea. It can be prepared in the traditional way, or you can diversify the recipe with original additives. We offer a whole collection of the most interesting recipes for a healthy sea buckthorn drink:
Classical
Many begin their acquaintance with sea buckthorn tea with just such a recipe. And this is quite reasonable, because this is the only way you can feel the versatility of the taste of this drink. To prepare a drink in the traditional way, you need to mash about 150 grams of prepared fruit. You can do this with a regular fork.
Then you need to place the sea buckthorn gruel in a glass container, where you need to pour a little warm, purified water, but not boiling water.
Let the berries stand for a while, and in the meantime, prepare regular black tea. It is better that it does not contain any additional flavors. So you can better feel the taste of sea buckthorn.
When the black tea is ready, pour it into a cup and put a couple of small spoons of mashed berries into it. Stir the drink, you can add a little natural honey to it. Only do this when the tea has cooled down a bit, because honey completely loses its beneficial properties in hot water. The resulting infusion will enrich your body with vitamins and certainly improve your mood. You can safely drink it even several times a day, your body will only be “delighted” with such a diet.
There are other versions of the classic sea buckthorn tea, but in general there is not much difference between them.
With additives
If you diversify classic tea with berries with any additives, you will not only improve the taste of the drink, but also make it much more useful. In addition, this is a great option for those who like to drink sea buckthorn tea often, but do not want to limit themselves to a couple of recipes.
Honey
This recipe involves adding more honey than in the classic version.You will need: 3 large spoons of chopped berries, half a liter of boiling water, half a fresh lemon and a couple of small spoons of honey. Mashed berries must be infused in boiling water for about 30-40 minutes, but not longer. Then the resulting broth must be filtered.
To do this, use ordinary gauze or a fine sieve. Next, put honey, lemon juice in the berry gruel, stir everything until smooth. Such a blank will become a kind of tea leaves, which should be diluted with water and then stored in the refrigerator if you did not drink everything at once.
The drink is useful to drink in the evening or after hard work, as it quickly relieves fatigue.
Also, the infusion helps the body cope with harmful toxins. And this has a beneficial effect on the entire system of internal organs in general and on the condition of the skin in particular.
Spices
A tasty and fragrant hot drink is indispensable in winter, as it helps not only to strengthen the immune system, but also perfectly improves mood in the cold season. To cook it, you need to take about 300 grams of prepared berries and cook them for 5 minutes. Then mash them, put in puree 1 chopped orange with zest, 5 clove flowers, the same amount of cinnamon sticks, a little mint and sugar.
The resulting composition should stand for about 10-15 minutes, after which it can be drunk. If desired, you can replace the cinnamon sticks with powder, but then the infusion will no longer be so beautiful and festive. You can not add sugar at all or replace it with fructose or honey.
Herbs
This recipe has won the hearts of thousands of people. It has a great aroma and simply unforgettable taste. Be sure to try cooking it to pamper your family and guests. Here is a list of ingredients that are needed for such a drink:
- green tea;
- sea buckthorn - 100 g;
- a little cinnamon;
- honey (preferably flower);
- star anise;
- slice of lemon;
- 2 cm ginger root;
- mint leaves.
The method of preparation of this wonderful tea will not cause you any difficulties. In a suitable glass container, combine the fruits, chopped ginger and boiling water. Then put a little star anise, lemon and cinnamon in the broth.
Let the drink stand for 5 minutes, and then remove the cinnamon stick and lemon from it. This is necessary so that in the future the drink does not become bitter.
Now sweeten the tea with honey. Pass the resulting liquid through a fine strainer and pour into cups, filling them about halfway. In the remaining space, you need to add pre-prepared green tea.
At the end, sprinkle some mint on top, this will give a unique flavor to the tea. This tonic drink perfectly improves the tone of the body.
Ginger
Both sea buckthorn and ginger have long been known for their strengthening properties. Therefore, if you want to prepare a drink that will 100% protect you from colds or speed up recovery if you are already infected, then by all means remember this recipe. Brew some of your favorite tea, whether black or green.
Add to it a small spoonful of grated fresh ginger root. When the tea is brewed, add a spoonful of grated berries to it. Let the broth stand for a while so that all the ingredients are cooked, and the tea acquires an expressive and pleasant taste. You can also add a little honey, then the viruses will definitely not have any chance.
Orange
This is another recipe for a bright and fragrant decoction, which significantly increases the body's resistance and compensates for the lack of vitamins in it.Peel the orange from the skin and chop it into thin slices.
Do the same procedure with fresh lemon. Put the fruit in a container with 300 g of grated fruit, pour boiling water over it and wait a few minutes. If desired, you can diversify the taste with cinnamon and honey.
Cranberry
Another incredibly popular sea buckthorn tea recipe. Take about 200 g of peeled berries, half a lemon, a whole orange, half a liter of orange juice, 60 g of fresh or frozen cranberries and sugar sand, 600 ml of pure water, 3 cinnamon sticks. It is necessary to prepare the main mixture and syrup. The mixture is prepared from crushed orange and sea buckthorn with the addition of cranberries.
It must be placed in a teapot and diluted with water. The syrup is prepared in the classical way from granulated sugar and water. After both components are ready, it remains only to thoroughly mix them together and serve. You will definitely like this drink!
Unusual Options
Tea with mint and honey can be tasted quite often. Therefore, for those who want to cook something truly unusual, we have selected the most original and rare varieties of tea with the addition of sea buckthorn.
- With quince. Make a puree of 150 g of fruits, pour some sugar sand there, let stand for a couple of minutes and pass everything through a strainer. Pour the resulting mixture with 400 ml of boiling water, put pear syrup, quince jam into the broth. Then strain the tea and pour into portions. You can replace quince jam with any other that you have in stock.
- With cherry, cinnamon and orange. Crush 300 grams of sea buckthorn berries, combine with chopped orange, cherry leaves, cinnamon stick. Infuse the product for about 15-20 minutes, and then sweeten it a little with sugar.But do not keep the drink too long, otherwise it will taste bitter.
- With pear. You can simply add a little pear puree to the classic sea buckthorn tea. Then the drink will become softer and more pleasant to the taste, and will also be more nutritious. You can prepare it this way: put 2 cups of berries and 2 peeled and chopped pears in a food processor. Make a puree from these ingredients, add a little grated orange peel and a couple of tablespoons of ordinary black tea without any additives to it. Place the resulting mixture in a saucepan, cover with water, put on the stove and cook until bubbles appear. After that, remove the container from the heat and leave for 10 minutes. Sea buckthorn-pear tea is ready!
- With apple juice. For this recipe, apples of absolutely any variety, even ranetki, will fit. Make juice from 5 large or medium apples, put it on the stove and wait for it to boil. Next, fill them with a couple of glasses of crushed sea buckthorn, dilute with hot water. If you put honey in a cup with a drink, then the tea will become even more fragrant, tastier and healthier.
- With rosehip. This decoction can be drunk both hot and cold. It perfectly relaxes and restores the human nervous system. Put a metal container on the stove, pour half a liter of water into it, pour in a little crushed rosehip and chamomile. After a couple of minutes, put sea buckthorn in the broth and brew future tea under the lid for about 30 minutes. Strain it and serve it to the table!
- With raspberries and sea buckthorn. This recipe for vitamin tea is quite simple, but very interesting. Take raspberries and sea buckthorn in a ratio of 5 to 1, mash them. Add dried or fresh blackcurrant leaves. Pour boiling water over and leave for about 15 minutes.
- Ivan tea with sea buckthorn. If you combine Ivan tea and sea buckthorn together, then you will get a real elixir of vigor, youth and health, which is easy to brew at home. You need 1 large spoonful of berries and Ivan tea. Grind them together, fill with hot water and wait 10 minutes. Sweeten the drink if desired.
- From the leaves (fermented). There is great benefit not only in the fruits, but also in the leaves of the solar tree. You already know how to harvest leaves, it remains only to prepare a healing decoction. Take in equal proportions the greens of sea buckthorn, cherries and apple trees. If they are fresh, then wash them thoroughly and chop them, then dry them.
If you already have blanks of leaves, then just mix them together and pour boiling water over them. Leave for about 15 minutes and drink. You can use the greens of not only cherries and apple trees, but also any other plants that produce edible fruits.
Helpful Hints
Prepare gruel from berries in wooden, enameled, glass or stainless dishes, you should not choose metal containers. This is due to the fact that upon contact with metal, the berries can change their properties and lose their benefits.
If you decide to freeze sea buckthorn for the winter, make sure that the fruits are stored for no longer than six months. After this time, they will no longer be healing.
In a bad mood, you should definitely please yourself with a cup of a beautiful and fragrant sea buckthorn drink. With regular use, it will be an excellent addition to the complex treatment of depression.
Do not boil the berries for too long, otherwise they will lose their properties. Also, do not fill them with too hot water.
You can make jam, jam, compote, marmalade and even punch from sea buckthorn.It is better not to prepare a lot of tea at once, but to make it in small portions, since a fresh drink has a milder taste and brings more benefits to the body.
Now you know almost everything about sea buckthorn tea. Do not be afraid to experiment, create your own unique recipes and try new things!
You can learn more about how to make sea buckthorn tea in the next video.