The Harvick Farms Herbal Tea Guide: Herbs to Grow, Brew & Enjoy

There’s something special about making a cup of tea from herbs you grew yourself.

At Harvick Farms, our herbal teas begin long before the kettle starts boiling. They begin in the garden — planting seeds, tending plants, harvesting leaves and flowers, drying them carefully, and experimenting with different combinations until we find a blend we love.

But you don't need a huge garden or dozens of different plants to start making your own herbal tea.

A few carefully chosen herbs can give you an incredible variety of flavors and blends.

So whether you're looking for an herb traditionally used for relaxation, something refreshing after a meal, or simply a delicious caffeine-free drink from the garden, here's our guide to some of our favorite herbs for tea.

🌿 Lemongrass

Flavor: Bright, citrusy and refreshing
Use: Traditionally enjoyed as a calming, relaxing herbal tea
Use in tea: Leaves and tender portions of the stalk

Lemongrass is one of our favorite plants for creating a fresh citrus flavor without actually adding lemon.

The long leaves have an incredible lemony aroma when cut or crushed and can be used fresh or dried for tea.

Lemongrass makes a wonderful simple tea on its own, but it also blends beautifully with herbs like lemon balm, chamomile, mint and ginger.

Try blending:
Lemongrass + Lemon Balm + Chamomile

Garden tip: Lemongrass loves warmth and sunshine. It can grow into a surprisingly large plant over the course of a Missouri summer, giving you plenty to harvest and dry for winter.

🌼 Chamomile

Flavor: Light, floral and slightly sweet
Use: Traditionally enjoyed for relaxation and as an evening tea
Use in tea: Flowers

Chamomile may be one of the most recognizable herbs associated with herbal tea.

The small flowers are harvested when fully open and can be dried for use throughout the year.

Its mild flavor also makes chamomile a fantastic foundation for blends rather than something that always needs to be enjoyed by itself.

Try blending:
Chamomile + Lemongrass + Lemon Balm

🌿 Lemon Balm

Flavor: Mild lemon with soft herbal notes
Use: Traditionally used in herbal preparations associated with relaxation and general well-being
Use in tea: Leaves

Lemon balm is a member of the mint family and is an excellent addition to a home tea garden.

Crush a leaf between your fingers and you'll immediately understand its name — it releases a wonderful lemony aroma.

It can be enjoyed alone or combined with other citrus and floral herbs.

Try blending:
Lemon Balm + Lemongrass + Mint

🌱 Peppermint

Flavor: Strong, cooling and refreshing
Use: Traditionally enjoyed after meals and for its refreshing qualities
Use in tea: Leaves

Peppermint is one of the easiest ways to add a bold flavor to an herbal tea blend.

A little can go a long way.

It's delicious on its own and pairs particularly well with softer herbs that benefit from a brighter flavor.

Try blending:
Peppermint + Chamomile + Lemon Balm

Garden tip: Mint likes to spread — a lot. Consider growing it in a container unless you're prepared to let it claim some territory.

🌱 Spearmint

Flavor: Sweet, mild and minty
Use: A refreshing everyday herbal tea
Use in tea: Leaves

Spearmint gives you the refreshing character of mint without quite as much intensity as peppermint.

That makes it particularly useful in blends.

We use spearmint as one of the ingredients in our Second-Wind Herbal Tea alongside chamomile, lemon balm, mullein, rose petals and raspberry leaf.

Try blending:
Spearmint + Lemon Balm + Chamomile

💜 Lavender

Flavor: Floral and aromatic
Use: Traditionally associated with relaxation and evening herbal preparations
Use in tea: Flowers

Lavender can completely change a tea blend — but restraint is important.

Too much can overpower everything else.

A small amount adds a wonderful floral aroma and pairs especially well with chamomile, lemon balm and passionflower.

Try blending:
Lavender + Chamomile + Lemon Balm

🌿 Mullein

Flavor: Mild and earthy
Use: Has a long history of traditional use in herbal preparations associated with respiratory wellness
Use in tea: Primarily leaves

Mullein is an unmistakable plant in the garden with its large, incredibly soft leaves.

At Harvick Farms, mullein is one of the primary herbs we use in our Breathe Easy Tea.

Because dried mullein leaves have very fine hairs, mullein tea should be strained thoroughly through a fine filter before drinking.

Try blending:
Mullein + Chamomile + Cinnamon

🌺 Passionflower

Flavor: Mild, grassy and earthy
Use: Traditionally used in herbal preparations associated with relaxation
Use in tea: Appropriate aerial portions of the plant

Passionflower — also known as maypop — is one of the most fascinating plants to add to an herbal garden.

Its extraordinary flowers make it beautiful enough to grow ornamentally, it provides food for pollinators, and established plants can produce edible maypop fruit.

We enjoy experimenting with passionflower alongside floral herbs such as lavender and rose.

Try blending:
Passionflower + Lavender + Rose Petals

Want to dive deeper?

Read our complete How to Make Passionflower Tea guide for more information about growing, harvesting and using passionflower from the garden.

🌹 Rose Petals

Flavor: Delicate, floral and lightly sweet
Use: Flavor, aroma and color in herbal blends
Use in tea: Petals from appropriately grown, unsprayed roses

Rose petals can turn an ordinary herbal blend into something special.

They add beautiful color and a subtle floral character without necessarily dominating the cup.

Try blending:
Rose + Chamomile + Lemon Balm

🍃 Raspberry Leaf

Flavor: Mild, earthy and similar to traditional tea
Use: Long history of use in traditional herbal preparations
Use in tea: Leaves

Raspberry leaves don't taste much like raspberries.

Instead, they have a mild flavor that works well as a base for more aromatic ingredients.

They're particularly useful when you want the flavor of mint, flowers or citrus herbs to take center stage.

Try blending:
Raspberry Leaf + Spearmint + Lemon Balm

🌿 Nettle

Flavor: Earthy, green and vegetal
Use: Traditionally consumed as a nourishing herbal infusion
Use in tea: Properly handled and prepared leaves

Nettle is one of those plants that perfectly demonstrates why learning about the plants around us can be so rewarding.

Yes — this is stinging nettle.

Fresh nettle needs to be handled carefully because of its stinging hairs, but properly dried or cooked nettle has been used in food and herbal preparations for generations.

Try blending:
Nettle + Mint + Lemon Balm

Quick Herbal Tea Guide

If You're Looking For...	Herbs to Explore
A relaxing evening blend	Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Lemongrass, Lavender, Passionflower
Something refreshing	Peppermint, Spearmint, Lemongrass
Citrus flavor	Lemongrass, Lemon Balm
Floral flavor	Chamomile, Lavender, Rose
An earthy tea base	Raspberry Leaf, Nettle, Mullein
A garden-to-cup beginner herb	Mint, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Lemongrass
Herbs that blend well together	Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Lemongrass & Mint

Fresh Herbs vs. Dried Herbs

You don't have to wait until your herbs are dried to make tea.

Many herbs can be brewed fresh directly from the garden.

Because fresh herbs contain considerably more water than dried herbs, you'll generally need more fresh plant material to achieve a similar strength.

The fun part is experimenting.

Start light. Taste your tea. Add more if needed.

Over time, you'll discover exactly how strong you like each herb.

How We Harvest Herbs at Harvick Farms

Quality herbal tea starts with quality plants.

Whenever possible, we harvest herbs when they're healthy and at the appropriate stage of growth for the portion of the plant we're using.

Flowers such as chamomile are gathered when they're open.

Leaf herbs such as lemon balm and mint can be harvested throughout the growing season.

Lemongrass can provide repeated harvests of its fragrant foliage during warm weather.

After harvesting, we inspect and prepare the herbs before drying them for later use.

How to Dry Herbs for Tea

There are several ways to preserve your harvest.

Air Drying

Many herbs can be bundled loosely or placed on drying screens in a dry, well-ventilated location away from direct sunlight.

Dehydrating

A dehydrator gives you greater control and can make drying considerably faster, especially during humid Missouri summers.

We generally want gentle temperatures that remove moisture without unnecessarily cooking the herbs.

Knowing When They're Done

Herbs need to be thoroughly dry before long-term storage.

Leaves should generally feel crisp rather than flexible, and remaining moisture should not be trapped inside your storage container.

How to Store Your Homegrown Tea Herbs

Once they're completely dry, keep your herbs:

• In airtight containers
• Away from direct sunlight
• Away from excessive heat
• Away from moisture

And don't forget to label them!

Write down the herb and harvest year. It's surprisingly easy to convince yourself you'll remember what's in every jar — until several months later when you're staring at six jars of dried green leaves.

How to Make a Simple Herbal Tea Blend

You don't need a complicated recipe.

Start with three components:

1. Your base herb
This provides most of the body of the tea.

2. Your featured herb
This provides the flavor or character you're looking for.

3. Your accent
A smaller amount of something like lavender, rose, cinnamon or mint can completely change the finished tea.

For example:

Simple Garden Relaxation Blend

• 2 parts chamomile
• 1 part lemon balm
• 1 part lemongrass
• ½ part lavender

Combine the dried herbs gently and store the finished blend in an airtight container.

How to Brew Herbal Tea

A simple starting point is approximately 1–2 teaspoons of dried herbs per 8 ounces of water, although the ideal amount and steeping time depend on the herbs you're using.

Pour hot water over the herbs, cover the cup, and allow them to steep.

Most simple leaf and flower blends are a good place to begin with a 5–10 minute steep.

Then strain and taste.

Too weak? Use a little more herb or steep longer next time.

Too strong? Use less.

That's part of learning to make tea from your own garden.

Start Your Own Herbal Tea Garden

You don't need to grow everything on this list.

Start with a few herbs you'll actually use.

If we were starting our first tea garden, we'd consider:

Chamomile + Lemon Balm + Lemongrass + Mint

Those four alone give you an incredible number of combinations.

Then expand as you learn what you enjoy.

That's one of our favorite things about growing herbs: the garden doesn't just give you ingredients. It teaches you how to use them.

Over the next several weeks, we'll be taking you into the herb garden at Harvick Farms and looking at these plants individually — how we grow them, when we harvest them, how we preserve them and how we use them.

So follow along.

Your next favorite cup of tea might already be growing in your garden.

From Our Farm to Your Cup

Don't want to make your own blend yet?

You can explore our Harvick Farms loose-leaf herbal teas, including our Breathe Easy Tea, or learn how to begin building your own home apothecary with herbs and DIY remedies.

And if you're following our herb series on social media, bookmark this guide. We'll continue adding more of the herbs we're growing and experimenting with at Harvick Farms.

Happy growing, harvesting and brewing! 🌿☕