10 Best Tasting Herbal Teas
Herbal teas have become popular when it comes to beverages that offer both a satisfying taste and a wide range of benefits. No other drink does this! Herbal teas provide you an endless variety of flavours, especially for those who don't enjoy or love the taste of regular teas. From spicy and fruity to earthy and floral, herbal teas are for satisfying your taste buds.
There are endless choices for herbal teas, and while not all of them are known for taste, they all have their time and place. Stepping into produce or grocery stores, you'll most likely see tea boxes and bags on shelves for miles. With endless choices to pick from, it can be quite tough to select the right herbal tea.
Luckily enough, we have a list to help guide you through the maze of herbal teas. Here's a list of 10 best tasting herbal teas to pick from and to discover. Select a flavour that best satisfies your taste buds, and let's delve into the aromatic and flavourful taste of the best tasting herbal teas.
What Are Herbal Teas
Well, let's raise a disclaimer here. Herbal teas aren't exactly true teas. While true teas come from the (Camellia sinensis) tea plant's leaves, herbal teas are made from flowers, leaves, and different plants' roots.
True teas are oolong teas, black teas and green teas, while herbal teas are brewed from herbs, spices, flowers, or dried fruits.
If you've ever tasted a bitter-tasting concoction or herbal drink, then the chances are that you're not new to herbal teas. However, it is essential to note that not all herbal teas are bitter tasting, as they can be delicious when they want to. Some of them are packed with so much flavour that you can't help but include them in your daily routine or menu.
Herbal teas are famous for their health benefits spanning from aiding weight loss to improving digestion. Prominent to the Americas and Asian continents, herbal teas have a wide range of flavours available for picky tea drinkers. You are bound to find a flavour that appeals to you.
1. Hibiscus Tea
Hibiscus tea, popularly called sorrel or roselle, tastes similar to cranberries and has a sharp taste topped with a rejuvenating finish. This tasting herbal tea is often drunk with a tablespoonful of sugar or a dash of honey, and when brewed, it has a red or gorgeous pink colour.
This fantastic herbal tea is made from the vibrantly coloured flowers of the hibiscus plant. Enjoyed hot or cold, the hibiscus tea has a tart, flavourful taste. Hibiscus tea is renowned for its traditional use as a natural remedy that helps improve the total well-being of the body. Excluding its unique flavour and vibrant colour, hibiscus tea is enriched with a lot of healthy properties.
Hibiscus tea has immense health benefits. It's natural properties help reduce high blood pressure and decrease oxidative stress (1). This herbal tea contains flavonoids, polyphenols, organic acids, and high concentrations of Vitamin C to fight off the common cold, boost the immune system and help support overall health.
If you enjoy sour and tarty flavours, then this vibrantly coloured herbal tea is for you. It perfectly combines with other herbs and fruits to give you that refreshing taste and flavour that cannot be compared to other teas.
Takeaway: Hibiscus tea may help fight oxidative stress and lower high blood pressure.
2. Chamomile Tea
Due to its numerous health benefits, chamomile tea sits at the top of the tasting herbal tea shelf. Chamomile tea may help regulate blood sugar, lower high blood pressure, induce relaxation, and soothe stress after a long and stressful day. It is often drunk to aid one's sleep, improve one's sleep quality, and reduce depression and anxiety (2).
That's not all chamomile tea has to offer, as it is also believed to protect the liver and have anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. It is even thought that it may help combat stomach ulcers and diarrhea. Other research and studies also show that chamomile tea can improve blood lipid levels, insulin, and glucose and reduce premenstrual syndrome symptoms.
Takeaway: Chamomile tea is renowned for its calming and soothing properties and may improve insulin, blood lipids, and blood sugar levels. One of the worlds top choices for unwinding is a cup of Chamomile tea with a few candles and some quiet reflection.
3. Lavender Tea
The Lavender is famous for being one of the most enriching plants in the world.
This vividly purple-coloured flower is not a wallflower from its fragrances and soaps to essential oils and nourishing tea taste. With its calming effects, the Lavender tea is also a perfect contender for bedtime.
It offers an aromatic fragrance and a delicate flavour that showcases how much health benefits it possesses. Its distinctive and mild flavour may feature hints of mint and rosemary. Other flavours may be woody or smoky, while others can be sweet or floral.
Lavender tea helps improve the quality of sleep by inducing a calm and relaxing effect in your system. This soothing effect can help to treat sleep disorders and improve sleep. Do you want to achieve a night of restful sleep? Drink a cup of lavender tea before bed. Lavender tea reduces cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, and increases dopamine production.
Lavender tea is also enriched with antibacterial, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties to fight against the flu and the common cold. it also helps boost the immune system, reduce inflammation of the muscles and joints, minimize muscle spasms, and keep the immune system healthy to fight off viral, fungal, and bacterial infections (3)
When you take a cup of lavender tea before bed, there is a triggering of chemical reactions in the nervous system to help soothe the brain's function and induce it into a deep slow-wave sleep for proper restoration. After a tough day, unwind with a cup of lavender tea and feel your system get restored and rejuvenated.
Takeaway: Lavender reduces the stress hormone and increases the dopamine to ensure that one stays relaxed and calm.
4. Rose Tea
Rose petal tea is made from the aromatic buds and petals of the rose flowers. It is a fragrant herbal tea that has loads of potential benefits to offer when consumed.
The flavour is floral, subtle, and light, and you can sweeten it with a dash of honey or drunk plain. It's refreshing to the taste and can be added to a daily diet. Rose petal tea is naturally caffeine-free, making it an excellent choice for those who can't tolerate caffeine intake's adverse side effects.
This herbal tea is primarily composed of water, and the regular consumption of it can significantly contribute to one's daily water intake. This means that as an added benefit, the rose petal tea offers hydration and weight loss benefits. Drinking inadequate amounts of water daily can accumulate to dehydration, leading to rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, skin problems, headaches, fatigue, and general body weakness.
Rose petals tea also functions as a great weight loss mechanism because it boosts your metabolism, reduces your calorie intake, and helps you prevent kidney stones. Apart from that, rose petal tea is rich in polyphenols and antioxidants to help combat oxidative stress, reduce premature aging, protect the brain from degenerative diseases, and boost the immune system.
It just keeps getting better and better as the rose petals tea is also loaded up on a whooping richness of gallic acid, which contains analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anticancer properties. These loaded benefits help by leading to healthy aging, lowering some cancers' risk, and improving the memory, eye health, and urinary tract (4).
Takeaway: Rose Petals Tea is a natural caffeine-free beverage rich in antioxidants and is an excellent hydration source.
5. Chrysanthemum Tea
The Chinese flower tea, Chrysanthemum, is one traditional herbal tea that adds so much flavour into one's life.
Richly endowed with antioxidative properties and other health benefits, Chrysanthemum tea is one herbal tea that gives you a pure, undiluted, soothing taste.
Found worldwide in flower beds and garden plots, the Chrysanthemum's many-petaled flowers differ from bright red to pale yellow. Chrysanthemum tea is brewed from the dried chrysanthemum flowers, and this gives it a similar flowery but mild flavour to that of the chamomile. This golden-hued tea can be drunk with a dash of lemon or drank pure, according to your taste.
Chrysanthemum tea tastes flowery, sweet, light, and refreshing when drank pure. For centuries, Chrysanthemum has been at the heart of Chinese traditional medicine, as it is used to treat high blood pressure and respiratory problems.
Apart from it being quite tasty, you can drink chrysanthemum tea whenever you are experiencing anxiety or feeling stressed, having a migraine or headache, and also when you need to aid digestion.
Due to its rejuvenating qualities, chrysanthemum tea is recommended for reducing cold symptoms and fever in its early stage. Research has also been carried out on the medical benefits of Chrysanthemum, and some have found that it can help reduce inflammation due to its anti-inflammatory properties (5)
Takeaway: Chrysanthemum may help you reduce cholesterol, high blood pressure, and inflammation and serve as a great source of vitamins C and A.
6. Rooibos Tea
If you are one that wants to taste the flavour of a green tea without the extra caffeine, then the Rooibos tea is for you.
The green rooibos tea serves as an excellent choice for light green teas as it is caffeine-free and carries no extra baggage (except health benefits).
Get immense health benefits and flavourful tastes from mixing rooibos tea with other blends or just drinking it pure. You don't have to worry about it turning bitter after over-steeping it as rooibos tea has a one of a kind flavour.
Rooibos tea is a naturally caffeine-free tea, making it a great foundation tea for brewing flavoured teas. The green rooibos tea and the red rooibos tea are the two types of rooibos tea, but they have some differences.
While the green rooibos tea, which offers crisp yet light finishes with grassy undertones, often tends to have a malty flavour and is not oxidized, the red rooibos tea, which has a subtle tart finish with floral undertones, is oxidized. When dipped and submerged in hot water, the red rooibos tea gives off a vivid maroon red colour.
Rooibos tea is made up of fewer tannins, and this means that they are less likely to taste bitter steeped and brewed, as tannins are responsible for producing bitter flavours. Rooibos tea may help improve the health of the bone by providing it with growth and density (6)
Takeaway: Rooibos tea may improve the bone's health, but more research needs to be carried out upon it.
7. Lemon Myrtle Tea
Also known as the Sweet Verbena and native to Australia, Lemon myrtle tea has been used for flavouring and medicine in Australia for centuries. This is a much sought-after herbal tea as it is reported to contain the highest citral purity. It far outclasses all other citrus fruits and herbs and is notably suitable for blending teas or pure beverage.
Lemon myrtle tea has a strong undertone of citrus, so strong that it is quite distinct when used to blend other herbal teas. But that's not all that the lemon myrtle tea has to offer as it is loaded with numerous fantastic health properties. (7)
Lemon myrtle tea is enriched with antiviral, antibiotics, antioxidants, antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. With its antimicrobial properties, lemon myrtle tea helps stop the growth or kill off microorganisms in the body to prevent, control, and fight infections. The antibiotic properties present in lemon myrtle tea helps the body boost its immune system.
The antioxidant properties of the lemon myrtle tea are to restrict oxidization in the body. This prevents the growth of free radicals, which might go on to damage body cells. Coupled with its antiviral properties, the lemon myrtle tea helps prevent viruses from laying siege to the body system.
Takeaway: Lemon myrtle tea might be the all-star wonder when it comes to herbal teas as it has numerous health benefits to boost the immune system and help it fight against infections.
8. Elderflower Tea
Elderflower tea is gotten from the European Elder tree native to specific areas in Europe.
The tree has a strong fragrance and a pungent aromatic taste. Rich in vitamin C and other potential health benefits, it doesn't come as a wonder that it has been a critical factor in German medicine for centuries.
The taste's fantastic thing is its subtly sweet flavour and mild aroma, which can be consumed with or without sweeteners. While the taste isn't that strong, it has that flowery fragrance that leaves you wanting more.
Enriched with rich antiviral properties and antioxidant effects, the elderflower tea is quite famous for fighting flu, common cold, and symptoms. It is also rich in antioxidant properties and vitamin C to help the immune system fight premature aging (8)
The presence of antiviral properties and the high concentration of vitamin C make elderflower tea the right choice for keeping the body hydrated and the immune system healthy enough to fight the common cold and flu.
The high vitamin C concentration helps protect the skin from harm and improves the ligaments, tendons, and blood vessels. The powerful antioxidant properties of elderflower tea help repair and rejuvenate the body's cells and protect the body against oxidative stress.
Takeaway: Elderflower tea has antiviral and antioxidant properties to boost the immune system and help one fight flu and the common cold.
9.Jasmine Flower Buds Tea
Jasmine flower buds tea has a lot to offer, and from its very first taste, you're going to fall in love with it. Jasmine tea has a sweet finish and a deep aromatic smell and is scented or flavoured. Jasmine tea is often blended into black tea or white tea and tastes depending on its true tea base.
However, jasmine green tea has a slightly delicate floral flavour that leaves one with an aromatic aroma and a fresh finish. Apart from the delicate and subtle flavour, jasmine tea has a lot of health benefits to offer.
Jasmine tea helps give you that added boost of energy to get through the day, staying alert, and focusing better on what matters. Jasmine tea also helps with weight loss as it speeds up the metabolism, which helps your body process macro-nutrients and nutrients faster and quicker (9)
It is loaded with antioxidants and polyphenols that may help prevent cancer. The high levels of these properties enable jasmine tea to rid the body of all free radicals to inhibit cancer cells' growth, stop them, and even kill off mutated cancer cells. The antioxidants also help to protect the health of the heart and make it healthier. It does this by reducing the high levels of LDL cholesterol in the body.
Takeaway: Jasmine tea is a popular natural remedy, and when it comes to improving your health and lifestyle, you want to have it next to you in a cup.
10.Peppermint Tea
What better way to end the list of the ten best tasting herbal teas than with a delicious and refreshing peppermint tea?
Not all mints taste the same, and of the two most common mints, spearmint and peppermint, the spearmint has less menthol than the peppermint.
Peppermint tea is enriched with menthol, which gives you a fresher flavour. That's an overall freshness in your breath, your mind, and your body. In the world, peppermint tea is one of the most popular and commonly used herbal teas.
Popularly known to support and improve the digestive tract's health, peppermint tea also has antiviral, antibacterial, anticancer, and antioxidant properties. While most of these haven't been conducted on humans, several kinds of research have proven that peppermint has a lot to offer in helping the digestive tracts.
Peppermint tea can help relieve stomach pain, nausea, indigestion and relax spasms in the colon, oesophagus, and intestines. It is also quite effective at alleviating signs of irritable bowel syndrome (10)
Takeaway: Peppermint tea is an excellent natural remedy for indigestion, nausea, stomach pain, and cramping.
Herbal teas come in numerous flavours, and most of them are naturally free of calories, caffeine, and sugar.
Many of them are also enriched with potential health benefits and are immensely great for your body system. Don't hesitate to try out one of the ten herbal teas on this list. You're in for a load of benefits. Remember never to use herbs or teas on your prescription to treat severe medical conditions. Schedule an appointment with your doctor before you choose any home remedies.
Check out our top 10 healthiest herbal teas blog too, which outlines the herbal teas that are not just tasty, but are packed with nutritional health benefits as well!
