beverage Archives | Page 13 of 24

a simple winter season sip + a tea meditation | plant-based magic via the sweet miscellany blog

Though I’ve been using herbs as a support system in my life over the past several years, this year I decided to dive deeper. I began the year reading books by Rosemary Gladstar, Rosalee de la Foret, and Paul Beyerl. I took copious notes on the herbs I read about and added my own after noticing how I experienced them in my body. I ordered several varieties of medicinal herb seeds to experiment with in my garden. I wanted to cultivate a deeper relationship with them by noticing how they responded to various temperatures, the soil they liked, and how much sun and water they required. And I wanted to be able to watch them grow from seed, observing every stage of life. Over the course of the year I began to notice how my needs changed with the seasons and what herbal allies worked best. And in doing all of this I realized how much there is to continue learning about. To continue experimenting with. To continue evolving and shifting.

One of my biggest herbal allies this year has been tulsi. I learned throughout the course of the year that it grows prolifically in my garden if given the chance. And every time I’m outside in the garden, if the breeze blows and I’m down wind from the tulsi, it carries the uniquely spicy, floral, and licorice-like scent to my nose. And it makes me pause, close my eyes, and smile. In the warmer months I used tulsi fresh as it was abundant, making sun teas, hydrosol, and even adding it to my food. As much as I was using fresh I was also harvesting to dry for use in the colder months.

Aside from really enjoying the taste and smell, tulsi has been a lovely support for my nervous system. It encourages me to slow down, check in with my breath, and cultivate presence. It gives me a boost when I’m feeling run-down, and it allows me to relax when my nerves are a bit frayed. Along with lovely chamomile, tulsi is the herb I’ve been turning to most as we move towards winter and the holiday season.

Since this time of year seems to always be accompanied by stress, I wanted to offer this simple herbal tea to sip on as well as a short meditation you can do while making (and enjoying) the tea. The goal of the meditation is to help you feel a bit more grounded and present while the herbs in the tea work on your nervous and digestive system. The tea meditation can be done any time of the day you feel you need the support. Though I have a specific tea blend listed below, please feel free to do this with any tea blend you like.

Winter Season Sip + Tea Meditation

for one serving you’ll need: 1 1/2 tsp dried tulsi and 1 1/2 tsp dried chamomile

Carefully select your mug. Maybe you choose a favorite that is aesthetically pleasing or one that feels right in your hands. Add the tea/herbs to your teapot (I tend to use a small french press). Close your eyes and smell the tea. Notice what thoughts or emotions might bubble up. Can you think of at least 3 words to describe the scent?

Set your water to boil. While the water is coming to a boil, close your eyes and notice the pace of your breath. Inhale, exhale. After five or so breaths, begin to even out the breath, making both inhale and exhale of equal length. Continue this even rate of breath. Allow the sound of the whistling kettle to draw your awareness to the present moment and open your eyes.

Pour 8 to 12 oz of the just-boiled water over your tea. Set a timer for the steep time of your tea (for this blend it will steep 10-15 minutes). As the tea steeps, close your eyes once again and this time check in with your body. Relax your shoulders. Release any clenching in your jaw, glutes, fingers, or toes. Can you feel for the back of your head balanced over the back of your heart and the back of your heart balanced over the back of your pelvis? Can you feel your feet evenly weighted on the floor, from front to back and right to left? Stand with ease. The longer you stand imagine your feet like roots, providing support for your body and connecting you to the stability and nourishment of the earth. Yield to the gentle sway that begins to happen in your body. As the timer sounds, open your eyes.

Strain your tea and pour it into the mug you’ve chosen. Sweeten or amend it as needed, then find a cozy spot to sit. Allow yourself the time and space to enjoy your tea without distractions. Savor each sip, noticing the flavors and how they may evolve as they hit your tongue. After the last sip, move on with the rest of your day.

A homemade tulsi basil syrup is mixed with sparkling water for a refreshing and summery soda. You can use this vegan and gluten free syrup to sweeten teas and pancakes or to make other mocktails and cocktails!

Despite drinking tulsi tea for several years, this spring was the first time I attempted to grow it. Now that’s its been a part of my plant collection for several months, it’s hard to fathom my garden without its unique scent that hits the nose upon the slightest tousle of the leaves! The scent is hard to explain other than saying it is incredibly lovely and complex. It has hints of mint, licorice, and cloves along with a distinct fruitiness. Aside from smelling and looking beautiful, tulsi has been one of the few plants in my garden to endure and thrive in the summer heat.

Growing Tulsi Basil in the Garden

Tulsi is fairly easy to grow from seed or transplants. Once established, it is moderately drought tolerant and will survive and thrive through the heat of the summer. I have some planted in the sun as well as the shade and it grows well in both locations. In the sun it will flower significantly quicker than in the shade. Just like most varieties of basil, tulsi is sensitive to the cold weather. Make sure to harvest before any cold snaps or freezes. If you allow tulsi to flower, it will attract plenty of beautiful pollinators, particularly bees. It makes a good companion plant for any vegetables you are growing that need pollinating such as members of the nightshade family or squashes.

Herb Profile: Tulsi Basil (Ocimum sanctum, O. tenuiflorum, O. gratissimum)

A member of the mint family, tulsi basil (also called holy basil) is native to South Asia. The species name sanctum refers to the sacred nature of the plant. In Indian culture it is considered sacred to the Hindu god Vishnu who considers the herb to be an incarnation of the goddess Lakshmi. There are a few different types of tulsi basil though the most common in the United States (and what I grow at home) is Ocimum sanctum. Tulsi has been widely used in Ayurvedic medicine as a “rasayana herb” or one that nourishes a person to perfect health and promotes a long life.

Energetically tulsi can be slightly warming or cooling and has a pungent taste. In Western herbalism, it has a wide variety of uses though its most popular application is as an adaptogen. Adaptogens work by helping the body respond to stressors in a measured way which in turn provides balance by reducing the negative affects stress has on the physical and emotional body.

How I Use Tulsi Basil

In my kitchen, tulsi gets the most use as a digestive aid and a nervous system supporter. The most common way I use it is in tea (either fresh or dried) though I frequently use it in a culinary sense in much the same way as sweet basil. When using it as tea, I’ll brew a cup to enjoy after a particularly heavy meal, when my nerves are feeling a little frazzled, or just because. Lately, I’ve been making batches of tulsi syrup with the dried herb and enjoying it with sparkling water for a refreshing homemade soda! It’s super simple to make and has a lovely summery flavor.

Tulsi Basil Soda

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Author: Courtney West
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 1 cup syrup
Diet: Vegan

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Description

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups filtered water
1/2 cup dried tulsi basil leaves
3/4 cup raw sugar
sparkling water for serving

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Instructions

Bring the water to a boil in a small pot. Once it comes to a boil, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the tulsi, then cover the pot and allow the tulsi to steep for 20-30 minutes. Strain the tulsi out then add the infusion back to the pot along with the sugar. Heat the pot over medium heat. Simmer the syrup until it thickens and reduces by about a third. You want to have about 1 cup total of syrup. Store the syrup in an airtight jar. It will keep for a couple of weeks at room temperature though you can keep it in the fridge if you like.

To make tulsi soda: simply add however much syrup you like to sparkling water. For the glass in the photos I used about 1 1/2 to 2 tsp syrup.

Notes

You can use the syrup to sweeten tea, or anything else that you can think of (overnight oats, pancakes, etc.). You can also easily make this into a cocktail by adding a spirit like gin or vodka and topping it off with a slice of citrus.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Category: drink