Of all of the wellness practices that I try to maintain in my life, one of the most important ones happens to also be the one that I have the most difficulty with. Staying hydrated. I make jokes with my friends and family about being a camel because I almost never feel thirsty, but chances are, I’m actually just not very attuned to my own body’s need for water. Because of this, I try to find interesting ways of making the process of staying hydrated more of an enjoyable ritual than a chore, and creating a variety of different kinds of teas is one of my very favorite ways to do this.
I’ve never met a tea I didn’t love. Well, that might not be entirely true, but I am a little bit of a tea hoarder. I have all kinds in my kitchen cabinets from matcha to early grey to a whole host of unusual tea blends for every possible mood or ailment. I usually like to enjoy them plain or with a splash of almond or coconut milk, but occasionally, I get experimental and add random things in like fresh ginger, fennel, cinnamon, or in this case, goji berries.
I had seen my friend, Melissa Rousseau, soak goji berries as part of a tea making process at a gathering at her home and had made a mental note that I should try it at some point, but forgot until the other day. I had put some gojis in some water to soak, undecided about what I was going to do with them just yet, when I got a craving for some Osmanthus tea and realized the gojis would go perfectly with it!
This tea is so easy to make and it’s perfect for caffeine-sensitive people like me since Osmanthus tea is actually a naturally caffeine-free tisane made up of only Osmanthus blossoms with no actual tea leaves. It’s very quickly become one of my favorite things to sip on throughout the day and it’s kind of fun to nibble on a soaked Goji berry every so often. Here’s the process…
Goji Berry and Osmanthus Blossom Tea
Ingredients
- Osmanthus tea (I buy the loose blossoms from the Funnel Mill in Santa Monica)
- Goji berries
- Water
- Manuka Honey (If you're vegan or sensitive to sugars, I recommend Omica Organics Liquid Stevias because they are incredibly high quality and haver a softer taste than other stevias I've tried)
Directions
Place Gojis in 1-1 ½ cups of water for several hours up to overnight. Then prepare Osmanthus tea by doing the following. If you have an electric kettle, add a couple of cups of water, set the kettle to delicate, and start it. Or, heat a couple of cups of water on the stove until steaming. Boiling the water isn’t disastrous but the Osmanthus tea has a more complex flavor when the flowers aren’t boiled. If your Osmanthus tea is in a bag or you’re using a tea ball, steep it for the appropriate time on the package, otherwise, place ½ - 1 tablespoon of Osmanthus flowers in a tea pot with a built in tea strainer and pour the hot water over the flowers. Immediately empty the tea into another container and mix in either 1-2 teaspoons of Manuka honey or a drop or two of stevia depending on desired sweetness. Then add the water with the Goji berries in it to the freshly prepared tea. This tea is delicious warm, cold, and at room temperature! Enjoy!
