Tea Bags and a Curling Iron ....

I'm sure you're wondering what possible connection there could be between a tea bag and a curling iron?

I would have never put the two in the same sentence either... at least not until today!

You see, I discovered that I can make my very own tea bags!  Yes!

Do you know how many boxes of tea I've got stashed away in my drawers... .. suffice it to say...  I'll be drinking tea for a long, long time!

But... there is something about being able to mix and make your very own herbal tea, which is something I've been interested in for a while.

I decided to get creative with all the bags of tea, and herbs I've collected from my garden and from different places, and create my very own herbal tea mix!

I used loose-leaf herbal teas and herbs and combined them together in three different jars... I made a "black tea" jar, a "green tea" jar, and a peppermint tea jar... which are three of the most common tea bases I drink.



Now this is where things get a bit unusual... I brought out my curling iron as the heating element to seal the tea bags that I had filled with my herbal tea mixture.



Pretty cool isn't it!  I just let the heat from the curling iron seal the top of the tea bag closed after filling with one of my tea mixtures.

You can buy tea bags to be filled in different places online.  You can shop around for the best deal or for what suits your purposes, but there are several places that offer these refillable tea bags.

After heat setting the tea bag, I was eager to taste and see!

You can see how plump and happy this tea bag was and no sign of tea leaves trying to escape!

One of the things I included in my herbal tea mix were some rose hips.  I became interested in rose hips after learning how high they were in vitamin C and what an easy way it is to add extra vitamin C to your diet.  You can read more about rose hips and the great potential they offer at www.herbwisdom.com.  I've included a short excerpt from the Herb Wisdom website where you can go and read more about rose hips:

Rose hips are the best source of vitamin C; they contain 50% more vitamin C than oranges. A single tablespoon of the pulp gives an adult more than the recommended daily allowance of 60 mg. They can be eaten raw, after being put through a blender, or soaked in water overnight and then cooked in the water for about half an hour. Because of the high vitamin C content they are an excellent immune system booster, and are often used as a supplement to prevent or treat a cold. The pulp from rose hips may be used in sauces or made into jelly.

So you can see just how beneficial rose hips are to the immune system, and that is why I added them to all of my herbal tea mixes.  This makes it easier to get all the good things I like to drink in hot tea, all in one great place! And...  I found out that I could gather my very own rose hips in my yard from all the wild roses that grow everywhere!  That will be a project I look forward to doing next fall!

It is really nice to drink a nice cup of hot tea knowing that you gathered or played a part in mixing all the herbs in the tea you are drinking.  With all the flu and cold bugs hanging around this time of year, I find that drinking hot tea really helps to boost the immune system very much.

And since we've been having this kind of weather the past week or so - heavy fog that just shrouds the air for days on end now... kind of dreary, with the snow melting slowly away, and mud/ice everywhere...

... a nice cup of hot herbal tea while I look outside at this foggy scene over the past several days has helped to boost not only my immune system, but my spirits :)

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