Yarrow & elderflower tea | A tea worth foraging for

Last Updated on August 23, 2024 by Michelle

Yarrow Tea. It’s a thing, and today I’m telling you about how I stumbled upon it & why I love it.

This drink is one of Favorite Summer Drinks, all listed here as well.

Well, to be fair, it’s a tea blend of 4 ingredients (and I add my favorite sweetener), but I call it Yarrow Tea because it all started with the yarrow.

A few summers ago, I picked a bouquet of yarrow on my morning walk with Bixby.

As I passed all the prolific blooms the next morning, I realized I could collect a ton more and not even put a dent in this patch of flowers. So I pulled out my phone and googled “uses of yarrow” and–being a tea fanatic–“yarrow in tea.”

That day I waltzed home with armfuls of yarrow and loaded up my dehydrator.

Just a few walks later, I noticed the elderberry tree on an abandoned lot that I pass on my walk was blooming. That one I knew was a bloom I’d been wanting to collect and dry for teas, so… well… the rest is history…

I’ve discovered that this simple tea, made up of 5 functional ingredients that help me feel better (keep reading for the other three), is a choice I reach for again and again.

Yarrow Tea

It turns out I quickly found, when Bixby sat by the side of our winding road that summer morning and I scrolled google, yarrow is an amazing addition to tea (just to be clear–it’s great in hot and iced tea as well).

I love so many of it’s benefits, but if I had to pick just one to mention, I love that it helps with inflammation, which is the root of so many other issues. (Read 5 benefits of yarrow here.)

You can even get yarrow powder to sprinkle in your smoothies or over your food.

And if you don’t have a winding road lined with yarrow–not to mention the old, patient dog by your side while you scramble on your phone–I have great news for you!

I have a friend–who runs one of my favorite small family businesses to support–who sells organic yarrow, elderflower (the next ingredient I’m going to tell you about) and so much more. Just check out the ingredients pictured and linked at the bottom of the recipe. And tell Ceanne I said “hi.” She’s the best.

Does yarrow tea make you sleepy?

I’ve never noticed drowsiness when drinking yarrow in my tea, but I’ve read that yarrow tea can have that effect. (source)

Is yarrow tea a laxative?

Yarrow has been long used for lots of effects, including a mild laxative. Native Americas would make a yarrow tea for colds, fever, and headache (source) and crush the leaves and plant for rubbing on burns and wounds.

Elderflower in tea

You’ve probably heard lots about the amazing elderberry. See how I add elderberry syrup to kombucha and listen in on–or watch–this podcast all about why I take elderberry syrup. But did you know the flower is pretty amazing in it’s own right? Read all about it here.

Needless to say, my dehydrator was busy that week. I even took a bucket and garden clippers with me on my morning walk to collect half of the elderflower I could reach. (I saved half so I could collect the elderberries in another month and make elderberry syrup.)

And, needless to say, Bixby was very patient with me on that walk. Never mind what the passing cars might have thought about the crazy lady with her flower-ladden bucket walking along the side of the road.

Here’s a picture of the elderberries I collected about a month later (yet another reason for passersby to call me a crazy lady with a bucket).

What else is in this Yarrow Tea?

I forage red clover in my own fields (no crazy-lady-carrying-a-bucket-and-garden-clippers-along-the-road involved). And I grow lots of variety of mint, all of which are delicious in this tea blend.

Go here to read up on red clover & why I love using it.

Go here to read up on mint & why I love using it.

A note about the sweetener

I choose maple for both the taste and the added polyphenols and antioxidants. In fact, I substitute maple syrup for sugar in almost everything.

If you use maple syrup, always be sure you’re using 100% maple syrup. (It’s the second most faked food in the world, topped only by olive oil.) This site is loaded with information about how to make your own syrup. Or if you want to buy the best, grab some of this maple syrup.

Go here for great insights in all the best all-natural sugars.

Yarrow Tea Recipe

Ingredients you need to steep:

2 TB yarrow

2 TB elderflower

4 TB mint

2 TB red clover

Ingredient to add as sweetener:

1-2 TB maple syrup

Directions:

Steep herbs in a quart jar of hot water. Cover and let sit for about 6 hours, to steep the full benefits. I will often do this overnight, but, fair warning, if it steeps too long it can taste bitter. Usually overnight is perfect.

To make the removal of the herbs super easy, I love my quart-size tea steeper, linked below.

Add sweetener and stir. (Read more above.)

Serve over ice, or you can warm it as well and enjoy a mug-full of this delicious tea.

Items I use for making Yarrow Tea

Yarrow (save with code SOULYRESTED)

Elderflower (save with code SOULYRESTED)

Mint (save with code SOULYRESTED)

Red clover blossoms (save with code SOULYRESTED)

maple syrup (save with code SOULYRESTED)

stainless steel tea strainer for a mason jar

stainless steel tea strainer for a mug (save with code SOULYRESTED)

My dehydrator is a work horse, and worth every penny

But I’ve also used this dehydrator with great success.

More tea blends you should make:

• How to make (decaf) tea that tastes like coffee
• Make the best cup of black tea (a homemade blend you’ll love)
• Raspberry Leaf tea (if you like yarrow tea, you’ll LOVE this!)
• Maple chocolate iced coffee

Talk to me about yarrow tea…

If you have questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your yarrow you forage or your yarrow tea you make, over at @souly.rested.

“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to sugarmaking, to chicken care, to baking.

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