Drifting off with a home-brew sleepy tea
During this challenging (and rather nerve-wracking) period, it’s hardly surprising for you to find that your regular sleeping pattern is taking a bit of a knock. If you find that your current concerns are keeping you up at night, drifting off will definitely be a struggle. But you’re certainly not on your own - we’re all finding it a bit more difficult than usual to get our 40 winks during the lockdown.
Self-care is key right now, so we’ve got a home-brew sleepy tea recipe that is the perfect aromatic helper for your body and mind alike.
We’re combining self-care with a cup full of herbal remedies to ease the anxieties that are keeping you awake. This comes in the form of a tasty, nutritious tea recipe that’ll help you to nod off at the drop of a hat.
A warming cup of sleepy tea makes for the perfect lifestyle addition - pushing the pause button on your hectic daily routine in favour of a 10 minute moment to letting yourself unwind in the evening.
This rather luxe herbal tea is brimming with natural health benefits. The concoction of these gentle herbs results in a mildly sedating brew, to ease your spirit and bring you a wonderful, relaxed night’s sleep.
Have a read of our recipe to create your own DIY mug of tasty herbal night time tea, and you’ll be drifting off before you… zzz…
Ingredients :
- Valerian, 25ml
- Passionflower, 25ml
- Lavender, 25ml
- Linden, 25ml
- Rose petals, 25ml
- Lemongrass, 25ml
- Lemon Balm, 50ml
These quantities will make 200ml of concentrate, for approximately 10 cups of tea.
To make the concentrate, all you need to do is combine the ingredients, mix them well, then store in an airtight container. Keep the concentrate in a cool dry place, ready for when you fancy brewing your nighttime tea.
To brew your sleepy tea: to a cup of hot water (heated to 82°C), add a tablespoon of the concentrate. Then let it brew for 5-7 minutes. It should then, conveniently, be at a perfect temperature for sipping.
Top tip: if it’s a bit of a warm evening, why not try making this up as a cold brew, then serving it over ice? Much classier than a mug of hot milk.
If you’re wondering about the properties of these intriguing ingredients, you can find out more about the overall benefits that this DIY cuppa provides you with by picking apart the key nutritional properties of its ingredients. Below, we’ve compiled a more detailed breakdown of the health benefits that each ingredient brings to the table (or, in this case, the nightstand).
Valerian
It’s a handy little herb, designed to promote relaxation and sleep in a healthy way. It’s a popular choice in a wide array of sleep-aid teas and capsules. Plus, it’s not entirely popular taste will be fully masked with the other herbs in this brew.
Passionflower
Not only does it possess a tasty citrus flavour (perfect for combatting valerian’s bitter notes), but the chemicals within passionflower provide drinkers with a calmer state of mind, perfect for inducing a more relaxed night’s sleep.
Lavender
Obviously this one is practically synonymous with relaxing. The addition of lavender can also help to calm your nerves and reduce any anxieties while providing a beautifully perfumed, aromatic addition to your brew.
Linden
Linden flowers (or its bark can be used, too) is a natural sedative, that is commonly used to help relieve anxiety, and provide an altogether relaxing effect.
Lemon balm
Much like lavender, lemon balm is widely considered to be a particularly calming herb, while also providing a delicious and fragrant aroma. Much like its other counterparts in this cuppa, it can help to limit any feelings of anxiousness, and provide a more relaxed, deeper sleep.
The great thing about this recipe is that, while it provides a tea that is filled with great health aids, it remains incredibly versatile. You can have a bit of fun (it’s all about learning new little skills in lockdown) experimenting with this base recipe, and incorporating different blends of aromatic, flavourful herbs into the mix to create a concoction that’s unique to you.
In this recipe, the addition of rose petals and lemongrass added pleasant, subtle flavours that were designed to be gentle, providing a relaxing perfume, with a slight touch of lemon.
If you’re a regular tea drinker, you’ll most likely be well versed in the wonderful range of different herbs, roots and flowers that we use in our brews. Chamomile flowers are of course a popular addition to night time teas, but you could also choose different additions like hibiscus, rosehip, liquorice root, cinnamon, echinacea and countless others.
All of these are readily available to buy online, so don’t feel deterred by even the more unusual ingredients! Indulge in this new hobby - try out these intriguing, more unusual ingredients, and see what effect they have on your delicious sleepy teas.
Integrating this calming, self-care activity into your lifestyle brings a whole host of benefits.
With this DIY tea blending, the process might take a little bit of trial and error (but that in itself is actually a lot of fun!), so don’t be perturbed if your first attempt at switching-up our recipe doesn’t go exactly to plan. After all, it’ll still have its desired effect of helping ease your sleep. Just make sure that, in your flavour experimentations, you avoid herbs that act as stimulants (for example, the addition of ginger or turmeric).
You’ll soon be left feeling like a pro potion maker, Hermione Granger eat your heart out.
Something that we mentioned earlier is the fact that for this recipe, the optimum temperature to boil your water is 82°C. Now that might seem ultra-specific (not to mention near impossible to recreate at home), but this level of pickiness is what the iKettle is all about. This innovative piece of tech thrives on precision and exactness, providing you with full control over its extensive range of capabilities, to meet your exact needs.
Not only is the iKettle a staple addition to any stylish kitchen, thanks to nifty additions like its WiFi and voice activation features it also provides a key tool to assist you with all manner of homebrewing recipes. Much like this tasty nighttime tea recipe, the iKettle is designed to make your home hot brews a joyous experience.
So, if you want to make the most out of the opportunity that lockdown has presented us with, and take your kitchen (both your gadgets and what you use them for) up a notch, have a gander through our Smarter online store. From here, you’ll find the full range of our Smarter kitchen technology which - sticking to the theme of self-care and de-stressing your evening - are the perfect ways to upgrade your daily routine and the many cups of tea within it.