Botanical Teas with a History : Traditional Brews with Healing Roots
Botanical teas are more than refreshing. They’re delights with a spicy history. Here are three of our favorites – Great Stories. Great Teas. Great Tastes.
What Are Botanical Teas?
Botanical teas are herbal infusions made from roots, leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds, often associated with traditional medicinal teas as part of everyday wellness and cultural rituals. Unlike true tea from Camellia sinensis, these infusions are naturally caffeine-free and showcase the plant’s own character. The earthy roots, bright petals, and soothing leaves make them easy to enjoy morning or evening. Steeping times and proportions can be adjusted to taste, encouraging a simple, mindful preparation ritual.
Sarsaparilla: The Root of Root Beer
Sarsaparilla played a leading role in everyone’s favorite soda, root beer. Today, we still tout sarsaparilla’s health benefits, medicinal powers, and, above all, flavor as a tea—proof enough for the curious seeking sarsaparilla tea benefits..
A Medicinal Vine with a Sweet Twist
This Central American native vine has quite a history. It was considered a panacea for indigenous people from cleansing the blood to wiping away skin disease. It was used as an aphrodisiac and a treatment for syphilis. It was featured in old-time movies as a potent bar room drink and on the 1980s and 1990s Smurf cartoons, aka "Smurf berries."
Tea Flavor Profile: Vanilla, Licorice, and Wintergreen
A blend of licorice, vanilla, wintergreen, and other flavors that merged to form the original root beer, then called “root tea.”
Dandelion: From Garden Weed to Healing Tea
Dandelions are the scourge of American gardeners. Yet for thousands of years, dandelions have been revered for their beauty and health-related value.
Historical Uses in the U.S. and Europe
Colonists brought dandelions to North America as a must-have plant. Civil War soldiers roasted and boiled the root as a war-time coffee. Americans relied on dandelions during the Great Depression. And dandelions have been widely used in salads, wines, and, best of all, tea.
Tea Flavor Profile: Nutty and Crunchy
Nutty and delicious. Blends well with other teas. DON’T MISS OUT! The dried leaves also make an excellent topping for salads, steamed vegetables, and more with a light, satisfying crunch.
Marigolds: A Sacred Flower in a Cup
The flower is enjoyed in salads and as delicious-tasting marigold tea whose medicinal values have been proclaimed to soothe everything from upset stomachs to mental cramps.
Cultural Significance and Medicinal Value
This Central American native has been at the vortex of religious, magical, and medicinal practices for time untold. It was revered by the Aztecs in rituals and treatments; monks who grew them in Spanish monasteries; Hindis who featured them in weddings and religious ceremonies; and Catholics who decorated household altars with them on All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The flower is enjoyed in salads and as a delicious-tasting tea whose medicinal values have been proclaimed to soothe everything from upset stomachs to mental cramps.
Tea Flavor Profile: Floral and Spicy
Floral and slightly sweet with spicy undertones.
Why Drink Historic Teas Today?
Historic botanical teas connect flavor to heritage and encourage mindful pauses, turning every cup into a small ceremony of taste, story, and place. They offer approachable ways to explore plants, expand a home tea library, and create simple rituals—from an afternoon reset to an evening winddown. For those who enjoy collecting flavors, these brews also invite blending experiments that balance earthiness, florals, and gentle spice.
Want to know more? Check “Fun Food of America” book #11 by True Treats President and award-winning author Susan Benjamin. Buy any botanical tea and get a tea kit free from us! CODE TEAKIT
