Echinacea tea is a soothing, delicious tea with immune boosting properties. It is one you will want to keep on hand when cold and flu season rolls around, or just to have to sip on and enjoy when those cooler nights come.
This tea is made from the Purple Coneflower plant. It is a hardy, drought-tolerant plant that is not only a lovely addition to your garden or flower beds, but attracts hummingbirds and pollinators such as bees and butterflies. The finches enjoy the seeds of the cone for food in wintertime.
Making your own echinacea tea from this plant is very simple:
Harvest several cuttings of the entire flower head as well as some large healthy leaves. Wash them thoroughly and pat dry gently.
Arrange them on dehydrator trays and dry at 95 degrees for at least a day or until the petals and leaves are completely dry and brittle.
For this step, you might want to use a clean glove or oven mitt to hold the cone of the flower (which will be very prickly and sharp at this point!) while using your other hand to gently pull the petals away from the cone. The dried cones can be saved to feed the birds during the winter.
Look at how lovely the color is! And you get a faint floral scent as you crumble the dried flowers.
Store your tea in a clean glass jar. Use a teaspoon or two in a tea strainer to brew and enjoy a cup of echinacea tea.