Tea Plant from American Southwest

Harvested flowers from a local Sonoran desert plant called the ocotillo, the other day. The bloomed flowers can be slightly sweet, but any of the buds can be used. I ended up making a tea at home by steeping the flowers in hot water. (I've found it helps the process if you bruise them first). Anyway, a good tasting wild desert tea. Anyone else have any good wild tea/beverage plants?

 

only plants i have used a lot of up here in BC for tea is Rosehips and pine needles.

oh and juniper berries.............but not in tea , gathered a ton of them and crushed them up and put them into a bottle of cheap vodka and a bottle of cheap gin, to really ramp up the juniper taste.

 

I've done pine needle tea a lot. I meant to gather some rose last time I was in the mountains in California, but life got busy. (How's the flavor of it?)

I'll have to try the juniper berry thing (I've got it all over out here).

 

Thanks! I'll try and do it more often then. A lot of it will be specific to the Southwest, but knowledge is knowledge right.

It's a great little kit item. I'll use it to strain out big stuff also (when poring over). Works really well.

 

I was informed about a coffee substitute we have in the Southwest recently, I'll try to give a go soon (and post it here). No caffeine, but the taste, smell, and color is very similar.

 

you can also steam extract the oils and make your own soap scent additives or candle scents or whatever.

edit:speeling

 

For those in the east/south east air dried Youpon leaves can make a caffeinated tea that has more caffeine than coffee. Native Americans in the east used to drink it to the point of the caffeine causing auditory hallucinations.

 

ilex vomitoria... used to sell the **** out of it at lowe's.

 

Awesome! You'll use it more than you think.

 

No prob! I love skills and info based stuff, so that's probably mostly what I'll post.

 

We have harvested rose petals, steeped in a metal steeping pot, and added honey. Makes a good locally harvestable tea.