Add A Fruity Flair To Your Next Cup Of Chamomile Tea

Known for its many health benefits, including helping people fall asleep, chamomile tea is one of the most popular types of tea in the entire world. The tea is made from dried chamomile flowers and is packed with antioxidants, and is often lauded as a great non-caffeinated option for tea drinkers. When it comes to taste, chamomile tea is widely recognized as a very subtly flavored tea, with a hint of sweetness.

Although there are many good reasons to drink chamomile tea, its lack of intense flavor sometimes deters would-be tea drinkers. Fortunately, it is easy to add extra ingredients to tea; incorporating fruit flavors is a particularly easy way to do this. Adding fresh or dried bits of fruit to chamomile will impart delicious fruity flavors to the tea, as well as unique and fun colors.

One of the best things about chamomile is how versatile it is. You can add fresh chamomile flowers into iced tea, and many different tea brands produce this herbal variety, making it easy to find in stores for anyone who does not want the hassle of steeping loose-leaf teas. Regardless of such preferences, chamomile's flavor can be customized to suit just about anyone's taste with the help of a process known as fruit infusion.

Fruit infusion sounds like complicated chemistry, but the process is quite simple. Just steep pieces of fresh or dried fruit in your hot water along with the chamomile tea to create a homemade fruit-infused concoction. It may seem that blending fruits into the tea after it steeps would also work, but it is better to steep the fruits in the hot water at the same time as the chamomile to ensure that the fruit flavors are mixed in properly.

Dried fruit can simply be added with chamomile tea and steeped for about 10 minutes to create fruit-infused chamomile; the amount of fruit added can be increased or decreased to suit personal tastes. Fresh fruit will require some more preparation, depending on the kind of fruit used. Smaller fruits like berries need to be muddled before they can be infused, while stone fruits such as cherries need to be cut open and pitted first.

Just about any fruit can be infused with chamomile tea, but some of the more popular choices include citrus, apples, cherries, and berries. Peaches are another great option, although they require more work to remove the fuzz and pit before infusing. Pomegranate is another fun possibility, as this fruit imparts a vibrant color and a uniquely tangy flavor to the tea.