How to Make Your Own Homemade Herbal Tea

Using herbs, fruits, and spices in our cooking is second nature, but these fragrant ingredients can also be used to make your own homemade herbal tea and tea blends. Drying your own herbal tea ingredients and creating your own tea blends at home can benefit you even further. Herbal tea blends are nutritious and soothing, but store-bought herbal teas are often either expensive or poor-quality and full of artificial flavors and additives. When you make your own tea at home you can save money, experiment with flavors, and ensure superior quality and affordability.

Drying Herbal Teas

Dehydrating fruit and herbs for tea is not only easy, but you might even have all of your ingredients already on hand or growing in your garden! Drying herbal teas is also a great way to prepare for winter by preserving your summer abundance of fresh, seasonal ingredients.

You can dehydrate many parts of the same plant such as the fruit and flowers as well as the roots and leaves—but keep in mind that each plant and plant part is different and some may be edible while others are toxic. For example, you can dry the fruit and leaves of berries and flowers of chamomile, but you’ll dry the buds of lavender. Research the best practices to harvest and prep the particular herbs you wish to use.

The tea you make at home will likely be herbal tea, which, despite its name, contains no actual tea leaves. Homemade herbal tea made without pesticides or herbicides results in the best teas. Dehydration time for each individual ingredient will differ. Refer to the following guides for dehydrated fruit, herbs, and spices for our recommended dehydrator time and temperature settings. And check out some of our favorite herbal tea blends and recommended preparation at the bottom of this page.

Drying Tea Ingredients with a Dehydrator

Dehydrating herbs, spices, and fruit for homemade tea blends is fast, tastes significantly better than store-bought dried ingredients, reduces food waste at home, and uses less electricity than oven drying. The best way to dry herbs is by using a food dehydrator. Its simple-to-use dual time/temperature control ensures delicate foods like herbs are adequately dried without compromising flavor and texture. You may also want to consider using the Sahara with silicone mats for holding small ingredients, such as herbs and berries, that might otherwise fall through the dehydrator shelves. Explore our recommendations below for prep, time, and temperature for dehydrating a variety of different fruits, herbs, and spices. 

An overhead flat-lay of a tea preparation setup on a white background. Several small glass bowls and white cups contain different dried tea ingredients, including purple flowers, orange slices, pink blossoms, green leaves, brown seeds, and a yellow-orange liquid in a clear cup.

Fruit Fruit is naturally sweet, full of flavor, and caffeine-free. Citrus, apples, berries, and the leaves of fruit make for delicious dehydrated additions to homemade tea blends. Dehydrated fruit and fruit leaves are often combined with store-bought white tea leaves, which have a mild flavor, to create a delicate yet slightly sweet blend. Ginger (dehydrated or fresh) also pairs well.
Learn more about dehydrating fruit 

Expert tip: If you plan to grind any dehydrated fruit to add to your herbal tea blend, we recommend cutting it into small pieces and freezing for 10 minutes prior to grinding. This helps prevent the sucrose in your food from gumming up your grinder or food processor. (Plant sugar tends to get sticky and tacky when warmed in the blades).

A glass teapot with a metal infuser, a glass mug filled with amber tea, and small bowls of dried apple slices, cinnamon sticks, and whole apples on a light wooden surface.

Herbs and Spices You may think of lavender, chamomile, cinnamon, and peppermint as classic tea ingredients, but the options for using dehydrated herbs in your homemade tea blends are endless. Many herbs have calming properties, while spices add the final flavor accent that will bring together your homemade tea blend. As for spices, which are more potent and fragrant, a little bit goes a long way.
Learn more about dehydrating herbs Learn more about dehydrating spices

Blending and Brewing Homemade Tea

Water temperature, water quality, and the time steeping are important considerations for a great cup of tea. The amount of time a tea is steeped as well as the quantity of tea ingredients become a matter of personal preference. To get started, pour boiling water over a teaspoon to a tablespoon of the dried herb/tea blend and steep for 5 to 10 minutes. From there you can adjust the amount of herbs and steep time to your liking.

Keep in mind that different types of tea steep best at different water temperatures and for different amounts of time. Water that is too hot can make your tea taste bitter or even burn sensitive tea leaves, while cooler water temps make your tea taste weak or bland. After learning to dehydrate your own ingredients, you can customize temperature, steeping time, and tea weight to your own preferences for the best cup of tea at home, every time.

You can enjoy your home-dried tea “leaves” as single ingredients or create your own blend suited to your taste. Homemade loose leaf tea also makes for a great gift! We’ve included some blend suggestions below to get you started, but always encourage experimenting to find which ratio of ingredients you love best. When blending ingredients, combine dried (not powdered) herbs/fruit/leaves/spices together in a bowl. Store your dehydrated tea ingredients and herbal tea blends in cool, dry, and tightly sealed containers, away from light and moisture, for 6 months to a year. 

Tea-making setup with glass teapot, cup, cinnamon sticks, dried apple pieces, and apples on a wooden surface.
Apple fruit
  • Use 1 T per 8 oz water
  • Dash of cinnamon or cinnamon stick
  • Steep to taste
Bowls of dried herbs, blueberries, and a purple powder on a wooden surface.
Blueberry fruit and blueberry leaves
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend
  • ¼ C / 20 g blueberry fruit and ¾ C / 20 g blueberry leaves
  • Use 1 T per 8 oz water
  • Steep to taste
A white mug of tea, a small bowl of chamomile leaves, and a tea strainer arranged on a white surface.
Chamomile flower
  • Use 1 tsp per 8 oz water
  • Pour water over flowers and steep for 5 minutes
  • Also good blended with mint
Chopped dried ginger scattered on a wooden surface beside a metal wire tray lined with a silicone mat and filled with fresh cubed ginger.
Ginger root
  • Use 1 tsp per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 10 minutes
Dried hibiscus on a cooling rack with 'Brod & Taylor' branding.
Hibiscus flower, apple and blueberry fruits
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ½ C / 25 g hibiscus flower, ¼ C / 7 g apple fruit, and ¼ C / 20 g blueberry fruit
  • Use 1 T of blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 10 minutes
A top-down view of dried lavender buds scattered across a light wood surface, with a metal wire tray lined with parchment paper holding more lavender.
Lavender flower 
  • Use ½ to 1 T per 8 oz water
  • Steep to taste
Yellow and orange dried flowers arranged on a metal cooling rack over a light wood background.
Lemon balm and lemon verbena leaves, calendula and hibiscus flowers
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ¼ C / 7 g lemon balm leaves, ¼ C / 7 g lemon verbena leaves, ¼ C / 10 g calendula flowers, and ¼ C / 12.5 g hibiscus flowers
  • Use ½ to 1 T blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 10 minutes
Fresh lemon slices on a metal cooling rack over a wooden surface, with several ginger roots scattered in the foreground.
Lemon fruit and ginger root
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ⅞ C / 23 g lemon fruit and ⅛  C / 9 g ginger root
  • Use 1 T blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep to taste
A warm, styled tea scene with a hammered metallic gold teapot, a glass cup of amber tea, bowls of orange slices, dried orange peel, ginger, and brown sugar on a yellow patterned tablecloth.
Lemon, orange, and apple fruit with ginger root
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ⅛ C / 3.5 g lemon fruit, ¼ C / 5.5 g orange fruit, ½ C / 14 g apple fruit, and ⅛ C / 9 g ginger root
  • Use 2 T blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep 10 minutes
Two clear glass cups filled with amber tea on a light surface, with small glass bowls containing loose tea leaves and mint leaves in the foreground, and blurred green leaves in the background.
Mint and raspberry leaves
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ½ C / 13 g mint leaf and ½ C / 13 g raspberry leaf
  • Steep 1 tsp to taste
Dried orange slices arranged in a small clear glass bowl on a light surface, with a blurred glass mug of tea in the background.
Orange fruit and ginger root
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ⅞ C / 23 g orange fruit and ⅛ C / 9 g ginger root
  • Steep 1 T to taste
Fresh green papaya leaves placed over two halves of a ripe orange-yellow papaya fruit on a white background.
Papaya leaf
  • Use 1 T per 8 oz water
  • Steep for about 10 minutes 
A pink floral ceramic mug filled with tea sits on a wooden table beside bowls of dried and fresh red roses, with a metal cooling rack in the foreground.
Papaya leaf and rosebuds
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ½ C / 6.5 g papaya leaf, and ½ C / 36 g rosebuds
  • Use 1 T of blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 5–10 minutes
A yellow bowl filled with dried rose buds sits on a wooden table, with scattered red roses on a white sheet for the Sahara Dehydrator.
Rosebuds
  • Use 3–4 whole buds, or 1 tsp bud petals and hips per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 5 minutes
  • Also good with honey
A six-panel vertical collage showing food preparation: sliced strawberries on a wire rack, mint leaves on a cooling rack, purple cabbage leaves, and pinkish-red dried strips on a wooden surface.
Strawberry and mint leaves, hibiscus flower, and watermelon fruit
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ¼ C / 6.5 g strawberry leaves, ¼ C / 6.5 g mint leaves, ¼ C / 13.5 g hibiscus flower, and ¼ C / 36 g watermelon fruit
  • Use 1 T of blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 10 minutes
A clear glass teapot with a metal mesh infuser filled with loose-leaf tea, shown on a white surface with amber tea inside. A small glass bowl of loose tea leaves sits in front, and part of a glass cup is visible at the right edge.
Turmeric and ginger roots
  • Makes approximately 1 C tea blend: ¼ C / 23 g turmeric root, and ¾ C / 54 g ginger root
  • Use ½ to 1 tsp of blend per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 5-10 minutes
  • Also good with honey and/or lemon juice
A white sheet for the SAHARA holds sliced turmeric, with a small white ramekin of ground dehydrated turmeric in the foreground and additional turmeric pieces on a wooden board.
Turmeric root
  • Use 1 tsp per 8 oz water
  • Steep for 10 minutes