Here are a few tidbits for thought when taking a break from gardening and sipping a refreshing drink of iced tea.
Although China has given us the tea traditionally grown from camellia leaves, Camellia sinensis, there are also plants found in the U.S. that have been used for tea.
“Appalachian tea” is a brew that uses the leaves of withered viburnum, an eastern American native shrub with beautiful fall foliage and colorful berries. German immigrants in Pennsylvania steeped sweet goldenrod in boiling water to make the anise-like flavored “blue mountain tea.” The shade loving groundcover teaberry plant is used to brew a wintergreen-flavored drink.