The Red Hen Blend

For many restaurants, tea is an afterthought.  Diners are shown a wooden box and told to pick a colored tea bag packet from it.  That doesn't happen here!  For us, tea is a bit of a thing.  And that is thanks to Chin Velasquez, our local herbalist and owner of Soothing Herbals Apothecary.   For the past twenty years, Chin has studied and practiced Western herbalism, integrative Ayurvedic herbalism, clinical herbalism, and organic gardening.  She grows many of the plants she uses and, in fact, has an established United Plant Savers botanical sanctuary at her home in Goshen.

Chin Velasquez

​All of our teas come from her, and the offerings change with the seasons...or sometimes just for the heck of it.  The herbal teas are Chin's special mixes.  At the moment we have five of them:  Red Hen Blend, Soothing Chai, Winter Warmth, Lemon Lift, and Digestive Blend.  By far the most popular is the Red Hen Blend.  It's our signature tea, created especially for us (although if you go to Chin's shop, she will make it for you, too).  The Red Hen Blend has a lot of reddish ingredients (because we are The Red Hen) and a tangy, zippy flavor.  It is also a beautiful tea and very good for you.

But how exactly does an herbalist approach tea-making?  We asked Chin to walk us through the creation of the Red Hen Blend. 

Rose Hips

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​When the rose dies back, the center of it turns to fruit.  It's called the rose hip, and that is what is harvested and dried.  That's why they look like dried raisins--because they are actually a fruit.  This fruit has a lot of vitamin C--50% more than oranges.  So that makes them an excellent immune system booster--great for preventing a cold.  They also have vitamin A and anti-oxidants.  I like to use them because they taste great and they are good for you.   They taste fruity and zingy--you can taste the vitamin C in them immediately.  They are basically the basis of the Red Hen Blend.

Lemongrass

​The next ingredient is lemongrass.  I grow it and I have a lot of it.  It's also very tasty, very lemony.  It enhances the flavor of the rose hips--that's why I put it in the Red Hen Blend.  Lemongrass is used in cooking for its flavor and aroma, and it's used in aromatherapy too.  But as a tea ingredient, it helps with your digestion and with high blood pressure.  It's really good for you.  But most of all I like it for its scent and taste.

Oat Straw

​Why oats, right?  Oat straw is actually one of the most nutritive foods on the planet.  When the oats are growing in the field in late summer they develop milky tops, and that is what is harvested.  And they are as nutritive as breast milk.  At the shop, I  make a tincture of it to help people with anxiety and insomnia.  But in the Red Hen Blend I use the oat straw, which the stem or the grass of the plant.  It contains less of the nutrients but still has medicinal value--a great tonic for the nervous system.  It's high in silicon which helps strengthen connective tissue, skin, mucosa, and nerves.  If you make a tea of it on its own, its not really great. But if use it in a tea blend, it plays with others--and you get all the nutritive benefits.  And as you can see from the picture, some of the dried milky tops still make it into the oat straw and thus into the tea.

Nettles

​Nettles are even more nutritive than oat straw.  That's why I put them in the Red Hen Blend.  They have a lot of calcium.  They also have a lot of iron, magnesium, and vitamin K.  So that makes it an all-around excellent tonic herb in a tea blend.  On their own they taste just like grass, so I think they are better in a tea blend.  They also have anti-histamine properties, so they are great for hay fever and allergies.  But mostly they are an excellent tonic tea for energy and bone fortification.  Herbalists will always use them.  My teacher always said, "When it doubt, use nettles."

Red Raspberry Leaf

I chose red raspberry leaf because of its nutritive properties-- it's high in magnesium, potassium, iron and B and C vitamins.  Its astringent taste makes it soothing for the digestion.  It reduces any inflammation as well.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is warm and stimulating, so it tends to warm up your digestion and your whole body.  Yet it is also sweet and nourishing but astringent and tonifying.  In herbal energetics, when a plant is sweet, that usually (not sugar, for example) indicates a plant is nourishing.  When a plant is astringent it usually means it is tonifying--meaning, for example, it perks up tissue.  This is balancing.  I use cinnamon in the Red Hen Blend because it's got that red, warming energy to it.

Orange Peel

I picked orange peel because of the tangy, fruitiness and because of its warming nature.  As an ingredient, it goes well with sweet tasting herbs like rose hips and raspberry leaf.  But it also goes well with lemongrass and ginger, which are not sweet.  Orange peel and cinnamon are paired quite often, too.   Medicinally, it is used to aid digestion.  But I just picked it because it went well with all the other herbs in the blend.

Ginger

​Ginger, to me, ties the whole blend together.  It has warming nature and a pungent taste.  It's a very versatile herb, both culinarily and medicinally--and it's tasty.  It's one of the first teas I go to when I have a cold or an upset stomach.  It helps with digestion and is an anti-inflammatory.  It also helps boost your immune system.  It blends great with rose hips for that reason.  

The Red Hen Blend