Four Persian Tea Recipes

I have wrote this post in 2008 on a Wordpress & Myspace accounts of mine but I lost those pages and then strangely found all of my posts about Persian culture on a "thief" blogger's account without mentioning the source. Even the damn photos were stolen from my own photographs. I can see my desk and my self made teas in there.
here is his or her address:  http://desireezabev.blogspot.com
Anyway I am posting this again here with some new edits.

Four Persian Tea Recipes

Persian medicine is one of the earliest ancient traditional medical sciences of the world which has started since pre-Islamic era and has been developed in the Persian physician time Ali Ebn-e-Sina (Avicenna). Iran's mountainous geography made the physicians to pay attention to the variety of herbal plants and their affects. The boiled herbs in the common language of Iranian people -regardless of the tea plant- is called "Tea" or "Chai" (Same as they call it "Cha" in the far east). Here I introduce four Iranian teas. Each recipe gives you three cups of tea.



 Saffron tea:

Saffron is an extraordinarily expensive spice at $1000 a pound or 500grams. (No mistake with the zeros). Why so pricey? Because saffron is manually picked from the reddish orange stamens of the crocus flower. It is incredibly labour and time consuming, and only grows in the dry heights with cool climate and good sun. Additionally, it takes a football field's worth of saffron threads to make just a full hand! Iran is one of the main origins of saffron and supplies more than 80% of the world saffron. 
Saffron has a big variety of usage in Persian cuisine. We make sweets and bread and fish and rice and kabab and ice cream with it!

For making a saffron tea you need to leave 1/2 tea spoon saffron (powder gives better colour than the threads) in four tiny cups of hot water & sweet it with crystal of Nabat.
Saffron smell is wonderful and it has the natural endorphin. It is an anti depression and makes blood pressure high and also used as a sexual activator and eventually it is a highly strong anti cancer . In a normal case you may drink this tea once a weak and always have a big smile!

Spearmint tea:

Spearmint plant grows in most of climates. The tea of this aromatic plant has an incredible and soothing effect on stomack ache and is widely used in herbal treatments for digestive problems, bloats and diarrhea. Some researches show it is a possible treatment for balancing the hormone problems of hairy women.  

Put a full hand green fresh spearmint leaves in an empty pot heat for 2~3 minutes. Heat makes it slightly steamed and gives more aroma and colour. Now add four cups of hot water and patiently let it boil for 30 minutes until it turns to a very light green. Spearmint tea is not bitter so try not to drink it with sweets. You can drink it everyday after the main meals. No caffeine included and so healthy.

Black cherry tea:

Iran is one of the main world's producers  of black cherry. Dark red cherry is an extremely strong anti oxide fruit and the source of vitamin A, B1, B2, C and iron. The small black sour cherry tea is a very good treatment for the lack of blood, reducing blood fat and blood pressure and it works for weight loss.

Pick the sticks of one full cup of black sour cherries and boil it with four small cups of water for half an hour until it turns to a deep cardinal red. It tastes delicious and sour. You can drink it with candies. Just if you have a low blood pressure, or as a female you are during menstruation days don't over drink this because it can cause vertigo.

Gol Gavzaban (Borage) tea:

Borage plant loves sun and rich soil. Iran and some of the Mediteranean countries of west Asia (Turkey,Syria, Israel, Lebanon) are the early origins of this plant. You may not believe the miracle like effect of borage flower tea or "Gol Gavzaban" on the nervous system until you have it for a while. Gol Gavzaban  is the small dried violet flower of borage plant which has a various use in reducing stress and healing insomnia.

Let four table spoon dried blue petals of Gol Gavzaban boil slowly with four cups of water for 20-30 minutes. The result is a light yellowish gray fluid, not as clear as the green tea. You can add some lemon juice which makes it suddenly turns red! Except relaxing effects of Gol Gavzaban tea, it helps to bring down fevers, and also helps with chest colds. This tea is 100% organic and very tonic for adrenal glands.