How to use cherry leaves and brew flavored tea?

In addition to delicious berries, the cherry tree gives people their wonderful leaves.They have many useful qualities, so they are collected and dried in the winter for the preparation of medicinal decoctions. Let's take a closer look at the properties of this product, as well as learn how to use and when to collect cherry leaves.

Even in ancient times, green cherry collected for use in herbal medicine. The use of decoctions made from this product has a beneficial effect on many human organs and systems.

• Improvement of the heart, vascular and nervous systems due to the presence of quercetin. It is an antioxidant that protects the body from the harmful effects of the environment.
• Amygdolin has a positive effect on the heart and blood vessels. It reduces the power of seizures and improves heart rhythm.
• The product contains large amounts of vitamin C, which helps maintain immunity during flu and cold outbreaks.
• Coumarin is useful for older people and with a tendency to increased thrombosis. It helps to avoid blockage of blood vessels.
• The leaves contain tannins and phytoncides. They have anti-inflammatory and disinfectant properties. They also have a fixing effect, which is useful for some intestinal problems.
• Essential oils give the drink a unique aroma and reduce inflammation in the body.
• Numerous vitamins and macro-and microelements necessary for a person help to recuperate after an illness and strengthen the immune system.
• Drink of cherry leaves perfectly quenches thirst in the summer heat. It will be a pleasant and useful substitute for tea and coffee for people with increased nervous irritability.
• Included in the B vitamins have a beneficial effect on the nervous system.
• Leaves contain trace elements that are rarely found in nature: copper, phosphorus, iodine and boron.

Despite the abundance of the advantages of this raw material, some people use tea from the leaves of the cherry can go into harm.

• Such a decoction is not suitable for people prone to constipation, as it has a fixing effect.
• Contraindication to the use of this tea is the presence of ulcers, gastritis and other inflammations of the mucous surface of the stomach.
• Due to the high content of vitamin C decoction may trigger the secretion of gastric juice. This is unacceptable for people with high acidity of the digestive system.
• People whose blood pressure is chronically low should take this product with caution, as it aggravates the hypotension picture.
• A strict contraindication is an allergic reaction to cherries.
• Pregnant and lactating mothers should either eliminate this product altogether or use only one cup of tea per day.

The leaves of this beautifully flowering tree are brewed like regular tea. Also based on them make healing broths. Funds derived from cherry leaves, can and should be used for medicinal purposes.

• For the treatment of liver diseases use a decoction of cherry leaves in milk.
• When bleeding from the nose, a cotton swab dipped in cherry leaf tea is inserted into the nose for a few minutes.
• Cherry leaf tea helps with diseases of the genitourinary system (cystitis, pyelonephritis, sand in the kidneys). It has a mild diuretic effect.
• With colds, it is recommended to drink more warm broth, as it removes toxins and gives the necessary dose of vitamin C.
• When you cough, you can also drink this tea. It has the ability to thin the sputum.
• As an additional herbal medicine for epilepsy, doctors are allowed to drink a decoction of cherry leaves. It is believed that with regular use of seizures will reduce its intensity.

The best time to collect leaves from a cherry tree is the flowering time. During this period, the maximum amount of useful substances is concentrated in them. You need to choose a little sticky young leaves. It is desirable that the meeting place was located outside the city. Before drying, the raw material should not be washed, otherwise it may simply rot.

In order to get the best quality billet, you need to choose the right day and time. The weather during the two previous days should not be wet, precipitation is also undesirable. Harvesting greens is best around noon. By this time the morning dew should be completely dry. It is better not to tear off the leaves with your hands, and cut them with scissors - the tree branches will suffer less.

If all the conditions have been met, a sufficient amount of green mass is collected, it is necessary to proceed with drying.

The best way to dry the greenery of fruit trees is fermentation. This process allows the insoluble substances of the leaf plate tissue to be converted into soluble. For this to happen, it is important to keep the leaves unwashed. This is explained by the fact that the natural microflora of the plant surface is involved in the fermentation. Making a fermented billet is easy even for a beginner.

1. The collected raw materials must be laid out on paper, where the leaves should curl slightly.
2. Then you need to collect them in stacks of several pieces.
3. The resulting stacks should be twisted into "rolls" and rolled several times between the palms to slightly destroy their integral structure.
4. Another option for preliminary preparation is to knead the raw materials in a container with your hands like cabbage before salting. Most prefer convolutions, because as a result of using this method, the raw materials have a more aesthetic appearance in the teapot.
5. After preliminary preparation, leaves in “rolls” (or just mashed) should be laid in a layer of about 5 cm in a glass container or an ordinary enameled pan. Then you need to put it under a yoke, cover with a clean, damp cloth and leave for a few hours.
6. Folded leaves should not begin to ferment or rot. Therefore, when the aroma of the cherry begins to clearly feel, you need to stop the fermentation.
7. After that, the green mass should be dried. To do this, the oven must be heated to a temperature of 100 degrees and put the leaves there.
8. It is necessary every 5-10 minutes to reduce the temperature of the oven, bringing it to 50 degrees.
9. In the manufacturing process, it is necessary to periodically turn the sheet mass, so that all excess moisture gradually and evenly removed.
10. When the leaves become brittle and brittle, you need to turn off the oven and dry them in a dry ventilated room in the absence of direct sunlight.

Ready fermented and dried leaves should be stored in a dark place in a dry glass container with a tightly screwed lid. In such a vessel, they must stand a month before the first use. Then the aroma and beneficial properties of the prepared beverage will be maximized. They also sometimes use bags of cloth or paper, but then the raw material can absorb the surrounding smells.

Capacity for brewing need to scald.Then you should put there 2 tablespoons of a pile of dried cherry leaves, a teaspoon of sugar and 0.5 liters of boiling water. Capacity should be covered with a lid and a clean towel. Tea should be infused for about 15 minutes.

In the cold season, you can brew tea according to the same recipe, adding to it dried cherries or lemon. Before drinking the drink can be mixed with a couple of teaspoons of honey. This tea will partially relieve the unpleasant symptoms of the disease and give a portion of vitamins to a weakened body.

Two tablespoons of fermented cherry leaves boil over low heat in a glass of water for about 5 minutes. Then the drink is allowed to infuse for an hour and drink half a glass twice a day. To feel the effect, such treatment must be continued for at least 2 weeks.

Four tablespoons of fresh or dried cherry leaves must be boiled in one and a half cups of milk for 10 minutes. Then the broth must be poured into a thermos, wait for the temperature to reduce to a comfortable for drinking and strain it. The finished liquid should be divided into six doses and drink throughout the day at regular intervals. The course of treatment is not less than a week.

In a thermos you need to brew four tablespoons of dried cherry leaves with two glasses of boiling water. The drink should be infused until almost completely cool. Then it needs to be filtered. Tea should be drunk a couple of times a day in half a glass before a meal.

To pamper your body with vitamins and excellent taste, you can make healthy tea from a mixture of fragrant greens. To do this, brew fresh leaves of currants, raspberries, cherries about a tablespoon of each type. Drink need to steep 15 minutes. You can drink it by adding honey or sugar to taste.

A video of cherry leaf tea is given below.