DIY Red Raspberry Leaf Tea
The price for a box of Red Raspberry leaf tea seems to range from $5.49 tp $12.99. When my midwife recommended it to me with my first pregnancy, I picked up a box at my local health store and paid a whopping $8.99 for the box and you get about 16 or so tea bags worth. When you have to drink 3-4 cups everyday you would need to by a box eery 4 days or so. 6 weeks = 42 days which means you would need to purchase 11 boxes of this tea assuming you drink it from 34 weeks to 40 weeks gestation. Shall we do a bit more math? 11 boxes X$9...that's practically $100 on tea! On tea you can make for free!
If you read the ingredient list on the packages of tea, you will notice it contains nothing more than red raspberry leaves. If you are like me, you have these ingredients in your backyard. If you are not like me, then still like me, you have a walking trail, or a river trail or a bike trail or know someone who has a yard where you can also find a raspberry bush. They are not hard to come by. They are everywhere!
The Process:
1.Prune enough leaves to make a batch. You be the judge of how much you want. I used about 5 branches worth of leaves to fill a big ziploc bag.
2. Remove the leaves from the branch (if you are gathering them from somewhere other than your own yard, you can skip step 1).
3. You have a couple options here. If it's hot and sunny, just lay the leaves outside in the sun utill they are dry and crispy. If you have less than pleasant weather, you can also use a food dehydrator. If neither of those are options for you ,then I am sure you can lay them in the oven on cookie sheets at the lowest temperature your oven has, until your leaves are dry and crispy.
4. Once your leaves are dry, simply crunch them up with your hands and store in a ziploc bag or some closed container of your choice.
And that's it. It sounds like a long process, but most of the time is spent drying the leaves so you are really just doing actual work for about 5 or 10 minutes. It takes longer to go to store and purchase the box.
Making the tea:
I make my tea in a bodum french press. I make my 4 cups all at once. This way I can have one cup of nice hot tea in the morning and I can have the rest as iced tea throughout the day.
I place a handful of the leaves in the bottom of my press, add a tablespoon of raw, unpasturized honey and sometimes some fruit such as raspberries, sliced strawberries or orange slices.
I fill my bodum with hot boiled water, put on the lid and let it steep for 10-15 minutes. Then I press the filter down and pour myself a cup.
