Through the last few years, the popularity of avocado has been growing big time. This makes sense considering it’s a superfood that has a staggering amount of health benefits. Not to mention the fact that avocados are as tasty as they are healthy. Another benefit is that you can pretty much use any part of this fruit. Nothing goes to waste.
Many different types of foods use the avocado that comes from south-central Mexico. People are making a lot with avocados these days. Sauces, dips, baby food, smoothies and such are great with a little avocado in them. The best part of using every section of avocado is variation. You can use avocado leaves and seeds to make a good cup of tea. This is yet another drink form people are putting avocado in. Of course, there is a great reason for this. Let’s look into how to make avocado leaf tea.
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The Process
Making the tea itself is pretty easy. There are few complications when it comes to using avocado leaves to make tea. The steps are simple to follow and the process itself should not take much time.The first thing is washing the avocado leaves thoroughly. This will get rid of any bacteria as a necessary health measure.
- Choose a vessel and add 1-2 cups of water in it.
- After this, add your avocado leaves to it and begin to boil the water.
- You should simmer it for 10-15 minutes.
- Add sugar or artificial sweetener to make your tea taste better.
- Turn off flame and strain your tea into a cup or mug and drink it warm.
As you can see, it does not take any amount of supplies or much time to make a good cup of avocado leaf tea. In this sense, it is like making any other cup of tea with no extra hassle. But, there are many things about avocado leaf tea that you might not have known about. This can help you make your tea even better.
The General Health Benefits of Avocado Leaf Tea
Part of the reason for avocado’s popularity has to do with its health benefits. The list goes on and on when adding tea to the matter. Avocado leaf tea helps you treat headaches. This is because it increases the flow of oxygen to the brain. The stress-reducing properties of avocado leaf tea should leave you feeling soothed in no time.
People often like to mix this tea with honey as it is great for aiding in digestion and helps constipation. Many have also reported that it helps with easing asthma symptoms and lowering blood glucose levels. Next to this, other benefits people have mentioned include: curing kidney stones, treating muscle soreness and reducing inflammation. Taking this all into consideration, there are a lot of things you can treat with just a simple cup of tea.
Preparation of Avocado leaves
Avocado leaves taste a very specific way. The way you choose to use the leaves in your tea may affect as well taste in general . This is why you may want to know how to choose your avocado leaves for your tea. For example, the leaves of the Mexican avocado are usually used in cooking. Most people prefer this type of avocado for the fruit itself along with the leaves they might use with spices as well.
Young vs. Old leaves
The Avocado leaves usually stay on a tree for two to three years before falling off, and new ones replace it. The Avocado leaves usually stay on a tree for two to three years before falling off, and new ones replace it. Keep this in mind if you are going to pick your avocado leaves for your tea. It helps to know how long it will take the tree to regrow lost leaves, and when leaves are ready for picking.
Also, keep in mind that the little leaves that replace the larger ones are usually tastier. You may want to go for younger leaves if you are partial to your avocado leaf tea tasting stronger. Many people have described younger leaves tasting somewhat like licorice. This is completely natural and is no cause for alarm. Many older leaves tend to lose this aspect of flavor.
Dried leaves
Perhaps you do not want to pick leaves right off of a tree. Instead, you decide you want the leaves already prepared for you in advance. Choosing to buy dried leaves is a great option if you do not want to go through the extra trouble. Prepared leaves usually come toasted, crushed and ground. This is because most people use these leaves as spices rather than tea.
The downside of using prepared avocado leaves is that a lot of the flavor might be lost, depending on the quality of the product you select in the end. So keep this in mind. Also, avoid prepared leaves that are specifically ground and made for spices. Putting leaves in this state in tea would lower the taste.
Types of Avocado leaves
Please keep in mind that leaves from different types of avocado trees (that also grow different types of avocado) are considered toxic. Only the Mexican avocado tree (Persea Americana var. drymifolia) is one hundred percent safe. The other types are Guatemalan and West Indian. Also consider that any tree decedent of these, or having any percentage of these types at all are toxic.
Altogether, avoiding these types should not be a problem. This is because the Mexican avocado leaf is the only one that has the aroma and flavor most people find pleasurable. This is a great way to test the leaves you have. Crush them and take a sniff. If the leaves have any aroma, they are probably Mexican and safe to use. The other types of avocado leaves are sometimes used for medical purposes. However, they have no food value whatsoever. Take care not to ingest these types of leaves as they have been known to kill smaller animals such as birds or fish.
