• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers & Snacks
    • Beverages & Drinks
    • Breakfast
    • Breads
    • Canning, Drying & Fermenting
    • Condiments, Sauces & Dressings
    • Desserts, Sweets & Treats
    • Fermentation
    • Main Dish
    • Pressure Cooker
    • Slow Cooker & Crockpot
    • Soups & Stews
    • Sous Vide
    • Veggies, Side Dishes & Salads
  • Lifestyle
    • Beauty
    • Essential Oils
    • Fasting
    • Foraging
    • Health & Wellness
    • Pets
  • Web stories
  • Contact Us
  • About Hayley
  • Health Starts in the Kitchen
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
Health Starts in the Kitchen

Health Starts in the Kitchen

Helping Make the World a Healthier Place, one Kitchen at a time!

  • Sparkling Peach Tea Blackberry Smash Mocktail
    Sparkling Peach Tea Blackberry Mocktail
  • Sparkling Peach Tea Blackberry Smash Mocktail
    Sparkling Peach Tea Blackberry Smash Mocktail
  • Chai Tea Apple Custard Pie, PLUS How to Make the Perfect Chai Tea Latte!
    Chai Tea Apple Custard Pie, PLUS How to Make the Perfect Chai Tea Latte!
  • Skinny Mint Tea Julep {Keto & Low-Carb}
    Skinny Mint Tea Julep {Keto & Low-Carb}
  • Chai Tea Apple Custard Pie, PLUS How to Make the Perfect Chai Tea Latte!
    Chai Tea Apple Custard Pie
Home / Recipes / Beverages & Drinks / Lemon Balm Iced Tea

Lemon Balm Iced Tea

I feel totally ridiculous telling you this. Please don’t hold it against me.

I’ve had a beautiful plethora of Lemon Balm growing in my herb garden for YEARS – and every year I stand around starring at it, wondering what the HECK to do with it… The leaves smell fabulous and it’s a beautiful landscape plant if nothing else.. but I’m embarrassed that I’ve been letting it all go to waste, year after year.

Last Friday, my friend Lurea gave me the most amazing goodie bag (for no reason, which is the best kinds of gifts to get!) it had a yummy tea bag, essential oil sample, travel Frothy Coffee whipper, Jeralseum Artichoke Plant, big bag of stinging nettles and a bag of her homegrown lemon balm.

Silly as I am – because it was a gift, I HAD to really use the lemon balm. So I put my thinking cap on, searched the internet and scoured my foraging books for an easy way that I (and YOU) can use up that abundance of lemon balm you have growing in a super yummy (and healthy) way!

Lemon Balm growing in my herb garden

What is Lemon Balm?

The green leaves of lemon balm have the scent of lemon with a hint of mint, with leaves that look like oversized mint—no surprise, since lemon balm is part of the mint family. Lemon balm can grow 24 to 36 inches tall and makes a nice green clump of medium-textured leaves among the other herbs and flowers in your garden. The plant looks best when it is cut back periodically, so plan to use lots of fresh, flavorful leaves to brew tea, flavor fruit or green salad, and season fish. Be sure to include stems in bouquets of summer flowers.

Needless to say, it’s a very easy plant to grow and is extremely resilient to cutting to be used. You can buy started plants at a local nursery or you can buy Lemon Balm Seeds online HERE. Most of us who grow lemon balm in our gardens & landscapes have more than enough to share too!

Medicinal Uses of Lemon Balm:

  • Lemon Balm is anti-viral, so the tea is great to drink if you’re feeling under the weather.  The hot tea brings on a sweat that is good for relieving colds, flus and fevers and an anti-viral agent has been found that combats mumps, cold sores and other viruses.  James Duke mentions that Lemon Balm can help with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Shingles, due to the anti-viral action.
  • One of Lemon Balm’s key medicinal qualities is as a tranquilizer.  It calms a nervous stomach, colic, or heart spasms.  The leaves are reputed to also lower blood pressure.  It is very gentle, although effective, so is often suggested for children and babies.
  • Lemon Balm tea has been shown to inhibit the division of tumor cells.  It may also be beneficial to those with Grave’s disease-studies indicate that the herb slightly inhibits the thyroid-stimulating hormone and restricts Grave’s disease, a hyperthyroid condition.
  • Lemon Balm’s anti-histamine action is useful to treat eczema and headaches and accounts for the centuries old tradition of placing the fresh leaf on insect bites and wounds.  A fomentation of Lemon Balm may also help reduce the swelling associated with gout.
  • Through research, Lemon Balm has clearly demonstrated the ability to impact the limbic system of the brain and “protect” the brain from the powerful stimuli of the body and should be part of any ADHD formula.  It smells a lot better than Ritalin, too.

Aromatherapy Uses of Lemon Balm (aka Melissa Essential Oil) 

  • The essential oil (also know as Melissa)  has been used as an insect repellent, to treat insect bites and treat allergies.  Respiratory uses of Lemon Balm include: asthma, bronchitis, chronic coughs, colds and influenza.  Digestive uses are: colic, indigestion, nausea; good for vomiting and indigestion of a nervous origin, relieving spasms and flatulence.  People may be surprised that Lemon Balm oil is good for the circulatory system; it’s a heart tonic, relieves palpitations and lowers blood pressure.  And like centuries of herbalists before us, we can use Lemon Balm oil for anxiety, depression, hypertension, insomnia, migraine, nervous tension, shock and vertigo.
  • Lemon Balm blends well with lavender, geranium, floral and citrus oils.

Culinary Uses of Lemon Balm

  • Fresh Lemon Balm imparts a subtle lemon flavor and fresh lemon fragrance, making it especially nice for fruit dishes, custards, and tea.  Early fresh leaves can be chopped and added to salads; just cut down somewhat on the vinegar or lemon juice.  Lemon Balm can easily take the place of Lemon Thyme in any recipe you’ve got.  I’ve even seen a recipe for Lemon Balm Cheesecake.  Talk about versatility!  It has also been said that you can lay fish or chicken over a bed of Lemon Balm leaves before baking and you won’t need any other seasonings.  Dried Lemon Balm is used mainly for Lemon Balm Tea – if you are going to use the leaves for culinary purposes, it is best to freeze them.  They should keep for about two months.

The Easiest way to use Fresh Lemon Balm, Make Iced tea!

It was completely love at first sip! I promise if you make up a batch of Lemon Balm Iced Tea, it won’t be your last! It’s smooth and mild with a soft lemon flavor.

making lemon balm iced tea with lemon

Fill your jar/pitcher about half full with fresh picked (and washed) lemon balm – leaves & stems are ok… I add in a scoop of honey

brewing a quart jar of lemon balm iced tea

Fill your jar/pitcher with boiling water, preferable filtered 🙂

brewing lemon balm iced tea

Let your tea steep — the longer it steeps the more intense the flavor becomes. As a minimum I recommend steeping for 20 minutes, but have let mine go for an entire day and both tasted yummy!

glass of cool & refreshing homemade lemon balm iced teaServe your Lemon Balm Tea over iced (you can also drink it hot/warm) .. I like mine with a squeeze of lime and a garnish of additional lemon balm from the garden.  Enjoy an iced cold glass of Lemon Balm Iced Tea on a hot day for a refreshing & HEALTHY Treat!

What’s your favorite way to use up the Lemon Balm growing in your garden??

 

May 19, 2014 · 10 Comments

Previous Post: « DIY Homemade Blackhead Removing Mask
Next Post: How to Heal a Cold Sore Naturally »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. Avatarlearn more says

    December 6, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    3 stars
    How would certainly you such as to bypass the
    higher list prices at the household furniture stores by using wood
    furnishings programs and make some your own self?

    It is feasible and a lot of people are already doing it. As resisted
    of what lots of people believe, it is actually certainly not necessary to be an expert to make timber furniture.

    Reply
  2. AvatarJana says

    June 17, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    I simmer it on the stove for a fresh house smell

    Reply
    • AvatarEileen says

      May 28, 2020 at 9:40 pm

      Such a great idea.

      Reply
« Older Comments

Primary Sidebar

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search by Category

Footer

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
KETO CRAB DIP SOUP My Keto Crab Dip Soup is cream KETO CRAB DIP SOUP

My Keto Crab Dip Soup is creamy, chock-full of crab and positively delicious, just like the crab dips we all know and love.

But seriously, I can’t be the only one that has thought (while eating crab dip) that this would make an amazing soup, or rather I’d prefer to ditch the carb-laden dipper and just eat this crab dip with a spoon, am I right?? Who’s with me?!

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/keto-crab-dip-soup/

#keto #ketolife #ketodiet #ketomeals #ketorecipes #ketofriendly #ketoweightloss
ROASTED ZUCCHINI AND EGGPLANT BABA GANOUSH DIP REC ROASTED ZUCCHINI AND EGGPLANT BABA GANOUSH DIP RECIPE {LOW-CARB & PALEO}

Did you know that you can use Zucchini in Baba Ganoush? Not only is it a great way to use an abundant harvest of zucchini from your garden, but it also tastes great! Try my Roasted Zucchini and Eggplant Baba Ganoush Dip Recipe for a delicious low-carb alternative to hummus.

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/roasted-zucchini-and-eggplant-baba-ganoush-dip-recipe/
EASY KETO BBQ SAUCE RECIPE This Easy Keto BBQ Sau EASY KETO BBQ SAUCE RECIPE

This Easy Keto BBQ Sauce Recipe is the perfect sweet, smoky, spicy & tangy sauce all-in-one, with only 1g net carb per serving!  If you want a super easy, sugar-free, low-carb barbecue sauce that tastes delicious, this is it! And it only takes 5 minutes to to make.

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/easy-keto-bbq-sauce-recipe/

#keto #ketolife #ketodiet #ketomeals #ketorecipes #ketofriendly #ketoweightloss
KETO BEEF & CABBAGE BOWL This Keto Beef & Cabbage KETO BEEF & CABBAGE BOWL

This Keto Beef & Cabbage Bowl is a delicious and budget-friendly meal that’s ready to eat in less than 30 minutes. And with only 7g net carbs you won’t sabotage your low carb diet!

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/beef-cabbage-bowl/

#keto #ketolife #ketodiet #ketomeals #ketorecipes #ketofriendly #ketoweightloss
EASY ROASTED GARLIC PARMESAN GREEN BEANS {KETO} T EASY ROASTED GARLIC PARMESAN GREEN BEANS {KETO}

These Easy Roasted Garlic Parmesan Green Beans are crispy and golden on the outside, yet tender on the inside. These delicious green beans are roasted with a rich mixture of parmesan cheese and minced garlic, with <6g carbs per serving are low carb and Keto Diet friendly!

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/easy-roasted-garlic-parmesan-green-beans-keto/

#keto #ketolife #ketodiet #ketomeals #ketorecipes #ketofriendly #ketoweightloss
THE BEST KETO MASHED CAULIFLOWER The Best Keto Ma THE BEST KETO MASHED CAULIFLOWER

The Best Keto Mashed Cauliflower is my favorite way to conquer comfort food cravings when following a low-carb diet. My secret is using frozen cauliflower and cream cheese for the ultimate creamy and delicious side dish, that no one will guess isn’t potatoes!

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/the-best-keto-mashed-cauliflower/

#keto #ketolife #ketodiet #ketomeals #ketorecipes #ketofriendly #ketoweightloss
KETO CRISPY ZUCCHINI CHIPS With my Keto Crispy Zu KETO CRISPY ZUCCHINI CHIPS

With my Keto Crispy Zucchini Chips you can preserve all the deliciousness of summer-time zucchini for busting your crunchy cravings all winter long with <2g carbs per serving!

https://healthstartsinthekitchen.com/low-carb-crispy-zucchini-chips/

#keto #ketolife #ketodiet #ketomeals #ketorecipes #ketofriendly #ketoweightloss
  • Recipe Index
  • Sales Page
  • Pricing

Copyright © 2021 · Thyme Theme by Restored 316