When it comes to tea, is there anything more luxurious sounding than a tea made of roses? Like any tea, rosebud tea is the simple combination of plain ol’ water and rosebuds. That’s it. Leave it to the incredible alchemy of a little hot water and fragrant herbs as a simple way to bring the potent anti-inflammatory and pain relieving medicine and magic of rose into your day.
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HERE YOU’LL FIND:
The Benefits of Rosebud Tea
What Type of Roses You Should Use
How to Make Rosebud Tea
The Medicinal Benefits of Rosebud Tea
Rose, a flower more entangled in human history than perhaps any other, has a well-known, long-standing association with love and romance. Accordingly, it also has a long history of medicinal use, especially for the physical heart.
Nutritionally, roses contain vitamins A, C, and E, as well a minerals like iron and potassium. These, along with a whole slew of polyphenols and other antioxidant compounds give roses an amazing medicinal value.
As a medicine, rose is considered to be:
- nervine (helps to support a healthy stress response)
- analgesic (pain relieving)
- astringent (helps to tighten and tone tissues)
- aphrodisiac
- antimicrobial
- anti-inflammatory
Rosebud Tea for Arthritis
In one study, rose tea was found to be effective in helping to reduce inflammation specifically associated with arthritis. Rose hips, the fruit of the rose, have also been studies extensively for use in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Findings like this are especially significant since many herbal medicines, like rose, have no side effects compared to many conventional anti-inflammatory treatments such as the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS).
Rosebud Tea for Menstrual Cramps
As an anti-inflammatory nervine, rosebud tea may help to relieve menstrual pain. One of the more traditional uses for rose tea was in the treatment of dysmenorrhea or painful menstrual cramping.
A study of 130 female adolescents who were given rose tea for 1, 3, or 6 months were found to have less menstrual pain, as well as less stress and anxiety that contributed to an overall greater psychological well-being.
This also alludes to rose’s aphrodisiac qualities in that it can help to get uterine stagnation flowing, thus helping to relieve symptoms of PMS.
Rosebud Tea Benefits for Skin
The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and astringent properties of rose make it an excellent herb for skin health. Its ability to tone and tighten tissues, as well as its ability to help prevent everyday oxidative stress, may have anti-aging effects on our skin.
What Type of Roses Should You Use?
You can use any rose to make rosebud tea with a few considerations. If you’re lucky enough to have wild roses near by, pick the buds just before they bloom.
Alternatively, you can purchase rosebuds from many reliable online herb retailers such as Mountain Rose Herbs. Many food co-ops with bulk sections also carry rosebuds appropriate for food and medicinal use. And if you have the ability and opportunity to support your local herbalists or foragers, seek them out.
The rule of thumb with roses when it comes to medicine is the more fragrant, the better. Avoid roses that have no smell, a telltale sign of their lower nutritive and medicinal quality.
And the only other very important consideration is to make sure that the roses have not been treated with any chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Avoid roses from the florist, as unless they are marketed as organically grown, they’ve been heavily sprayed with chemicals, 99% of the time.
HOW TO MAKE ROSEBUD TEA
This rosebud tea recipe is such a sweet, simple, and luxurious thing to enjoy in times when you could use a little physical or emotional heart medicine. Energetically, it’s very quieting and softening, and also makes a great bedtime tea.
Unsweetened, this tea is fragrant and floral with a very slight astringency. Honey, if desired, can help to disguise the astringency a little bit if you find it bothersome. Plus, honey adds its own nutritional and medicinal benefits. Although, I find this tea quite pleasant unsweetened.
Makes 1 serving (1 cup)
INGREDIENTS
1 heaping tablespoon rosebuds (fragrant & not sprayed with chemicals)
~1 cup water
honey to sweeten if desired
METHOD
- Bring water to a boil then remove from heat.
- Add rosebuds to a mug or tea infuser.
- Pour hot water over rosebuds, then cover and let steep for 5-7 minutes.
- After 5-7 minutes, strain rosebuds from tea.
- Add honey to sweeten if desired.
- Sit back, sip, relax, enjoy. ❤︎
Isn’t rosebud tea just the sweetest!? It’s the perfect pinky-up kind of tea to make you feel like royalty. Plus, there’s all the medicine you’re drinking in with each sip.
The information given in this article is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns at all, it’s always a good idea to check with your health practitioner before consuming certain herbs & medicinal foods, especially if taking any prescription medications.
