After my last post about sage tea and the wonderful effects it has on my skin, I had a few people asking questions about it. So I thought I'd do a follow up post with a bit more info.

Firstly, a heads up to anyone who is breastfeeding or pregnant. Drinking sage tea is meant to be a very effective way to dry up your milk, so is used by women who are trying to wean their bubba. So if bubs still relies on your milk, you'd best hold off on the sage tea until s/he's ready to be weaned. If you're pregnant, avoid sage tea because it can cause uterine contractions.

So, sage tea isn't really all that hard to find. I've seen it in most health food stores. Hilde Hemmes is a particularly popular brand of therapeutic herbal teas.

I took this pic in the Value Health store at Chadstone, for Melbournians out that way. It was $6.95 and would easily last more than a month. You can also buy them in tea bags, which might be more convenient for work or people who don't like to mess around with tea leaves, but they're a little bit more expensive.

So, I use one of those tea brewing ball thingy whatchamacallit's.

And this is what sage tea looks like close up. It kind of sticks and clumps together, so I kind of scoop it into the ball with my (clean) fingers. 

Then pour boiling water over it, and brew for about 7 minutes.

For the second brew, I just take the tea ball out and put it in the second cup and pour the still-hot but not reboiled (not for any particular reason, but cos I think the residual heat plus time is enough to brew it a second time) water over it.

This was my little tea brewing corner in the kitchen (see the second cup brewing?), til Mr K told me he didn't really like looking at my teacups all day long, so now I don't leave my tea stuff lying around anymore. And in return, he always squeezes out the sponge instead of leaving it soggy in the sink

You might remember in my earlier post that I said I was drinking 4 cups a per day (brewed each batch twice), but I think I was overdoing it because it started to break me out. This doesn't happen if you just have 2 cups. More is definitely not better in this case. I was just a little bit enthusiastic.

Sage tea has been considered a youth elixir since ancient times, and scientists have found it to contain anti-aging compounds, as well as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal and antiseptic properties, so I guess those are the kind of characteristics that make my skin all nicely plumped and glowing

However, sage tea is considered by some to be useful for just about everything that could ail humans. Here's a list I've put together, and it's definitely not exhaustive. As one source I found put it, " …its medicinal uses are going to run along like a never-ending papyrus scroll". So, just as a taste, sage tea can be good for:

• Curbing excessive sweating
  
• Treating depression and nervous anxiety
  
• Liver disorders
  
• A miracle skin cure
  
• Treating painful jellyfish stings, insect and spider bites
  
• An antiseptic wash for dirty wounds
  
• Treating persistent and recurrent coughs
  
• Improving circulation
  
• Treating menopausal and menstrual problems
  
• Gargling to ease laryngitis and tonsillitis
  
• …and many, many more ailments.
  

If you're interested in knowing what other things sage tea might help with, you might find this link, and this one interesting to read.

If you give this a go, remember that it could take a few weeks before you see any results, but I hope this works for you. Please let me know if it does and feel free to ask me any questions if you like.

xx Kiki

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