One of the most unique and interesting things about buying tea from Cornelia Bean is that we blend many of our teas and can customize any of the teas on the bar. While we have our standard blends, we can also custom blend herbal ingredients into your favourite teas. Using these raw blending ingredients can enhance the benefits of drinking tea for your body, mind and skin. We recommend checking in with your physician before trying anything new, but we do have some ideas of raw ingredients and their potential uses when added to a tea.
- Dried rose petals to enhance and add glow to skin
- Sage for brain function and memory
- Peppermint for nausea
- Ginger pieces as an anti-inflammatory
- Fenugreek to improve blood sugar control
- Ginseng as an immune system booster
- Buchu (pre-blended into the True North Blend) and dandelion as a diuretic
- Chamomile to calm nervousness
- Ginkgo biloba to improve blood flow to the brain and increase oxygen to the brain cells
- Tulsi/Holy Basil to reduce stress, anxiety and depression
- Lemongrass to promote sound sleep
Here are several combination suggestions we’ve collected that are our and customer favourites:
- Adding Chaga to any of our chai blends
- Adding peppermint to Peace tea
- Adding rose petals to Awakening tea
Besides the internal health benefits of consuming a variety of teas regularly, using tea and coffee can have other potent effects on your beauty and body regimen. Before rushing to throw out your coffee grounds or used tea leaves, check out a few simple recipes for getting more use out of used tea or coffee supplies.
Skin exfoliator
Combine a handful of coffee grounds, a few tablespoons of liquid coconut or extra virgin olive oil, and few teaspoons of sugar or salt together in a small bowl and use in the shower or bath. Use this scrub all over your body (being gentle on sensitive or freshly shaved areas of your skin and avoiding your face). You can make enough to last several days but there are no preservatives so it’s best to make a fresh batch each time you need it.
Green tea toner
Re-steep your green tea leaves and allow to cool. Strain and pour into a spray bottle and spritz directly on your face after cleansing and before moisturizing or as a refreshing pick-me-up.
Green tea facial scrub
Allow your used green tea leaves to dry until you are able to crush them into a coarse powder. Mix with a bit of lukewarm water and gently exfoliate into cleansed skin.
Hair rinse
Re-steep your tea leaves in a quart of water and allow to cool. Blondes could try chamomile tea and black tea is best for brunettes or black hair. Pour onto freshly-washed hair and leave on for ten minutes. Be sure to shampoo and condition afterward to seal in the shine.
If you have any tried and true recipes or suggestions for using tea and coffee in your beauty routine, please let us know so we can share with our other customers!