Cucumber Basil Refresher
Holy Basil is abundant in volatile essential oils, invoking the fragrance of mint, citrus and cloves as you sip your delicious tea. The seductive essential oils interact with our nervous system and bring an instant sense of well-being. Tea drinking, practiced mindfully, can be a little oasis of calm in an otherwise frantic day.*
Holy Basil is in the mint family and like other mints, it has a diaphoretic action, which allows the heat to leave our bodies; like opening the windows in a stuffy house on a hot day. Inspired by the summer heat and several very high-yielding cucumber plants, we made this very refreshing drink using the sun tea method. We decided to leave the tea out overnight to harness the cooling energy of the moon to balance the heating aspect of the sun. Cucumbers are very cooling, detoxifying, and alkalizing and are perfect if you are feeling, “hot under the collar.”* There’s a reason Mother Nature produces an abundance of these gourds at the peak of summer.
Cucumber Basil Refresher
Makes 5 1/2 cups
1 tbsp. Organic Peppermint Leaf (or 2 tbsp. of fresh mint)
1 tbsp. Organic Holy Basil Tea Blend
1 cucumber
sweetener of choice (optional)
- Add water and herbs to a clear glass container and leave outside in the sun (and the moon) for a total of 24 hours.
- The tea should be completely infused into the water (brown in color).
- Strain the tea to remove the herbal remnants.
- Peel, de-seed and chop the cucumber and add to a blender and blend until it is liquid.
- Strain the pulp from the water using a fine-mesh strainer and retain the cucumber water. The amount of cucumber water you end up with depends on the cucumber.
- Add the cucumber water to the tea.
- Sweeten to your taste. We added 1 tsp. of maple syrup per cup.
