Healing Herbal Teas by Sarah Farr

272 Pages
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Release Date: December 27, 2016

The book has 101 tea blends for stress management, common ailments, seasonal health and immunity support. It is divided into three parts. Ms. Farr provides a list of basic equipment needed to blend and store the teas. I appreciate that she included a formulation pyramid for the blends. This formula is similar to ones used for notes in aromatherapy.


Part 1 – The art of tea blending
Chapter 1 tea-making process
Chapter 2 formulation and herbal actions

Part 2 – Recipes
Chapter 3 tonics for holistic health
Chapter 4 remedial teas
Chapter 5 seasonal teas

Part 3 – Living amid your medicine
Chapter 6 starting an herb garden
Chapter 7 wildcrafting a better world

Most of the recipes are written in parts to make 16 ounces of a tea blend. This way the reader can adjust the measurements for smaller or larger quantities. I love her description of her recipe notebook. She lists the processes for each blend along with her intentions. The step-by-step instructions are very thorough and easy to follow. She has inspired me to start blending again. This is a great book for anyone interested in blending and making their own herbal teas.

*Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for a fair and unbiased review.
If you love tea, you'll enjoy this book. If you don't love tea, it will make you want to try a number of new recipes to see if you were wrong the first time. Very comprehensive and written in a way that is easy to understand. Highly recommended!

In a world where we seem to rely more and more on caffeine to get through our hectic days, this book is a breath of fresh air for those looking for an alternative and healthy pick-me-up. With fabulous recipes, not only has this booked helped us appreciate the healing power of tea, but it has taught us how to brew our own blends.
A fabulous book for anyone looking for alternative and healthy solutions in an overly caffeinated world.

Not a fan of teas, I was trying to fins inspiration in this book, and although I might not be converted yet, this was definitely an informative book of tea and its uses.

Not only does the reader get all the info on how to make the best herbal tea (I mean ingredients), the author also has lots of tips and tricks about how to preserve herbs and things. Very good!

I would like to thank Storey Publishing for providing me with a free ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

I don’t know what it was about this book, but I just didn’t gel with it. Please, please, PLEASE realise this doesn’t make it a bad book. In fact I found the book to be filled with very useful, very comprehensive information to help readers interested in tea as a drink as well as a way to heal themselves. I feel that was the problem for me, there was just too much information. And as good as it was… I found it swallowed up the recipes and really killed my desire to learn. There was just too much. But this is really just a personal choice thing and I am sure many will disagree with me and feel I am dead wrong. Cool, then they should write some glowing reviews about this book on their blog. ;-)

When you actually do get to the recipes the formatting is clear, precise and easy to read/ follow… but I often found the actual recipes too few and far between as there was yet more information, herbal spotlights and many gorgeous pictures taking their place.

I guess I just found the overall layout of this book didn’t sit well with me? I don’t know? I hate sounding harsh and it is not my intention as some of the tea recipes sound just the sort of things I would love to make and drink… I am aimply trying to give my honest opinion. And that is, I obviously wasn’t the right reader for this book.

Would I recommend this book to others?

I don’t know… maybe? Well, the extremely thorough information this book contains would definitely be of use to those who know nothing about tea making, herbal infusions and the like and such readers would clearly benefit from this book. But I also feel they might get too swamped and suffer information overload if they chose to read it all, rather than just skip to the recipes. And, quite honestly, I feel you would do this book and author a severe injustice if you skipped all the information she has shared and just race to the recipes. It’s an all or nothing sort of thing… If that makes sense?

Would I buy this book for myself?

Sadly no, and I think I’ve already given my reasons as to why that would be. There is a great wealth of information within this book and it is fantastic that it has been shared with us all… but I couldn’t connect and enjoy. I am still putting it down to the overall layout just not suiting my tastes more than it being a bad book – it is not a bad book!

In summary: an extremely comprehensive and informative book on how to make the best herbal teas for taste as well as health. I just wasn’t the right reader.

This is by far the best tea blending and brewing book that I have found so far. There are a lot of books on the market that offer recipes or basic instructions for how to make herbal tea and remedies, but this book includes everything you need, including instructions for how to get the most benefit from your tea brewing and specifics on herbs and their actions.

This would make a great addition to any herbalist's library or a great gift for someone who is looking for information on natural health benefits of herbs. I was impressed by the organisation in this book. It is easy to read, easy to understand and also convenient for when you want to find a specific part of the book for later review.

Over all, this was impressive and I look forward to reading it again and using it in the future.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I'd love to do a full review once I obtain a copy of this book.