How to Harvest & Dry Herbs For Seasonings & Tea

Learn to make your own herbal tea by drying leaves from common herbs. Methods include traditional air-drying as well as using kitchen appliances to speed up the process.

For more plant options, see 60 Plants To Grow For Homegrown Herbal Teas including teas made from flowers, fruits, roots, and seeds.

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Preserving Herbs For Tea

Whether you want to preserve herbs for cooking or tea, the basic harvesting and drying methods are the same.

Herbs are any plants used for flavoring. The ones we are discussing here are herbal teas made from plant leaves. You can also make teas from some plant stems, flowers, fruits, roots, and seeds. This has an extensive list of plants you can use for teas.

We dry teas to preserve them for later use. Without thorough drying, harvested herbs rot and form mold.

In cold climates gardens in Canada and the United States, our tea plants may grow as annuals or perennials. This describes the difference between annuals and perennials.

While it’s most common to grow herbs outdoors, you can also grow some herbs indoors at home as well.

Some herbal tea plants are tender like peppermint or lemon verbena (Aloysia citriodora)  while others are tougher, woody herbs like lemon thyme (Thymus x citriodus).

The advantage to creating your own teas from plant leaves is they can be harvested at any time during the growing season.

As you get more familiar with it, you may notice that the flavors from each plant change depending on when the leaves are harvested.

Some teas also taste best if the leaves are harvested as new growth, some just prior to flowering, and others when both the leaves and flowers are blended together. There’s no right or wrong, just personal preferences.

While you can also brew tea from fresh leaves, dried leaves tend have stronger flavors and can be stored for a few years.

Content

• Plant List
• Drying Methods
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Resources

Plant List

This lists examples of plants used to make herbal teas from their leaves.

Many herbs used for leaf teas come from the Lamiaceae (mint) family.

Anise Hyssop | Agastache foeniculum | USDA zone 4a – 9b
Use: leaves and/or flowers
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Bergamot / Bee Balm / Oswego tea | Monarda | USDA zone 3a – 9b
Use: young stems, leaves and flowers
Harvest Timing: leaves have best flavor before plant starts flowering

Cardamom | Elettaria cardamomum | USDA zone 10a – 11
Use: young green leaves and stems
Harvest Timing: young green leaves and tender stems

Hyssop | Hyssopus officinalis | USDA zone 3a – 11
Use: tender stems, leaves, flowers
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Lemon Balm | Melissa officinalis | USDA zone 4a – 9b
Use: tender stems, leaves, flowers
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Lemongrass | Cymbopogon citratus | USDA zone 9-10
Use: leaves
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Lemon Verbena | Aloysia triphylla | USDA zones 9-10
If you love lemon flavor, this is the a good choice.
Use: leaves
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

New Jersey Tea | Ceanothus americanus | USDA zone 4a – 10b
Use: tender stems and leaves
Harvest Timing: summer

Peppermint | Mentha x piperita | USDA zone 3a – 7 b
Use: leaves
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Raspberry | Rubus idaeus | USDA zone 3a – 8b
Use: tender leaves and dried fruit
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Rosemary | Salvia rosmarinus, formerly Rosmarinus officinalis | USDA zone 7a – 10b
Use: young leaves and flower tops
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Sage | Pineapple Sage | Salvia elegans ‘Scarlet Pineapple’ | USDA zone 8 – 11
Use: leaves
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season. Flavor changes throughout the seasons.

Scented Geranium | Pelargonium graveolens | USDA zone 10a – 11
Use: leaves
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season

Stevia | Stevia rebaudiana | USDA zone 8a – 11
Use: leaves
Harvest Timing: any time during growing season. Flavor is sweetest just prior to flowering.

Thyme | Lemon Thyme | Thymus citriodorus | USDA zone 3b – 11
Use: tender leaves
Harvest Timing: summer

Drying Methods

We dry herbs by exposing the harvested plant parts to warm, dry air until the moisture is removed. This can be done the old-fashioned way by hanging the plants to air dry, drying them on a flat mesh screen, or using household appliances.

A lot of tea makers say the best teas are dried slowly at low heat. With the experimenting I’ve done, I can’t say I’ve always found this to be true. Sometimes peppermint leaves dried instantly in the microwave have the same flavor as those hung to dry over many days. I think it’s worth trying several different methods on an assortment of plants to discover what you like best.

Air Drying

Indoors | An indoor space with low humidity, warmth, and good air circulation is ideal for hang-drying herbs although not as fast as the other methods listed below.

Woody herbs work nicely for this because the leaves tend to stay attached to the stems. Tie them in small bundles or hang them individually until completely dry.

You can also spread herbs out on mesh screens and let them dry this way.

My indoor cats are far too interested in what I’m up to with either of these approaches so I prefer to use other methods.

Outdoors | Outdoor drying can work too although sun and wind may interfere with your plans. It is also said that intense sun can reduce flavor and discolor the herbs. Wind, of course, may blow dried bits away.

If possible, find a sheltered outdoor spot where the herbs can dry protected from wind, rain, and direct sun.

If suitable, you could also place the herbs in paper bags with air holes so they can dry in the heat without getting blown away.

Using Household Appliances

While using appliances can be faster and easier to control, there are pros and cons to each option.

Dehydrator | A food dehydrator is probably the best of these options. Made for this use, you can choose a suitable temperature range (95 to 115°F / 35 to 46°C) and gradually dry the herbs on mesh trays with the built-in fans running. Some also have timers to automatically shut off as needed.

During hot and humid days of summer, I find a slightly hotter temperature setting is needed to offset the moist air conditions otherwise it takes a really long time.

Oven | Depending on the settings available, your range or oven may work just fine for drying herbs. The goal, of course, is to avoid burning the leaves—which is highly likely if the herbs are not closely monitored.

Spread the leaves out on parchment-lined baking sheets or mesh racks. Turn occasionally to allow all parts to dry evenly.

Just like the dehydrator, temperatures in the 95 to 115°F (35 to 46°C) range work nicely but some ovens do not allow settings below approximately 212°F (100°C). A workaround is to monitor the process carefully while keeping the oven door ajar to release some of the heat. Use an oven thermometer or touchless thermometer to check the heat levels.

A toaster oven can also work although the interior space is quite limited.

Microwave Oven | I first dried plants in the microwave when I was needing pressed flowers and leaves for an art project. That’s when it dawned on me that I could dry herbs for cooking and tea this way too.

The microwave method is fast. The key is to microwave similar-size parts together. I place the leaves (and sometimes stems and flowers) on sheets of paper towel and run the microwave around 30-seconds at a time. If some bits are dry before others, I remove them and continue in short bursts until everything is done.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I harvest herbs for teas?

During the growing season, the best time for harvesting leaves for tea depends on the type of plant and the parts you are using. In general, young leaves and tender stems are most flavorful. But, some teas are best with the leaves and flowers combined.

For time of day, morning is considered optimum for harvesting.

Which herbs should I choose?

Make sure the herbs you are choosing are safe for consumption and organically-grown. They should be pesticide and herbicide-free. If you purchased the herbs from a plant nursery, find out how they were grown and if they were treated or sprayed—we want them “food safe.”

For best quality, harvest from plants that are healthy and disease-free. Remove any insects prior to drying.

If you intend to continue growing the plant, don’t harvest too much. You want enough stems and leaves remaining so the plant can continue to photosynthesize and grow.

Should I wash herbs before drying them?

There are mixed opinions about washing herbs prior to drying them. Some say it’s fine and helps get the bugs and dirt off, while others think it adds more moisture, slowing the drying process.

Personally, I only wash them if they appear to need it.

How long does it take to dry herbs?

The time it takes to dry herbs will vary depending on the plant, how hydrated it is, the method used, and conditions like room or outdoor temperature and relative humidity.

Some fine leaves may take just a minute in a microwave oven, many minutes in a regular oven, or days or weeks hanging from the rafters.

How can you tell when herbs are completely dry?

You can tell herbs are completely dry when they crumble between your fingers. If you are familiar with dried store-bought herbs or teas, that’s the texture you’re going for.

How should I store dry herbal teas?

Store dried herbal teas in labelled, air tight containers in a cool, dark place. Like other herb storage, it is thought that exposure to heat (like a range or oven) hastens the loss of flavor over time.

How long do herbal teas last? Do they go bad?

With proper drying, dried herbs don’t really go bad, they just gradually lose their flavor. Dried herbs including herbal teas generally remain flavorful for approximately 1 to 3 years.

This has a handy guide to properly storing herbs and spices in your kitchen.

How do you brew herbal tea?

This is a hot topic!

Tea is made by infusing (steeping or soaking) dried or fresh herbs in hot water.

The outcome is all in the details:

• Choice of herbs or blend of herbs, amount used, and how long it steeps
• Water quality and temperature during steeping
• The type of teapot and cup

It’s all a matter of personal preference and can take a lot of experimenting to come up with your perfect cup of tea. I have my own favorite way of making tea and I’ve never met anyone else who likes it the same way. But alas, I will not be tea-shamed and neither should you!

Unlike bagged tea from the store, you might not like the way homemade herbal teas leave little bits in the water. Two workarounds are to use a tea ball for infusing and to finish off by pouring tea through a fine, mesh strainer before serving.

Also, try making sun tea. Sun tea is made by placing fresh or dried tea herbs in water in a lidded jar. Left in the hot sun, it gradually brews over several hours.

Resources

Seeds: Herbal Tea Seed Collection | Botanical Interests (US Only)

Book: Homegrown Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes by Cassie Liversidge

Supplies: Food dehydrator

More Tea Ideas: List of plant to use for teas

It’s tea time.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛