Tea traditions of different countries abound with characteristic features. Tea drinking of Bedouins - nomads of the Egyptian deserts - is dictated by the existence of a wandering people. Bedouins make delicious teas that can refresh in the heat, cheer up and heal. Tourists in Egypt are always offered Bedouin tea - a unique invigorating drink.
Bedouin Tea Composition
Bedouins add spicy herbs to the different varieties of black teas in the desert. Each plant brings unique notes and healing power to the tonic drink , gives it uniqueness. Having mixed a pinch or two of a khabak, marmaria, rosemary or cardamom with ordinary tea leaves, they get tasty and aromatic tea.
Cardamom fruits are mixed in Egypt with black varieties of Chinese tea and get great flavored drinks. Rosemary - an odorous gracious herb - gives the teas prepared by the Bedouins, a wonderful aroma, excellent healing and soothing properties.
In addition, in Egypt, herbal yellow tea is brewed without tea leaves. For its preparation, they take helba - a desert plant with incredible healing power.
Bedouin Tea with a Hub
The homeland of the habak is the expanses of the Sinai Peninsula. Tea with this herb, similar in taste and aroma to peppermint, is the pride of the Bedouins. Drinks prepared on its basis are considered health elixirs that cleanse the lungs, relieve coughs and relieve stomach pains.
There are two variations of brewing weed. In the first case, phytotea is prepared from the leaves of the habak. In the second - before preparing the drink, the plant is mixed with tea leaves. For more pleasure, exotic gulls are sweetened with sugar or honey.
Bedouin Tea with Marmaria
Marmaria grass, similar in properties to a close relative of sage, can not be found anywhere except the mountains that spread across the Sinai Peninsula. The lack of strict recipes is a feature of Egyptian drinks. In Bedouin tea, Marmaria,
however, like other herbs, it is added to taste. One is enough for a teaspoon, the other requires the volume of the dining room per glass of boiling water.
When preparing a tea mixture, they often experiment with grass. The proportions of black tea and marmaria are constantly changing, not adhering to any strict rules. Even on pre-packaged packages purchased at the store, the exact composition is not indicated. The buyer’s attention is drawn only to the fact that the ingredients are wild herbs growing in the desert.
There is evidence that with impaired blood circulation, gastritis and stomach pain, marmaria helps. Tea with it can reduce blood sugar, fight overweight and increase lactation.
Features of Egyptian Yellow Tea
There is no more unusual tea than yellow Egyptian in the world. It is obtained not from the leaves of tea bushes or herbs, but from the seeds of the helba. Otherwise, the plant is called shambhala, fenugreek, chaman, abish, camel grass or hay fenugreek. This Bedouin tea is incredibly popular. Tourists enjoy its taste in Egypt and bring it home.
Helba refers to legumes. Its small seeds (beans), resembling buckwheat, are located in large pods. Coumarin-rich leaves, flowers, and helba beans exude a strong, characteristic aroma of spices. They give a little vanilla and chocolate.
Unusual yellow tea from Egypt, reviews of which are contradictory (there are gourmets who are ready to savor it endlessly, but there were also those who limited themselves to tasting an exotic drink), it has an aroma penetrated by smoked notes. The skin of people who drink is saturated with a specific smell. Some claim that it smells of walnut, others - bitter wormwood.
Composition of Egyptian Yellow Tea
Helba beans, from which fragrant Bedouin tea is brewed, are rich in trace elements, vitamins and amino acids. When preparing a drink, a medicinal extract of mucous and bitter substances, rutin and coumarin, steroid saponins and phytosterols, flavonoids and alkaloids, essential and fatty oils, tannins and enzymes are obtained.
Useful substances from beans are almost completely dissolved in boiling water, forming a boil with powerful healing properties. The drink has a beneficial effect on the human body.
Benefits of Helba Tea
The healing power of fenugreek was appreciated by Hippocrates. The doctor recommended it for menstrual pain and lactating women to increase lactation. He used the helba during childbirth to relieve pain.
The benefits of tea for the treatment of diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract are undoubted. The drink removes toxins and mucus from the intestines, relieves stomach cramps. It makes life easier for ulcers, enveloping the walls of the digestive system with a protective film. Pregnant women drink herbal infusion to give the muscles elasticity.
Using it, normalize the functioning of the liver, reduce the level of "bad" cholesterol and blood sugar, get rid of skin diseases. People experiencing inadequate exercise and eating unbalanced, thanks to the decoction of the helba avoid anemia.
Tea treat arthritis, cleanse the kidneys. Adding a date decoction to the drink, the stones formed in the kidneys and present in the bladder are dissolved and removed. It is used in the treatment of female diseases, to relieve headaches and get rid of impotence. Helba herbal tea is a wonderful antidepressant, it soothes and relieves anxiety.
Yellow tea from Egypt is also good for colds. Reviews say that helba infusion is a powerful antipyretic and expectorant. A mixture of yellow tea and milk helps to eliminate dry cough, get rid of bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia and other diseases.
Nutritionists actively use the drink as an additional tool in a comprehensive program aimed at reducing excess weight. The action of the components of tea has a beneficial effect on the work of the heart, mental activity and vision. They lead to normal blood pressure and stimulate the immune system.
How to make yellow tea
Since the seeds of medicinal herbs are used as tea leaves rather than leaves, the traditional method of preparing the drink is not suitable for yellow tea. Of course, you can pour helba in boiling water and insist. However, the beans will not reveal all the medicinal properties, and the benefits of tea will not be complete.
A special recipe has been invented for yellow tea. Fenugreek beans are boiled. Helba is not an elite tea from Egypt, but rather a herbal infusion. You should not even think about a teapot; it is not suitable for making a healing drink. The broth is made in small pots.
Washed and dried fenugreek seeds are fried and ground to reveal the aroma of tea. A drink is made from a glass of water and 1-2 teaspoons of a previously prepared tea leaves. The mixture is boiled for 5-8 minutes.
It turns out tea, delicious, described in different ways by people. Some feel in it an extravaganza of tastes, others consider it an unpleasant drink. Despite the richness of the shades that cause conflicting feelings, tea fans claim that the nutty notes dominate the taste of the herbal decoction.
How to drink yellow tea
Drink the drink, slightly cooling and sweetened with sugar or honey. Sometimes ginger slices or slices of lemon are added to it, and milk is taken instead of brewing water. For medicinal purposes, 12-hour infusions are often prepared from helba seeds, not explosions.
Based on yellow tea, many medicinal drinks are prepared. A decoction of milk and helba seeds eliminate impotence. A thick infusion of fenugreek with dates is given to people suffering from anemia. Against arthritis, a remedy is used from stevia leaves and fenugreek beans.
Where to buy Bedouin tea
In Egyptian shops and pharmacies they sell ready-made tea blends. The problem is that their base is not elite tea, but cheap black varieties. Therefore, tourists are advised to buy herbs separately when returning home. Using high-quality brewing of a habak, marmaria or helba, it is easy to make an excellent home-made drink that is almost indistinguishable from what is served in Egypt.
There are no strict cooking recipes, which opens up unlimited possibilities for experimentation. If the brewing of noble varieties is enriched with the taste and aroma of desert herbs, you will get a magnificent Bedouin tea that has not lost the properties of a real drink made by the Egyptians.
However, this is an optional condition. Not only branded black teas are suitable for a drink. Choosing a different brew, changing its ratio with herbs, comparing and feeling the difference, the lover of an exotic drink will surely find that ideal Bedouin tea recipe that will bring pleasure, cheer up and improve your health.