Herbal Brews Need Not be Bland nor Bitter Surely...

One after another, a domino of sniffles and cough in the household can be attributed to the sudden chilly weather on this beginning of the month, coupled that with the after-effects of fireworks on New Year's eve... Personally and the kids, I can include the all that screaming and laughter on New Year's day games for hours. Our household and the neighbours' had fun yes, the following day commenced all sorts of respiratory ailments that one can have.

So came my concoction of herbal brews to the rescue. As from my mom's usual tea consisting of paragis, moringa and mulberry leaves, the feedback is that, IT IS BLAND. This because omitting the bitter lagundi made it drinkable for these fuzzy kids, regardless of a huge amount of honey mixed to it. It is indeed bitter so each time i include it, it was ignored. Personally, it requires a certain belief and determination to actually drink the stuff. Probably this is the reason why it's a very effective bronchodilator, the taste speaks for itself.

For some respiratory issues that doesn't include difficulty of breathing, or shortness of breath or asthma, perhaps we can get away in omitting the lagundi as there are other options depending on what one needs.

Let me emphasize the respiratory anti-inflammatory effect of Paragis, one of the many benefits that one can get from it; the efficacy of treating cough and colds with the mulberry leaf juice
and the antioxidant effect of Moringa.

A tiny mulberry tree.

The beauty of a lemongrass

In Asia, this is a favourite flavour-enhancer to many dishes, steamed rice, soups, teas and many more. As we have a few in the backyard, i thought i'll throw in some stalks and perhaps it can make a lot of difference, including the smell. In the end i've included a measure of ginger slices. All together, there's no more reason for it to be ignored.

A neighbour has mentioned before that it is beneficial to the kidneys. But for the sake of this post, an article here mentions of its' preventive effect to respiratory infection. The article actually listed a lot of benefits warranting an extensive research about lemongrass. What's more, it is also a great potassium source.

All images were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7.