Cooking with Verbena: The lemoni-est herb you will find

Verbena is an extremely potent herb for those seeking that exotic lemon-lime citrus punch. Hard to find fresh, this herb is often used in the dry form. When dry, it’s also possible to store for much longer, up to a full year, and the flavours are also more pronounced. Often with herbs, drying is done very close to harvesting, so the majority of the aroma and flavour is kept intact in storage. Longer leaves also carry more flavour, so make sure to look for long verbena leaves when buying. Short leaves lose their aroma much faster.

Verbena has also been endlessly researched for it’s health benefits as an antioxidant by several government organisations. Research has shown that consumption of Verbena can lead to better performance in exercise, and exhibits other interesting effects resulting from it’s strong anti-oxidant properties.

Thanks to it’s beautiful, intoxicating citrus aroma, Verbena is also often used as a natural perfume across a range of products such as soaps, shampoos, moisturizers and even candles.

Here’s how you can introduce Verbena into your daily routine, it’s as easy as brewing a cup of tea!

Recipe: Verbena Tea

Ingredients

– 10 Dried Verbena leaves (1-2g)
– 5g Tea Leaves of your choice (Floral teas such as Chamomile, Jasmine or Chrysanthemum work best)
– 300ml of water.

Method

Bring the water to a slow boil. Put the tea leaves and verbena in a teapot.
Remove the water from the boil and pour it into the teapot.
Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Stir well, then pour into your mug to drink!

References:

Antioxidant effect of lemon verbena extracts in lymphocytes of university students performing aerobic training program.
Analysis of the constituents of aqueous preparations of verbena and lemon verbena and evaluation of the antioxidant activity