Hello my dear readers!
Today I made the most delicious health concoction ever! Deciding to get creative in the kitchen in order to cool down everyone’s thirst, a lovely refresher was born. This can be taken both cool or hot. Never ever do I set my little hands upon a can of conventional iced tea as it is loaded with artificial sweeteners, colors and who knows what else. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient in a drink, don’t drink it! Same goes for food.

So what was created!? I steeped 2 of my favorite herbs in boiling water for about 2 hours. These are Tulsi / Holy Basil and Nettle. Don’t forget to check this out to learn about the numerous benefits of nettle. Holy Basil is quite an amazing herb as well. Highly revered in India, it is considered to have a pure essence which helps the heart and mind to become more receptive to God. It is said to increase faith, clarity and compassion and is believed to increase goodness, virtue, joy and spiritual growth. Documentation on the benefits of holy basil extends back to around 1,000 BC in the classic Indian Ayurvedic text on natural healing called the Charaka Samhita. There has also been a significant amount of modern research, comprised of both animal and human studies on the health benefits of holy basil. In our modern day, Holy Basil acts as a powerful adaptogen.

What is an ‘adaptogen’ you ask?
In 1947 Russian scientist Nikolai Lazarev first defined an adaptogen as a nutritive substance that counters the adverse physical, chemical or biological sources of stress by raising nonspecific resistance, allowing the organism to adapt to stressful circumstances.

In 1968, Israel I. Brekhman, PhD and I.V. Dardymov defined an Adaptogen as follows:

• It is non-toxic to the recipient
• It produces a nonspecific response in the body and an increase in the power of resistance against multiple stressors including physical chemical or biological agents.
• It has a normalizing influence on physiology irrespective of the direction of change from psychological norms caused by the stressor.

Essentially adaptogens produce an adaptive response to stress thereby improving the body’s natural homeostasis and balance. How relevant in our modern hustle bustle world! Our bodies are screaming for adaptogens!

Ok, back to the recipe: Once the 2 herbed concoction was well steeped and cooled, I added some fresh mint leaves, a few lemon slices and a generous drizzle of Agave nectar. This was all poured into a glass container and kept nice and fresh in the fridge.

Boy did this one turn out to be a hit!
Try it at home and tell us how enlightened you feel after consumption.

Stay tuned for more of my healthy kitchen experiments, they may just turn out to become your favorite recipes!