Calendula Linden Blossom Tea

A blend of calendula petals and linden blossom, two flowers from European gardens and lanes. Linden brings a honey-like scent, calendula a golden color and a mild, slightly peppery edge. Steeped in a covered mug at 95°C for six to eight minutes.

Origin & Story

Linden trees bloom for a few weeks in June and July, and for those weeks the streets they line smell of honey and hum with bees. Gather the flowers, bracts and all, dry them in the shade, and you have tilleul, the linden tea that is a staple of French kitchens and is drunk across Europe.

Linden tea is made from Tilia flowers together with the pale bract, the small leaf-like wing that carries the flower stalk. Foragers pick them in the first few days of full bloom, when the scent is strongest, and dry them gently away from the sun, which keeps the pale color and the honeyed smell.

Calendula is the garden's contribution. Calendula officinalis, pot marigold, is a Mediterranean native whose amber-to-saffron petals have long been used to color food. In a cup they give a golden color and a mild, slightly resinous, honey-edged flavor.

Together they make a quiet cup: nothing sharp, nothing loud, a little honey and a little earth. Calendula is best brewed with care, because too long a steep turns it bitter.

Steep 3 g of calendula and linden blossom in 240 ml of water at 95°C for six to eight minutes in a covered mug.

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