Sage Lemon Tea

Sage lemon tea pairs dried sage leaf, Salvia officinalis, with lemon, usually peel or a lemony herb. Sage brings a savory, resinous depth and the lemon lifts it. Steep it in a covered mug at 95°C for five to seven minutes.

Origin & Story

Sage is a kitchen herb that has wandered into the teapot. Salvia officinalis is a Mediterranean shrub with soft gray-green leaves and a savory, resinous smell, and cooks know it best with butter, onions and meat. As a tea it is stranger and more serious: savory, a little piney, with a camphor-like edge.

Its name is old. Salvia comes from the Latin salvere, to be well, which shows how long it has had a reputation in herb gardens, and officinalis marks it as the plant of the apothecary's shop. For all that, a cup of sage tea is simply a household habit around the Mediterranean.

Sage once had a trade value to match. A well-known story says that Dutch sailors in the seventeenth century offered the Chinese sage in exchange for tea, at the rate of three pounds of tea for one of sage. It is a tale told in many versions and hard to confirm, but it shows how strange and precious a western herb could look in a tea-drinking country.

Lemon gives it a lift. Sage alone can taste heavy, and a strip of lemon peel or a lemony herb brightens it, which is why the pairing is common. Keep the steep to about five minutes: research on sage tea found that the thujone and camphor in the cup rise for about five minutes and then level off, and common sage is best drunk in small amounts, a cup or two, rather than by the pot.

Steep 3 g of sage and lemon in 240 ml of water at 95°C for five minutes in a covered mug.

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