Ayurvedic Tea: The Unveiled Secret to Health and Daily Balance
Curious about ayurvedic tea? Want a simple, enjoyable solution that will improve your vitality and help bring balance?
It’s easier than you might think.
This article shares what you need to know to make ayurvedic teas part of your daily routine.
What is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is a holistic system of natural medicine that originated in India more than 5,000 years ago. The Sanskrit term Ayurveda translates into “the knowledge of life.” Ayurveda considers the entire body, mind and spirit when talking about health and balance. Ayurveda believes that disease is the end result of a long process. Detection of an imbalance early in the disease process can be easily corrected by utilizing right thinking along with changes in diet and lifestyle in order to bring back balance.
To understand what goes out of balance, it’s helpful to know that ayurveda sees the world as made up of 5 elements: ether, air, fire, water, and earth. Not only do these elements make up the natural world, but they are also the building blocks that make up you and me.
Ether: the principle of all pervasiveness
Air: the principle of motion
Fire: the principle of transformation
Water: the principle of cohesion and liquidity
Earth: the principle of form and structure
Ayurveda looks at the way these elements combine and further classifies them as doshas. The western approach to understanding health is based on the structure of the body while the ayurvedic approach is based on the energies (doshas) behind the structure. There are three doshas.
Vata comprised of air and ether
Pitta: comprised of fire and water
Kapha: made of earth and water
You were born with a certain combination of these doshas (prakriti). Often students want to identify with a certain dosha (aka, I’m a pitta!). There are even tests online to help you label yourself, but that’s not exactly it. You have a unique combination of elements that make you, and that combination can reveal where you are most susceptible to create an imbalance.
While you would ideally have an ayurvedic practitioner diagnosing you, there are some areas of imbalance that are easy to spot on your own because the problems directly mimic the element that caused the imbalance.
Consider that in ayurveda like increases like and opposite qualities balance.
If you already have a dominance of vata (air/either) and you are adding a lot of air in what you consume and your experiences such as drinking carbonated drinks daily, traveling by airplane, living in a dry cold climate and keeping an irregular schedule, then it’s easy to go out of balance. This can show up with evidence of vata imbalance like sleep problems, dry skin, constipation, or anxiety.
Ayurveda would have you use herbs and foods that are more kapha (grounded) or pitta (warming) to balance those effects.
What is Ayurvedic tea good for?
First, your digestive system just works better when you consume warm over cold liquids. Making tea is an easy and tasty way to consume warm liquids but if you include herbs and spices known in Ayurveda to bring about balance you have created a powerful health tool you can use.
Self awareness, observation and thinking about the characteristics of the elements can clue you in to the beginning of an imbalance. The earlier you detect an imbalance the easier it is to correct.
Kapha (water/earth) is solid and stable. Kapha is steady, stable, heavy, slow, cold, nurturing, and soft.
Pitta (fire/water) is hot and powerful. Pitta is bright, pungent, salty, sour, ambitious, driven, and intelligent.
Vata (air/ether) is expansive and moves. Vata is cold, light, dry, flowing, creative, and spacious.
When a dosha goes out of balance, the evidence of imbalance tends to feature the characteristics of that dosha in a negative way.
Examples of vata (air/ether) imbalances: sleep problems, dry skin, constipation, anxiety
Examples of pitta (fire/water) imbalances: inflammation, diarrhea, anger, and irritability
Examples of kapha (water/earth) imbalances: lethargy, depression, congestion, extra weight
Ayurvedic teas can be used to pacify a disturbed dosha by introducing the opposite quality to the dosha that is disturbed. .
For example if you are experiencing an out of balance pitta (fire/water) dosha, you might have symptoms that include fiery problems like physical inflammation or “hot” mental disturbances like frustration and irritation. Teas with cooling (opposite quality) herbs like peppermint will help calm the pitta dosha , but teas with warming (same quality) herbs like ginger will simply take pitta further out of balance.
Teas for pacifying the vata dosha
Since vata (air/ether) is cold,light, dry, flowing, creative, and spacious, then to balance it, you will want to choose warming, grounding, and nourishing herbs.
Herbs that help warm and nurture cold, dry, airy and frequently depleted vata include: ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, fennel, chamomile, and ashwagandha.
Here are some ready-made ayurvedic tea blends you can order that are especially balancing for vata:
Golden Moon Milk Tea
Vatas frequently find themselves “tired but wired” as an active mind keeps a tired body from finding rest. Golden Moon Milk is a tri-doshic tea that gently calms and prepares your body for sleep. One of the gifts of Golden Moon Milk tea is that it is prepared by warming the herbs in ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil before mixing them into heated milk (plant-based milk also works great).
The ritual of making the tea is comforting, and can become a part of your daily routine.
Bloom Where You Are Planted
This vata-reducing tea with gotu kola is an herbal infusion that has a slightly sweet flavor profile. The herbs are selected to create a grounding and centering tea that can become a part of your daily routine. The tea features: Organic Lemongrass, Organic Ginger Root, Organic Licorice Root, Organic Orange Peel, Organic Peppermint, Organic Black Peppercorn, Organic Fennel Seeds, Organic Ajwain Seeds, Organic Gotu Kola Leaves
Purchase Bloom Where You Are Planted
Stop the Noise
Because mental activity can send vata out of balance, our modern world with too much screen time, requests, data, tasks, or—let’s face it, complaining—can quickly exceed our bandwidth. BoHo Life’s Stop the Noise tea contains: Organic Raspberry Leaf, Organic Rose Petals, Organic Peppermint, Organic Brahmi, Organic Lemon Balm, and Organic Ginger Root to pacify vata and make us feel more centered and calm.
Teas for pacifying the pitta dosha
Since pitta (fire/water) is hot, bright, pungent, salty, sour, ambitious, and driven, then to balance it, you will want to choose cooling, sweet, and relaxing herbs.
Herbs that help calm and soothe fiery pitta include: coriander, cilantro, mint, rose, fennell, and cardamom.
Ayurvedic tea blends, ready-made to balance pitta:
Hammock Time
The calming, soothing, and nourishing properties of this tea can create relaxation in even the most hectic of circumstances. This herbal tea blend includes Organic Oatstraw, Organic Comfrey Leaves, Organic Spearmint Leaves, Organic Red Clover Buds, Organic Fennel Seeds, Organic Hibiscus, and Organic Rose Petals. Calming for pitta it unwinds the soul and creates the space your heart longs for.
Summer Splash
This tea is calming to the pitta dosha--which tends to overheat in summer--and is great served hot or chilled over ice. The ingredients are also full of immune-boosting antioxidants. It includes: Organic Hibiscus, Organic Rosehips, Organic Orange Peel, Organic Lemongrass
Stop the Noise
Because out of balance pitta can be intense and over consume, our modern world with too much screen time, requests, data, and task lists can send pitta’s transformation engine into overdrive and burn it out. BoHo Life’s Stop the Noise tea contains herbs that calm and cool including: Organic Raspberry Leaf, Organic Rose Petals, Organic Peppermint, Organic Brahmi, Organic Lemon Balm, with a minimal amount of Organic Ginger Root for flavor.
Teas for pacifying the kapha dosha
Since kapha (water/earth) can be slow, steady, heavy, and dense, you will want to choose herbs to lighten and create some motion in order to balance it.
Herbs to pacify kapha include: ginger, turmeric, ginseng, triphala, and black pepper.
Ayurvedic tea blends, ready-made to balance kapha:
Grab Your Power
This flavorful, warming tea, is designed to spark your motivation and give focus and energy. It includes: Organic Ginger Pieces, Organic Eucalyptus Leaves, Organic Cardamom, Organic Turmeric Slices, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Chili, Organic Cinnamon Pieces, Organic Sage Blossoms, Organic Apple Pieces, Organic Dried Thyme, Organic Marigold Blossoms
Golden Moon Milk Tea
In Ayurvedic medicine, turmeric is an important detoxifying spice. It is useful in balancing excess Kapha in both the body and mind. Organic turmeric is the primary ingredient in Golden Moon Milk, a tri-doshic tea that gently calms and prepares your body for sleep. One of the gifts of Golden Moon Milk tea is that it is prepared by warming the herbs in ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil before mixing them into heated milk. (Plant-based milk also works great).
Selecting herbal teas to balance your dosha is a great way to build your vitality
Adding a cup of tea to each day is a beautiful way to build your health and vitality, and if you choose your teas based on balancing a dosha, you can often begin to see changes in your life and vitality very quickly.
BoHo Life Teas offers tea consultations by email. (Note that we provide suggestions on improving your vitality based on the study of ancient Ayurvedic practices, we do not give medical advice.) Reach out to us: melanie@boholifeteas.com.