Botanicals

204 plants drunk as infusions around the world. None of them is tea — they share none of Camellia sinensis's chemistry — and they are catalogued here for what they are, where they came from and what people do with them.

Flowers

Picked at bloom and dried whole, where the shape usually survives into the cup.

Leaves

The largest group, and the one where drying temperature decides most of the quality.

Roots and rhizomes

Simmered rather than steeped — hot water alone draws very little out of a root.

Barks

Peeled and rolled or dried in strips, and almost always simmered.

Seeds and spices

Usually crushed before brewing; whole seed gives up little.

Fruits and berries

Dried whole or in pieces, and the group most often blended rather than drunk alone.

Grains

Roasted before infusion, and the roast is the whole of the flavour.

Other parts

By-products and plant parts that fit nowhere else.

Corn silk

What these pages cover

Identity, history, culture, production, preparation and flavour. What the plant is, where it came from, what people do with it, and what it tastes like.

What they do not cover

Anything about what a botanical does to a person. No benefits, no functional recommendations, and no “best herb for” anything. Those are claims about bodies rather than about plants, they need a different kind of evidence, and TeaHQ holds them behind a human review that has not been signed.

How that decision is made

Safety information — tolerability, interactions, pregnancy — is not published for any botanical here. Where a safety record exists it is named on the plant’s page and marked as held. Absence of a safety note is not a statement that a plant is safe.