Iranian borage
The dried violet-blue flower of a herb of the Alborz and the Caucasus, infused in Iranian households and giving a drink the colour of ink diluted almost to nothing. It is not Borago officinalis, the European borage of cucumber-scented leaves — the two share a family and an English name and very little else.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Echium amoenum
- Family
- Boraginaceae
- Part used
- Flower
- Origin
- Northern Iran — the Alborz range, Gilan and Mazandaran — and the eastern Caucasus
- Drunk in
- Iran, Azerbaijan, Gilan, Mazandaran
Character
Very mild, faintly sweet and slightly slippery in the mouth, with far less flavour than its colour promises. Lemon is added as much for what it does to the colour as for taste.
Notes: dried flower, hay, faint honey
History
The supply was for a long time wild collection from the northern Iranian foothills, sold through the attari, the traditional herb shop that still stocks most of what an Iranian household infuses. Demand outgrew the hillsides and cultivation has expanded, which is the same trajectory that lavender, chamomile and rose took a century earlier in Europe.
How it is drunk
An everyday Iranian household drink rather than a speciality one, made by the pot, taken with nabat or sugar and often with a squeeze of lemon, which turns the infusion from blue-purple toward pink. It is drunk in winter and served to guests, and it is blended at home with dried rose, lime blossom and other flowers as often as it is drunk alone.
Production
Flowers are picked at full colour and dried quickly in shade, because the pigment that carries the whole visual identity of the drink is the first thing lost. Deep violet-blue material is fresh and correctly dried; brown or grey material is old, hot-dried or both, and it gives a dull cup.
Preparation
Infusion · Cold infusion
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 5 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
What gets confused
Two unrelated plants are sold in English as borage. Echium amoenum is the Iranian flower described here; Borago officinalis is the European garden herb whose leaves and blue star flowers go into drinks and salads. Within Iran the flower is occasionally substituted with Echium italicum, which is paler and cheaper.
Common mistakes
- Buying brown material. Colour is the whole point of this infusion and browned flowers have none.
Evidence for this page
This page is TeaHQ synthesis throughout. No external source stands behind any statement on it, including the botanical name. 132 of the 204 botanicals have had their names and distribution checked against a taxonomic authority and this is not one of them.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Iranian borage is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.