The two defaults
Southern and eastern Europe drink chamomile — manzanilla in Spain and Latin America, and a household staple in Egypt and Iran. France, Turkey, Mexico and much of central Europe drink linden. Both are ordered by name in cafés, both are made in a pot for the household, and neither is a speciality product where it is drunk.
The two French names everyone knows
Tilleul and verveine. The first is linden; the second is lemon verbena, a South American shrub that arrived in the 1780s and became a café standard within a century. Both predate the twentieth-century herbal industry entirely, which is why they are ordered by name rather than chosen from a display.
Gathered rather than bought
A large part of the European tradition is picking rather than purchasing. Nettle and birch leaf in spring, linden over a fortnight in June, elderflower in early summer and elderberry in autumn, heather and yarrow in late summer. The calendar is the tradition, and material bought out of season from bulk stock is usually inert.
The bitter half
Wormwood, hyssop, elecampane and yarrow are the European bitters, and they survive mostly inside drinks rather than as drinks — vermouth takes its name from wormwood, and Chartreuse and Bénédictine descend from monastery gardens. Used as infusions they are pinch-scale materials.
The tea substitutes
Blackberry leaf, raspberry leaf and fireweed were all drunk when imported tea was unaffordable, and all three are better fermented than dried plain. Fireweed in particular — ivan chai — was Russia’s principal hot drink before tea and has been deliberately revived.