Cold tea for a cold – but which one is the right one?
Who does not know it in the autumn and winter time, the head is buzzing, the throat announces itself with an unpleasant scratch and the nose is running! Many are afflicted by a cold several times a year, with children suffering from a flu-like infection much more frequently than adults. But the symptoms of a cold, i.e. coughing, runny nose and hoarseness, do not have to be fought with drugs from the pharmaceutical industry; simple home remedies are sufficient to get a cold under control. With these simple home remedies, cold tea plays a crucial role when it comes to treating a cold yourself. You only need to see a doctor if there is no improvement within a few days or if you think your symptoms are getting worse.
At the first sign of a cold: an elderflower tea
If a cold is approaching, it usually announces itself with a slight tingling in the nose, sometimes the eyes start to water and swallowing is also more difficult. An elderflower tea will help here! Because if you drink such a cold tea here right away, you can usually nip your cold in the bud. Dried elderflowers are usually available in pharmacies. If you want to collect them yourself, you can do so in June and use them to make a syrup.
Recipe for the elderflower cold tea:
- 2 teaspoons dried flowers
- 250 ml boiling water
Pour the boiling water over the dried flowers and then cover and leave to soak well for about 5 minutes. If desired, the tea can be sweetened with a little honey. If you use the homemade elderberry syrup, proceed as follows: Put a small shot glass of elderberry syrup in a cup and then pour 250 ml of boiling water over it. You should drink about 2-3 cups of these types of tea per day throughout the day. This tea has a sweat-inducing and expectorant effect!
Ginger tea: It helps against annoying chills
When you have a cold, you freeze quite often, and even if you wrap yourself up in thick socks and a cozy warm blanket, it doesn’t get any better. Ginger tea helps with that. To make ginger tea, you need fresh ginger, which you either grate over a kitchen grater or cut into small pieces. Then you pour hot water over it and then add some lemon or honey, depending on your taste. Since fresh ginger can vary greatly in taste, you should proceed according to how you feel. A ginger tea warms you up and you can enjoy it several times a day without any problems.
If your throat hurts and your throat and tonsils are inflamed, a sage tea will help
The throat hurts with every swallow and the throat and tonsils are red, then it's time for a sage tea. Sage has an anti-inflammatory effect and you can buy the sage tea as a ready-made mixture in pharmacies, drugstores and supermarkets. But it is better to make it yourself with dried sage leaves, which you can get in the pharmacy. Simply pour 2 teaspoons of it with boiling water and then let it steep for 10 minutes. Then you can enjoy the tea. You can also boil the tea a little stronger and then gargle with it!
Expectorant and a help for a stuck cough: eucalyptus, peppermint and thyme
Anyone who has a cold is often not spared a strong cough, which is then also very persistent and simply does not go away. A cold tea made from thyme works well here, but peppermint and eucalyptus also help very well because they are expectorants, so you can mix all three herbs very well together for a cold tea. To make an expectorant tea, take 2 teaspoons of each herb and pour boiling water over it. Such a cold tea can be drunk several times throughout the day, although you should rather refrain from doing so in the evening, as the nightly rest is disturbed by the increased coughing up.
Dry cough: marshmallow root tea
It is more than annoying if you suffer from a dry cough. Then it tingles in your throat and you feel the need to cough constantly. Here, too, nature has a resource: dried marshmallow root! Already in ancient times this medicinal plant was used during a cold. Prepare marshmallow root tea: Infuse 1 teaspoon of marshmallow root with 150 ml of cold water and leave to infuse for 1 – 2 hours. Then bring the tea to a boil and let it cool down again. Afterwards, the cold tea is suitable for consumption, whereby it has a particularly anti-irritant effect and makes it easier to cough up.
A recipe for children's cold tea
What adults can use against a cold can often also be good for children. But if you have a child with a cold and want to fight this cold with a tea, then you should only give him a lime blossom tea. The reason is that other medicinal plants contain very specific plant hormones, which are associated with Reye's syndrome. A linden blossom tea has a slight pain-relieving, antispasmodic and sweat-inducing effect. Medicinal plants or cold tea that contains herbs containing menthol, such as eucalyptus or peppermint, can lead to shortness of breath in children under the age of three and should never be administered. Therefore, you should rather access the ready-made mixtures in the pharmacy, which are offered especially for children, because you can be sure that they only contain the medicinal plants that are suitable.
A recipe for fever tea
- tsp linden blossom
- tsp elderflower
- 250 ml boiling water
Place the flowers in a large mug and pour over the boiling water. Then let stand for about 10 minutes. The tea can be drunk 3 times a day, but no longer than over a period of 3 weeks.
