Ayurvedic Summer Tea
One of my favorite Ayurveda Summer Teas is Ayush Brand ProPita Tea. This is a naturally cooling tea that is mildly relaxing. Because it combines energetically cooling herbs and spices like Tulusi, Sandalwood, and Cardamon, with sweet spices like Licorice and Cinnamon, ProPita tea pacifies Pitta, which is the dominant dosha of late Spring and early Summer.
What’s great is that at the same time, the mild pungent qualities of Cardamon, Tulsi, and Cinnamon promote Agni/Digestive Fire, so this tea is safe to drink in large quantities, unlike iced teas and iced beverages, which damage Agni. As Pitta tends towards tension, Ayursh ProPita tea’s mild relaxing quality helps further pacify Pitta.
This is an especially good tea for people that dislike the heat of summer, that get sunburned easily, or that find it difficult to be in the sun for an extending period. It is excellent for those who get headaches from walking in the noon day sun. It is a very good tea anytime of year for people with hot type skin diseases, like hives or eczema.
Vata and Kapha dominant types can safely drink this tea in summer, because it is cooling and not cold and even they will need some cooling in the season dominated by fire. It is only slightly sweet and slightly pungent, so those flavors in such moderation will have no negative effect on Kapha or Vatta, respectively.
You can also combine a bag or two of ProPita tea with a bag of ProVata or ProKapha tea, according to your dosha make up. When I was on a retreat a few years back in Quebec, which was a bit cool in the a.m., and we were getting up at 5 a.m., I mixed ProKapha with my ProPita.
Sometimes I like to add some fennel seeds or fresh ginger root to my ProPita tea; that adapts it to both Kapha and Vata nicely.
Ayush ProPita Tea contains
Cardamon–cooling, sweet, excellent digestive, pacify pitta
Cinnamon–sweet, soothing to the digestive tract, pacify pitta and vatta
Tulsi/Holy Basil–cooling, antibacterial, purifying, pacify pitta and vatta
Licorice–sweet, cooling, soothing, pacify pitta and vatta
Sandalwood–cooling, calming, purifying, strongly pacifys pitta
copyright eyton shalom, june 2012, all rights reserved use with permission
