140Mountain tea

Method

Traditional decoction with honey and lemon. Can also be chilled in the fridge during summer months and served over ice.

You will need

• small saucepan with lid
• fine-mesh tea strainer
• two mugs

1. Snap the dried stems and flower heads of the mountain tea into roughly 5 cm lengths. 1 min Ready when: stems broken to fit easily into the pot
2. Combine the cold water and the broken mountain tea in a small saucepan over medium heat. 1 min Ready when: herbs floating on the water
3. Bring the water to a gentle boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for three to four minutes. 4 min Ready when: liquid turning a pale amber-green colour
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat, cover with a lid or small plate, and let stand to infuse for three minutes. 3 min Ready when: fragrant herbal steam settling
5. Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into two mugs, discarding the spent stems. 1 min Ready when: clear golden-yellow tea in mugs
6. Serve hot, stirring in honey and squeezing a lemon wedge into each cup according to preference. 1 min Ready when: honey dissolved and aroma brightened with citrus

Tap a step to tick it off.

Make ahead and storing

Best enjoyed freshly brewed; keeps warm in a covered pot for 30 minutes.

Substitutions

• sugar or maple syrup for thyme honey. Sweetener is purely optional; the tea has a naturally mild, sweet floral profile on its own.

Common mistakes

• Only steeping with boiled water without simmering. The woody stems and bracts of Sideritis require a short simmer to extract their full essential oils and health benefits.
• Boiling too hard for too long. Prolonged rolling boiling drives off delicate floral aromas and leaves the brew bitter.

Regional variants

• Olympus tea: made with wild Sideritis scardica from northern Greece, known for peppery floral notes.
• Cretan malotira: brewed from Sideritis syriaca, often paired with a stick of cinnamon.

About the dish

Mountain tea is an herbal infusion brewed from dried flowers, leaves, and stems of plants in the genus Sideritis, known since antiquity and mentioned by Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Growing at high elevations throughout mainland Greece and the islands, it has served as a domestic panacea for colds, digestion, and fatigue. It is traditionally boiled rather than simply steeped.

Found in all of Greece, Epirus, Thessaly, Peloponnese, Crete. Cooked for everyday, winter.

Cousins elsewhere

• Mursalski chai (Bulgarian). Prepared from the same Sideritis scardica plant in the Rhodope mountains and brewed identically as an herbal decoction.
• Çaj mali (Albanian). Traditional herbal infusion brewed from wild mountain ironwort across the southern Albanian highlands.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

0 kcal · protein 0 g · fat 0 g (saturated 0 g) · carbohydrate 0 g (sugars 0 g) · fibre 0 g · sodium 13 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Traditional rural Greek method of preparing ironwort decoction as an evening digestif or cold soother..

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