Sage tea

Sage tea is a herbal infusion — a tisane — made by steeping the leaves of common or garden sage in hot water. Like other herbal teas it is not made from the tea plant Camellia sinensis, so it contains no caffeine; "tea" here simply means a hot-water infusion. The plant is Salvia officinalis, an evergreen sub-shrub of the mint family (Lamiaceae) with soft, grey-green, velvety leaves and the same aromatic oils that make sage a kitchen herb. Fresh or dried leaves are used, whole or crushed, and the cup that results is pale green-gold, light-bodied and savoury-herbal, warm and slightly camphorous with a faint peppery, pine-and-eucalyptus edge and a drying, mildly bitter finish. It is a long-standing everyday drink across the Mediterranean, the Balkans and the Middle East — Turkish adaçayı, Greek faskomilo, Croatian and Dalmatian sage tea, Levantine maramia — where it is taken plain or sweetened, often with lemon or honey, as a soothing digestive and throat drink and as a fragrant social brew.