Herbal tea is good at many things. Not everything, but there are some areas that it seems particularly effective in and reducing the severity and the duration of sore throats is one of them.
It stands to reason as...
- Something that passes through the throat
- Has been used as a remedy for centuries
- Is a main component in many sore throat lozenges and medicines
...would be quite an effective solution for those that suffer from sore throats.
Within our Sore Throat category at Tea Life, we currently have 18 teas that research has classified as being good for this annoyingly common human condition. Let's trim that list a little here as we bring you our top 3 Herbal Tea picks for a sore throat.
Lemon Myrtle Tea - An overall powerhouse of bodily cleansing
We won't lie. We love Lemon Myrtle Tea and write about it almost any chance we get. Even so, it deserves a place on this list despite our obvious personal bias. Being popular enough for some companies to focus on selling only this particular kind of tea, it's effectiveness in maintaining and restoring the body with it's anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, pain killing and over all immunity boosting effects is starting to be recognized throughout the world, and rightly so.
When people think of natural disinfectant and anti-inflammatory they will often think of Tea Tree oil or Eucalyptus. Lemon Myrtle actually scores higher than both of these on the Rideal Walker test.
Liquorice Root Tea - An often overlooked miracle herb
Liquorice Tea is pretty amazing actually. Most people know the candy variant but don't pay too much attention to it's origins or where the idea for the flavour actually came from. The main compound of this herb is glycyrrhizin, which is 50 times sweeter than sugar. With this sweetness comes great power, as it's also the source of many the benefits of the liquorice herb and helps to stop the growth of quite a few different types of bacteria and a few virus such as influenza A.
This herb helps sore throats by loosening up the airways, breaking down mucous, reducing inflammation, and unlike some other herbal teas that act more as relief - this herb actually fights the bacteria present in a sore throat.
Echinacea Tea - Take the power away from a sore throat
Echinacea just takes away a sore throats will to live. It helps to strengthen and boost your immune system, and is a component in many pharmaceutical medicines for a reason! We recommend mixing this tea together with liquorice to both actively fight against your sore throat and strengthen your immune system at the same time to reduce the severity and duration.
For best results, take this tea the moment you start experiencing the symptoms of a sore throat. For even better results, take this tea once a day during flu season to help prevent a sore throat in the first place.
Within Australia, the flu season is from May to October and peaks around August. Around this time each year we'll normally get an influx of sales for Echinacea from savvy consumers!