Make Banana Peel Tea
This tea is tastier than pills or black tea, and it doesn't need added sugar. Banana peel tea contains 5-HT and 5-HTP, the latter being a a naturally occurring amino acid and chemical precursor as well as metabolic intermediate in the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin from tryptophan.
Contents
Ingredients
- Banana peels - Use only organically grown bananas.
- You can make a green tea from:
- Fresh peels
- Peels dried in small batches in a microwave oven on its lowest setting
- Peels frozen for a long time even if they are thoroughly freezer-burned
- Freeze dried peels - vacuum frozen at shops in many cities
Steps
Preparing the Banana Peels
- Freeze the banana peels.
- As you eat bananas, peel off labels.
- Throw peels into your freezer.
- Thaw the banana peels.
- Fill a pan when you have enough peels.
- Let them thaw in your pan for an hour or two.
- They should turn black.
- Pasteurize the thawed peels.
- Put the peels in an oven at pasteurization temperature (~65C/150ºF).
- Bake until dry. This should take less than one hour.
- Crack and shred your peels by hand just a bit.
- Pulverize one peel at a time in the blender, adding up to four peels before emptying your blender.
- Store in a closed container in a cool, dark place.
- Glass jars (with or without gasket seals) are an excellent choice.
Preparing the Tea
- Pour hot water over one heaping teaspoon of the blended peel.
- That is about as strong as a black tea bag.
- Always adjust amounts to your taste.
- Strain through a fine-mesh coffee strainer.
- The strainer can be lined with a paper coffee filter as well.
- Alternatively, put the pulverized peels in a tea bomb, then submerge the bomb in hot water and let steep for a short while.
- Enjoy before bedtime, to help send you into a good night's sleep.
Tips
- Wash the bananas with warm soapy water when you first bring them into your home, then rinse them thoroughly with clear, running water.
- This will eliminate the bananas as a source of young fruit flies and will reduce the chance of stray pesticides being incorporated in your tea.
- Hopefully, though, your bananas are truly free of harmful synthetic or natural chemicals.
Things You'll Need
- Freezer
- Pan - baking pan or cake pan
- Oven with low temperature range
- Blender
- Container with lid for storing dry tea - ice cream pail, tea tin, glass jar, or similar
- Stainless steel coffee strainer
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