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You can’t have summer in the South without a jar of ice cold sweet tea. If you are up for a little bit of foraging, you can customize your tea this summer. There are tons of edible herbs, flowers, and weeds that make yummy and healthy additions for hot and cold drinks alike. Our yard is full of dandelions and clover so my foraging adventures have been focused on those two plants. My kids LOVE to pick flowers, weeds, herbs, grass, and anything else they can get their little dirt-covered hands on so I sent them out to pick a basket of white clover for me. I played around with the clover and different herbs to put a yummy twist on this Southern summertime favorite! Read on for my recipe for White Clover Iced Tea with Mint and Honey.

Benefits of White Clover

White Clover (Trifolium repens) has been found useful in purifying blood. It also contains bioflavinoids, beta carotene, vitamin C, B vitamins, inositol, biotin and a high protein content. It can be used as a natural remedy in tinctures, teas, and salves, as a healthy ingredient in baked goods, and the blossoms and leaves can be eaten by themselves raw or dehydrated.

How to Forage White Clover

To forage for and harvest white clover, you will first need to find a patch that has not been sprayed with chemicals. Your yard is obviously the safest bet because you know if anything has been applied, but you could also check with your local parks and/or neighbors if you don’t have any white clover popping up.

Take a basket, bag, or jar and a pair of scissors out to your yard or wherever you located unsprayed clover. Clip the stem just below the blossom for this recipe. If you plan to use the leaves for another recipe OR if you want to use the clover as a garnish OR if you plan to hang dry to dehydrate, you can clip lower to keep some stem and leaves attached.

Place your harvested clover blossoms in the container and take them to a water source for rinsing.

For a more detailed tutorial about foraging white clover blossoms, see this post.

How to Dry White Clover

You can dehydrate white clover by putting the blossoms into an electric dehydrator, placing them on a baking rack in a sunny spot outside, tying them in bundles to hang dry (you will need to leave the stems attached when gathering if you use this option), or by using a solar oven.

I prefer using a solar oven for a few reasons:

#1 I can monitor the temperature.

#2 The oven provides protection from bugs landing on the rinsed clover.

#3 I can use it with or without electricity.

White Clover Iced Tea with Fresh Mint and Honey Recipe

*If you have allergies, please be cautious when using this recipe.

If you have never tried white clover, there is no need to worry!

Clover is surprisingly sweet. It has a light grassy flavor that is perfect to refresh and hydrate you on a hot summer day!

White Clover Iced Tea Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried clover blossoms
2 cups water
2 fresh mint sprigs + 1 for garnish
raw local honey
ice cubes
saucepan
flour sack towel, muslin cloth, or reusable tea bag

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White Clover Iced Tea Directions:

1. GATHER

Gather clover from your yard, then rinse and dehydrate the blossoms. You can dehydrate clover in a dehydrator, the oven, or in a solar oven (my favorite). Check out this post for a step-by-step tutorial on foraging and dehydrating white clover blossoms.

2. MEASURE

Measure out 1/2 cup of dried clover blossoms.

3. FILTER CLOTH

Place the dehydrated clover blossoms and the sprigs of fresh mint onto a flour sack towel, muslin cloth, or a tea bag. This will keep the solid pieces of clover and mint from floating around in your tea.

4. BOIL

Boil 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan.

5. STEEP

Remove the water from the heat and allow the clover and mint to steep in the hot water for 3-5 minutes. Steep longer for a stronger flavor.

The clover and mint can steep in a folded muslin cloth/flour sack towel (like in the first photo) or on top of a cloth (like the second photo). Just make sure that the blossoms are completely submerged so that all of their goodness can be transferred to the water.

6. SWEETEN

Pour the freshly brewed clover tea into a mason jar that has 1-2 TBSP of raw local honey in it. You can also stir the honey into the tea while it is still in the sauce pan if you prefer.

7. COOL

Add 4-5 ice cubes to cool this tea off and garnish with another mint sprig.

8. ENJOY

Enjoy cold or as a hot tea… If you prefer a hot tea, skip step #7 and pour the tea straight from the stove into a tea cup 🙂

This refreshing beverage doesn’t take the place of our staple Southern sweet tea, but it does offer a light and refreshing alternative if you want to switch things up a bit!

Have you ever used white clover in your food or drinks?