A Soothing Autumn Companion: Rosehip Tea in My Thermos

I'm a total rosehip tea fanatic, and I'm not alone in my love for it. For me, it's been a staple since my school days, hospital visits, and even home. We'd often have it as a warm, soothing drink during the colder months. My grandma used to say that collecting rosehips in the fall was like a mini-retreat – it was a fun way to spend time in nature, and the berries are pretty easy to spot on the bush, which is also known as the wild rose.

That's when I remembered the TV series from my childhood, although we only watched it when I was a toddler and still learning to walk. The title and the main character, Veronica Castro, have stuck with me all these years, along with the song 'Wild Rose'. It's a nostalgic favorite!

Pharmaceutical vs. wild rosehipAnyway, childhood is behind me now, but my love for rosehip has stuck. It's especially great during the chilly, damp autumn months when the heating isn't on yet, but the wind and rain are already outside. It's not a good idea to walk around without slippers in those conditions, and with everyone around me coughing and sneezing, I didn't stand a chance. My body wasn't immune to the cold and damp air...When I'm feeling down with a nasty cough, sinus pressure, and a fever, I scrape up what's left of my energy and head to the pharmacy - for some hawthorn. Since my forest-gathered stash from the dacha still hasn't been moved to winter storage at home.

If you believe the website Roskachestvo (and my grandma and mom's life experience;), hawthorn is a real vitamin bomb:

Hawthorn is a source of vitamin C and is primarily effective against the common cold, flu, and bronchitis. Hawthorn berries, thanks to their high vitamin C content, have a suppressing effect on the development of disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

There's twice as much vitamin C in hawthorn as in cranberries.

But hawthorn's not just about vitamin C - it's also got a lot of other goodies to help your body fight off the flu or prevent it in the first place:

Along with its abundance of vitamin C, hawthorn berries are packed with vitamins B - thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid. There's also vitamins C, PP, E, K, A, tannins, fluorine, chromium, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium, magnesium. You'll find apple and lemon acids, pectins in there too.

So, with the wisdom of science and my family's female generation, I headed to the pharmacy.

The 'Fitofarm' boxes were in stock for 110 rubles each. In principle, hawthorn is hawthorn, and almost every time I got a tasty drink from boxes of different brands, let alone the ones I bought loose from the fruit and veg stand. What can I say about the ones I picked myself from the forest? Only once did I get a dud, which didn't even make a decent drink, but I don't remember the brand. And it was probably just the product's expiration date that was getting close to the end.

But today I'm excited to dive into the packaging of the 'Fitofarm' rosehip product. It's got a pharmacy-style design with a cute illustration of rosehip flowers and fruits.

The rosehip fruits themselves are packaged in a paper sachet, and there are exactly 100g of them.

After opening the sachet, you get a little dish of rosehip fruits.

I rinse the rosehip fruits with water, and then add them to my thermos.

Apart from the rosehip, I like to add some raisins for sweetness. You need to rinse them really well until the water runs clear.You can also add sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice, but I find sugar ruins the flavor for me. It's all about personal taste, of course. I find the tartness is just right without the lemon. I think everyone has their own secret recipe for rosehip tea.

You can actually use the recipe on the packaging (but I haven't tried it that way):

I love brewing berries in my thermos with boiling water. Let it steep for 10-12 hours, or even better, overnight. That way, the drink turns out rich and dark brown, with a lovely reddish hue when you look at it in the sunlight.And the best part is, the flavor is rich and complex, not bland like when you taste it less than 10 hours after brewing - the difference is noticeable.There's nothing like sipping rosehip tea while snuggled up under a blanket, watching my favorite show or reading a book. It's a great way to recover, and it makes the healthy autumn and winter days feel cozier and warmer at home. And if I turn off the lights and put on some fairy lights...Taking my thermos with rosehip to autumn barbecues makes waiting for the meat, surrounded by crunching leaves underfoot, so much warmer and more enjoyable.Wishing you all the health, vitamins, a strong immune system, and cozy autumn evenings!