This was my greatest yet, newly found pleasure.
Had never experienced such a gentle tasting yet full flavored , aromatic tea before in my life. Everybody need to experience this... ;)
Since we all GROW them , why not EAT them and even DRINK them ;)
 

This setup and picture is done by me.
Please feel free to create your own display of the Tea experience and join this thread.
Would be awesome if everyone added their input of different variety Fig Leaf Tea they experienced. (with pictorial...)
We can start a catalog of Fig Leaf Tea Flavors..

here are some benefits of fig leaves when consumed...
http://www.natures-health-foods.com/fig-leaves.html

Aaron, please describe your method (age of leaves, fresh or dried, etc)...that and what are those dried fruits on the right?

Aaron are you boiling the dates with the fig leaves?

Or do you mean that the dates taste better when drinking fig tea?

Wow, beautiful color of the tea.

I have wanted to try fig leaf tea, I will be interested in hearing about your process as well. 

What variety of fig leaves did you use Aaron?

The variety might be important.  Don't want any tea that tastes like cat pee~

Suzi

Exactly Suzi !

I slept through the heavy rains of the night...wow. And I do't dare going out to check my newly planted cuttings.

-Greg, to make the tea, you need to wash and dry some Fig leaves. I dry them in pantry, in dark. This helps to keep the rich dark green color, otherwise they might turn brownish grey. After they are dry, I shredded them with scissors. When they are dry they are still a bit rubbery, they don't crumble like dry mint for example, so I shredded them with scissors to store in a air tight jar. Those dried fruit are Dates Greg.

-Tony, I ate a Date (LOL...sounds add huh) to satisfy my sweet tooth and it was a perfect compliment to the gentle tee.

-Mike, so, after drying the leaves, you just get some into the little tea pot and brew it just like you would brew green tea, use a very high water temperature.

-Pattee, this particular batch of leaves were from the Vista, they were very fresh new opened leaves from the branch I acquired for rooting, it even had few figs on it.
 
I am using this shot for cataloging the variety in my collection of Unknowns.

-Suzi, It would be helpful to know which varieties have a heavy pungent smell so we can avoid using those for tea and same time, would be good to know which varieties have very aromatic characteristics, so we can use more of those as a potpourri of tea.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised at the flavor and aroma of the tea :)

VDB with it's wonderful tasty figs has leaves that smell like cat pee.  I googled fig tea and discovered that some use fresh leaves for the tea.  Evidently the latex is good for diabetics.  There are undernotes of coconut in the tea from what I read.

Aaron, it's nice to have a rainy day!  I thought you might be sleeping in!

I guess we should let our noses be our guides prior to picking leaves for tea.  Many people suggest picking leaves to allow the figs to ripen faster with more sun, so there is that benefit also.

Suzi

@Suzi, I did sleep in, despite my 2 year olds active, noisy presence...

-I read in several sites that you dry them first, also for storing purposes...

-and  shredding, it allows the nutrients to bleed out easily during the brewing process.

-I wonder if, when dried, weather or not this cat pee smell goes away. Can you try and let us know? I don't have a growing VdB yet, I am rooting the cuttings you sent to me.

Hey!  No way am I going to try VDB leaves!!  Once the rain stops and the leaves dry, I'll pick some Verte leaves.  First I'll do the nose test.  I could also try adriatic.  Both those trees have plenty of leaves.  So does VDB, but I'm not going there. 

Suzi

that bad huh? 

Great idea!

I've done the fresh green leaves and it was very refreshing and tasty. As you said DD, a hint of coconut.
"gene"

you know what they say... "one woman's cat pee smelling fig leaf is another woman's coco chanel".

ok Suzi, I think we found a buyer for your cat-pee fig leaves.

Aaron I too love fig leaf tea. I use leaves from my black unknown. No smell to the leaves. I dry mine on top of the refrigerator. It dries them out without turning them brown. I then crumble them up into a jar or plastic bag for storage. I find it has a nutty flavor. I wonder if different kinds of fig leafs have different flavors.

@swizzle, I'm sure they have different aromas and flavors... I was asking people to try and describe so we can start a catalog of Fig Leaf Tea Flavors... Since we all GROW them , why not EAT them and even DRINK them ;)

Aaron, I just chopped them coarsely on my cutting board and then boiled them for 5 minutes. Very good I thought, and now that you've got me thinking about it again and my trees have leaves, I think it's time to do it again.
"gene"

Aaron mentioned that the leaves used were fresh, young leaves.  In my experience those leaves are not yet cat pee scented and perhaps will work well from most figs.  I've experimented a little with fresh young leaves for use as a cooking green because that's when they are the most tender and have not built up much in the way of defense compounds in the leaf cells' vacuoles....at least that was my theory based on watching animals eat leaves on nature shows.  Edible, but not a real part of my diet yet...still playing.

Does anyone know if they are caffeine-free?

And based on general principles, my understanding was that fig ripening and flavor/sweetness depends on the 'manufacture' of carbs via photosynthesis. So more leaves = more sugar in the figs. Doesn't harvesting young leaves compromise fig sweetness?

But yeah, I've also read that this tea has huge health benefits. Must try it - just not sure if I should wait until after main fig-ripening season before picking off those leaves. Can they really be that unpalatable? 

I've never noticed a cat pee smell... but then my cat is a female and doesn't spray to mark territory. You might try leaves from higher up, out of range for cats.

I've noticed cat pee smell on some bananas. I don't think cats dump on them, or fig leaves for that matter. Foxes are a different story tho.

here is an old korean recipe. 

a segment of fresh ginger
a stick of cinnamon
an orange peel
few chinese dates
pinch of dried fig leaf since it's on fig forum.. but back in korea, specially up in seoul, fig wasn't around. down by busan (pusan) there were some.. or so i'm told by my wife. 

bring them to simmer and keep on simmering. serve whenever you want to drink it. used to run that on top of kerosene burner/stove all winter long in korea.