One of my most treasured memories is being on honeymoon in Italy, where we were lucky enough to stay for free in a friends parent's villa. We had no money at the time, so it was a total blessing of a gift. We'd drink red wine and wake at lunchtime, eat fresh fruit and cheese, and go out into the hot day exploring. We fantasised about having an olive grove of our own, a ruin somewhere in Spain with land we could work and be happy. I still remember standing in a huge old olive grove near a lake, with the afternoon light coming through trees that were a hundred years or more old, birds flitting in and out of the branches, the insects, the summer, my man's arms around me, the beauty of the world.

As it turned out, we moved to Australia and bought five acres of land near where I grew up. It was a blank slate, and the first trees we planted were olives - a row of ten down the driveway. I can't remember what type they are now - I have a habit of losing tags - but they're silvery and beautiful, most often alit with rosellas in the way that Australia takes something European and adorns it with it's own wildlife, and bear fruit we badly pickle every year. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't - doesn't stop us trying. To that grove we added three more tiny groves of five trees, so that now we have about twenty five trees between fruit trees and gum trees in our own little paradise.

What's It Good For?

The active compound in olive leaf is oleuropein. You'll also find that in olive oil, but it's more concentrated in the leaf. It helps stop insects attacking the tree, and kills bacteria and moulds. It's also full of phyto-nutrients that have anti-oxidant capacity - lots higher than Vitamin C or green tea, which is why olive leaf extract is often sold as a flu remedy and flu preventative, especially if you're in a high risk group such as a teacher or asthmatic. It's also full of nutrients like zinc, selenium and amino acids. Herbalists might prescribe it for heart disease, as a sore throat gargle, and a treatment for fungal infections such as herpes or thrush.

Like many natural medicines, there is still a lot of testing and research to be done, but it seems that what has been studied so far points to it's anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects (thus perhaps containing anti-cancer properties), blood sugar regulation, heart disease and nerve damage. It also has anti-viral and anti-fungal and has strong bacteria killing properties. Some of these have been confirmed in many trials, some need more testing, so be careful what you're told about olive leaf extract and what's been proved. Blood pressure trials, for example, have been successful, whereas there's still much research to be done in terms of cancer 'cures'. Clinical trials have also found that olive leaf extract has been proven to regulate blood sugar and cholesterol. I've included some links to studies below if you would like to read further.

A quick search online revealed that many olive groves are also marketing olive leaf tea blends as an alternative to black tea and claiming more antioxidants than green tea - something studies seem to back. If you're drinking green tea for it's antioxidant properties, and have an olive tree in your garden, perhaps this could be a good alternative for you. However, there's not a lot of research that explores the benefits of a steeped tea versus a tincture - I would suggest the tincture would be much stronger, but drinking a few cups of olive leaf tea during flu season could only help. When olive leaf tincture can cost some $30 odd dollars a bottle here in Australia, it's also worth thinking about either making your own, or making olive leaf tea part of your diet!

It's summer here in Australia and I don't fancy hot tea much - but, going back to school has meant that I'm looking for a boost to my immune system. Hence, this iced olive leaf tea drink that has been quite delicious when I get back from work!

Olive, Lemon & Honey Iced Tea

A handful of olive leafs, simmered in a litre of boiling water for 10 minutes (you can steep it too, but I just didn't find this strong enough.
2 Tbsps of Honey (optional)
Juice of Two Lemons (or limes)
Ice

Mix, serve, enjoy! I've been putting this in an insulated flask to drink at work too - sometimes you get a little sick of water in the summer, so I've been enjoying this a lot!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4997426/
https://juniperpublishers.com/ctbeb/pdf/CTBEB.MS.ID.555889.pdf

 

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