Tea leaves from garden, fresh or dry?

Hi, I can source fresh leaves of plants that can be used for tea locally, some examples are Eucalypt, Chamomile, Jasmin, Bitter Orange (Citrus Aurantium), among others.

The question is...what's better? Make the infusions with fresh leaves or dry?

Thanks!

You're probably better off to dry the leaves on the stem. Hang the sprigs upside-down and let them air dry. This helps the essential oils (the source of the flavor) concentrate in the leaves (or so I've read/been told in the context of herbalism).

I agree that it's better to dry them. I once tried to make mint tea from fresh mint, and it was very, very weak. Drying the leaves (hanging upside down by the stems is good) seems to help. If you try it with fresh herbs, I would recommend using at least twice the amount of leaves (or flowers, for chamomile, etc.) as you'd use for dry, and to bruise or chop them first so that they can release more flavor. In the end, it's probably less work just to dry them! You can hang them in bunches, but you'll want to keep the bunches in a smaller size for air circulation (you don't want them to mold in the middle!). To obtain fresh herbs, the most cost effective method is to grow them yourself. What is your climate?

Sorry, I just reread your post, and it seems you already have a source! If you don't have much of stem to hang from, another option for drying is to spread the leaves out on a wire mesh sieve, again the air circulation being important. Of course, you'll want to wash everything first.

dry. drying them out herbs in some cases will "cure" the leaves as well.

Drying is definitely best - make sure that the place in which you hang the herbs is neither too hot nor too cold, and relatively free of moisture. While herbs can still dry in somewhat-humid rooms, there's a chance they could start to go bad before sufficiently drying out, so the dryer the room the better. I used to dry mint in a hot attic room.