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Berachah for Scent of Tea

Does one or can one make a bracha on fragrant essential oils like peppermint, menthol, eucalyptus just to name a few? If so, which bracha? What about herbal tea?

Answer:

If one smells a herbal tea with the intention of enjoying its scent, one should recite a berachah. If one takes the tea to drink it, and only smells the scent by the way, one would not make a blessing. Note that the scent of ordinary teas is not strong enough to warrant a blessing upon “enjoying the scent,” and only if the tea is truly fragrant would one recite a blessing.

The blessing that one makes would be the appropriate blessing for the herb, and hence would usually be borei isbei besamim.

A berachah is also made on essential oils extracted from a plant. For instanct, for eucalyptus the berachah would be borei atzei besamim.

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