This time of year I am eternally at the mercy of the pollens in the air. Particularly when the weather goes back and forth between rainy/cold and warm/springlike as it has been lately, it feels like I got hit in the sinuses by a truck: I’m all stuffed up, I sneeze constantly, and my eyes get dry and itchy. There are usually at least a couple weeks that I end up taking allergy meds every day, but I really prefer a more natural remedy. Enter the above.

I got this Flower Friendly Tea from a truly fantastic natural herbal Etsy shop: Good 4 You. All ingredients are organically grown and most are grown in the shop owner’s own garden! The Flower Friendly Tea is formulated specifically to help with seasonal allergies.

Both from Good 4 You’s shop as well as other places, I’ve heard that adding local honey to your tea will help your system adjust to the pollens in the area more quickly, so I headed over to Whole Foods to see what I could find. Fortunately, I found Topanga Quality Honey: a super natural, raw, unfiltered, local honey. Best of all, at about $6 for the jar, it was affordable too! I was a bit worried I’d find only $30 jars of honey at Whole Foods. They had multiple varietals including clover, wildflower, orange, sage, and even avocado. I went with wildflower this time, but I may have to try orange or avocado next time I pick up a jar.

For the past few days, I’ve been brewing a cup a day with two generous spoonfuls of the honey and it does seem to be helping! Each day I feel a bit less sensitive to the pollens. The first day I brewed a cup, I’d been sneezing constantly the entire day even after taking my allergy pill and the next day I could function as a normal human being without the pill. I’d call that a win.

If you want to try it yourself, go ahead and order some Flower Friendly Tea and do some research to find local honey for your area. Hopefully it will help with your sniffles and sneezes too!