Antigua Bush Medicine, the Tea Garden Where Most of It Ends Up in a Pot
What is Caribbean bush medicine, and why does it still matter?
Caribbean bush medicine is the practice of using local plants, brewed mostly as teas, to support everyday health, a tradition carried down through generations and still alive in gardens like this one. It is not a quaint relic. The World Health Organization estimates that around 80 percent of the world’s population uses some form of traditional or herbal medicine.
In the Caribbean it lives in the backyard rather than the pharmacy, knowledge passed from grandmother to grandchild, the same lineage behind the backyard garden handed down at Lamblion. For a traveller it is a window into how an island actually keeps itself well, and a far better souvenir than anything in a gift shop.
What grows in Lionel's tea garden at Lamblion?
The tea garden holds the plants Lionel brews daily, fever grass, French thyme, basil, soursop and bay, each one a tea rather than an ingredient. He grows them apart from the fruit, in a patch he weeds and waters himself.
Fever grass, the daily cup
The one he drinks most is lemongrass. “This is the famous lemongrass, we call it fever grass,” he said. “Our old folks used to think it will help relieve your fever.” It is the daily brew, the Caribbean equivalent of a morning coffee, and the scent of it is the first thing you notice in that corner of the garden.
French thyme, not oregano
One exchange summed up how slippery these names are. “This is French thyme,” he said. “Is that oregano?” I asked. “They call it oregano. Cuban oregano. My understanding is that’s not the real oregano plant, but in Cuba they say it’s Cuban oregano. We call it French thyme.” He uses it for tea mostly, “but some people also cook with it, or use it to wash their fish and their meat, because it has a potent sort of smell.”
Basil, the noona bosom
Beside it was the basil. “Basil is similar to the other tea bush I was telling you about, we call it noona bosom,” he said. “They’re both nice and teas.” The local names sit on top of the Latin ones, generations deep.
How does he brew Caribbean bush tea?
He brews by combination, never quite the same cup twice, a few leaves of whatever the morning calls for steeped in hot water. There is no recipe, only instinct built over decades.
“Two blades of grass, one leaf of the French thyme, and I may use a piece of basil,” he said. “Or two or three of the leaves from the soursop.” A bay leaf had gone into his chocolate tea that morning, three would go into porridge. He drinks it instead of coffee. “Just the water and a few leaves,” he said, and then, with a smile at himself, “unfortunately, I still use sugar.” It is the kind of slow, rooted ritual that defines the garden eco stays we love across the Caribbean, and the same leaves flavour what you cook from the garden here.
What is the eyebright, the plant he grows for his sight?
The eyebright is a herb Lionel planted because he is losing his sight, on the strength of an old belief that it helps the eyes. It was the one plant on the tour that stopped me.
“Eyebright is supposed to be good for your eyes, that’s what they say,” he said. “So when somebody heard that my eyes were not the best, they thought maybe I should use it.” He is growing it from seed, with the same patient hope he gives every other plant. It is folk belief rather than proven medicine, and he would be the first to say so, but the act of planting it tells you everything about the man who runs this black owned eco stay.
Does any of it actually work?
Lionel is refreshingly honest that he does not always know, and that honesty is what makes the whole patch believable. He drinks his teas because they are good, and lets the rest be.
“There’s an explanation for everything, really,” he said, “but I just drink it because it’s a nice tasting tea.” When someone told him one bay leaf was stronger than another, he simply shrugged. “I can’t prove that, I don’t know.” Lorylin does the same on her side of the garden. Through Covid, she said, she reached for a leaf before a tablet. “A lot of people, something happen, they say give me a paracetamol. I just try and use a leaf.” That instinct, leaf before tablet, is the quiet heart of a genuinely green stay run by two people who grow almost everything they need.
Can you drink from the tea garden on a stay?
Yes, you can sit with a cup of it on a stay, brewed from leaves picked that morning a few steps from your apartment. That is the rare thing Lamblion offers, not a spa menu of wellness teas, but the actual bush, named and brewed by the man who grew it.
It is one of the black owned, self catering eco stays we rate most highly in the Caribbean, and among the certified sustainable stays in the region. Read why you pick your own breakfast here, see the verified facts on the Lamblion listing, weigh it against the best eco stays in Antigua, and book a stay through Expedia.
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