Tea for Me! Tinctures, Too!

I’ll be honest with you. I used to be a groupie of the host of a medical talk show. Whatever he said, I did. I bought green tea and green coffee bean extracts, mangosteen, acai, any miracle weight loss supplement. Until I realized that he kept promoting new ones. What happened to the old ones? And honestly, none of them melted off the pounds, truth be said.

I still do believe in the power of plant medicine. After all, that’s what kept the human race alive all these tens of thousands of years, right? So, I kept reading and exploring. Nowadays, I make golden milk tea with turmeric and homemade cashew milk. I drink passion flower and lemon balm tea to help me sleep in the evenings. I drink nettle tea for strong nails and shiny hair. I drink chamomile tea to relax.

Ha, ha, you fell for it! What I really mean is that I buy organic nettle leaf, calendula, comfrey, chamomile, etc. and store them in my kitchen cabinets to use one of these days. Let me tell you a pound bag of herbs is A LOT!!

What’s wrong with me? These teas are delicious! They are good for me!

Ah, tea. So much tea. I like tea, however I find it's too hot once it's brewed, then it cools quickly and then I don't want to drink it. Plus, I would need to be retired to drink 2 cups each of chamomile, lemon balm, hibiscus, turmeric, passion flower, nettle, ginger, and chaga each day. What's a girl to do?

I spent a good bit of time speaking with an herbal specialist who told me about tinctures. This is a process of steeping plant material (leaves, roots, flowers, etc.) in alcohol (The kind for drinking, NOT from the chemist!) for several weeks to extract the properties of the plant. Then strain and pour into bottles with droppers like these. You’ll want about a teaspoon of the tincture at a time, which is about two droppers full under the tongue. Avoid eating or drinking for 15 minutes afterward. You can do it!

I am not much of a drinker. I used to like hard cider until I read that a pint has 600 calories. I’ll save that for a piece of cake, thank you very much. I’ve never cared much for beer or wine, but will have a cocktail now and then. As in once a year.

So, as you can imagine, I had quite the stock of booze. If you don’t drink it, it will last a lot longer. Turns out, it also loses its taste once exposed to the air. I had bottles of rum, vodka, gin, and cachaca, each one at least five years old or more. But, you know what loves off-taste alcohol? Herbs! They don’t care that my vodka would make a lousy White Russian (My Kahlua that I bought in Mexico in 1998 had to go, too.). So, I gathered all my herbs and all my jars and got to tincturing.

I crafted tinctures from all the flowers and herbs I had that were languishing in my cabinets because of the reasons listed above. Oy. I’ve added links to my sources through Amazon so you can get the best price for these, too. Here is what I used:

• Beets: One organic beet chopped into small dice or shredded will be enough for a pint jar

• Calendula

• Chaga: This epic adventure deserves a post of its own to come soon. I used chaga chunks, then just as I was about to pour off my tincture, I knocked the entire half gallon jar onto the floor where the jar did NOT break, but the plastic cap did and my tincture spilled all over the floor. After more research, or actually, after much mopping, I decided to use chaga powder for the second batch and did a double extraction. I will update this post when I pot about that creation. BTW, the plastic caps are GREAT, especially if you use the jar for storage and not canning. Just don't throw half gallon jars of liquid on the floor and you'll be fine. The gasket rings have been a real blessing, too, as they stop leaks.

• Chamomile: still awesome for tea...try using the tea to make oatmeal instead of water. It adds a lovely flavor, and will make your kitchen smell amazing! I have some in a zip baggie in my desk at work and make a cup at the end of every day using a diffuser.

• Ginger: I used fresh, whole organic root

• Green Tea: I used whole tea leaves, you can probably use bags, but WHY??

• Lemon Balm

• Nettle Leaf

• Passion Flower

• Tumeric: I used fresh, whole organic root

This is the perfect companion to Japanese Water Therapy, so each morning I blast two eye droppers of each tincture in my large glass of water and sip to bliss. I’m hydrated to start the day and full of antioxidants. What more could you want?

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