Anyemi Mohee (Welcome brother/sister)
Seems easy enough because for many years Tea, Hardough bread and egg have been our staple breakfasts. But if you want to use tea as medicine, you may have to change things up to get plenty medicine out of the plant. So here are a few things you need to know.
1) Choose equipment that wont allow for evaporation as soon as you make your tea
In the case of herbal tea some of the medicine is ‘volatile oils’ (volatile because slight chance and the oils will just disappear into the air – evaporate). So if you are making tea use a teapot with a lid, or a cafetiere so these oils will have a hard job escaping. Allowing the herb to steep in a teapot or cafetiere for 5-10 minutes enables it to transfer its medicinal properties into the water, which you can then drink without losing any of the beneficial compounds to evaporation (see big english lol). If you are making a smaller amount of tea another option is using a tea bag and covering the cup to prevent the goodness from escaping – but don’t go and cover with plastic and bring another wahala on your head.
2) Quality herbs
I prefer loose herbs as whole as possible, e.g. in the case of tea made with Flower heads, i’d rather make tea using the whole flower head rather than powder. Pictured are two examples of chamomile tea, one from a well known brand, the other from a herbal medicine supplier – you can tell the one you can use as medicine, and the one which makes you question what you are even drinking. Also here in the UK certain companies just be putting bare nonsense in the teas (chemicals and pesticides) so use a brand with sense.
3) Choose a piece of equipment that will allow for easy straining or a reusable tea bag.
The most annoying thing for me is drinking tea with bare (a lot) bits. So because I like you, here are 3 ways you can stop the loose herb from going into your tea and disturbing your life.
- Cafetiere – one piece of equipment that prevents evaporation and pulling the plunger down moves the herb material to the bottom, locks it there leaving you with tea with no bits – Wondaful.
- Teapot with inbuilt strainer where you place the herb in the strainer and pour hot water over it.
- Disposable Tea bags. If you already have a teapot that doesn’t have a strainer or if you are just making a single cup of tea you can try using a reusable tea bag.
4) Store your teas well so they last
As soon as the herb is picked there will always be some deterioration. But some things make teas deteriorate faster. If you want to keep your tea for longer and get your money/time’s worth, think about some of these:
- Keep out of direct sunlight, either in a cupboard with a door or in a dark container
- Cover the herb, keep in a closed paper bag or airtight glass container so it’s not exposed to the elements. I use preserve or Bail-Lid jars to store my tea.
So hopefully you have the info you need to make a good cup of herbal tea for you and your aunties who want to make show. Let me know how it goes on Instagram: @Tsofanye
Just to add some medicinal properties in plants require something a little stronger to be released. In the West this is where alcohol (Tinctures) comes in (aside from eating the herb where you can). If you have seen those glass bottles with plenty wood bits at the bottom from Back home (africa) then you’ve likely seen what we call a tincture – but i’ll talk about that later.