Tea Blog

by Alexandra Hoover [reposted from our sister blog]

To enjoy a delicious and healthy beverage, Essiac tea is a valuable choice — especially if you don’t mind exercising a little creativity and research skills. Essiac tea consists of burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm bark, and Turkish rhubarb root. The tea is a decoction and not an infusion. Instead of defusing the ingredients to make Essiac tea, one should boil the herbs for a few minutes, and then allow them to steep for a few hours.

Before one begins the decoction process, it is essential to gather, or buy, the ingredients mentioned above. If you are not in the position to gather any materials, you can order them online or at your local health store, or food cooperative. Once you have your ingredients, ensure that you have enough burdock, sorrel, elm bark, and rhubarb root, depending on how much you need.

Make as much Essiac tea as you deem necessary for your health or general well-being. If you want the decoction to last a long time, mix 4.25 ounces of burdock root, 2.8 ounces of sheep sorrel, 0.7 ounces of slippery elm bark, and 0.18 ounces of rhubarb root. Remember to mix the decoction very thoroughly. Mix 1 cup of herb mixture to 256 ounces of water, boil it for 10 minutes, turn off the heat, and leave it covered and warm for a whole night. In the morning, use a fine strainer. Place the tea in hot, sterilized bottles.

Once you have prepared your Essiac tea, you will be ready to enjoy this unique beverage’s benefits. Essiac tea was a recipe handed down by an American India Ojibwa medicine man to a nurse, Rene Caisse. Through the use of this tea, Rene Caisse helped alleviate such illnesses as cancer. She drank the tea every day until she died at 90 years old. It’s worth a try, don’t you think?