Spill The Tea:

Steeping and decocting are both methods of extracting flavors, nutrients, and medicinal properties from plants, but they differ significantly in the type of plant material used and the process.

Today we will talk about tea. How water temperatures influence the taste of your tea, and the medicinal constituents in your honey. While we are talking tea temps, we will touch briefly on honey temps. This won't be in depth, or exhaustively long to read. I'll get right to the point, because it’s important to brew teas at the proper temperature to get the best flavor from your tea. If we use water that’s too hot, you could burn delicate tea leaves or flowers, resulting in an unpleasantly bitter cup. Use water that’s too cool (there is an exception), and you risk ending up with a feeble, less flavorful cup of tea.

Infusions:

Steeping, also known as infusion, is the more common method for making tea. It is a gentle process used for delicate plant parts, but did you know that the temperature of the water can make or break your cuppa tea?

Hot Infusions: Notice how we used the word hot here? That's because not all plant material demands boiling water. Some plant material requires just before boiling for the perfect cup of tea.

Room Temperature Infusions: Notice how we used the word room temperature here? That's because demulcent herbs require room temperature water to ensure the soothing properties are not inhibited.

 

The exception: Mucopolysaccharides.

It's early fall or late winter. Your throat and nose are dry and hot. Your breath feels shallow and unable to take long deep breaths without a burning sensation, and your mucus seems non-existent. That's where mucopolysaccharides come in. 

Plants that are demulcents such as marshmallow or slippery elm have a soothing effect on the mucus membranes they come into contact with because they contain mucopolysaccharides. Think of sugar molecules as chains, which in humans (and animals) are often found in the mucus and in other places such as the fluid around our joints.  Hippocrates wrote about marshmallow root not only for its soothing abilities to our mucus membranes, but also for skin and wound healing.

Decoctions:

I like to think the process of decoction is a deeper way of directly connecting with the plants. Decocting takes the hard, tough, fibrous plant parts such as stems and roots, which simmers for longer periods of time, just as infusing does, decoctions extracts the medicinal constituents, some say, in a more concentrated, robust way. Longer steep time, deeper robust flavors.

Roots include: dandelion root, marshmallow root, mullein root, wild yam root, just to name a few.
Bark includes: wild cherry bark, willow bark, white oak, witch hazel, black haw, cramp bark, just to name a few.

 

Tea Temperatures:

I made this quick and easy reference guide for tea temperatures. I stuck it to my kitchen fridge to learn these temperatures. Don't worry, you will learn them in no time. Just stick them in a place you will look at every day. 

 

 

The Real Thing From The Bee.

Did you know that it takes 12 worker bees their entire lifetime (6 weeks) to make just one teaspoon of honey? The picture below is most certainly an overfilled tablespoon which means for that tablespoon of honey you seen in the photo, that took 36 bees their entire lifespan in order for us to sweeten our cup of tea.

Did you know that most people who use honey to sweeten tea are killing the beneficial compounds on contact? Did you know that honey contains beneficial compounds that support our health? Did you know those beneficial compounds that support our health can be inhibited by heat? Honey that is exposed to temperatures of 100 degrees the nutritious value begins to degrade. By 104 degrees those beneficial compounds are destroyed. And by 110 degrees and above repeated exposure begins to crystalize the honey. 

If you like your cup of tea on the sweeter side, please consider using maple syrup or date syrup. If honey is your choice of sweetener, then you must practice patience and use a thermometer to check the temperature of your water before adding the honey to preserve its beneficial compounds, and taste!

 

 

Our Teas:

Our teas come in a variety of sizes. From sample sizes with ten servings, to airtight containers with over thirty servings. Click this link to learn more about our teas. Below is a photo of one of our most popular teas, Lymph Me Up. This blend was formulated to wake up the lymphatic system by getting you and the lymph fluid moving.