Post 179  

How to Prepare Herbs & Tea Leaf- Powders & Cut

You can choose either cut or powdered herbs for your remedies and teas.  Here is a quick guide as to how to prepare them for your use.

Dosage- Measuring Powder Verses Cut Herbs

Powdered Herbs-  1 teaspoon to 1 cup of water is generally a serving of most herbs

Cut Herbs-  1 Tablespoon to 1 cup of water is generally a serving of most herbs

Powders

Heat 1 cup of filtered or distilled water and stir in herb powder to dissolve. Allow to steep covered for 15 minutes. You may either filter this through a mesh filter or allow the herb residue to float to the bottom and then drink your drink. Some people find it easy to add the herb powder to a paper t-bag and staple it shut, then steep this as you would a cut herb. Most of the residue tends to stay in the bag and you will not have to filter it. Reheat if desired after steeping before serving. When steeping a tea leaf powder, simply stir in to dissolve and drink, straining is unnecessary unless you wish to remove the residue. If filtering the powder out, steep the same amount of time you would for the particular type of tea leaf and strain (green 3 mins, black 4 mins, white 2 mins).

Cut Herb

Heat 1 cup of filtered or distilled water and stir in the cut herb. Allow it to steep for 15 minutes or more. Filter through a mesh strainer or use a t-bag and fill, staple, then discard when you are ready to drink your tea.

Loose Tea Leaf

Heat 1 cup of filtered or distilled water and stir in the loose tea leaf or place in a filtering t-bag or infuser tea-ball. Allow it to steep for 2-5 minutes depending upon what type of leaf you are preparing. If steeping loose leaf, filter through any mesh strainer to serve. Tea leaf steeping varies from one type to another. Here is an easy to follow guide–

• Black Tea- 4 minutes
• Green Tea- 3 minutes
• White Tea- 2 minutes

Always repeat your tea leaf multiple times back-to-back at least 3 times. The first steeping will extract the majority of the caffeine and flavor. Subsequent steepings will extract the polyphenols, anti-cancer nutrients, and anti-oxidants from the leaf. Steeping multiple times also helps to assure you are increasing your daily fluid consumption which acts as a mild daily detoxifier and body cleanser.

Sweetener

We recommend to use either raw, organic, unfiltered local honey, organic coconut sugar, or organic stevia leaf (green).

When adding honey, allow the tea to cool a bit before stirring it in, order to preserve the “raw” nutrients in the honey.  Always choose raw, unfiltered, organic honey

If using stevia, steep this along with the herbs. Cut leaf stevia looks like tea. Stevia powder is either white (processed) or green (crude raw leaf).

Honey is still a simple sugar–

Keep in mind an important fact about honey. Regardless of how awesome honey is, and it is, it is still a simple sugar. Think of it like a simple sugar with benefits. Benefits to help you reduce allergies, support your immune system, and work as a natural astringent. It can help heal a sore throat, it can help to heal a cut or sore when put over skin with a bandaid.  It can help save a limb (manuka type) when used to dress a serious injury or pressure sore, but regardless it is a simple sugar. As as simple sugar, it will still raise your blood sugar. Agave has of recent history, stole a bit of the light from honey, as if it can replace how remarkable honey is with its lower glycemic response. Well, that is just marketing, don’t believe for a second that Agave is somehow better than honey, it just simply is not. Again, honey as a simple sugar will still raise your blood sugar and another issue seldom discussed, it will cling to your teeth because it is sticky, more sticky than regular sugar. Honey is the best choice as a sweetener, but even so, honey should be used once in a while and in moderation. Remember the saying…”too much of a good thing”.  Even if you have always sweetened your beverages, start drinking some servings without any sweetener. You will get used to it and it’s good for you.

Another thought. The marketers want you to buy corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. When you buy honey, this is ruining their sales. So now, believe it or not, you have to read the label on your honey bear. You are going to be shocked when you read some of them, and if you are like me, it is going to make you mad just seeing it. Honey in the grocery stores and discount stores, will be found with a new label-  Honey Syrup. I have found labels that are on a honey bear and the label under contents;  High Fructose Corn Syrup and Corn Syrup, NO HONEY AT ALL. Stores that will go without name are so bad that no honey will be in the store at all.  The lower the cost and the better deal it is, is reason enough to read your label so you don’t fall victim to buying fake honey bears.

Honey. to be medicinal. MUST be RAW, ORGANIC AND UNFILTERED.  If you are buying anything else you are not buying an effective product. Don’t be tricked by artificial sweeteners calling themselves natural. Just because they combine some stevia in with their artificial lab created sweeteners doesn’t make them natural. If you are going to use regular old sugar, choose organic sugar. Organic sugar is still a clean product and is non-GMO.  Organic Coconut Sugar is a good choice too and the benefit is that it is lower on the glycemic index.

Always demand the best with your wallet, this is the language of true Capitalism, and this is a good thing. The manufacturers will give us what we ask for, but you have to let them know by NOT buying their products that contain corn syrup.

Stevia comes in two forms; processed and unprocessed. Processed is white, unprocessed- or crude leaf- is always green.  If you want unprocessed, always buy organic crude green leaf. It comes in powder and cut leaf. Cut leaf looks just like tea leaf and only a pinch will do. Ask to look at it next time you are in the store. It has a bit of a different taste as well, more “real” than processed white. White processed stevia is not found as organic in the stores anymore either, just the green because only the green really is real, unadulterated and organic. Stevia doesn’t cause tooth decay. Honey, even raw, unfiltered, organic, will cause tooth decay if you bathe your teeth all day with it in your tea, just like any other sugar. Choose wisely and use any of these with some restraint.

Supplemental Doses

Cut Herbs–  for a remedy, most people drink 3 cups of tea per day between meals. You may repeat steep the herb in order to capture all the nutrients from the plant. this allow allows you to increase your fluid intake each day. When prepared, tea when refrigerated will keep for 6 days.   Also SEE POST 2  TEA CONCENTRATE. This is a recipe which allows you to make a larger batch of tea for convenient use during the week.

Herb Powders–  for remedy, use the amount of powder to equal the dosage of the herb you wish to take. This is best done using a gram scale, not a food gram scale, but a gram scale which measures to 1/10th of a gram. We carry these so you can purchase one if you need one, otherwise, these are available at your local dispensary. If the dosage of the herb you wish to take states that you should take 1500 mg. 3 x per day, this is equivalent to 1.5 grams or 3 “00” capsules.  We also offer capsule machines. These are “00” sized and empty capsules are available in 100 count packages. Every herb has a different dosage recommendation for either general supplementation or therapeutic level. Google the herb you wish to take to find the ideal dosage recommended, then follow the instructions. If you are under the care of natural health practitioner, they will be able to advise you as to how much they want you to take.

Other Herb Preparations

Herbs can be used for many preparations besides tea. Herbs can used to prepare ointments, salves, lotions, body butters, tinctures, extracts, decoctions, and fomentations. Prepare the herbs according to your need and application desired.

Measuring– Weight and Volume Are Not The Same

There is no day that I am not asked “How much is an ounce”. An ounce of a fluffy herb will look like more than an ounce of dense China Green Tea Leaf, yet you are getting the exact same thing. Marketers love for you to be confused when looking at products labeled 2 oz. of volume for example. You are getting ripped off and think you are getting more. You will always come out better with weight and you will always, always, get exactly what you are paying for. We measure everything by weight.

Here is a simple guide to help you understand how to look at an ounce when making a purchase.

If you are making a tea-

An average ounce of powdered herb will supply 6 teaspoons

An average ounce of powdered herb will prepare approximately 52 “00” capsules

Cut herbs are very variable due to the type; roots, barks, twigs, berries are heavy and dense, which makes them look like less.  Leafy herbs are puffy and lightweight, so it looks like you are getting more– but you are not.  A dense heavy herb will use about 1 rounded teaspoon to prepare a cup whereas a lightweight puffy herb will need a rounded tablespoon to prepare a cup.  It is variable dependent upon the form you are using.

Whether you are making tea, a tincture, or any recipe, use weight for measuring. If you don’t own a gram scale which measures to 1/10th of a gram, you are missing out on preparing the best end product.

If you are making a tincture-

Most people prefer to make tinctures 4:1, 4 parts base (menstrum) to 1 part herb. Many herbalists prefer a 3:1 ratio

1 oz. is equivalent to 28.4 grams regardless of whether you are using a powder or a cut herb.

A quart verses a liter-

A quart verses a liter is almost the same.  A liter is 33.814 oz. and a quart is 32 oz.  Whenever you see a recipe with 1 liter of water, just use this guide to measure or use a quart unless the recipe is an exact or perfectly specific amount and 1 ounce would throw everything off. Most are not that touchy but if you need to know, there is your difference.