Herbal teas are a lovely way to be creative and experience herbs on a daily basis. Brewing herbal teas can take on different forms and tastes, including juice-like creations when dried berries are used as the main ingredients. These berry teas are a wonderful way to gain nutrient benefits from herbs. In this episode I am sharing my current favorite method for brewing herbal tea that feels more like a juice. Thank you for joining me.

Tea “Juice” Decoction
¼ cup dried elderberries
¼ cup dried hawthorn berries
¼ cup dried sea buckthorn berries
⅛ cup dried goji berries
⅛ cup dried rose hips
1 tablespoon hibiscus
1 tablespoon dried ginger
1 cinnamon stick
2 pieces turkey tail mushrooms
6 peppercorns
8-9 cups water
Combine herbs and water in 4 quart stock pot. Cover and bring to gentle boil on medium heat. Turn to lowest setting, simmer for 40 minutes. Remove from heat, continue to steep covered until cool. Strain into Mason jars and refrigerate.

Source for Dried Herbs and Berries:
Mountain Rose Herbs
Oshala Farm
Northwest Wild Foods

Favorite Herbal Podcasts:
HerbRally
Herbmentor Radio

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Together we can transform our kitchens into a unique apothecary.

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Original music by Dylan Rice
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ABOUT DINA
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Dina Ranade is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist. She is also a mom of three – two daughters and one son all now in college. Dina loves cooking for her family despite the challenges this creates. She passionately loves exploring culinary herbalism and has been working on stocking her home kitchen apothecary or medicine cabinet.

Big love to you!

Popping up here to offer you tea, through recipes instead of actually serving it. I promise for the time it takes to wait in line or sit in the drive thru, you can make your own chai, tweak it to how you like it and best of all experience some good medicine.

Recipe for Masala Chai
4 whole cloves
1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, that I’ve cut into thin slices
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 or 5 grinds of pepper
1 ½ teaspoon loose leaf black tea
1 ¾ cup water
½ teaspoon honey
¼ organic milk (whole milk, soy milk, oat milk, nut milk or coconut milk)

Combine spices together in a small saucepan and add 1 3/4 cup or 14 ounces water.
Bring this to a gentle boil over medium to low heat covered with the lid ever so slightly open. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat and add 1 1/2 teaspoon loose leaf black tea, any kind is really fine. Cover now with the lid tight and let this steep for awhile, about 10 minutes. Then strain it. Pour the tea back into the saucepan, you can actually make this up to this point ahead of time and keep refrigerated until ready to finish as a chai.Add honey and milk. Bring back to simmer and allow film to form on top. Stir before drinking.

Ingredient Sources ?
Dona Chai Concentrate
Classic Chai from Mountain Rose Herbs
Oregon’s Wild Harvest

Please SHARE this episode with someone who may also be fascinated by herbal medicine. Help me to spread my passion for kitchen medicine and make everyone’s home a place of herbal wisdom. ?

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Original music composed by Dylan Rice — singer, songwriter, guitarist.

Please be in touch!

Subscribe to my newsletter. Send me a question. Leave a comment on this episode. I would absolutely love to know you better and learn about your own experiences with herbal medicine!

reshi chocolate cake squares

dried reishi mushrooms

reishi mushroom infused cake

reishi mushrooms ready for decocting

reishi mushroom infused with chocolate

reisi chocolate cake cut up

Mushrooms have a crazy medicinal super power that gives me pause. I’m not talking about our most common white button mushrooms. I love these — and I think you either love mushrooms or hate them — but they don’t add much by way of medicine.

There are many other mushrooms, some like shitake or portabella, well-known. But unless you are a mycologist, a true mushroom expert, immersed in the gourmet world as a chef or food writer, or your cultural heritage is steeped with mushrooms, they all have a sort of wild earthy, slightly sketchy reputation.

And then there is herbalism. To the herbalist mushrooms and medicinal go hand in hand. Reishi is perhaps the most loved, utilized and mainstream. I have seen it in drinks on supermarket shelves. But how in the world does this member of the fungus family have so many benefits? Benefits such as immune boosting, nerve calming, allergy and asthma relieving, circulation improving. I am in awe. Does adding a cup of reishi tea to this cake make a difference? If you cut the cake into 16 pieces you are getting about a half ounce roughly in each piece. That isn’t bad but it also isn’t what you would consider a medicinal dose.

My thoughts are as follows: When you eat a vegetable, let’s say a carrot, you know that it is a good source of vitamin A. We need vitamin A every day to support many body functions like good eyesight, healthy skin, nerve functions. Vitamin A is an antioxidant and decreases inflammation. But we know that eating a carrot won’t provide the total vitamin A needed. Instead it is a building block. one of many sources that you may eat throughout the day to reach an optimal amount. You may also eat romaine lettuce in a salad, broccoli and a sweet potato for dinner, some cantaloupe. I think the same can be applied to eating something that is made with an herb, like reishi. You eat a piece of cake and there is some reishi mushroom tea in it that will help support your immune system among other things. In addition, throughout the day you may be eating those carrots, broccoli, and sweet potatoes or drinking a cup of green tea and taking a spoonful of elderberry syrup, all immune boosters. It’s a building block, but in the meantime, this cake is one darn delicious block.