February 2026

The Way Of Tea

• Week 1: Tea Thyme: How To Choose Herbs, Blend, and Prepare Medicinal Herbal Tea.
• Week 2: Plantain – An Humble Herb With A Miraculous Story
• Week 3: Lemon Balm – A Remedy For Mind & Spirit
• Week 4: Linden – Softening The Edges

Humans used herbs as food and medicine even before they became farmers. Archaeologist Karen Hardy reported finding chamomile and yarrow residues in Neanderthal teeth, suggesting that herbs were used as medicine for far more than 10,000 years.

Tea Thyme – How to choose herbs, blend, and prepare medicinal herbal tea.

Herbal tea is a water based preparation of herbal medicine. It can be made in two ways: infusion and decoction. Both are simple, relatively safe, and effective ways to ingest herb constituents, which often taste much better than other herbal preparations. You can use fresh or dried herbs for herbal teas.

Infusion is the long steeped aqueous (water) extracts, made with the delicate part of the herb. (leaves and flowers)

Decoction is a long, steeped aqueous (water) extract made from the rough part of the herb. (roots, barks, and seeds)

The absorption of herb constituents when they are orally ingested as herbal infusions and decoctions is relatively slow and gradual. They need to pass through the entire digestive system, be absorbed in the small intestine, and reach the liver via the hepatic portal vein, where they are metabolized.

Although 100% of my clients receive herbal tea as part of their care plan, the people who benefit most are those with a fragile constitution, such as children and the elderly, who need a gentle, mild herbal preparation.

Herbal infusions and decoctions can be used topically too, in herbal eye wash, herbal bath, facial steam, hair rinse, compresses, foot bath, sitz bath, mouth wash or gargles, and steam inhalations.

Choosing water

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.

― Hermann Hesse

Water is an inorganic, transparent, odorless, tasteless substance that makes 70% of all natural things: the Earth, plants, animals, and humans. In nature and in herbal medicine making, water is used as a solvent, meaning it allows substances to dissolve in it, changing their taste and odor.

Water is the most important nutrient in your body. You can survive weeks without food but only days without water. In the body, water plays a number of essential roles; therefore, maintaining fluid balance is crucial for physical and mental health.

The body can produce about 8% of its water needs; the remaining 92% need to be ingested through the food we eat and the beverages we drink. At the same time, we constantly lose water through breathing, sweating, digestion, and elimination.

Water depends on electrolytes for proper absorption. Electrolytes are minerals that can conduct electricity when dissolved in water.

Animals and humans developed the ability to identify putrid water by its odor. Avoiding water that is contaminated or too salty

You don’t want to become a perfectionist while brewing your tea, especially if that’s going to put you in a freeze response, hold you back from actually making yourself a cup of herbal tea, and keep you from sitting with it.

Some factors to consider when choosing the type of water you want to use:

• Well Water: contains constituents from the land where it is drawn from. The constituents vary by where you live and may contain pollutants.
• Spring water: is usually high in minerals, highly variable, and may not be pure.
• Tap water: constituents vary according to where you live. Often contains pollutants and fluoride.
• Filtered water: easily available, does not contain chlorine, may or may not be pure, and has varied mineral content.
• Distilled water: 100% water, does not contain minerals or other constituents.

Two important points to take:

It is extremely hard to find a clean source of water anywhere in the world. We did a damn good job of polluting all water sources.

And water containing minerals is good for most herbal teas. They are, however, not appropriate if you are trying to extract specific minerals from the plants you are using.

Choosing your herbs

Not all herbs are appropriate for use in herbal tea. Some herbs taste godawful, and some constituents in herbs are not water-soluble, which means they don’t dissolve in water.

Herbal constituents are the chemical compounds found in plants that, when metabolized in the body, exert their healing effects. The table below summarizes the types of constituents that best dissolve in water.

I use tea preparation only with herbs containing polysaccharides such as astragalus and codonopsis, and with medicinal mushrooms that contain beta-glucan. Both need a very long decoction to extract the medicine.

In the next couple of weeks, I am offering three plant profiles that should be extracted in water. After water extraction, reduce the volume to 25% of the original to create a very concentrated tea, then add 20-25% alcohol (190 proof) to preserve it as a tincture.

Recipes for herbal tea remedies

How to make a standard infusion:

• Before making your tea, you want to grabble your herbs to break down their cell wall.
• Measure 15 grams of dried herb for ½ a liter of water. Double the amount if you are using fresh herbs.
• Place the herb in a cup (you can use an infuser). Fill the cup with hot water and cover. Covering is important because many constituents, especially aromatics, are volatile at high temperatures; they will dissipate.
• The longer you steep your tea, the more constituents will be extracted. Generally, I infuse my daily tea for 10-15 minutes. Medicated infusion is steeped for 30 minutes.
• Make a fresh infusion daily. You can make a large jar and sip on it throughout the day.

Solar Infusion

• Work best for the delicate part of the plant.
• Place 60 grams of ground dried herbs or 120 grams of chopped fresh herbs in a quart jar. Add 4 cups of water.
• Cover and let sit on a sunny window for 4-6 hours.

Cold Infusion

• Work best for herbs with long chains of polysaccharides and volatile oils that can be damaged by heat. (many times, roots such as marshmallow)
• Add 1/2 ounce of herb to 1 quart of room-temperature water. Let it infuse for 12 hours or overnight.

How to Make a Decoction

• In a pot, bring 1 quart of water to a boil.
• When the water is boiling, add 60 grams of plant material.
• Cover the pot to prevent volatile oils from escaping.
• Standard decoction: Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from the heat and steep for an additional hour.
• Strong decoction: Let simmer until the water is reduced by half.
•  Strain the decoction.
• You can drink the decoction warm or cool it to room temperature and store it in the refrigerator for up to three days.
•  Roots can be decocted twice. The first decoction will be the more potent, but the second will ensure you extract all the compounds from the roots. Just make sure that the second decoction occurs on the same day or at the latest the following day to the day of the first decoction.

What do you do if the recipe calls for both leaves, flowers, and roots or bark?

A hybrid of decoction and infusion is created when you make a standard decoction of roots, barks, or seeds, then add flowers or leaves after removing the decoction from the heat source.

* Bring the water to a boil.
* Add roots, bark, or seed. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.
* Remove from heat.
* Add flowers and leaves. Cover and let steep for 10-20 minutes.

Things to consider

* You always want to break the skin of seeds before decocting them, either with a mortar and pestle or with sandpaper.
* If your roots are not ground into small pieces, you can use a coffee grinder to cut them into small pieces.
* If your recipe calls for dried herbs and you have only fresh herbs handy, use 2-3 times the amount called for in your recipe

How you ingest your tea is just as important as the herbs you use. Tea drinking is a whole body sensual experience. It is an opportunity to practice mindfulness. Sit with your tea and listen with your whole body to the scent, taste, and feelings that arise when you sip.