How to Make Nourishing Herbal Infusions
What is a Nourishing Herbal Infusion?
The most basic description of a nourishing herbal infusion is that it is a long steeped tea using nutritive herbs.
The benefit to the longer steeping times is that it allows water to be absorbed into the plant matter, breaking it down on a cellular level. This allows larger quantities of vitamins and minerals to be released into the water, creating a truly power packed drink. Its a great way to increase your daily intake of vitamins and minerals, especially for those with compromised digestion.
Because the material is already broken down it is much more easily digested and the nutrients are more bio-available than eating the plant matter on its own. In some cases it makes inedible material such as oat straw digestible. Additionally, it is also low in both cost and calories.
How to Make a Nourishing Herbal Infusion:
Weigh out 1 ounce of dried herb into a 1 quart jar
Fill the jar with boiling water, cover and let steep for 4-24 hours.
Tip – once the jar has cooled to room temperature place it in the fridge to keep it from going bad. DO NOT put a hot jar in the fridge.
How to Use Nourishing Herbal Infusions:
Always start with dried herbs. Minerals and other phytochemicals found in nutritive herbs are made more accessible by drying. Dried material allows more room for absorption of the hot liquid.
Avoid aromatic herbs, as they can be overwhelming and typically not nutritive. Some can be so overwhelming that they can make you sick. See the list of nutritive herbs below that make great nourishing herbal infusions.
More Tips:
A lot of people have trouble with the taste of nourishing herbal infusions as they can be bitter (or taste like hay), but I found that it doesn’t take long to get used to them. You can also sweeten them with honey, or mix them with juice or an aromatic tea like peppermint.
They taste best cold!
Enjoy.
