Medicine Making Archive

I love drinking Chai tea, especially when it’s the only thing that tastes as good or better than coffee to me. Instead of being a bitter and draining drink, it’s a warm and nourishing drink…especially good for the Autumn and Winter. My friend, Josh Green, makes one of the most delicious versions I’ve ever tasted. Josh began making it after he returned from India a few years ago and it really inspired me to try my hand at it. (I call this a “chai-like” tea because it’s just my take on trying to get at the taste I like and make it convenient in the mornings.)

Josh makes his amazing chai by boiling a fresh cup of soy milk with the bouquet garni (herbs and black tea) inside, pressing the ginger as it simmers. It’s got an amazing citrus flavor to it and I was convinced he had added lemon zest the first time I tasted it. I believe now that the lemony flavor is achieved because each cup is made fresh, the ginger is cooked for a shorter period and possibly because of the alchemy that occurs with the soy milk.

I prefer to use raw cow’s milk/cream or coconut milk as I have been a little wary of soy milk and am still working on researching that bit. (Kathleen DeMaisons has a nicely written little piece that covers some of my concerns but doesn’t highlight soy as a huge criminal either.) I also have a 6-year old son who LOVES chai almost as much as I do – so I make a chai mix that we keep in the fridge to save time on a daily basis. I cook the herbs for a much longer time and the tea for a much shorter time (only steeping it) than Josh does. My tea has a much earthier flavor, including lower notes, for this reason. If you prefer a more citrus style tea with higher notes, I would suggest trying to make your tea a cup at a time.

You can use whatever milk you wish in this recipe. If  you choose to use coconut milk, I urge you to make it yourself rather than using canned milk (which may contain BPAs in the coating). It’s quite easy to make, though I don’t have time to write up another entry about that right now, so I will refer you to Elana Amsterdam’s blog for that recipe. For my coconut milk, I only use coconut and water, I find no need to add the stevia as she does. If you choose to use a soy, hemp or nut milk, it is best to avoid milks with added flavorings and preservatives and look for a product with simple ingredients that retains it’s purity. I can’t say that I’ve found a great product there and again, for nut milks, I prefer to make them from scratch, which is delicious, retains a fat content not found in boxed nut milks and is much better for you and your family.

To sweeten this mixture, I often use honey or maple syrup but lately, I’ve come to love the Chinese crystal rock candy. I purchase this for for about $2/pound from Benson Huang at Healing Food is Medicine. Benson is a Chinese medicine practitioner who excels at Chinese dietetics. He taught me that the crystal rock candy, because of it’s special structure, is able to bring water into the body, thus hydrating it – rather than building phlegm as so many of our modern day sweeteners do. As with all other foods though, everything in moderation.

Chai-like Tea Recipe:

The Mix:

(Makes about 3/4 gallon of mix)

• 10-12 cups of filtered water
• 14 cinnamon sticks
• 2 level TBSP green cardamom pods
• 1 level TBSP cloves
• 1 level TBSP peppercorns
• 12-20 nickel-sized pieces of fresh ginger root
• 1 TBSP organic vanilla extract or 1-3 vanilla pods
• 1-2 cups of honey or maple syrup or 1/4-1/2 pound crystal rock candy

Add the first 7 ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about 5 minutes and then cover and turn down to a simmer for 45-60 minutes. Strain the herbs out by using a french press or cheesecloth and a colander. Dissolve the sweetener into the hot, filtered mix (making sure that it is sweet to your liking) and then put into a glass container. After it cools off, cover and store in the fridge.

To Prepare:

Fill your tea cup about 3/4 full of the mix and top it off with the milk of your choice. Pour what you have measured into a small cooking pot and bring to a boil. While it’s getting hot, prepare your tea, either as loose leaf or a tea bag and then use the hot liquid to steep the tea as you normally would.

You can use black, green or rooibos tea (keeping it caffeine free) with this mix. This allows me to easily prepare a cup for both myself and my son in the mornings!

I was recently prescribed a formula from the Shang Han Lun: Wu Mei Wan (烏 梅 丸). The indications for this formula can be found in Line 338 of the SHL.

It consists of Wu Mei, Asarum, Dried Ginger, Coptis, Dang Gui, Aconite, Szechwan Peppers, Cinnamon twig, Ginseng and Phellodendron. We know Mume as the Ume Plum, Japanese Apricot or Plum, and the Umeboshi Plum, and the blossoms of the plum tree are what we know as plum blossom. The unripened plums are dried in a fire oven until about they are about 60% dehydrated. They remain quite sour with a bit of a smoky flavor.

I am making only 1/3 of the recipe listed in the SHL. That amounts to 100 plums. I soaked the plums in vinegar over night as directed.

Most of the herbs had already been ground at the clinic, so while the plums were soaking, all I had to do was » Continue Reading