Sassafras Tea

This is my method of collecting Sassafras root and preparing tea. If you have Sassafras in your area you should give it a try if you haven't already. It's a great tea and has similarities to root beer. I look forward to comments on this and interested in other ways to prepare Sassafras tea as well as other teas from the wild.

By the way, I'm new at this and hope the video embeds...Enjoy!






Here's the link if the video isn't embedded:

www.youtube.com...

I used to harvest this stuff to make tea myself when I was younger, bear in mind too much of it isn't a good thing since it is a known carcinogen. en.wikipedia.org... it is also wise to avoid any trees that have a deformation of leaf structure deviating from the normal 3 spades per leaf.

reply to post by wrecksrme


hi op
what a shame it does not grow here (u.k)
i see you can make a good root beer out of it
im a tea lover and love to make a wild cuppa
cheers

Oh man, I have not had that in years. Completely forgot one of my childhood favorites.

I am going to stop on the way home and pick some up from the woods where I used to get it.

Originally posted by Darkchemistry
I used to harvest this stuff to make tea myself when I was younger, bear in mind too much of it isn't a good thing since it is a known carcinogen. en.wikipedia.org... it is also wise to avoid any trees that have a deformation of leaf structure deviating from the normal 3 spades per leaf.

edit on 16-3-2012 by Darkchemistry because: (no reason given)

As I recall from lessons learned in my younger days in the country, it also thins your blood. In the US, Whole Foods has carried the bark (however, we used roots from small trees) at a phenomena price.

From what I understand, you would have to drink gallons of it every day for a long period of time for it to possibly harm you.

Ah, cancerous tea.

mmmm.

Besides being a cancer-causing agent, sassafras can induce vomiting, stupor and hallucinations. It can also cause abortion, diaphoresis, and dermatitis.

Source

Reply to post by boncho

In other words it is bad for ya, like everything else we consume. Just saying.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by DoNotForgetMe
Reply to post by boncho

 

In other words it is bad for ya, like everything else we consume. Just saying.

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

I can drink a cup of coffee without having an abortion.

Just saying.

New trees grow from the roots of older trees, so if you find a few old growth, you will probably find many new trees. One important thing to remember when gathering in the wild, is not to deplete your entire source, always leaving some for regrowth. For the most part one can harvest some roots and the tree will continue to grow in the Spring.

Originally posted by boncho
Ah, cancerous tea.

mmmm.

Besides being a cancer-causing agent, sassafras can induce vomiting, stupor and hallucinations. It can also cause abortion, diaphoresis, and dermatitis.

Source

SO now I can blame my grandmother for all of my ills for making me drink this crap every time I got sick or a sniffle? Every stinkin spring? Really though. It sure beat the kerosene plasters... Ahh the good old days, when folks say that they seem to have amnesia about these great remedies of our grandparents.

Sassafrass Tea is actually a great blood tonic Ive read now that Im older adn it makes sense as to how we used it. I dont know about others because Ive seen sassafrass tea as a beverage to drink for pleasure, but we NEVER drank it like that. It was always a tonic or for some specific reason.

I am sure that the red color when you bruise the roots and make the tea, is the chemical precursor to '___' it would be a good explanation; as to why the hallucinogenic effect can occur.

How neat, something that I do know something about.
These trees are illegal in Kalifornia, sure I have seen many of them while hiking but still the same, they are illegal.
To find out why, you will have to look and see EXACTLY why.
The major thing is they cause cancer in lab rats when given 50x the recommended dose for HUMANS, and half of the test rats will die off.

The recommended dose was 3 cups if I recall correctly, so the active ingrediant "safrole" equivalent to 150 cups of tea if give to a rat will kill off half of the specimens...

Now this sassafrass used to be just below tobacco in numbers of exports for the longest time.
Indians used this tree for most probably thousands of years before it was declared "hazardous".
I use it as it is a great tasting tea and I am not dead yet, I have been drinking the stuff just under 40 years.

I was turned onto it as my Grandma drank it all of the time and she called it root beer tea, this is what got my attention.
Bottom line, do not drink 150 cups of the stuff every day for 3 months or there is a possibility....50% chance you will get cancer...According to some guys in lab coats anyway.
Btw OP, I am drinking a cup right now!

Old world cures and medicines will never die as Mother nature put them here, no matter how hard big pharma may try.

reply to post by g146541


Very well said my friend. I have been drinking it for 30 years of an on. Yeah only a few cups a year, not 150 per day! lol
btw, It's terifying to me what the FDA approves to go into our food. We would all be much better of by eating natural without all of the "pink slime" type stuff.

Sassafras was banned because there are a lot of rats in the FDA!

I love Sassafras tea.
It was such a treat to us as children. Mom would make the tea and we would all get to stay up
past our regular bedtime and watch "77 Sunset Strip" with her. We felt so grown up

I always wanted to try the stuff. We had sassafras plants growing everywhere when I went to summer camp in Western Maryland. The stuff smelled so good. We used to pick the leaves and carry them around just so we could sniff them. I always wondered why the nature instructors always just told us about making sassafras tea, but never showed us how, or made some so we could taste it. (I don't know if those ill health effects others mentioned were known then, or maybe that's why they didn't do it...but why then tell us about it?)

They showed us poke plants and said you could make something a lot like spinach from it, but again, we never got to actually try the stuff. There wasn't really a whole lot of poke around, so maybe that's why. But the sassafras was growing everywhere. Even if everyone in the camp got to try a mug or two of the stuff once a year it wouldn't have made a dent in the local foliage.

reply to post by wrecksrme


As someone earlier pointed out... beware... it is a great tea and my mothers side of the family harvested the roots, (I personally have dug bushels) cooked and prepared sasafrass tea every spring... it was know to the old people as a 'blood thinner' and got one invigorated and over that sluggish feeling by drinking lots of it (unfortuntaley I have drank literally gallons)

HOWEVER....

Nine people in my mothers direct family were struck later in life with various forms of leukemia and most doctors agreed it was due to the consumption of sasafrass tea.

Here I will mention, there are presently sasafrass tasting substitutes which I assume are safe... but I will NEVER drink another drop of the real stuff again...