Wintergreen ---- or 'Canada Tea'

Hello tea lovers! Since the last posting was on a naturally occurring tonic of the forest (chaga), I wanted to follow up with another wild plant - one my favorites.  Maybe I haven't had enough time to explore the forest floor... but none the less, this is an extraordinary little tea leaf which is often overlooked.  Wintergreen.  I can say that this low growing shrub is named so, because it seems to stay alive under the pressure of our great snow season, and thrives in the spring.  Its quick to regain its colour from a deep purple to a fresh green in a matter or weeks after the snow has gone. 

Of course its berry is a edible 'mini apple' like fruit.

Its always a joy to pick and eat the tender berries, which seem to be common enough in the summer and fall.  The plant must be of the mint family, since it is comparable to a spearmint or peppermint in flavor, but still aromatically of its own kind.  It has a beautiful aroma sold in extracts of essential oils.  Of course, I encourage to take it as a tea... although it has many uses. 

The Native Americans were among the first to utilize the leaves of Wintergreen for a warming, minty brew that was also renowned for unique healing virtues. Wintergreen tea was the tea of choice during the American Revolution and the boycott of traditional tea imported by British traders.

I wasn't able to find any in depth research on that last note -- but powerful!  Our green tea leaf, 'camellia sinensis', consists of a untold variety of names such as green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea, orange pekoe, assam tea, earl grey, darjeeling... gunpowder tea ... basically serves as the base for any tea which doesn't explicitly say it is anything else. It fills the shelves, and to think that in North America, it could have replaced with wintergreen!  In fact, of its other known names, one of the most popular is 'Canada Tea'! 

Other Names:

Boxberry, Canada Tea, Checkerberry, Deerberry, Essence de Gaulthérie, Gaulteria, Gaultheria Oil, Gaultheria procumbens, Gaulthérie Couchée, Ground Berry, Hilberry, Huile de Thé des Bois, Mountain Tea, Oil of Wintergreen, Partridge Berry, Petit Thé, Petit Thé des Bois, Spiceberry, Teaberry, Thé de Montagne, Thé de Terre-Neuve, Thé du Canada, Thé Rouge, Thé des Bois, Wax Cluster. Wintergreen leaf is used for painful conditions including headache, nerve pain (particularly sciatica), arthritis, ovarian pain, and menstrual cramps. It is also used for digestion problems including stomachache and gas (flatulence); lung conditions including asthma and pleurisy; pain and swelling (inflammation); fever; and kidney problems. Some people use small doses of wintergreen oil to increase stomach juices and improve digestion.

Now I know I can be a shallow dude, but this is something else!  It is basically the minor equivalent of aspirin... the willow tree of the forest ground.  The other lovely fact, is it is often paired with our great white pines, another amazing tree (which also has a component that can be used for tea) 

Now, since it is common enough, you may be able to find some on the forest bed.  It is the most common ground cover I find, esp for the Northern Shield.  Heck, when I get a house, I'm going to plan a million of these seeds in the back yard with a few white pine so I don't have to mow a lawn. 

Now for the prep.  Please pick one leaf per plant for courtesy sake; these are hardy plants.  Wash the batch in the kitchen sink.  Let the leaves dry in a window, or even on the kitchen table till they feel almost brittle.  Save them away in a tin of sorts.  When steeping, place them whole in your cup or break them up (being brittle to crush after dried).  I prefer 6-7 leaves in the cup.  You will most likely have to submerse the tea leaves in a tea infuser of choice, as they will tend to stay to the top.  The leaves are highly resistant to being soaked, so pre-soaking them for a day or so will also make them steep better.  They will also soak better for the next 2 steeps. 

I hope you try this out guys ad gals!  Boycott those tea stores damn it!  Just kidding; they always have cute ladies in there -- but start getting creative with what is safe and good to have for your own tea preparations.  Here is a dude doing it the woodsman way in a YouTube vid:  Cheers!

Chaga Tea

I could phonetically spell this out for you, but here is a link to the pronunciation on this word: Chaga.  I know everyone (including me) cannot say rooibus right yet. Not even my computer knows, since the spell-checker just came up underlining the word. So I'm making it easy for you. YOU will be the only one in the growing populous of people who will spell and say this word correctly. CHAGA. Now what the heck is this funky tonic?

Chaga has been used for thousands of years in Asia and Eastern Europe. It is only now gaining more awareness in the West, and we're sure that as more time passes, you will be hearing about Chaga more and more. Just recently, it was named the "Anti-Cancer Herb of the Year" in Russia, and its popularity is slowly beginning to grow all over the world.

See -- I told you people are hearing of this! Now wait a minute -- a FUNGUS? Considering we eat mushrooms, yogurt, and prize products that naturally have probiotics in them... I really don't need to explain further unless you do your own research. Lets cut to the chase.

The chaga fungus grows from the birch tree and has the highest ORAC value of any substance ever tested on the planet. ORAC = Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, measured in units of antioxidants, developed by the National Institute on Aging in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ORAC value of Chaga is 35,000 compared to spinach which is 1,260 or blueberries which are 9,160. Goji Berries are 25,000 on the ORAC scale.

Benefits of drinking Chaga Tonic include:
boosting the immune system
treating stomach diseases
treating Intestinal worms & parasites
liver and heart ailments
cancers
increases metabolism
hypertension
diabetes
inhibits the growth of tumors
stimulates the central nervous system
increases the resistibility of organism to infectious diseases

Chaga also contains Sterols and Triterpenes including lanosterol (a tetracyclic triterpene derivative), inotodiol (triterpene alcohol), and ergosterol (a Vitamin D precursor). These help support digestion, help detoxification, and may help maintain respiratory health. Germanium, which helps support the health of your blood. Melanin, which enhances the appearance of hair, skin and eyes, and helps maintain a more youthful appearance. Important Nucleosides, minerals and amino acids, Saponin, Magnesium, Chromium, Iron, Kalium, Beta-glucan, Inotodiol, Isoprenoid and others, all offering tremendous health benefits. WOW!

This is my latest bunch I found here in Northern Ontario, Canada.

I hope you understand why it is so good now. Best part, is it is freaking great for you, expensive, and free at the same time. Also a survivalist tool, since it is a remarkable fire-starter! It's also known as 'tinder-fungus' for that reason. I have yet to try out some chaga in my fire piston. So this stuff was not as hard to find as I once thought. I tripped across it by accident by going into the swamp behind the house, and there was a healthy amount on a yellow birch (doesn't have to white birch to be chaga apparently). Also .. of the few things that give birch a short life, chaga is one of the rare things which decay a birch tree inside out within approximately 5 to 7 years of infection. Second time I ventured out on bike, I found 6 or 7 trees, many of which I didn't harvest the chaga from; want to see their progress along the seasons. I have enough for 6 months already of daily usage! 

This is a closer look at the fresh looking dried color. 

The wood tray was a lovely second hand addition. Makes it easier to take a controlled quantity.

I made up a chopping box as shown in the youtube video (at the bottom of this blog) to get the raw chaga down to size.

Used a coffee grinder for processing (hard on the grinder, but it worked).

Sifted it into different grades for experimentation!

Use your steeper of choice!

It definitely has the appearance of a light coffee, but it is said that you can brew (and is recommended) for 10-12 hours! This extracts out the full potential it has. I am only steeping it with boiling water and letting it cool naturally over 15 minutes till it's a drinkable temperature.

The verdict : Success! I have yet to notice the benefits, but I'm not necessarily fighting a tumor in my brain; you never know these days. It's also just an overall well-being sort of tea judging by the benefits. As I said, it's a tonic -- which means it will not mess up your system if your taking your 2 teaspoons or so daily.  That's what I'm sticking with right now, but 3 teaspoons of the dried grinds is normal too.  I brewed the same batch 3 times today in my new fancy tea steeper from Canadian Tire, and believe me... this is the best I've had when it comes to modern tea infusers.  Perhaps I'll show you my collection, and give reviews of tea related paraphernalia.

This will link you to the youtube video instructions on processing of chaga into a fine grade for tea. 

I hope to blog more about tea in the future - will let you know whenever something comes up that is fantastic to say. I hope you get the time to look for chaga, or just get out for a long walk. As I said.. when it's great for you, and free, it hard to resist - but please harvest with discretion. Worst thing is having a hunk of beef hanging around your home to stink when your not going to eat it. In this case though, it has a pleasing aroma when steeped, since it has vanillic acid.  This is the same sort of constituent in vanilla. Besides that, the taste is almost undetectable (yet still vanilla like), so it will make for a great additive to your favorite tea brew. :)

 Thanks for reading -- now make a fresh cup-a-chaga.

 p.s. There is no caffeine in chaga!