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How to make a proper tea-aka water extractions.

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justb612

justb612

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Hello nice people of the Nexus!

I am at a time of my life where I need to consume multiple teas a day. All kinds of different plants and mushrooms are available for me and very effective to say the least!

But, some of these require different methods of extractions. Some require soaking for 24 days followed by a 30min low heat boil. Some have no instructions at all.

Generally speaking, how would you construct a safe extraction method, that would apply to most of the active compounds in the general sense?

Time and energy are no problem. If it's soaking for a week, all fine for me. If its low heat for 4 hours, I'm all over it.
I just don't want to lose the precious compounds :)


Thanks in advance.
b
 
Sorry I just couldn't resist. :twisted:

boil-water-what-am-i-a-chemist-american-dad-1432163447.jpg
 
OP, list the materials you need to extract otherwise we're shooting in the wind.


Mistletoe needs to be cold-soaked overnight, Pau d'arco needs to be boiled for ten minutes.




I won't say any moar than this, as proper tea is theft.






😁
 
Thanks for the funky replies :D

I was thinking general.
If that can not happen, give me a vast source of information like a big lexicon?

If that can't happen either, I'll write them up, since I don't have THAT much (around 40)
 
The best green tea is made by allowing the water to cool for a time. The higher the quality of the tea, the longer the cooling time. My finest green tea only gets water at 70°C 😁
 
All right, I'll go through the list and write them down here. I'll edit this reply later on today :)

Very kind of you. Still, would be nice to have the knowledge and the sources for myself.

I'm still dying off the chemist reply. That is so much me! Only thing i had to re-roll ins chool was chemistry, and now whenever we need extractions or something bio chemical or physiological related most of my friends call me .....

Wish I would have payed attention meh


list inc...
 
So when you say consuming multiple plants daily are you thinking somewhere along the lines of making cocktails out of plants that require similar preparations?
 
I am not sure

This is a broad subject, and I am using teas and some herbal supplements, because sometimes mixing together does not bode well.

I am aiming for a recharge of my receptors and neurotransmitters.

I will mostly be using bacopa monierri (need to extract it) Lions mane, Reishi, Shitake, Maitake, Awgaswanda, St Johns wort. These are of my primary concern, altho I do use chamomile and some other teas too, that list is long and I do not have the time for it sadly...
 
So just some general tips:

Herbal teas are best prepared with water under boiling temperature (82-87 c ish). I like to soak the herbs in a bit of room temp/cool water to rehydrate them then add the hot water to the cool water + soaked herbs. This helps protect many of the more volatile compounds from being destroyed by adding boiling hot water directly. This works well for standard Camellia sinensis teas as well as Yerba Mate and really most leaves/flowers. Optimal time varies between plants, but allowing the material to brew for 3-10 minutes is a good general range for most herbs.

Woody herbs, barks, and roots tend to do better if actually simmered in the water directly for a longer period of time. Again it's better to avoid a full rolling boil, but letting your ground/shredded roots/barks to simmer for 10-20+ minutes at low heat on the stove generally allows for best infusion of these moar durable plant materials.

With mushrooms like reishi/lions mane/shitake/maitaki you generally want to do a 2 step process which involves soaking the material in ethanol (vodka/everclear) for a prolonged period, few days to several months, this extracts the terpenes into the alcohol. Then you want to filter out the mushroom material and boil it on the stove for 20-30+ mins so the polysaccharides are extracted into the water. The ethanol and the tea are then combined to form a tincture which should provide a nice full spectrum of the compounds present in the mushrooms.

Again every herb is different, and you can always use google to look up specifics for each individual plant as you work with it, but those are some very generalized guidelines.

Hope that helps.

Have a tea-riffic day. :)
 
dreamer042 said:
So just some general tips:

Herbal teas are best prepared with water under boiling temperature (82-87 c ish). I like to soak the herbs in a bit of room temp/cool water to rehydrate them then add the hot water to the cool water + soaked herbs. This helps protect many of the more volatile compounds from being destroyed by adding boiling hot water directly. This works well for standard Camellia sinensis teas as well as Yerba Mate and really most leaves/flowers. Optimal time varies between plants, but allowing the material to brew for 3-10 minutes is a good general range for most herbs.

Woody herbs, barks, and roots tend to do better if actually simmered in the water directly for a longer period of time. Again it's better to avoid a full rolling boil, but letting your ground/shredded roots/barks to simmer for 10-20+ minutes at low heat on the stove generally allows for best infusion of these moar durable plant materials.

With mushrooms like reishi/lions mane/shitake/maitaki you generally want to do a 2 step process which involves soaking the material in ethanol (vodka/everclear) for a prolonged period, few days to several months, this extracts the terpenes into the alcohol. Then you want to filter out the mushroom material and boil it on the stove for 20-30+ mins so the polysaccharides are extracted into the water. The ethanol and the tea are then combined to form a tincture which should provide a nice full spectrum of the compounds present in the mushrooms.

Again every herb is different, and you can always use google to look up specifics for each individual plant as you work with it, but those are some very generalized guidelines.

Hope that helps.

Have a tea-riffic day. :)
Click to expand...
:thumb_up:
I just did triple extraction of Chaga mushroom. 8 weeks in 190 proof everclear, then a low heat (54C) soak in a crockpot. Then I did 4 boils in a PC in a soymilk bag. The tea was still dark during the last boil. I cooked the PC boils to the same volume as the Ethanol and low heat runs an combined the all. Next time I may add a room temp water soak first then the alcohol after the first heated soak.
 
Also, grinding teas will not decrease it's positive effects by a whole lot right? Tried googling it, but thought I'd reply it here too to make sure the thread has moar valid information for the looking eye. If anyone would confirm it, I'd be greatful :)
 
As for green tea, I've read conflicting information. Some sources (with studies to back them up even) say the hotter the water, the more antioxidants you'll get out of it, while others say the opposite. So which is it?:?

Also, I've read that lowering the pH of the water by adding lemon will extract more antioxidants, but also more aluminum, fluoride and other toxins that the plant absorbs from the soil, so I'm torn on that one too.
 
justB612 said:
Also, grinding teas will not decrease it's positive effects by a whole lot right? Tried googling it, but thought I'd reply it here too to make sure the thread has moar valid information for the looking eye. If anyone would confirm it, I'd be greatful :)
Click to expand...
Generally it's best to grind right before use if possible. The grinding exposes a larger surface area which is desirable for extraction efficiency, but also detrimental if storing for longer periods of time, moar exposed surface area = faster oxidation. Though honestly it's not really that big of a deal, the difference in a tea made from pre-powdered, well stored, herbs and freshly ground herbs is pretty negligible in the scheme of things.

SpartanII said:
As for green tea, I've read conflicting information. Some sources (with studies to back them up even) say the hotter the water, the more antioxidants you'll get out of it, while others say the opposite. So which is it?:?

Also, I've read that lowering the pH of the water by adding lemon will extract more antioxidants, but also more aluminum, fluoride and other toxins that the plant absorbs from the soil, so I'm torn on that one too.
Click to expand...
Camellia sinensis is a tricky beast because there are so many different styles and preparation methods. Typically you'll want to use cooler temperatures and shorter steep times for the moar tender white and green varieties and slightly higher temps and longer steeps for the moar heavily processed reds and blacks. Many Oolongs and Pu-erhs and their ilk are quite bitter on their first wash and benefit from a good hot water pre-soak (which is typically poured off as an offering to various spirits/dieties) with the latter washes being much moar mellow and palatable.

A good general steep time and temp range is:
White: 30-60 seconds (140-160 F, 60-70 C)
Green: 1-3 minutes (160-180 F, 70-80 C)
Red/Oolong: 3-5 minutes (180-190 F, 80-90 C)
Black: 3-5 minutes (190-200 F, 90-95 C)

Be somewhat discerning in choosing teas, some styles of tea involve ingesting the leaves directly (Like Matcha), when ingesting tea leaves you want to avoid most teas from China and teas grown in lowland areas of other countries. Most heavy metal contaminants are not water soluble, so if you don't ingest the leaves directly you can avoid being exposed to high levels of these contaminants. This would also apply to the hotter water temps and adding lemon question. Basic rule of thumb if you'll be eating the tea leaves, favor Japanese and Indian grown and high mountain grown teas. If you won't be ingesting the leaves in significant quantity going with the Chinese teas is okay, but if you can, still try to favor highland over lowland for minimal exposure to contaminants.

Hope that helps a bit. :thumb_up:
 
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