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How To Make Cedar Tea
Updated: Apr 26
By: Cambium Indigenous Professional Services Date: December 9, 2021
Cedar has been used for centuries by the Indigenous People of North America as a sacred medicine. Due to it's healing properties, Cedar has been used for decades as an antiseptic, anti fungal, antiviral, air purifier and all round immune boosting compound.
Cedar is truly a wonderful healing compound that when used on a consistent basis can help with the following health conditions.
-Respiratory;
-Skin;
-Immune deficiency;
-Sickness/colds;
Cedar tea is particularly effective. Below is a transcription of the video (below) and will outline how I make cedar tea.
--Video Transcription Below--
Step 1: Clean the cedar leaves
The first step to making cedar tea is to make sure that we get some of the dirt, that has accumulated off the cedar leaves. What we are going to do is put them (cedar leaves) into a plastic bag (like this) and we are going to give the bag a few shakes to get rid of the dirt that has accumulated on the cedar leaves.
Once we do this we will take the cedar leaves out of the plastic bag and lay them down on out cutting board to prepare them for step 2. The dirt from the cedar leaves will remain in the plastic bag and we have cedar leaves that are ready to be prepped for step 2.
Step 2: Chop your cedar leaves
The next step (to make our cedar tea) is to chop the cedar leaves into smaller chunks so that when we do boil the tea (the leaves) it will be a little easier to make the cedar tea. You
don't want to have (the cedar leaves) too fine, you want to slice through them with a knife so that the cedar leaves are in smaller bits.
Related: How Maple Syrup is Made
This will make it a little easier to boil when you make your cedar tea. We are going to make one cup of cedar tea so we need (roughly) one cup of packed cedar leaves. Add the cedar leaves to a measuring cup and pack it down a bit.
You should get one cup of packed cedar leaves. Exactly what we need for our cedar tea.
Let's move onto the next step which is to make the actual cedar tea.
Step 3: Measure water and add cedar to a pot
The next step is to get the water and cedar leaves ready to boil on the stove. What we are going to do is measure out 2 1/2 cups of water and add that to a pot. Add the cedar leaves to the pot and it is ready to boil.
You have to remember that when the water starts to boil, water evaporates as it boils so roughly 2 1/2 cups (of water) will boil down to just over a cup of tea, give or take depending on how hot the stove gets and how much water evaporates. 2 1/2 cups of water and 1 cup of packed cedar leaves should yield 1 cup of cedar tea.
Let's move onto the next step which is to boil the water and leaves.
Step 4: Boil the water (with the cedar in it)
The next step to make cedar tea is to boil the water and cedar leaves. What I usually do is to set (the stove) to a pretty high temperature just to get it boiling at medium high heat.
This (boil) will probably take between 5 to 10 minutes for the water to start boiling and once it boils I will reduce that heat to medium and allow that cedar to simmer. It will take
another 5 to 10 minutes for the cedar tea to actually brew.
The colour of the water will start to turn (kind of) golden brownish colour and when that happens you know that the cedar tea is almost complete. Let's let the water boil here for a bit and we'll get back to lowering the temperature and allow our cedar tea to simmer.
Step 5: Reduce heat and simmer
The water is starting to boil and it's been about 7 minutes. What we want to do now is to give it a little stir just to break up the cedar a bit and to start releasing some of the
fantastic medicines within the cedar.
You are going to notice that your kitchen is starting to smell very pleasant. That is the cedar starting to release certain compounds that will allow the medicines to be released as well as the very pleasant smell (in your kitchen).
What we are going to do now is to reduce the heat to low/medium to allow the cedar (tea) to simmer. This will probably take another 5 to 10 minutes or until the water starts to turn to
a golden brown colour.
As you can see, it is not quite there yet as it is still relatively clear so what we want to do is simmer the tea long enough for the water to turn golden brown. This will take another 5 to 10 minutes depending on a variety of factors but generally (5 to 10 minutes) will be the time frame.
Step 6: Strain the cedar tea
The cedar tea has been simmering now for about 15 minutes or so. You can really smell the cedar in the kitchen as it gives off a very pleasant smell as it releases its (cedar) compounds that really helps to improve the air quality.
Especially for those of you who have bronchial or breathing issues, this compound that is released into the air helps to improve those conditions (see note). This is one of the benefits of drinking cedar tea (and using cedar medicine) to help with those types of conditions.
As you can see, the cedar tea has taken on a different colour. It is now turning golden brown (ish) colour so it is just about ready to be strained and drank (as cedar tea). What we are going to do now is to use a strainer (simple strainer or sivve is fine).
You are also going to need a pot or large bowl that we can use to put the strainer on top of to strain the cedar leaves. The tea will drip to the bottom and we are just about ready to do that. Let's give this one last stir to make sure everything is ready and we are going to slowly pour this into the strainer.
You want to make sure that you don't put your hand to close to the strainer and pot because the steam is hot! You may burn your hands and you don't want that.
We're just going to make sure that all the cedar is out of the pot and into the strainer (put the pot aside and turn off your stove). What we want to do is stir the cedar in the
strainer around so that make sure we get all the goodness of the cedar tea into the (pot or bowl).
Everything looks good so we will let that sit for a few seconds to make sure
it drips down into the bowl (or pot). Afterwards we will get the cedar tea ready for consumption.
Step 7: Prepare the cedar tea for consumption
Now that we have strained our cedar tea, into a pot (or bowl) we are now read to pour it into a tea cup and get it ready for consumption.
As you can see, we have our cedar tea here and we are going to pour the tea into the cup. I am not going to pour all of the tea into the cup because there is a bit of sediment at the bottom (of the bowl). I don't want too much sediment in my cup of cedar tea.
As you can see here, the colour is a nice golden brown. That is exactly the colour you want for your cedar tea.
What I usually do is add either half a tablespoon of 100% pure maple syrup or half a tablespoon of honey (according to your preferences). Of course, for those of you who are on sugar free or low carbohydrate nutrition protocols you can use a substance called "Stevia".
Stevia is a natural occurring substance that is used as a natural sweetener that contains zero sugar. Of course that is totally up to you and what your nutrition protocol calls for. In this case, I prefer maple syrup so we are just going to add roughly, half a tablespoon to the tea and we are going to give it a stir.
You are going to notice a bit of sediment in the tea. Give it a few seconds to allow the sediment to sink to the bottom.
Enjoy your cup of fresh cedar tea!
--End of video transcription--
Ingredients:
1 cup of packed cedar (chopped)
2 1/2 to 3 cups of spring water Yield: 1 cup of cedar tea Instructions on how to make cedar tea
Add water and cedar to a pot heat on medium high until the water starts to boil. Turn down heat to medium low and simmer for another 10 minutes or so. It may take longer depending on the cedar. Once the colour turns to golden brown your, tea is ready. Turn off stove and strain tea using a strainer over a large bowl or pot. Allow sediment to settle in the bowl (or pot) for a few seconds. Pour tea into a tea cup and allow it to settle for a few seconds. Your tea is ready for consumption.
Optional: 1/2 tablespoon of either maple syrup or honey. You can also use 1/2 teaspoon of Stevia. Enjoy!! Note** Health statements made in the video or by Cambium Indigenous Professional Services are those of Cambium Indigenous Professional Services and not by medical or health professionals. Please use at your own risk. Please share to your network:
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