burdock root tea

I read somewhere that burdock root tea "strengthens the blood." Having no idea what that meant but thinking that it can't hurt to have stronger blood, I picked up a burdock root at the store and brought it home to experiment with making tea.

Burdock roots look like exactly that -- roots. Carrots and parsnips and yams are roots too, but they don't look as unabashedly rooty as burdock. I expected my boyfriend to ask me why I had a stick in the vegetable drawer.

I've never made tea from anything other than a tea bag before, but I figured it would be easy enough -- just boil the thing until the water tasted like something other than water. I used a vegetable peeler to strip the skin off a 2-inch piece of burdock, then continued to peel the root until I had a pile of translucent shavings. Those went into a small pot with 1 and a half cups of water. I brought the water to a boil, then reduced to a simmer and covered for about 10 minutes. The result was a light yellow-brown liquid that smelled, well, rooty.

I strained the liquid into a mug and tasted. Not bad, but the flavor was flat, one-note. Added some agave and it was better. Drinkable, anyway. I felt energized after drinking the tea and the boyfriend, who tried the tea with me, reported a similar boost in energy.

And as far as blood-strengthening, burdock root is a decent source of potassium, magnesium, and vitamin B6, which would explain the energy boost. Next time I'm going to add some other ingredients (maybe chicory?) to build a more complex flavor.