My hubby just got back from an eight day international trade show in Amsterdam. He wore himself out and came back SICK! He asked immediately for some "magic tea" to help him feel better. Immediately I went shopping for some of my basics that I usually make at home, but don't have here with me and was surprised to see a smallish bottle of Dandelion Tincture for 22 canadian dollars! Whoa... that is sticker shock! After making my own since the beginning of my love affair with tinctures, I am thrilled with how much money I have saved!
My friend "Ophelia Jane" called and wanted to understand more about the tinctures we started before I left America and the moment came for me to sit down and write! Forgive if I ramble!
What is a Tincture?
You have been using tinctures your whole life and didn't even know it... Vanilla Extract is the tincture that is sitting in your cupboard right now. The tincturing process removes the taste and medicinal action of a food or herb and preserves it in alcohol. This preservation process keeps the medicine good on your shelf, if pure, for up to ten years or more. But, of course, it is preserved in alcohol to make this happen, so we have a myriad of ways of dealing with the alcohol and as many personal beliefs about whether or not that alcohol is a big deal. I'll try to address some of these methods below.
Shelf Life
Once properly tinctured and bottled, the medicine should be put in dropper bottles, preferably darkened as in these cobalt blue dropper bottles, and stored in a cool, dark cupboard. Avoid keeping these near ovens or other heat sources to help maintain quality.
Once the alcohol is removed, the medicine will deteriorate quickly, so is only used for the short term.
How to Use
So before we talk about WHEN to use these tinctures, let's walk through the "how". Mark needed some magic tea, and of course I used some dried herbs that fit his particular need, like spearmint for instance, but I also knew that he needed an antibiotic effect. For his sore throat a dandelion and honeysuckle combination would be the perfect combination...in Montreal in September. Of course there were no fresh greens to throw in a salad, so I needed to go to stored medicine. Food is always preferable when it is available and appropriate:)
So, step-by-step...
1. I boiled the water. (This electric kettle is one of our favorite finds from when we lived overseas...a household treasure!) But however you do it, boil some water for a tea.
2. Pour the boiling water and a dropper full of tincture into the same hot chocolate mug and add any other ingredients that you feel work well for your child, whether that is a comfort beverage like ovaltine or an herb tea that is a favorite, add it now!
3. Wait five minutes.
Some people object to alcohol use for their families for religious reasons and some object for health reasons. I had a professor who objected because her body didn't tolerate alcohol well at all. She indicates that she was able to tolerate tinctures using this method because the alcohol dissipates during the resting period with the boiling water while the medicinal value is left behind.
There are plenty of conflicted reports about how much alcohol is left behind, so I have to turn to common sense here...We are talking about a couple of dropper-fulls, and we never worry about the similar or higher alcohol content of Vanilla Extract in our cooking. We swish industrial age mouthwash around in our mouths with lots of alcohol and the additional tragedy of harmful chemicals. I just can't get too upset about a little alcohol byproduct when people are routinely ingesting chemical chaos in our soda based society.
Drink! Voila! Simple...
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