Tea Benefits?

[Davylp25]

Hey...

Im not really concerned about the whole raw thing when it comes to tea. I was wondering, as I can heat up water to a very warm temp in my Dehy, I was wondering, would it still be beneficial for the herbs> It doesnt come to a boil? I wanted to make hair rinses, and drink some as well, but my lil water boiler is rather bootleg, and takes forever to heat... where as throw some water in a glass bottle pop it in my dehydrator and its warm very fast. So just asking those tea peeps out there? Or is boiling water, steeped for 3 minutes the best route? Im not tryna do the sit and soak overnight method... :D

[RawKnitster]

I consider myself a tea peep, but I was stumped by you question. I wanted to say boil the water and steep covered for 10 minutes but had nothing to base my opinion on. Did some searching and found the following:

Infusion = Tea made from leaves, flowers and light material. Put 1-2 teaspoons of herbal tea material into a brewing utensil of your choice and place in a 6-8 oz size cup. Add lightly boiled water and allow it to steep for 3-5 minutes. For a more "medicinal" effect steep 15-30 minutes. Will keep refrigerated for 24 hours.

Decoction = Tea made from bark, roots, seeds, twigs and berries. Put 1-3 tablespoons of cut herb, seed, root, bark, etc into a pot of 16-32 oz of water and allow to sit in non-boiled water for at least 5-10 minutes. Set on stove and bring to a slow boil then turn down to a simmer for 10-30 minutes. Strain and drink. Will keep about 72 hours if kept refrigerated. Most decoctions can also be brewed via single cup through a regular infusion process as noted above but without the strength.

[sport]

Add lightly boiled water .

Lightly boiled water sounds a bit odd to me. Boil is boil and it is either boiled or not. Do they mean almost boiled.
It is a bit like being a little dead.

[RawKnitster]

Hi sport! Lightly boiled means you bring it to a boil but don't let it continue to boil. Something about not boiling all the oxygen out of the water. I believe that is part of the Japanese tea making tradition, too.

:)

[sport]

Hi sport! Lightly boiled means you bring it to a boil but don't let it continue to boil. Something about not boiling all the oxygen out of the water. I believe that is part of the Japanese tea making tradition, too.

:)

Over here we all have the sort of kettle that switches itself off when boiled so we do not have a lot of control over that. I was not aware of the oxygen thing and sometimes I would boil more than once because I would leave it and come back to it later. Maybe I will drop that habit.
I guess that we learn something every day.