Medicinal Teas Versus a Casual Cuppa

There are different ways to prepare and consume tea. Often, when you want to drink a tea to help with a specific concern or to target a specific body system, it is recommended to have anywhere from 2 to 4 cups of the tea a day (depending on what herbs it contains). There are also teas that are great in single doses for both pleasure/taste as well as function. Think a cup of chamomile or lemon balm tea to help calm or relax, or some ginger tea for nausea. Generally, the longer the steep, the more medicinal the tea. For instance, my current daily tea practice, as advised by Ash Bissonette-Murphy, is to steep all of my herbs overnight (after I've brought them to a boil together) in a liter of water and to drink that the  next morning (see my Daily Tea blogpost for more details). 

Of note, some herbs do better with cold extractions (i.e., letting the herb soak in cold water over a longer period of time) so as to not destroy the delicate compounds in them, like mucilaginous herbs such as Marshmallow root or Slippery Elm bark. Mucilaginous herbs are ones that have demulcent properties-- they are soothing and moistening due to the almost slimy-like texture. It may sound gross, but when you have a sore throat? Demulcents can come in clutch!

There are other herbs that do best with simple infusions (this would be like using a tea-bag in already boiled water). Herbs such as lemon balm, mint, or Chamomile do well as infusions.

Decoctions, on the other hand, are when you actually simmer the herbs in the water. Herbs that are roots, bark, or seeds are often better as decoctions, because it'll get the compounds out of the herbs better than an infusion. Decoctions tend to be a bit stronger than infusions (which is why they can be more medicinal in some ways).