Handmade Dokudami-tea, just wash and dry! Enjoy its refreshing taste!
Residents in Kanagawa and anybody whom live near-by! Roadside, garden, a corner of parking lot.. nowadays Dokudami are blooming anywhere around.
Dokudami is a Japanese herb, a drug plant that is also known as “Juyaku (means ten medicines)”. The word “Doku-wo-tameru” which means to reduce and control the poison, is transcribed and called Dokudami. The plant has no poison actually. Wikipedia | Dokudami’s medicine effect
Dokudami is sometimes disliked by its peculiar smell and is misunderstood as a poisonous plant by its name. Its strong fertility often takes Dokudami as weeds. However, actually there are various ways to use. If you drink it as tea, it is good for gastrointestinal activities and constipation and if you put some fresh leaves and stalks in a cotton bag and take it in the bath, it is effective for heat rash. The foot-bath with Dokudami can relieve fatigue.
For such a wonderful Dokudami, the best time to harvest is now, when the flowers are blooming. Actually it is very easy to make tea leaves, just pull out the blooming stocks, wash and dry! When dried, it has no odor, and tea tastes a little sweet, refreshing and bland. The excellent timing to harvest just before the hot summer, looks planned by God. You can chill it and drink it all summer long!
Dokudami likes the half-shaded location. We harvest the blooming plants choosing the place where the air is as clean as possible and where out of dog walking course. Pull them from the root if you can, picking them from the stalk is also OK.
Put the harvested Dokudami into a bucket and wash. Thinking those will eventually be put into your mouth, rinse them several times until the mud falls off and the water becomes clean.
Then dry. You can put them on newspaper or it is also convenient to use a basket for dried vegetable and dried fish. Indoor drying is recommended comparing with outside drying because of wind-blowing and dust that may be concerned.
About 5 days, Dokudami is turned out to be brown and be dried. Grab some and check, then if you feel a little damp yet, dry them for a few more days to completely be dried in order to avoid mold.
Cut them with kitchen scissors to about 3 to 4 cm, then Dokudami tea leaves are done! Save them in bottles, cans and zip locks etc. If you don’t have time to cut, don’t have to cut. You can boil the whole stem and the taste will not change. Let’s drink Dokudami tea.
Please see this article how to drink it! “Handmade Dokudami tea, three ways of drinking, hot and iced!”
