Greetings, our dear readers. Today we will raise the topic of preparing fireweed tea at home. Today it is popular to talk about this grass and its properties, but not everyone knows how to properly harvest it and dry it for the winter.
Those who just want to get acquainted with such a home-made drink and harvest the herb themselves should know what fireweed tea is - how to collect and dry it, and also how to use it. If you carefully follow all the rules for making such tea leaves, you can get a drink whose taste is much more pleasant than ordinary tea.
I would like to immediately note that our ancestors used this tea in ancient Rus'. It’s not even worth arguing about its benefits, but even here you need to know some features. Today we’ll talk about what Ivan tea is and how to prepare it correctly.
And if you are interested, we will prepare an article on how to brew and use it correctly. So leave your comments at the very bottom. Based on your activity, we will determine whether it is necessary to describe in detail the features of brewing and drinking this healthy drink.
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What is Ivan tea and its beneficial properties.
The plant, which is known to many as Ivan tea, has many other names: Koporye tea, angustifolia fireweed, Ivan's grass. He populated central Russia. Ivan-chai especially loves abandoned fields, wastelands and forest clearings.
Bouquet of fireweed
Fireweed, which was used by our ancestors for medicinal purposes, is a plant with a long stem up to one and a half meters high and narrow leaves. In summer, crimson and pink flowers bloom on Ivanova grass.
Ivan tea contains in high concentration:
- titanium, copper, calcium, manganese, sodium, potassium, nickel, iron;
- vitamins B and C and ascorbic acid (more than in citrus fruits);
- tannins and bioflavonoids.
The combination of high protein and caffeine content in fireweed makes the plant unique for preparing tonic drinks. It will be more effective even than green tea.
- eliminating the consequences of food poisoning and alcohol abuse;
- prevention of caries;
- removal of waste and toxins from the body;
- strengthening hair roots;
- prevention of prostatitis;
- helps with kidney and liver diseases;
- normalizes blood pressure;
- eliminates headaches;
- strengthens the immune system;
- alleviates symptoms of epilepsy;
- treats flatulence, colitis and enterocolitis;
- eliminates inflammation of the respiratory and urinary tract;
- increases the amount of breast milk.
When and how to properly collect Ivan tea.
Preparing Ivan tea at home is not difficult, you need to know a few features and then everything will work out. Let's start by determining the time when it needs to be collected.
In the northern regions, fireweed blooms from mid-July, and in the south - in late June-early July. You need to start collecting fireweed during the flowering period, but before the entire cluster of flowers blooms, since then the beans with fluff that are starting to ripen will interfere.
Fireweed grows only in open spaces. The flowers of fireweed have a bright pink hue and are collected in brushes.
When harvesting, either the leaves, the top, or the entire plant are removed. In the latter case, the stem is cut 15 cm from the ground. True, after this the plant will definitely die.
It is important to learn how to identify Ivan's grass so as not to confuse it with other plants of the same family that are not suitable for consumption.
We collect such leaves
Forest fireweed and hairy fireweed do not have healing properties. They have purple flowers, and the height of the plants is no more than 15 cm.
Basic moments:
- The plant should grow away from roads, where layers of dust and other dangerous elements do not settle on the leaves.
- It is advisable that the place be slightly shaded. For example, next to a forest belt. They say that such leaves will be easier to ferment.
- Collect leaves only from the middle of the trunk, starting at the peduncle. Leave the lower ones, as the fireweed needs them to supply moisture. Also the lower leaves are rough.
There is no need to destroy fireweed, because next year you may no longer find it - the plant will simply die at your hands.
You can (and even need) to collect fireweed flowers in a separate bag. Dry them at home, put them in a jar and then add them to your favorite tea.
Withering of leaves.
Preparing fireweed tea at home begins with picking, then you need to dry the leaves a little. A layer of leaves is laid out on plain paper or cloth, which should be mixed regularly.
Dry the leaves a little You can’t leave them outside, and you need to choose a place in the house where the sun’s rays will not reach them. The sun and wind will dry them, preventing them from withering. If you notice bad leaves, be sure to remove them, as well as snails and other debris.
Under no circumstances should you rinse it - just sort it out. When the day is over, squeeze one sheet in half. If the central vein crunches, it’s not ready. This usually happens in cloudy and rainy weather, and you have to wait more than 24 hours.
Twisting.
Now the leaves need to be twisted. This is quite painstaking work, especially if the volumes are large. But this is necessary for the leaf cells to break and release juice. To make the task easier, beginners are recommended to use a meat grinder.
curled leaves When this is not possible, take the sheets and rub them between your palms so that they eventually curl into a “sausage.” This must be done until a little juice comes out.
Correct twist Fermentation.
Preparing Ivan tea at home necessarily goes through a fermentation process. Some inexperienced harvesters skip this process, but it is very, very important. The quality of the future drink depends on it.
Wrinkle some more leaves The process itself is similar to fermentation. We need to put all our leaves in one large container. Next, if you have been grinding it in a meat grinder, press it down a little with your hands, cover it with a cloth and place it in a dark place for fermentation.
If you twisted the leaves with your hands, then you need to press down harder, using some kind of press. And just cover it the same way and put it in a dark place.
The astringency of the drink will depend on the fermentation time:
- Light degree - 3-6 hours. A fruity-floral scent begins to emerge. The taste of the tea is soft, the aroma is strong but delicate.
- Average degree - 10-16 hours. The tea has a slight sourness, tartness, and a pronounced aroma.
- Deep degree - 20-36 hours. Tart with a light aroma.
Remember that it is better if it is not fermented a little, than to over-ferment, because there is a high probability of molding.
Drying.
Now preparing Ivan tea at home ends with drying. You can dry it in different ways:
- Conventional oven drying. Place the fermented leaves on a baking sheet on top of parchment paper. It is recommended not to close the oven door tightly during drying. Leaves should be kept at a temperature of 95 to 110 degrees for an hour.
- Russian stove. The heated stove should stand for at least an hour, after which you can spread the herbal mass on a baking sheet, which is then placed on the coals.
- Electric dryer. The device is turned on at a temperature of about 90 degrees, the leaves are dried for at least 5 hours. It is important not to overdo it, because then the tea drink will taste like paper.
If you rolled the leaves by hand, cut the “sausages” into half-inch pieces after fermentation.
Drying Fireweed After this, it still needs to be dried. When it has cooled at room temperature, pour it into a thin fabric bag and hang it outside (or on a clothesline). If it's raining or cloudy, find a place for it in the house.
Times vary. When ready, it will rustle in the bag when shaken. You can also dry it in a frying pan with thick walls for half an hour, shaking constantly.
The leaves are not dried if: there is a strong aroma; the granules are crushed and crumble easily.
How to store Ivan tea at home.
Once dried after fermentation, medicinal raw materials can be stored for two years or more, subject to certain conditions. Ivan tea should be inside an airtight container, preferably glass. But you can use metal or birch bark.
Storage option for Ivan tea Before brewing fireweed, the tea leaves are allowed to sit for at least a month. It is believed that fireweed tea becomes tastier and more aromatic the longer it is stored.
And we also suggest watching a video with all the stages:
Our preparation of fireweed at home has come to an end. Yes, the process is not the easiest, but not very difficult either. The main thing is to maintain the correct periods of fermentation and drying. Then everything will work out for you.
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Ivan tea - how to properly collect, dry and prepare at home. updated: August 1, 2018 by: Subbotin Pavel
In Rus', the tea ceremony was a tradition. A huge number of guests were always present at the feasts, and such festivities always ended with tea drinking. In those days, as a rule, medicinal herbs were brewed, but Ivan tea was the most popular.
There were legends about its medicinal properties, and the herb itself found wide application in the field of traditional medicine. And today this plant has not lost its relevance. In order for the decoction to bring maximum benefit, you need to know the basic rules for preparing raw materials and the secrets of preparing a miraculous drink. This is what will be discussed in this article.
How to recognize fireweed?
Ivan tea or angustifolia fireweed is a herbaceous plant reaching a height of 2 m. Its root system has numerous shoots, creeping, thick, about 1 meter long. The stems of this plant are round, slightly branched, and bare. The leaves, as the name suggests, are narrow and long, on short petioles, with pointed tips.
The photo below shows the inflorescences of fireweed, they are a conical raceme that can reach 40 cm in length. The flowers themselves are large in size and colored purple-pink. Once dried they turn blue.
This plant is distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In Russia it can be found in a strip of coniferous forests. It grows mainly near water bodies, along ditches and railway embankments.
Procurement of raw materials
The most favorable time for harvesting the herb Ivan tea is the period from July to September, when the inflorescences have not yet had time to become pubescent.
Advice! It is very important not to damage the leaves of this plant during collection - to carry out this procedure as carefully as possible, you should hold its stem in your palm and slowly move your hand from top to bottom.
When choosing grass, always pay attention to its appearance - diseased, dirty or dusty castings are not suitable. It is recommended to collect fireweed tea in the morning in dry weather. And never pick all the leaves from one bush; it is better to take several pieces from different plants.
It is advisable to prepare Ivan tea in a shaded place. As a rule, it is dried under a canopy in the open air or in a well-ventilated area where direct sunlight does not penetrate. The roots of this plant are dug up only in the fall, after which they are thoroughly cleaned of adhering soil, washed in plenty of water and laid out in a thin layer to dry. The process of harvesting rhizomes is completed in a stove or oven. In this case, the temperature should be minimal - no more than 20°.
Dried fireweed leaves and flowers are placed in paper bags. They can be stored for no more than 2 years, roots - about 3 years.
Fermentation
Now let's look at how to ferment Ivan tea.
- Rinse fresh leaves under running water.
- Spread in a thin layer and leave for a day.
- After the specified time has passed, it is necessary to properly process the leaves. Place the sheet between your palms and roll it into a tube or ball. This procedure must be carried out until the leaf darkens from the released cell sap.
- Place the resulting balls or tubes in an enamel container, spread out in a thin layer and cover with damp cotton cloth or gauze folded in several layers.
- Transfer the tray with leaves to a warm place, where the air temperature should reach 26°, and leave for 12 hours.
Important! Remember that too high a temperature will spoil the taste and aroma of the plant. The brewed drink will look like low-grade tea. After properly carried out fermentation, the herbaceous smell should be replaced by a pleasant floral and fruity aroma.
- Cut the fermented Ivan tea with scissors.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment and place prepared leaves on it in a thin layer.
- Preheat the oven to a temperature of 50° and place the leaves in it to dry, while leaving the oven door ajar.
- While drying, turn the leaves over several times using a wooden spatula.
The readiness of the raw material will be indicated by the intense dark shade of the leaves; when you press on the tea leaf, it should break, but not crumble into powder.
Important! Do not overcook the Ivan tea in the oven, as it will acquire a papery smell. Focus on color and structure.
Preparing the drink
So, let's look at how to brew Ivan tea. For a healing drink, you can use only fireweed or combine it with other herbs - black currant, rose hips, mint, etc.
Advice! It is healthier to brew not just dry herbs, but fermented herbs.
The preparation procedure is as follows:
- rinse the kettle with boiling water;
- put 3 teaspoons of raw materials into it and pour in 150 ml of boiling water;
- leave for five minutes, then add another 300 ml of boiling water;
- Infuse the drink for 10 minutes.
These proportions are optional. You can adjust the strength of the drink based on your taste. After the first portion of tea is drunk, the tea leaves can be poured with boiling water 5 more times, while all its beneficial properties will be preserved.
Brewed fireweed or fireweed tea can be stored for no more than 3 days. It is recommended to drink it without sugar, but if you do not have enough sweetness, then it is best to eat halva or honey with the drink.
About the benefits of the drink
Ivan tea has the following properties:
- anti-inflammatory;
- sedative;
- anticonvulsant;
- choleretic;
- antiviral;
- antiallergic;
- antioxidant;
- wound healing;
- bactericidal;
- painkiller;
- hemostatic;
- emollient;
- antipyretic.
The beneficial properties of fireweed tea include its ability to alkalize the blood, due to which lost strength is quickly restored. It has an enveloping effect, which helps treat gastritis, colitis, gastric ulcers and helps eliminate flatulence. A drink made from this plant is highly effective for nervous conditions, reduces anxiety and relieves depression.
Being a powerful natural cleanser, Ivan tea helps to normalize the blood formula, removes toxins and toxic substances from the body, and also reduces intoxication due to cancer.
The healing properties of fireweed tea also extend to the field of cosmetology. Decoctions and infusions of this plant help strengthen hair roots, significantly improve the health of curls and heal wounds on the scalp.
Application of Ivan tea
A drink based on fireweed is good both hot and cold. It perfectly tones, refreshes, gives strength and energizes. But this is not all of his qualities. Possessing a wide range of health benefits, Ivan tea can be recommended for use in the following cases:
- low level of hemoglobin in the blood;
- infectious and inflammatory diseases;
- to improve hematopoietic function;
- dysfunction of the prostate gland;
- diseases of the genitourinary system;
- fluctuations in blood pressure;
- sleep disorders;
- headache;
- psycho-emotional stress;
- inflammatory and ulcerative processes of the duodenal mucosa;
- imbalance of intestinal microflora;
- disruption of bile formation processes;
- to enhance lactation and improve the quality of mother's milk;
- disturbances in the functioning of the endocrine system;
- respiratory tract diseases;
- spleen diseases;
- neurocircular dystonia;
- gout;
- herpes;
- epilepsy;
- food poisoning and dysentery;
- chronic fatigue syndrome;
- period of teething;
- menstrual irregularities;
- after a course of chemical and radiation therapy;
- immunodeficiency states;
- C-vitaminosis;
- wounds, ulcers, bedsores;
- otitis, rhinitis;
- sinusitis;
- diseases of the larynx, pharynx and oral cavity;
- lymphogranulomatosis.
Pregnancy period
A separate chapter should highlight information about the benefits and harms of using Ivan tea during pregnancy. As for its magical multilateral effect on a woman’s body during the period of bearing a child, we can highlight the following:- supports the immune system;
- due to the presence of vitamins B and A, it takes an active part in the normal formation and development of the fetus;
- improves metabolic processes and blood circulation, preventing oxygen starvation of the fetus;
- gives energy and gives a great mood;
- normalizes sleep;
- removes harmful substances from the pregnant woman’s body;
- helps overcome gastrointestinal problems - nausea, vomiting, constipation.
Ivan tea during pregnancy serves as an excellent prevention and treatment, and is also an excellent tonic for the body as a whole.
If we talk about contraindications for fireweed during pregnancy, it does not have any as such. You just need to rule out individual intolerance to the drink and not drink more than 3 cups a day.
Drink Ivan tea during pregnancy, based on the following recommendations:
- first of all, its use should be agreed with your doctor;
- During this period, it is quite difficult to prepare the grass yourself, so it is worth purchasing a pharmaceutical preparation;
- brew the drink at the rate of 2 teaspoons per 2 cups of boiling water;
- You can use it in the morning and evening, 200 ml before meals, or three times a day, 150 ml.
Many have heard the name of this plant - Blooming Sally, whose official name is Fireweed angustifolia. It actually makes good tea, which can completely replace black or green tea in your daily diet. I first tried making it last summer and have been drinking it every day for over a year now. I won’t write anything about the medical properties of Cyprus angustifolia, because... it is easy to find on your own, you can only note that it does not contain caffeine and, on the contrary, has a slight sedative effect, which, however, does not interfere with vigorous activity and does not cause addiction.
Just as tea tree leaves, depending on the degree of fermentation, can produce tea ranging from white to pu-erh, this is also the case with Ivan tea. A short fermentation period gives green tea with a light color, a longer fermentation leads to a dark color, and the appearance of dry tea will be practically indistinguishable from large-leaf black tea.
There are different ways to prepare fermented Ivan tea, but I will only describe the one that I use myself. In the classic method, which I do not use, the collected leaves are withered, rolled, fermented and dried in the oven. They wither to make it easier to curl, so that the leaf does not break, so that there is less water in it, etc. When twisting, the cells of the leaf are torn and the leaf is moistened with cell sap. The leaf should darken and become moist. The more cells are damaged, the better it will go. fermentation- transformation of the properties of the product under the action of enzymes, which is the whole essence of the process. If you simply collect the leaves of Fireweed angustifolia, dry it and then brew it in a teapot, the result will be the most unimpressive. Of course, you can drink such a decoction, but only for medical purposes, since the medicine does not have to be tasty, but it will be difficult to classify this process as tea drinking.
As a result of fermentation (oxidation, fermentation), products acquire new properties that are not contained in them in their pure form. For example, in winemaking, grape varieties are used that are unremarkable in themselves, but during the fermentation process they acquire exquisite shades of taste and aroma. Wine can be made from the same grape variety for either 5 or 5 thousand euros - depending on the acquired qualities: color, taste, bouquet, aftertaste, balance, density, etc. It’s the same in our case: successful fermentation will give the best taste, color and aroma of tea, but if it’s unsuccessful, everything will be “so-so.”
The disadvantage of the classical method is that it is difficult to achieve high-quality curling of the leaves; they are not completely wetted by the juice and ferment less well. The tea turns out inexpressive.
2. Leaves are twisted by hand, 5-10 pieces at a time until juice is obtained. Then the resulting twist is divided into leaves and placed in an enamel or stainless steel container. It is necessary to separate the twist for subsequent drying at room temperature so that it passes in time and the sheet does not over-ferment and become moldy.
3. Cover the container with leaves with a lid or bag. It is “correct” to cover it with a damp cloth so that there is access to oxygen and, as it dries, moisten it again, but I did not notice any difference, which may be explained by the subsequent drying method. You can leave a small gap for air circulation. If the leaves were passed through a meat grinder, then immediately go to point 3, i.e. We don’t freeze or roll anything, but put the ground leaf in a container.
4. After about 12-24 hours for rolled leaves and after 0-12 hours for “meat-grinder” leaves, we lay them out for natural drying somewhere in the shade in a draft. It can also be done indoors using a fan. With natural drying, the fermentation process will continue until it is completely dry. Dry until the tea breaks. A good result is obtained if the sheet is immediately laid out to dry after the meat grinder, but only in a natural way. You can speed up drying on the second day using a fan, sunlight, and gentle heating. It is also desirable that the resulting product is almost dry after two days of drying, otherwise it may become acidic and moldy, and the brewed tea will not be aromatic and cloudy. Choose your optimal fermentation time based on your taste and conditions. Therefore, for the first time, do not do too much. Find the method that gives you the best results and replicate the process in larger batches.
5. We break the dried tea with our hands for ease of storage and brewing, place it in iron or glass jars, etc. You can keep the jars open for a few more weeks. This item is optional, because some people like tea with long, curled leaves. But, it seems to me, ground tea is more compact to store and easier to brew at the rate of a teaspoon per person.
You can brew directly in a mug or in a teapot. If everything goes as it should, the rolled tea after drying will have a subtle aroma of dried fruits or prunes - whichever is closer. The aroma is subtle and if you brew it in a thermos or even in a teapot with boiling water, it can disappear. Therefore, I brew in a mug, and if in a teapot, the temperature should be slightly lower. In general, it is recommended to brew black tea at 90 degrees. We put the kettle on and when it almost boils, the water turns white with many bubbles, turn it off and brew. I prefer rolled tea, but the process is more labor intensive. “Meat grinder” tea also has its advantages. If fermented for two hours and dried quickly at room temperature using a fan, it will have an apple or kiwi aroma. Unfortunately, this scent does not last until winter. Therefore, you can add black currant and raspberry leaves to Ivan tea, grind everything together in a meat grinder, ferment and dry. In a word: there is a huge area for experimentation. The main thing is not to forget the process parameters so that you can recreate it if you like the result.
The fermentation and drying time depends on the air temperature. Many recipes advise drying tea in the oven, but I didn’t like this method: a significant part of the aroma is lost, passing into the air when heated. And temperature treatment is unlikely to have a positive effect on the benefits of dried plants. There is also a method of drying in the sun: it is quite fast, but also raises doubts from the point of view of preserving useful qualities.
Ivan tea is sold, but much more expensive than the average black tea. In addition, when you harvest yourself, you have the opportunity to weed out diseased and dry leaves, as well as leaves with cobwebs and insect larvae. The leaves are collected by moving your hand along the stem from top to bottom, resulting in a bunch of leaves in your hand.
Ready-made tea gains flavor and aroma over time. Last year's tea tastes better than "young" tea.
Fireweed (aka Ivan tea) has long been a favorite drink of the Slavs. For many years its beneficial properties have been studied, and the secrets of preparing a healing drink have been passed down from generation to generation. Decoctions and infusions were prepared from dried raw materials. For some time, fireweed tea was undeservedly forgotten. Currently, interest in this amazing medicinal plant has begun to revive.
Fireweed harvesting technologies
Several methods for harvesting fireweed have been patented in Russia. The main secret is proper fermentation, which gives the herb an exquisite aroma. Fermentation includes two stages: oxidation with air and roasting of raw materials. Each stage has a specific function. Oxidation is necessary to start the fermentation process in the leaves that release the juice. Roasting stops the fermentation process. If little time passes between the first and second stages, the tea will be less fermented.
Depending on the degree of fermentation, green, red and black fireweed tea is distinguished. They taste different. There is fireweed with the addition of other aromatic herbs (melissa, mint) and berries. It is recommended to use because it contains more useful substances.
Harvesting fireweed at home
Collection of leaves. Fireweed leaves are collected in early summer at the time of flowering until the plant becomes pubescent. For collection, you need to choose a place away from roads and industrial facilities. By choosing young plants, you can get juicy, tender leaves; they ferment and curl better. The tea they make is more tasty and rich. Only the upper leaves are collected, the lower ones are coarser. Collecting leaves does not harm the plant; the remaining leaves collect dew and supply the trunk with moisture from the roots.
Withering. This process is necessary to make the leaves easier to process in the future. Moisture in the leaves can affect fermentation and degrade the quality of the raw material. It is necessary to carefully examine all the leaves; insects and snails may be hiding in them. It is not recommended to wash the leaves so as not to wash away the microorganisms necessary for fermentation.
The leaves are laid out in a small layer on linen or cotton cloth. It is necessary to carefully stir the leaves from time to time so that withering occurs evenly. It is better that direct sunlight does not fall on the raw material, otherwise it will dry out.
The withering process takes about 12 hours. The time depends on weather conditions and room humidity. The best leaves are obtained if the room temperature is 20-24°C with a humidity of 70%. About 60% moisture should remain in the sheet. It’s easy to check readiness: you need to squeeze the leaf in half, it shouldn’t crunch. And when several leaves are compressed into a ball, it will not crumble.
Preparing for fermentation. In order for the fermentation process to go better, it is necessary to destroy the leaf structure before the juice is released. The enzymes contained in the leaves are responsible for fermentation; there should be a lot of juice to make the taste and aroma of the tea more intense.
To destroy the structure, you can use one of several methods:
- Rolling leaves by hand. A few leaves are rolled between the palms, resulting in small rolls, which are later cut to produce small leaf tea. This is a very labor-intensive process; in the old days, it was taught from an early age. It takes a lot of time, but the tea turns out great.
- Kneading the leaves. The leaves are placed in a wide bowl or basin and begin to knead, like kneading dough. The process lasts about 20 minutes. The leaves secrete juice, they darken and begin to curl slightly. Sticky leaves need to be separated periodically. Later, these leaves will become large leaf tea.
- Twisting leaves. For this method you will need a meat grinder. The leaves are passed through it using a large grid. This method allows you to obtain granulated tea.
Everyone can choose for themselves which method they like best. The best tea leaves are hand-rolled, but if you need to prepare large quantities, you can use the third method.
Fermentation. After preparing the leaves, the most important process begins. The benefits, aroma, and color of the drink depend on it. The leaves are placed in a container (ceramic, enamel, plastic) in a layer of no more than 10 cm. The twisted leaves are lightly crushed by hand, and pressure is placed on the leaves prepared in the first or second way. The container is covered with a damp cotton cloth and then placed in a warm place. You need to make sure that the fabric does not dry out. The fermentation process will continue for several hours. It all depends on the temperature and humidity of the air. The optimum temperature is around 24°C. Fermentation can be considered complete if the leaves turn green-brown and a pronounced floral aroma appears.
There are three degrees of fermentation:
- Deep fermentation takes from 20 to 36 hours. The tea has a light aroma and is tart.
- The average fermentation lasts from 10 to 16 hours. The taste of the tea is moderately tart, with a slight sourness. The tea has a bright aroma.
- Light fermentation is the fastest, finishing on average in five hours. Brewed Cyprus tea is soft, with a strong aroma.
You can prepare tea with varying degrees of fermentation so you can enjoy different flavors later.
Drying leaves. The tea mass is spread on the sheets in an even layer. The leaves, rolled into rolls, are cut. The leaves are dried in the oven for about two hours at a temperature of 100°C, then the temperature is reduced to 60°C and the leaves are dried further. The leaves are mixed periodically.
Well-dried fireweed turns out to be the color of regular black tea. When squeezed, the leaves do not crumble, but break. After drying, the tea leaves are removed from the oven and left to cool at room temperature. To remove residual moisture, the leaves are dried in the fresh air, placed in a linen bag.
Storing fireweed. Carefully dried leaves are placed in glass jars, birch bark or metal boxes, which are hermetically sealed. The leaves will be stored in them for about a month, this is the time of dry fermentation, when the tea is infused, improving its taste and aroma.
Fireweed, prepared in compliance with all recommendations, will delight you with its taste and unique aroma for a long time. It will share its nutritional properties and help improve health.
Now is the time to prepare Ivan tea, we have already made the second batch - now there is enough for the winter. This article contains a little information about such an important and necessary process for making tea as fermentation. What is it and why does tea not come out without it?
Properly prepared greens and inflorescences of Ivan tea for brewing allows you to obtain tea that is not inferior in taste and aroma to the best varieties of Ceylon and Indian tea. To be honest, it’s “a matter of taste and color,” as they say, but for a LONG time we have liked fireweed so much more (including how it affects human health) that we no longer consider regular teas a product that can be consumed. In terms of their healing properties, they cannot be compared with Ivan tea.
Surprisingly, we in Russia have stopped appreciating this “green gold”. Only recently have the traditions of producing and drinking Ivan tea begun to be revived, and much has to be learned anew and traditions restored.
In addition to taste, fireweed has a wide range of healing qualities and, unlike regular tea, does not contain caffeine or other harmful substances.
Currently, several methods, or rather technologies, for producing fireweed tea have been patented in Russia, the main secret of which is the technology of the fermentation process (fermentation process).Fermentation (fermentation)
Fermentation consists of roasting and air oxidation. Oxidation starts fermentation processes in the crumpled leaf, which gradually oozes juice. Cooking stops them. The less time passes between the start of fermentation processes and their stop, the less fermented the tea will be considered. 
Depending on manufacturing technology Ivan tea can be black (baikhovy), red and green. They taste quite different. In addition, varieties are produced with aromatic herbal additives; you can also cook with berries.
. It is advisable to use herbal infusions, decoctions and teas prepared in only from fermented raw materials
.
This applies to most medicinal and aromatic herbs. Raspberry, strawberry and currant tea can be made in a similar way. Makes delicious drinks. Now we are trying to prepare tea from currant leaves in this way. The fermented maple leaf tea turned out great!
Fireweed itself protects itself from destruction - it has an amazing ability to reproduce, so fortunately it will not be possible to destroy the population with reasonable harvesting. :-) The broken apical part of Ivan tea very quickly becomes overgrown with lateral flowering shoots, which manage to produce abundant seeds over the summer. And an intact plant produces an amazingly large number of seeds. Thus, fireweed inhabits a variety of places: wastelands, landfills, roadsides, fires, clearings, etc. The territories where unprecedented fires raged in the summer of 2010 will be reclaimed by fireweed. At our fire (an old building burned down), he appeared the next year after the fire. Now there is his small plantation there.
It is better to take raspberry, currant, blackberry, and fireweed leaves in the first half of summer, when they are more fragrant. On the contrary, it is advisable to collect strawberry leaves in early autumn, when they accumulate the greatest amount of useful substances.
The plant itself already contains everything necessary for fermentation. These are his own juices and enzymes. If you crush a leaf in your hands, some of the cells will collapse and the plant will release juice. Moist, crushed leaves will contain vitamins, nutrients and intracellular enzymes. These enzymes, emerging from the vacuoles, begin to actively change the biochemical composition of the plant. This is self-digestion.
By the way, brewing Ivan tea does not stain tooth enamel.
Fermentation (chemical process) is a special chemical process caused by so-called enzymes. During the fermentation process (there are many types!), a complex particle of organic matter breaks down into simpler ones, i.e., containing a smaller number of atoms.
One way to prepare Koporye tea at home:
- The collected leaves and flowers should be dried a little. It is enough if they lie in the shade in the breeze for 2-8 hours, depending on the thickness of the leaves. It is necessary that the leaves lose some of their moisture, but do not dry out, but become soft and not brittle. You can collect leaves from the middle part of the fireweed stem (not just the top), tearing them off with one movement of your hand - quickly, and it does not harm the fireweed at all.
- Scroll the raw materials through a meat grinder (we do this exactly - not with our hands, otherwise it is very difficult to prepare fireweed for a large family for the whole year) and place the resulting mass in an enamel bowl and cover with a lid or plate of the appropriate diameter. Place the bowl in a warm place (25-30 °C) for about a day. At this time, an accelerated fermentation process of tea will occur, just like during fermentation.. Soon the mass will darken and acquire a pleasant fruity-apple aroma. When we cook a lot, we put the mass in a huge enamel pan - at night, in the morning - we already start drying.
- There is another original way to ferment herbs. According to experienced herbalists, in this case the result will be even better. The stock of tea leaves for Berendey tea is prepared as follows: the dried leaves are placed in a cast iron pot (cast iron) and placed in a heated Russian oven for 10-12 hours. Can be done in an electric oven in a roasting pan or any ceramic dish. We keep the temperature around 60 degrees. Prepared leaves for Berendey tea should be stored in a tightly sealed container, like any tea in general. In this case, you can mix different leaves in advance or store them separately and mix them before brewing.
- After fermentation, place the leaf in a cast iron frying pan and simmer over very low heat for about forty minutes, or in the oven. Warming up to a hot state is necessary to accelerate fermentation, during which part of the insoluble, non-extractable substances of plant tissue are converted into soluble and easily digestible. These are the substances that give the taste, smell and color of tea.
- Then you can do it in different ways. For example, spread the mixture evenly onto a dry baking sheet and place in the oven, preheated to 90 °C. Dry, stirring occasionally, until completely dry. The output will be granulated dark brown tea. Can be dried in a dryer at 45, the tea will be lighter. You can dry it a little in a dryer (so that it doesn’t stick to the trays; after fermentation, the tea is very wet), and then put it in the oven; if you need black and very strong tea, you can put it at 150 degrees.
If you dry the fermented mass at a temperature of 60 ° C and below, you will get green tea... Not quite green, because... after fermentation, it still gives a deeper color, but close to green. 
It is not at all necessary to run the raw materials through a meat grinder. You can chop it finely and squeeze it with your hands to release the juice. You can rub it between your palms - into “sausages”.
It is best not to use metal when cooking. This will prevent oxidation of the raw material upon contact with metal and thus protect the vitamins and other beneficial substances contained in it from destruction. Hand-made tea is different from meat-grinder tea. But preparing it is more difficult; you can make some part like this.
Another suggested method: Grind the berries together with the herbs in a meat grinder: for example, for currant tea, we grind the leaves together with the berries (you can also use the branches with the berries on them), then we ferment the whole mass together and dry it. Haven't tried it yet, but the scent must be AMAZING! Or a little differently - first we ferment the leaves, and before drying we fill them with berry paste, mix and dry. Probably, these two cooking methods will give slightly different results, you need to try it.
When collecting Ivan tea, you should keep in mind that during the flowering process, seed “pods” appear at the top of the stem. During the initial flowering period, they, along with leaves and flowers, are used to make tea. Subsequently, seeds are formed in them and abundant fluff and pods become unsuitable for tea. It is necessary to check the suitability of the raw materials: break the pod and make sure that it is in a state of “milk ripeness”, i.e. does not contain fluff. In general, fluff is not a problem for tea, but it flies a lot when you open the jar. :-)
Drying tea
Fireweed can be dried in conventional dryers, as well as in an electric oven, and, of course, in a Russian oven.
The effect of fireweed on health
Fireweed tea has an astringent, enveloping, emollient, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic and diuretic effect. It is used for gastritis, colitis, intestinal disorders and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, as an antiepileptic and hypnotic. Ivan tea is used to treat anemia, ulcers, wounds, inflammation of the nose and throat, metabolic disorders and inflammation of the mucous membranes, diseases of the kidneys and liver, cardiovascular and genitourinary systems.
Recently, the drug chanerol, which has a pronounced antitumor effect, was obtained from the inflorescences of Ivan tea.
For men, fireweed is useful for the prevention and treatment of prostatitis and prostate adenoma.
Properties of herbs and fermentation
Processing of herbs - fermentation (actually fermentation) is carried out to improve their properties.
Take, for example, a cherry leaf. Crumple it to make the juice appear, you need to break the intercellular membranes. Place in an enamel bowl, cover with a wet towel, keep in a warm place for 3 days, moistening the towel. The leaf should change color and become sticky. Place on a baking sheet and dry in the oven with the door ajar until the aroma of expensive tea appears. The sheet will become brittle and crumble in your hand. So treat each leaf (grass) separately. Then mix the herbs in equal proportions.
In Siberia, mixtures of 3, 9, 12 or 14 herbs are considered healing.
Plants prepared in this way acquire amazing and special properties that would not appear with simple drying.
A simplified method for preparing and fermenting herbs: crush the herbs, put them in a saucepan, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes until the color changes. Then dry in a frying pan and grind through a colander. Brew the mixture in a teapot and drink instead of tea.
Silage and fermentation
To better understand the topic, it is also necessary to mention what silage is, which is prepared for cattle. It turns out that silage is also fermented grass. Very valuable information is a description of the processes that occur during fermentation.
British farmers harvest grasses while they are still in a relatively early stage of growth, high in fermentable sugars (WSC) and low in fibre. Whether the crop is harvested immediately or left on the field to wither for several hours depends on the weather conditions at the time of mowing, but ideally the farmer wants to silage a crop with a dry matter content of 25-30%. 
Usually the first phase of fermentation is short-lived. Initially, the trapped atmospheric oxygen in the raw material is used by plant enzymes in still breathing plants, but the oxygen soon runs out, and further fermentation occurs under anaerobic conditions. At this time, lactic acid bacteria, initially present in small numbers, begin to rapidly multiply to a concentration of 109 -1010 cells/g, using sugars released from destroyed plant cells as the main source of energy.
In in the second phase - main fermentation - lactic acid bacteria play the main role, continuing to acidify the feed. Most non-spore-bearing bacteria die, but bacillary forms in the form of spores can survive for a long time in fermented feed. At the beginning of the second phase of fermentation in the silo, it is usually cocci predominate, which are later replaced by rod-shaped lactic acid bacteria, characterized by high acid resistance. Under ideal conditions the pH stabilizes at 3.8 - 4.2, depending on the dry matter content, and the silage is effectively preserved within a few weeks. However, when the dry matter content of the grass clippings is less than 25%, conditions are not ideal and the preservation process may then not proceed well, especially if the level of ASU is also low (as is often the case with grasses grown in temperate climates).
To increase the crude protein content in the silage, as well as improve the fermentation of feed during the laying period, add molasses, urea, soybean meal. Finely chopping cobs and cob wrappers increases the palatability of silage by 30%.
Most leguminous plants are difficult to ensile because they contain relatively little sugar (3...6%) and a lot of protein (20...40%). Leguminous grasses belong to the category of difficult-to-silage or non-silageable plants. Enzyme preparations not only silage the feed, but also enrich it with easily digestible nutrients. These are celloviridin, pectofoetidin, cellolignorin, glucomarin, etc. In the conditions of Uzbekistan, the enzyme preparation celloviridin was used for ensiling green alfalfa.
When analyzing the development of microbiological processes in silage prepared under natural conditions, it was found that during the spontaneous fermentation process (control silos), putrefactive bacteria grew very intensively, in particular in silage from alfalfa. As a result of the rapid development of ammonifiers in legume silage, the enrichment of lactic acid bacteria slowed down; and in corn silage it was very intense. In the control silage prepared from alfalfa waste, due to the slowdown of lactic fermentation, butyric acid bacteria (titer 103) were observed at the end of the experiment. Due to the strong growth of ammonifiers, the control legume silage had an unpleasant odor of protein decomposition during organoleptic testing. When using additives, the growth of putrefactive bacteria slowed down, which contributed to the preservation of carbohydrates necessary for lactic acid fermentation in the silage.
An excellent silage crop is corn; its stalks and cobs contain 8...10% protein and about 12% sugar. Sunflower ensiles well, as it contains a lot of protein (about 20%), but also enough carbohydrates (more than 20%).
Feeding cows whose milk is used for cheese with poor-quality silage that has undergone butyric acid fermentation causes similar fermentation in the cheese.
Yeast is also undesirable in silage. Typically, after initial rapid reproduction, aerobic species such as Candidas spp. and Pichia spp., remain dormant under anaerobic conditions until the silo is opened for animal feeding. Aerobic deterioration of silage at the surface of the pile can be very rapid and result in complete loss of nutritional value, accompanied by the formation of carbon dioxide, water and heat, as seen in the typical yeast reactions below. If anaerobic conditions are established quickly and the achievement of a low pH is delayed, then in addition to Clostridium species, yeast may also be a problem. Being tolerant of slightly acidic conditions, anaerobic yeasts such as Torulopsis spp. compete with lactic acid bacteria for sugars, which they convert into ethanol and carbon dioxide with a loss of DM and an increase in silage temperature.
Let's return to the main bacteria involved in silage - lactic acid bacteria. Among the lactic acid bacteria of silage there are cocci and non-spore-forming bacilli: Streptococcus lactis, S. thermophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and from the representatives of the second - L. brevis. These microbes are anaerobes. The nature of the products formed by lactic acid bacteria is affected not only by the biochemical characteristics of a particular culture, but also by the type of carbohydrates. Plant raw materials contain pentosans, which yield pentoses upon hydrolysis. Therefore, even with normal ripening of silage, a certain amount of acetic acid usually accumulates in it, which is also produced, as is known, by some other lactic acid bacteria from hexoses. Most lactic acid bacteria live at a temperature of 7...42 °C (optimum about 25...30 °C). When heated to 60...65 °C, lactic acid accumulates in it, which is produced by some thermotolerant bacteria, for example Bacillus subtilis.
The third phase of feed fermentation - the final one - is associated with the gradual death of pathogens of the lactic acid process in the ripening silage. By this time, silage comes to its natural end.
The quality of silage feed can be judged by the accumulations during fermentation.
The quality of natural silage fermentation is highly dependent on the number and type of lactic acid bacteria, present in the forage during silage laying. Of the four genera of lactic acid bacteria associated with silage (Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc), over time Lactobacillaceae begin to dominate the silage microflora.
In temperate climates where the sugar content of the forage may be low, the demand for lactic acid bacteria in the silage ASU may outstrip their supply, and a change in the fermentation pattern may occur towards the dominance of heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria.
High nitrate levels in silage can affect subsequent fermentation. The content of ASU in the grass negatively correlates with the level of nitrates used for plant nutrition due to the rapid growth of the grass stand. When the total nitrogen content in the samples exceeds 100 g/kg, it appears that lactic acid bacteria in silage are not able to lower the pH to a level sufficient to suppress the activity of clostridia due to the limited amount of substrate. The results show that secondary fermentation does not occur under such conditions. .