This tea mix has a mysterious story.

A Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse held the recipe close to her chest, from 1922 until her death in 1978. This tea was known to help people recover from xxxxxx, and the recipe was said to have been given to an English miners wife by a Native American healer who used it to cure her breast xxxxxx. This miners wife gave the recipe, containing Burdock root, Sheep sorrel, slippery elm and Turkish Rhubarb, to Caisse who named it Essiac, which is her last name reversed.

Caisse was said to give this tea to xxxxxx patients, for free starting in 1935, and reported an 80% survival rate in her patients, although those claims had no records to back them.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s Caisse joined forces with a doctor Charles Armao Brusch, and after doing their own studies added blessed thistle, kelp, red clover and watercress to the tea. This is the blend we use in our tea.

To make Essiac Tea I would suggest this decoction method:

• 15g of herbs placed in 1.5 litres of filtered spring water (some of the water will evaporate during the process, which is expected)

• Boil the herbs for 10 minutes in a pot with a lid (not an aluminum pot!)

• Turn off the stove top and leave the pot to sit on the warm stovetop with the lid on overnight

• In the morning reheat the pot to steaming, but do not boil

• Strain the liquid into sterile jars, with a strainer with quite large holes, (you need the slippery elm to enter the jars through the strainer while keeping out the larger herb pieces). Any sediment left will sink to the bottom of the jars so when you pour it into the cup the sediment will stay in the jar.

Drink ¼ cup of tea with fresh boiled water to taste, a few times a day.

Keep the jars in a dark cupboard until opened, once opened keep in the fridge and drink within 2 days.