This refreshing drink needs just a hint of sweetener, as sassafras is naturally quite sweet.
Recipe information
Yield
makes approximately 5 cups
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Using a heavy knife, chop up the sassafras roots or pound them with the handle until you can smell their spicy scent. Place the roots in a saucepan with the cinnamon and 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Add the ginger and simmer for 2 minutes more.
Step 2
Line a fine-mesh strainer with a coffee filter and set over a bowl. Pour the tea through. Sweeten with maple syrup or honey to taste. Drink hot, or serve cold over ice and topped off with sparkling water.
sassafras: the original root beer
Step 3
Root beer’s flavor originally came from the roots and bark of the sassafras tree, which grows along the Eastern Seaboard. Today, however, most commercial root beer is produced with artificial flavorings, because safrole, a compound in sassafras, was deemed carcinogenic by the FDA. Nevertheless, homemade root beer and sassafras tea are still favorites in many rural kitchens and at state fairs. Above is a recipe for making the tea. Don’t worry about overconsumption of safrole, though, because digging up the roots requires too much hard work to drink it in large quantities!
Step 4
On hikes in spring and summer, look for the distinctive mitten-shaped, three-fingered leaves of foot-high sassafras saplings. Dig down with a pocketknife and pull up the sapling by the root, where there’s the most flavor. Don’t feel bad about killing a tree; sassafras is often considered invasive because of its rapid proliferation.
