Autumn Nights 2: tasting herbal tea of Mugwort

Long autumn nights … These days, I’m trying several kinds of handmade herbal tea. This week is the turn for mugwort (Artemisia princeps Pampanini). According to the HP of Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (wow!), mugwort was THE offering-designate to goddess Artemis, and so comes its Latin name. Hmmmmm … divine herb, they are. In Japan, the ubiquitous is Japanese mugwort that contains medicinal component such as cineol, thujone, and caryophyllene (; School of Pharmaceutical Science, Kumamoto University). Among many ailments the plant can deal with, there is circulation problem that would affect us when the weather’s getting colder … Having mugwort tea may be a good idea for fall, don’t you think?





Anyway, the first thing I have to tell you is, please make it sure if you’re allergic to mugwort. If not, this post may be of some use to you. It seems to me taking mugwort is common for all over the world where they grow. In Japan, it is traditionally used for medicine, food (; my post on May 4, 2018), drink, personal care product, etc. etc. About preparing tisane from Japanese mugwort, the most ordinary approach by amateurs is collecting young leaves, as it is for salad, and drying them in the shade, just like for first flash tea leaves. Though, it seems to me, the pharmacists do not concern much the age of leaves. I’ve heard autumn mugwort will become more robust herbal tea, efficacy-wise. Besides, the plant in fall can be tisane with not only its leaves but also flowers and stems. Economical!

So, I collected these bushy Japanese mugwort for fall.






When we look them closely, they have pretty flowers … Those parts are effective as well. Handsome and competent plant, worthy enough for Artemis, aren’t they?







I thought the bottom stems are too leggy to be tisane. So only the top of the grass was used to make herbal tea. This approach may be foolish when we harvest pharmaceutical component from the plant … Anyway, having tisane is enough for me.







Next, I washed the trimmed mugworts in running water, cut them in pieces of 3-5cm, …







And dried them in the shade until they turned into this. Although we are having very wet fall, it did not take much for the grass to be dehydrated enough.







Now the matter of taste. In Japanese sphere of internet, there are tons of mugwort tea products (like here) and arguments about the flavor of mugwort tea. The common theme, it seems to me, is “it’s medicine so that we must tolerate its bitterness” (like these Amazon reviews). Er … I feel this is a bit sad statement to enjoy calm autumn evening, especially now with COVID. So, I’m having it with Assam leaves. For me, the best portion for mugwort to Assam is like 1 to 3 or 4. You may have a different opinion. Please try, and find the best concoction for you. 😉




It’s 1 to 4 for Mugwort and Assam.


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