Osha Root Tea Bags, or a Dropper in a Mug of Hot Water

Fresh osha root smells sharp enough to fill a kitchen, somewhere between celery seed and lovage. Tear open most osha root tea bags and you get a faint, dusty version of that, sealed in paper and packed in a cardboard box that has sat on a shelf for an unknown number of months. A dropper of Bear Root in a mug of hot water gives you the full smell back, and the cup is ready before a kettle of loose root would finish steeping.

What's inside most osha root tea bags

Osha (Ligusticum porteri) is a root, so a tea bag of it is dried root that has been chopped small. Herb suppliers call this "cut and sifted": the root is cut, then shaken through screens until the pieces are small enough to fit a bag.

Many listings are blends. One organic osha tea sold online lists peppermint, spearmint, rose hips and purple clover ahead of the osha root, which puts osha last on the label. Another lists osha root alongside lovage root, a close relative in the same carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae) with a similar smell. Few listings state how many grams of osha are in a single bag, and none we found gave a harvest date.

The root itself takes years to grow. Almost all of it is wild-harvested at 1,500 to 3,500 metres, and plants are often more than 10 years old when they are dug. United Plant Savers lists osha as "At-Risk." Each tea bag is a pinch of a slow mountain plant, and it deserves a better home than a paper envelope.

Where the celery smell goes

The sharp smell of osha comes largely from Z-ligustilide, which makes up 0.15 to 2.5% of the root. Ligustilide is a volatile compound found in the essential oil of several roots in the Apiaceae family, wild celery among them, and that link is why osha and celery smell alike.

Volatile means it leaves easily. A 2016 study in Planta Medica tracked ligustilide from four species, osha included, for six months and found that temperature, light and oxygen all changed how much of it survived and what it broke down into. Researchers describe it as a compound known for rapid chemical breakdown once it is out in the open.

Dried herbs lose aroma the same way. In a 2009 study in the Italian Journal of Food Science, Foddai and colleagues measured air-dried thyme every three months for nine months, and the air-dried samples showed the largest drop in essential oil yield of the storage methods tested. A tea bag gives a cut root almost no protection. Paper lets air through, the cardboard box opens and closes, and every cut face of the root is exposed. Then the steep finishes the job: hot water and an uncovered mug send the lightest aromatics up with the steam.

Osha tea in under a minute

Bear Root is an osha root tincture, an alcohol extract of the root, in a 50 ml dark Miron glass dropper bottle. A bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at 1 to 2 droppers a day. To make a cup:

1. Boil the kettle and fill a mug.
2. Add 1 to 2 droppers of Bear Root.
3. Stir for a few seconds.
4. Add a spoon of honey or a squeeze of lemon if you like.

The taste is earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root. Honey rounds off the bite. Lemon makes it brighter and a little more savoury. Some people drop it into green or black tea instead of plain water.

It fits any hour. A morning tea at your desk with the steam still coming off it. An evening tea after dinner with honey. A flask of hot water in your pack on a hike, with the bottle in a side pocket, so the cup gets made at the top of the climb and nothing has to sit and steep in the wind. You can also skip the mug and hold a dropper under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds before swallowing.

Bear root tea bags or a bottle

The bottle comes out ahead for four practical reasons.

• The dose is the same every time. A dropper is a measured amount of extract, while a tea bag's strength depends on how much root ended up in that sachet, how old it is and how long you steep it.
• There is no steeping. The extract is already made, so the tea is ready as soon as the water is hot.
• The glass protects it. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction for storing an extract. Dark Miron glass is the gold standard, and it is what Mara uses for Bear Root. It keeps light off the liquid, and the bottle stays sealed between uses.
• It travels. A 50 ml bottle fits in a jacket pocket, a gym bag or a glovebox, and a hotel kettle is all you need.

Bear Root is a mountain plant of Northern Mexico. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract. It also stirs into juice or a smoothie, and our guide to making bear root tea at home covers more ways to drink it.

How people drank osha bear root tea before the bag existed

Osha tea is old. The Rarámuri of Northern Mexico brewed the root as a tea for stomach pain and fever. In New Mexico the root is called chuchupate, and families there made chuchupate tea for sore throats. The Lakota name for the plant is mato tapejuta, "bear medicine," and the Diné credit the medicine to the bear. Archaeologists found osha in a Utah medicine bundle dated 200 to 600 years old.

The name bear root comes from the animals. The story goes that bears dig up the root when they wake from hibernation and chew it, and the observer Shawn Sigstedt watched Kodiak bears chew osha and rub it into their fur. You can read the full history of the plant, its range and its chemistry in our complete guide to osha root.

Bear Root considerations

Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask

Are osha root tea bags pure osha?

Some are, and many are blends. Labels we checked list osha with peppermint, spearmint, rose hips and purple clover, or with lovage root. Read the ingredient order, since the first herb listed makes up the largest share.

How many droppers go in one mug of osha tea?

1 to 2 droppers in a standard mug of hot water. That matches the daily amount on the Bear Root bottle, which lasts 30 to 50 days at that rate.

What does osha tea taste like?

Earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root. Honey softens it and lemon brightens it.

Is bear root the same as osha?

Yes. Bear root is a common name for osha, Ligusticum porteri, after the story of bears digging up and chewing the root.