Sassafras Tea

From the time I can really remember we'd have sassafras  tea in the spring time.  There were a multitude of sassafras trees (very small really) growing on the bank behind my grandparent's coal house and on down the creek a ways.  I'd go out and dig up the roots and chop them off.  They had quite a pleasing aroma.  Then I'd peel the bark off the roots and wash it off good before putting the bark in a large kettle of water and letting it boil until you could smell it all over the house.

The one particular time I really remember clearly making sassafras tea was when I was in my mid teens when we lived in the old Blessing house down on Nat's Creek.  It was cold and raining outside and I had a very bad cold (which will come into play later) and I decided to make me some sassafras tea.  I got on a coat and a cap and went to find the mattock from under the porch.  I carried it on the path out past the outhouse and down past the old barn and up the path beyond until I spotted a nice sized sassafras tree.

Now a nice sized sassafras tree was not very large.  You'd really just call it a sapling I guess.  So, I climbed up tthe bank through all the leaves (getting my pants legs completely soaked in the process) and started digging at the base of the tree.  I collected enough roots to make the tea and headed back home to clean the roots and peel the bark from them.

I peeled all the bark and put it in a large kettle of water and turned it on to let it boil for a while.  Once it had boiled and the water had changed color I got a teacup of it and let it cool until I could drink it and had a big sip.  YUCK!!!!  Worst stuff imaginiable!

I could not figure out what was wrong with it but I really wanted the tea so I got my coat and cap back on and grabbed the mattock again and headed back to the sassafras trees.  I was going to pick a different one and see if that worked out better.  When I got there I finally noticed the tree who's roots I'd been taking was not a sassafras tree but a sourwood (name was well deserved) tree growing just up the hill from it.  No wonder my tea tasted so bad.

That is where my bad cold came into play.  My nose was so stuffed I could not smell the difference between sassafras and sourwood when I was cutting the roots, peeling the bark and boiling it for tea.  The roots looked quite a bit alike so I had no idea until I took a drink.

Well, I found another sassafras that was growing alone and got some more roots.  I took them home and washed them, peeled them and boiled them just like before.  When they were boiled well I got another teacup of the tea and... it was the right stuff that time.   Very few things better when it's cold and wet and you're sick than a good, hot, mug of sassafras tea.

I've tried getting the bottles of sassafras at the grocery store and, while it tastes somewhat like "the real thing" one who has had the real stuff would never be confused.  I have not had any "real" sassafras tea in more years than I care to recall.  I don't think it grows here in South Carolina and I've lived here comming up on twenty six years now.  How long before I left Kentucky it was I do not remember.  A good while I'd think.  In fact the time I've spoken of may, indeed, have been the last time.

I know it could not have been very comfortable out in a cold rain digging up tree roots while having a very nasty cold just for some bark tea.  However, I cannot help but smile when looking back on it.