What is Essiac Tea?
Essiac. What a funny-looking word! Who made that up, and what in the world is “essiac” tea anyway? This blend of tea has its origins in a mining community in Canada. A nurse by the name of Rene Caisse (pronounced reen case) was working there in the early 1900s. She found that a miner’s wife, who had been suffering from a serious illness, was seemingly cured after taking an old Native American herbal recipe given by an “old Indian medicine man.” Caisse experimented with this herbal blend, and she soon found that it seemed to promote wellness in her patients. Many of her patients reported feeling more healthy, and some living with terminal illness reported that the tea made their condition more bearable. Nurse Caisse gave the formula the name essiac (pronounced ess-ee-ack), which is her own last name spelled backward. So what’s in Essiac tea? Many companies out there include all sorts of herbs in their blend. We at Ojibwa Tea of Life use the original, 4-herb recipe. Some of y