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As many times as I’ve made sassafras tea from scratch I’ve never thought to ice it down, but the bottle of Pappy’s Sassafras Tea Concentrate comes with directions for making iced tea. After following the directions for making the tea “gourmet style” I felt that the tea came out weak tasting; the ice really watered down the flavor. Instead I preferred to follow the “serve it cold” directions by mixing 1 1/2 ounces of tea concentrate with a cup of cold water. Both methods produced a tea that reminded me of root beer minus the sugar and fizz from the carbonated water, which was exactly what I had expected since sassafras is one of the main ingredients used to make root beer. The tea left me wanting to add a few heaping teaspoons of sugar to my cup, which I would have done if I had had any sugar on hand. The flavor was much as I remembered, although when I make the tea from scratch it seems to turn out much more flavorful. My experience with Pappy’s Sassafras Tea Concentrate left me wondering if I could use it to make a quick, not quite from scratch, root beer without the fuss of having to boil down all of my ingredients. Check back soon to see how my experiment making root beer using a bottle of Pappy’s Sassafras Tea Concentrate turned out.
You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/8/12/tuesday-tea-pappys-sassafras-tea-concentrate-h-k-products.html
Preparation
Tried to do my good deed for the day and update this, and I can’t get the new picture to stick. I realize the company wanted to freshen up the name for marketing purposes, but (sorry) this will always be Pappy’s as far as I’m concerned. Just like your parents who insist on calling a restaurant (hospital, theatrical venue) by its old name, even though it was changed 15 years ago.
The atmospheric adventures are continuing in our neck of the woods…today was our fourth(?) adventure in the tornado shelter in about two weeks. Today’s storm has passed, but the air is still soupy, which kicks up my craving for something cold. A goodly stretch of stress eating has kicked up the need to detox a little, which is where this comes in. There is absolutely no hard science to back it up, says the Internet, but a good dose of sassafras almost always helps me feel less clogged and more perky.
A sassafras tree has come up in my yard. I plan to take it my son on the farm for him to grow. I love the smell of the leaves and roots.
Hoping for soothed nerves,quiet weather, and perkiness for you!
I switched the picture, hopefully it’s the right one!
It is. Thanks! I was improvising with a Chromebook, which doesn’t behave like my trusty, aging laptop.
I looked … I’ve been talking about this stuff for almost as long as I’ve been on Steepster, so I guess it sneaked into “pantry staple” status without my realizing it, even though the company rebranded (it’s now Ancient Infusions).
Over the years, I’ve tried several additives to the sassafras concentrate—mint in the summer is my favorite; I’ve mentioned cinnamon sticks; tonight, for a lark, I squoze in some lemon and stirred in some brown sugar. The root beer plus citrus scent is delightful but deceiving…they didn’t mesh together as well on the palate. Eh, how do you know if you don’t experiment once in a while?
Having already been put off six weeks for the refrigerator we ordered to arrive, I’m not holding out much hope that the next available delivery date is accurate, but we are in fridge cleaning mode just in case—big old side-by side that came with the house; we’re estimating it’s a 40-year-old bruiser, so there’s plenty of room for all the stuff that gets crammed in the door or in the back and you forget about.
So while I had the bottle in my hand, I combined a couple tablespoons with a mason jar of apple mint-infused cold water, and I think I have a new favorite summer cold drink! (I think there were a few tulsi leaves tossed in there, too—our container garden is thriving.)
At any rate, the sweetness of the sassafras balances really nicely with mild mint and it just felt good going down.
Ooo, this sounds good and like a winner with my Co2 infuser.
Carbonation would be a nice touch!
Mastress Alita: I thought only plain water could be used with things like Soda Stream. Are you abke to do tea because there is no sugar in it?
I don’t have a Soda Stream, I have a DrinkMate and it can carbonate anything except juices that contain pulp. No problem with well-strained tea, and I’ve been drinking lots of coldbrews with an infusion of carbonation during the unending hot weather.
Mastress Alita: I have never heard of that one! I will look it up! I have just been making syrups and adding them to cold Perrier.
This was on my “restock” list at the natural/indie grocery store and I had to have help finding it because it’s been relabeled and retitled as “Ancient Infusions” brand. Sorry, distributors, I liked the Ozark-y, mountainy name better.
Thankfully, however, the formulation has not changed. It’s still good, straight-up strong sassafras concentrate. Root beer without the sugar; no caffeine. I diluted some in a quart jar to chill for outdoor work this afternoon, and put a shot from that jar in my half-cooled mug of Assam. Good stuff.
I feel like I saw this in Ohio 15 years ago.
derk, you probably did. I lived just outside of Cincinnati between ten and eleven years ago, and I recall seeing it in several local grocery stores. It was also commonly available throughout at least the Eastern half of Kentucky up until very recently. I don’t think I’ve seen it since either 2017 or 2018 though.
I think I was still seeing it as “Pappy’s” on some of our mainline grocery store shelves (SW MO) as late as last summer…and frankly, was a little surprised to see it there since it’s such a tea nerd item.
First iced tea of the season necessitated by the first push mow of the season. Got half our big backyard done and I’m limp—vegetation so thick the blade felt like it was caught in wet spaghetti. Welcome to Missouri. There was still snow on the ground last week.
At any rate, this is quick-no steep time whatsoever; in with the cold water and boom! there you go. Root beery goodness. We can find this in local grocery stores; I wonder if it gets scarcer the farther east and west you go.
Had some of this last summer in Indiana. I don’t think there is an real sassafrass in it as I think it is illegal – though we used to cut our own root to use.
My mom used to make rootbeer from scratch as a kid sadly, she never showed me how. I have never seen Sassafrass Concentrate up here but I bet it is wonderful.
It’s crazy how fast things grow when the season grows into full gear. I worked on a wildlife project in Northern Ontario in University and I remeber thinking the roads were so wide when we first arrived and within a week they would seem to shrink by a third to a half in size as the vegetation started to leaf out.
I got some of this one in the kitchen, Good Stuff!
Quick Google and here’s the scoop; the ingredient called safrole is what was considered dangerous, but safrole-free products are on the market; http://www.livestrong.com/article/315279-what-are-the-dangers-of-sassafras-tea/
I’ve purchased it in Maryland, so it’s made it to the Atlantic coast. :)
The bottle of Pappy’s that I have here is Safrole Free :)
Good stuff. I like to keep some on hand, though my husband prefers the actual root.
Ah memories…I had a push mower when I lived near Little Rock, AR a few years back. The back yard was a swamp half the time and I kept joking about needing pontoons for the mower. When I could actually mow, it was a major battle between me and the lawn, usually with me on the losing end…
I remember Sassafrass tea from my childhood…M&D would dig up some roots in the early spring and boil them to make tea. Yummy…who new it was a carcinogen….
If Granny Clampett looked me over, I ‘spect she’d tell me I had a miz’ry that needed tonickin’. This’ll do. Nice and root-beery, warm. All I need is a jug :) Zero steep time; 2 tablespoons in with your water and great hoppin’ horny-toads! there you go.
Was toting around a colossal headache all day yesterday. A nice sit-down and a cuppa this, hot, did much to alleviate it. Officially, “headache tonic” isn’t on the cure-all list for sassafrass (benefits lean more toward detox and anti-inflammatory), but whatever it did, it did me good.
Best part — shot of two tablespoons in a cup, no waiting, no steep time! I was seriously craving this; another tea treat I associate with early spring. Unsweet root beer for those of you who are unfamiliar with the base ingredient.
Since I have a whole bottle (minus last night’s splash) I wonder what this would mix well with. Hmmm…
Cake. Latte. Ice cream!
Where do you find this?
OMG – this is awesome… lol
Locally, at Price Cutter (a Kroger stepchild), a health food place or to, and don’t swear me to it, but I may have seen it at Wal-Mart.
gonna half to hunt fer it…. :)
I feel obliged to point out that sassafras is carcinogenic and can cause long-term liver damage. There’s a reason they don’t use it in root beer anymore.
Wow. Taken under advisement; and will keep moderation in mind.
I wonder how it’s even legal then?
Sassafras extracted from the roots is ok, and is still used today. Sassafras from the bark can cause damage to the liver over years of heavy use and can be carcinogenic and has been banned. This is because the extract from the bark contains safrole. Now, if the sassafras extract from the bark has the safrole removed, it is considered safe for consumption and is used commercially in teas and root beer.
We used to get tons of sassafras seedlings that we had to pull up each year, and the roots smelled heavenly! They come up by the dozens and I don’t even know where the parent tree is.
In the dendrology class I was in last semester, we used to pull twigs off the trees, pull off the bark and chew on the twigs, it was so good! These and Sweet Birch trees which smell and taste like evergreen mint!
Copied from Wikipedia (which I can’t always use as a credible source per my editors, but it’ll do for basic info: In 1960, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil and safrole in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs based on the animal studies and human case reports.11 Several years later, sassafras tea was banned,11 a ban that lasted until the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994.12 Sassafras root extracts which do not contain safrole or in which the safrole has been removed are permissible, and are still widely used commercially in teas and root beers.
Label on my bottle looks to contain extracts only, so I feel quite safe in moderation :)
On ice. Nice!
The name makes me giggle. :-)
Always gives me visions of the old, old, old Dogpatch cartoon strip. That and my grandpa—-he brewed the real thing from sassafrass roots and iced it down in “trendy” colored aluminum tumblers that sweat like crazy in weather like this.
There are those who would say tea concentrate is sacrilege, but you just can’t beat this one for good ol’fashioned Ozark mountain sentimentality. Flat unsweet root beer, that’s all there is to it, and since I think root beer is often way too sweet, this is great. A tablespoon or so in a hot cuppa; or about double strength iced.
My aunt got this http://www.favatea.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=381 for the girl she babysits for and she LOVED it. Steep in as little water possible to make a concentrate and add soda water.
My grandpa steeped the real thing from sassafrass bark and sat in his old stinky canvas-back porch chair and drank it iced from (OK, I’m dating myself here) those old colored aluminum tumblers with silver innards that sweat like crazy in the summer weather and made your teeth tingle. Can’t QUITE duplicate that, but it’s close.
Yummy memories of childhood in this cup. When I was a lil’ kid in the hills n’ hollows of western Pennsylvania we’d dig sassafras roots in the spring after the new leaves appeared. Wash em’ up and cut into shorts. Boil awhile and hot cups of yummy tea. Didn’t know about the safrole back then, but didn’t drink enough to really matter. Pappy’s is good stuff, hot with truvia. Enjoying some right now.
