Tea and illness

This is the theme I've been on lately, scaling back exposure to tea due to a nasty sinus infection.  It's been a rough week.  I'll describe how I took it, although I'm not sure the insight will add much to what everyone else already experiences.

I switch over to a lot of tisanes when I'm sick.  That mild and varied flavor range works for me, and there's always the hope that some of it might actually help in some herbal remedy sense.  Even if that doesn't apply drinking a warm liquid does help, and staying hydrated, and contact with a positive range of sensation is nice when you tend to get caught up in experiencing symptoms.  It's completely unnatural to drink a good bit of water at any temperature when you're sick, but it works much better to drink two or three good sized mugs of a mild tisane.

Mamaki, olena (Hawaiian turmeric), and ualoa (not what I was just drinking)

A Hawaiian extended family member (who sort of adopted my wife into theirs, versus the other way around) passed on some soursop tisane from a local Hawaiian producer awhile back.  It doesn't taste like much (I don't think--but maybe it does and I can't tell), but the label says it's good for helping with sleep and boosting immune response. 

Al with Keo; it has been too long, he is hard to pick up these days

this reference mentioned in this related post on Hawaiian tisanes and potential effects

I had a couple of Moychay (Russian producer) compressed tisane cakes on hand, so I've been mixing those in.  One was willow herb / fireweed and the other some sort of blend I didn't check the contents on (the label is in Russian).  A fruit version bar I already finished earlier would've been ideal; I was concerned about how well that would keep so I drank the last of it a few months ago. 

a Moychay tisane bar, which I reviewed here

We bought a lot of chrysanthemum tea in China on that last visit so I drink that alone or mixed in, or once combined with shu pu'er to split the difference.  When I'm not sick mixing sheng and chrysanthemum seems to make a lot more sense, even though I rarely do that, but when you're sick whatever it seems you'll tolerate well is the right thing.


Stopping caffeine entirely brings on a headache and crash, but if the plan is to lie around sick all day that crash can work out.  I only quit tea entirely one day but did drink very little of it for a few, so this served as one of a few small breaks from caffeine that I try to take every year.  Maybe there is no reason to do that but as I see things it can't hurt, and maybe there is a good reason I'd never be completely clear on.  Developed tolerance for level of caffeine doesn't seem to shift as much for some drugs, like alcohol tolerance, at least to me, but I'm sure that would vary by person.  I don't think that caffeine interferes with a healing process when sick, to be clear, I just don't think there is any point in ingesting a stimulant then, and maintenance of a dependency doesn't necessarily count as a good reason.

It's interesting trying teas and noticing how much flavor drops out when you've lost that much sense of taste.  In the last three days I tried a Vietnamese sheng I've been drinking for awhile, and a modest quality aged Yunnan version, and an even better Da Xue Shan.  In all those cases I really did enjoy what came across, more and more each day.  White tea might work in a similar way; even for losing half or more of the flavor the rest might still be nice.  The shu pu'er and chrysanthemum mix I had when I was much sicker was nice, although combining that with sheng makes more sense to me when I'm well, although that I tend to only try a couple times a year, at the most.  Of all those teas the aged sheng was novel for so much of that character being mineral taste (what gets picked up by the tongue) versus aromatic components, I just wouldn't drink really exceptional tea while sick.

The worst part is dropping out my tasting and review habit.  Even that works better for having such a low energy level and fuzzy mind; I feel like I'm about 75% clear while I write this initial draft, which isn't so bad, since I'm usually only ever about 90% clear on a good day.  I'm not sure when that last 10% ever kicks in; not too often.  There's a lot of tea I'm excited to get to--kind vendors have sent a lot of samples lately--and it will just have to wait.

Now that I think about it making an herbal version of masala chai might be nice.  Willow herb / fireweed even oxidizes, unlike most tisanes, so it would be as close as any to a "real tea" version.  I reviewed a version of one in a blog post, and a better pressed version in a Moychay site article.  That spice blend would be nice when sick, drinking a version made from cardamom, clove, ginger, fennel seed, and cinnamon, with just a touch of salt to balance it. 

using fresher, more-whole spices is better but whatever you have on hand will do

Even simmering herbs for 15 minutes is a lot of messing around when your energy level is completely bottomed out, but even during the first draft of this I was in a different middle-ground, recovered enough that using a limited quantity of black tea would also be fine.  An online masala chai recipe mentioned an easy way to get around that; start the tea (or tisane) and herbs simmering, turn off the heat and let it sit for awhile, then reboil and let it sit again (with related posts on making that  here and here).

Eight days after first becoming sick I'm mostly back to normal.  It's nice how illness helps you appreciate little things, like a normal energy level, or tasting food and tea again.