Sassafras tea was once a common 'spring tonic' among early settlers

Quart Mason jar of sassafras tea

As evidenced by all of the pollen in the air and the warmer weather, we are definitely into full-on spring. I got to thinking about this the other day, and it reminded me of an old newspaper column written years ago by George “Buster” Singleton.

For many years, Singleton served as the administrator of the National Guard armory in Monroeville. In his spare time, he wrote a popular weekly newspaper column for The Monroe Journal newspaper. His columns were usually about local places of interest, local ghost stories and folklore.

One such column was about sassafras tea. According to Singleton, back in the old days, when spring rolled around folks would drink sassafras tea as a spring tonic to “purify the blood” and to get rid of winter ailments like the flu. He went on to say that early settlers picked up this practice from Native Americans, who had been drinking sassafras tea for generations.

One source that I read said that sassafras was one of the first plants exported back to Europe from the Americas by early settlers. At that time, it was considered a cure-all and was served widely in English coffee shops. Some people even thought it would cure diseases like syphilis.

Singleton noted that making sassafras tea was simple as long as you knew what you were doing. First and foremost, you’ve got to find a sassafras bush. I’ve been told that when you find one, there’s usually many more in the same area.

Once you’ve found some sassafras, harvest the roots and wash them thoroughly. Next, you want to chop the roots into small pieces and boil them for 15 to 20 minutes. Three or four small pieces will make about a gallon of tea, Singleton said.

One day last week, Mrs. Sandra McInvale of McKenzie was kind enough to supply me with a quart Mason jar of her homemade sassafras tea. Bear in mind that I’m 43 years old and had never had sassafras tea prior to this, so I was pretty excited to try something that I’d only read about before. McInvale sent the tea to the office by way of her daughter, Traci Flowers, who is the office manager at The Courant.

McInvale’s sassafras tea was light brown in color just like the traditional tea you buy in stores, but the taste is very different. To me, sassafras tea reminded me of root beer, just not as strong. Later, I read that root beer used to be made chiefly from sassafras, but not so much nowadays.

I took the quart jar home to the wife and kids and let them taste some too. We all sampled some of this delicious tea while standing in the kitchen together, and we all agreed that it was pretty tasty. In fact, it wouldn’t be hard to drink sassafras tea all the time.

In the end, I really appreciate Traci and Mrs. Sandra taking the time to supply me with a jar of this unique beverage. It’s not the sort of thing that you encounter every day, and it was fun to finally sample some for myself. If you’ve never had sassafras tea, I highly recommend that you at least try it if the opportunity presents itself.