Wilcox County's Oxford Stroud was known far and wide for his kudzu tea

Quart Mason jar of sassafras tea.

Back in the old days, spring weather meant is was time for families across the south to take their “spring tonic.” It was believed that this practice purified the blood and got rid of winter ailments like the flu. In our neck of the woods, the most common type of these tonics was sassafras tea.

Sassafras tea was popular in our part of the world because sassafras bushes were easy to find, and tea made from these plants was easy to make. The drinking of sassafras tea goes back to the days of the Indians, and it’s said that settlers adopted this practice from the natives. Many settlers who otherwise would have died owed their lives to Indian practices that taught them how to live off the land.

I am no expert, but I have been told that to make sassafras tea, you take the roots of a sassafras bush and cut them into short pieces. Three or four of these pieces will make about a gallon of tea. After washing these roots thoroughly, you boil the pieces for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how strong you want the tea.

I’m 43 years old, and I have to admit that, prior to last week, I’d never drank sassafras tea. One day last week, Mrs. Sandra McInvale of McKenzie fixed me up with a quart Mason jar of her homemade sassafras tea, and it was delicious. After sharing some with my wife and kids, who’d also never had sassafras tea before, I drank the rest of the jarful.

I thought the tea was great, and I am surprised that it’s not a more popular drink. It reminded me a little of root beer, which is commercially made from a wide variety of roots. The root beer you buy in stores is chiefly made from sarsaparilla, licorice root, sweet birch, black cherry and other plant roots.

Oxford Stroud of Wilcox County.

While taking my first taste of sassafras tea last week, I couldn’t help but think of Wilcox County’s Oxford Stroud, who passed away in 2002. In addition to being a novelist and English professor at Auburn University for 30 years, he was widely known for his kudzu tea. It’s said that students far and wide knew him for his recipes for this unusual drink, which I have not had the pleasure of sampling.

As best that I can tell, to make kudzu tea, you begin by digging up the roots and giving them a good wash. Next, you dice them up, boil them and strain them into a tea. It’s also said that you can simmer one cup of finely chopped kudzu leaves in a quart of water for half an hour to make another version of this drink. Most recipes that I found for it recommend that you add a healthy dose of honey to sweeten it.

In the end, I’d be interested to hear from anyone in the reading audience who had the opportunity to sample some of Stroud’s kudzu tea or from anyone who has a copy of his famous kudzu tea recipe. My feeling is that he had a special way of preparing it, which is why it was so widely known. If someone will send me his recipe, I’ll see if I can whip up a batch.