Herbal and Wellness
Iramusu Root Tea (Indian Sarsaparilla)
Cut and dried iramusu root, sweet, woody and unmistakably vanilla-like in the cup.
- Cut and dried root, easy to measure by the spoon
- Sweet, woody scent close to vanilla
- Traditionally drunk as a cooling herbal water
- Holds its aroma far longer than dried leaf
- No sweetener needed for most people
Available to pre-orderSKU: CC-IRA-RT
Size: 50g
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Description
Iramusu (Hemidesmus indicus), the thin creeping root that Sri Lankans have brewed for generations as a cooling drink. Cut into short pieces and dried, it steeps into a pale amber tea with a sweet, woody, faintly vanilla scent that no other herb on this shelf comes close to.
Pull up an iramusu vine and the roots come out looking like brown string. Snap one, and the smell hits immediately: sweet and warm, somewhere between vanilla and sarsaparilla, which is exactly where its English name comes from.
It gets brewed on its own, or boiled up with other roots and barks into the herbal drinks sold at village stalls. Boiling suits it better than steeping, because it is a root and it needs a bit of persuasion to give up its flavour.
This is the one herbal tea in the range that people tend to like on the first sip, with no sweetener and no talking themselves into it. The scent does most of the work.
How to Use
- Simmer a teaspoon for 8 to 10 minutes and strain
- Boil a jug in the morning and drink it cool all day
- Add a piece to a pot of ranawara for depth
- Simmer with ginger and a strip of pandan
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Frequently Asked
Simmered. Roots are dense and a five minute steep in a mug gets you scented water and not much else. Put a teaspoon in a small pan with water, hold it at a gentle simmer for eight to ten minutes, then strain.
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