Why do we care about taste anyway?

Thank you so much to those of you who have purchased my ebooks in the past few days! 


I know there are still several people who are on the fence because I've gotten a handful of emails with questions about what exactly is in the Bitter Herbal Medicine ebook. At the bottom of this post I've listed the table of contents for inquiring minds. 




Remember, the Bitter Herbal Medicine ebook is on sale for $10 until tonight, March 25th. After that the price will be raised to $15. You can buy your copy by clicking here. 


Thank you also to the many of who who've sent me emails. I've gotten quite a few from people expressing thanks for offering high quality education for so little money, some with feedback on how to make the webinars or ebooks even better, and some with questions about herbs in general. 


I even had one question from someone wanting to know why should an herbalist care about the taste of herbs. That's a great question!


I mean that is kind of weird right? Using the taste of something to describe how it works? 


At first glance this may seem a primitive means utilizing herbs, but actually all major systems of herbal medicine use taste as a foundational concept in understanding how herbs work. But even though this is rooted in our ancestral herbal knowledge, we know that particular tastes actually do have direct correlations to chemical constituents, something western practitioners may be more comfortable referencing from a scientific standpoint. 


One reason to study the taste of an herb is because taste directly corresponds to the herb's energetic qualities. Sweet herbs tend to be  nourishing and building. Pungent herbs tend to be dispersing and warming and bitter herbs tend to be cooling, draining and detoxifying. 


This isn't rocket science, you already know this! For example, anyone who has tasted cayenne, knows this is a pungent herb, it promotes circulation and is warming. 


As western herbalists we tend to learn herbs by their actions. Diaphoretics, nervines, anodynes, alteratives, lymphagogues, etc. 


My goal with this Taste of Herbs series is to bring together the energetic understandings from the tastes with western herbal actions. 


Let's take relaxing nervines as an example. This is a HUGE herbal action category of within western herbalism to describe herbs that relax or sedate the nervous system.  


Now let's say you have a friend who is in dire need of some relaxing nervines in their life. They are tense, short tempered, anxious, and perhaps having trouble sleeping at night. You could reach into your large bag of relaxing nervines and start pulling out herbs, giving them to your friend, until one of them worked. This is how a lot of people use herbs. It can be effective, but you can also lose the confidence of your friend depending on how long it takes to find the right one! 


But if we look at the relaxing nervine category through the lens of taste then we can more effectively choose the herbs to match the person. 


For those of you who missed the webinar on Bitter Herbs, this is the example I gave. 


Let's examine some villains from Disney cartoons. Cruella de Ville from 101 Dalmations and and the Queen of Hearts from Alice and Wonderland. 


Both of these women could really benefit from relaxing nervines. 

Cruella de Ville is pale and thin. She is strung out on cigarettes and is abnormally obsessed with killing cute puppies in order to wear them as a coat. Besides her need for relaxing nervines, we could assess her individually and say she is probably in a state of deficiency. (I am basing this on the fact that she is thin and pale.)

The Queen of Hearts has an incredible quick temper, a very LOUD voice, a lot of heat in her body (as evident from the red face), and is somewhat OCD about croquet. She wants to cut off everyone's head as a form of entertainment. In general her loud voice, red face and explosive personality leads us to think she has more symptoms of excess. 


You can see that while both of these villains could use relaxing nervines, they clearly are two very different people who need different relaxing nervines. 


Thus, we learn the art of matching herbs to people as opposed to matching herbs to a disease. 


Cruella, needs a relaxing nervine with the qualities of the sweet taste, something more building and nourishing, like milky oats. 


The Queen of Hearts needs something to address her Liver (anger issues) and something to eliminate and drain the excess heat in her body. Bitter relaxing nervine herbs would be perfect for her, something like vervain or california poppy for example. 


I hope this explanation gives more meaning to WHY we want to study taste, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. 


Studying taste also gives us direct sensorial relationships to the plants. Once you taste ginger therapeutically you'll never forget it. However if you read a long list of ginger's actions, you probably wouldn't even remember much even by the next day. 


When I first started studying the taste of herbs years ago with my studies at the East West School of Herbology it completely transformed the way I saw plants and even herbalism. 


I hope those of you who have a background in taste and energetics appreciate some of the ways I've chosen to look at these concepts. 


I also hope that for western herbalists, who may not have studied Traditional Chinese Herbalism or Ayurveda, or even older forms of western herbalism, that this taste series gives you a better sense of how to choose herbs to match the person. 


As promised here's the table of contents for the Bitter Herbal Medicine ebook. You can buy your copy here. 




Part I - Enraptured in Taste

The Six Tastes in Traditional Medicine

Sweet
Pungent
Salty
Sour
Astringent
Bitter

Part II - Bitter Medicine Further Classifications

Stimulate Digestion (Cold/Dry)
      Dandelion Pesto

Stimulate Digestion (Warm/Dry)
     Bitters: aperitif et digestif
     Citrus and Pinellia Combination

Balance Blood Sugar
    Review of bitter melon and fenugreek
Calm the Spirit (Relaxing Nervines)

    Sweet Dreams Formula
Relieve Heat (Relaxing Diaphoretics)

    Gypsy Tea

    Minor Bupleurum Combination
Clear heat & Purge Fire: Anti-pyretics

    Willow Tincture
Clear Damp Heat: Alteratives, Lymphagogues

    Roasted Dandelion Tea

    Triphala
Clear heat and remove toxins - The Berberine Bunch & other alkaloidal bitters

     Goldenseal Monograph
     Celandine

Vermicidal Bitters
    Parasite Formula

Attacking Purgatives
   Cascara sagrada bark
   Minor Rhubarb Combination

Conclusion
Bonus Section Plant Monographs

   Dandelion
   Yarrow
   Willow

Bonus Section Recipes

   Herbal Dark Chocolate Truffle recipe
  Burdock Root

Bonus Section Anatomy & Physiology

   Anatomy & Physiology of the Digestive System

Resource List