Fireweed tea or Ivan Chai is a traditional fermented black tea, or tisane, made from fireweed or willowherb, a medicinal herb that grows throughout the northern hemisphere and from California to Alaska in the west, and as far south as North Carolina in eastern North America.
While legend has it that tea was discovered in China and many histories have been written, black tea didnโt appear in Asia until the British demanded it in the late 18th century.ย Previous to this Ivan Chai, a fermented black โteaโ was imported to Britain from Russia.ย Ivan chai is made from the leaves of fireweed, known as Chamaenerion angustifolium in Europe or Epilobium angustifolium elsewhere.ย ย Russian fireweed tea promoted longevity and health, with a smooth, sweet, floral flavour that green Chinese tea lacked.ย Black tea, manufactured in India through the influence of the British East India Company, owed its oxidization and fermentation technology to Fireweed tea and the traditional fermentation method developed by the Russians, a thousand years ago.
What is fireweed?
Fireweed is a perennial member of the evening primrose family.ย It is also known as, willowherb, Rosebay willowherb, great willowherb, fireweed, Canadian willowherb™, and Koporye tea.
Fireweed grows up to 6 feet in height.ย It reproduces by seed and by underground runners.ย Youโll find it in disturbed sites, after forest fires, and in logged clearings.ย Fireweed is a first colonizer plant that restores the soil and prepares the forest for regeneration, after a disturbance.ย It grows throughout the Northern Hemisphere in zones 2 to 7 (USDA). In North America, it is native in the west from California to Alaska, and in the east as far south as North Carolina and Tennessee.
Fireweed has been used safely as a tonic tea for hundreds of years in Siberia, Russia, and throughout Europe, both as a dried green leaf and as a fermented black tea beverage.ย It is listed in the European pharmacopeia as a traditional treatment for prostate problems. It is considered safe through centuries of traditional use.
Fireweed tea
For centuries in Europe Russian Tea or Ivan Chai was THE tea of commerce.ย Ivan chai is synonymous with fermented fireweed tea.ย The Russians claim to have invented the process of tea fermentation.ย Russian Tea offers several health benefits.
- Normalizes blood pressure
- Balances digestive health
- Improves concentration
- Improves energy levels
- Promotes relaxation
- Builds immunity
- Improves mood
- Strengthens circulation
- Supports the kidneys and urinary system
- Detoxifies the body
- Relieves migraines and tension headaches
- Prevents cavities
- Caffeine-free and non-addicting
At the time of the Czars, Ivan Tea was exported to the rest of Europe.ย It was Russiaโs second-highest export at its peak of popularity, second only to wheat.ย In the mid-1800s trade with England was disrupted by the Crimean and Napoleonic wars. Commercial production of Ivan Chai stopped entirely after the October Revolution of 1917.ย However, fireweed continued to be used as an herbal supplement in Russian homes.
The 5 step DIY process to make Ivan tea from fireweed
To make Ivan tea fireweed leaves are bruised and fermented, in the same way, that black tea is fermented, through an anaerobic process.ย After 2 or 3 days the fermentation is stopped with heat.ย And the tea leaves are dried.
Tea fermentation is an aerobic enzymatic process rather than being dependent on microbes.ย It is the same oxidative process that causes apples to turn brown and avocados to darken. It changes both the flavour of the leaf and the colour.ย The polyphenols in the tea leaves are transformed by polyphenol oxidases to turn the leaves brown to black and change the flavour profile and aroma of the tea.ย The fermentation process removes the acidic, freshly cut grass aroma, replacing it with a floral, fruity fragrance that is pleasant and flavorful. This enzymatic oxidization and fermentation alter the mouthfeel of the tea, as well, softening its astringency and bitterness, while improving the aftertaste.
Step 1: Wild harvesting
Fireweed leaves are harvested from plants either before flowering or during flowering, by plucking the leaves from the lower parts of the stock.ย If the stock is not harvested the plant will continue to flower providing food for bees and insects.ย However, the plants can also be removed from the ground.ย The rhizome will remain in the ground to reproduce.ย For more information about identifying fireweed in the wild see this post.
Leaves are stripped from the stems at harvest. Once the leaves are harvested they should be sorted and any damaged or diseased leaves removed from the pile.
Step 2: Wilting
Place the leaves on a cotton sheet or in a shallow wicker basket to wilt.ย The wilting process takes from 12 to 18 hours depending on the temperature.ย The leaves are ready for rolling then they are dry enough to bend at the center vein without breaking.ย Test a leaf by folding it over on itself before proceeding with step 3.
Step 3: Rolling
The rolling process breaks the leaf tissues and mixes the polyphenols in the leaves with the polyphenol oxidase enzymes.ย Commercially large rollers are used to break the leaves.ย However, traditionally, each leaf was individually bruised by rolling between the palms.ย The rolled leaf holds its shape.ย You can roll 4 or 5 leaves together to speed up the process.ย Place the leaves in a bowl with an airtight lid to keep insects out during the fermentation.ย The bowl should be loosely filled to allow for adequate oxidization.
Step 4: Oxidization and fermentation
Tea leaves are fermented in an aerobic environment, but protected from off flavours and insect contamination for 24 to 72 hours, or longer.ย A ceramic bowl with a lid is ideal.
Periodically stir the leaves during the oxidization process to evenly distribute the leaves in the bowl.
If you want to introduce additional flavours to the tea leaves you can add them at this stage.ย Good candidates are aromatic jasmine flowers, fragrant rose petals, lemon verbena leaves, or peppermint or spearmint leaves.
After 48 hours, check the fragrance and colour of the leaves.ย Stop the fermentation when the leaves are aromatic and fragrant and the colour is dark brown or black. Depending on your temperatures this can take 2 to 5 days.ย Just check them every 24 hours and stop the process when the leaves are at the stage of oxidization that you prefer.
Be sure to make notes along the way.ย When you master the perfect combination of time and oxidization you’ll want to be able to repeat it.
You can brew a cup of tea from the leaves to test the flavour and aroma.ย I find that the grassy scent is gone after 24 hours but other fragrances permeate the leaves some fruity and some floral.ย Move to the next step, when the leaves have the flavour and scent you prefer.
Step 5: Drying
Stop the oxidization when the fireweed leaves have the fragrance and colour that you like.ย You can test the tea by brewing a cup of it after 48 hours and after 60 hours, etc.ย ย Generally, a fermentation of 3 to 5 days is sufficient.
Drying halts the enzymatic breakdown of the leaves arresting the fermentation.ย Remove the leaves from the bowl and sprinkled them over a baking sheet.ย Dry the Fireweed leaves in an oven at 90 to 120F to stop the fermentation process.ย Stir the leaves partway through the process to dry uniformly.ย You can leave the oven door ajar to prevent overheating.ย A dehydrator that maintains the temperature between 90ยฐF and 120ยฐF can also be used to stop the fermentation process.
When the leaves are completely dry, bring the leaves to room temperature.ย Package in airtight boxes or jars, and store in a cool dry place, where the jars are protected from heat and light.ย Allow the tea to continue curing for 2 to 4 months before use, to mellow the flavour further.ย The tea can be used immediately but the flavour will improve further if the tea is allowed to cure for several months.
How to brew fireweed tea
Place 1 to 2 teaspoons of tea in a teapot or tea strainer.ย Pour boiling water over the tea in the teapot or place the strainer in a mug and pour boiling water over the strainer.ย Cover and allow the tea to steep for 15 minutes.ย Remove the strainer.ย Tea may be sweetened with sugar or honey.
Fireweed tea is caffeine-free with many health benefits.
Check out the many health benefits of Fireweed as an herbal remedy here.
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Hello! This looks amazing. Should I rinse the fresh leaves before wilting them, to get dust off, or would that negatively impact them in some way?
Yes. I do that.
Thank you for this clear explanation on how to make fermented fireweed leaves! Was wondering if this is kind of a simplified pu-erh and whether other herbs could be processed in a similar way. Was wondering, for example, whether you had tried this process with lemon verbena? The leaves look quite similar. Thanks for all the work you go through to make this very informative website!
Is it too late if all the flowers have dropped off? Also, appears something has laid tons of tiny yellow eggs in the underside. Anyway to get rid of them?
Can I gather leaves and freeze them until I am ready to ferment and dry, or will that alter the taste???
That will alter the texture of your ivan tea and it won’t ferment properly.
Great information,but am wondering about harvesting & fermenting the bright Red leaves? Our season @ 10,000 ft. Is pretty strange this year with earty havesting the august. THX! C COCHRAN
This post is for Chris. I wanted to comment on your video “Why herbs don’t always work”. How wonderful. You explained this very well. This is one of the most informative video’s I have seen. I have seen many people post negatives on herbs and how they had very negative effects. Usually these were at sites were people were just taking a dried herb supplement and had very bad effects. I would recommend to anyone using herbs to heal to watch this video as it explains the natural chemistry part very well. Thank you so much for your insight!
This might seem like a really obvious question, but can the leaves still be used if they are starting to mold? I had the perfect batch ready to put in my dehydrator, but left them a little too long. When I looked in the morning, they were ready to go, but I got busy. When I opened the jar in the afternoon to pop them into the dehydrator, many of the bundles had mold… sniff, sniff, sniff… are they past the point of no return and are destined for the composter?
Mold can be dangerous. The mold you see is just the top, the spores will be throughout your leaves. Please discard and try again.
Thank you for all this information. For the additional flavourings, can the herbs or flowers be dried or do they need to be fresh? Thank you
Dried is fine
Fireweed has a medicinal benefit of regulating gut flora and healing digestion issues by rebuilding healthy intestinal tissue – or so I’ve been reading. Do you happen to know if the medicinal benefits are from the raw dried tea or from the fermented tea?
Both. The fermented tea will have fewer antioxidants but a flavor more like black tea. However, they both contain antioxidants.
I never heard of this before, but my Latvian friend just sent over some and I am blown away by the delicious flavour! Really glad I found your site, as I intend to make this tea ๐
I have made this once and am in the processes of a 2nd attempt. The first try I did all the steps but the tea wouldn’t make “tea”: I put the dried product into hot water and ended up with leaves in hot water. It wouldn’t make tea. So I am attempting a 2nd time. I think the first attempt I either didn’t allow it to ferment long enough (if I recall it was about 3 days) or I dried it improperly (I had no dehydrator at the time so I used my oven and it wouldn’t go below 200 degrees). Right now I am at 3 days into the fermenting, it smells rather fruity. I’m going to let it go to 5 and see what happens. THANK you so much for this post!
My mom minces fresh leaves in an electric mincer (not very orthodox method, but quite fast though:) – but the leaves should be fresh, otherwise your mincer wouldn’t digest it – I warned you:), then ferments the minced leaves for 2 days (puts ’em on a sheet pan covered with film, stirs ’em up occasionally and then dries them in the oven (also needs periodical stirring). Voila
Can I be lazy and opt to buy some, do you sell it?
No Lucynda, we don’t sell it. And I haven’t seen it for sale here in Canada.
Fireweed tea can be bought, it is just normally sold under its Russian name of “Ivan Chai” tea, where it was first produced as a fermented beverage.
Hi Can the flowers also be included in this process? or should they just be dried and added after?
Hello, I just began the fermenting stage. They have been wilting for three days but I did not roll them. Will this still turn out?
I’m not sure. I haven’t done it that way. Rolling breaks the cell structure and mixes the enzymes on the outside of the leaf with the juice inside the leaf. If you didn’t roll them it might not have the right enzymes and good bacteria to ferment successfully. Let me know how it works.
Hi
Thank you for this nice post !!
Mine molded after 48-72h. It started smelling “spicy/itchy” in my nose, I though it could be mold and then small molds appear 24h later
What could I’ve done wrong ?
I correctly wilted, rolled and put then in a plastic bucket with lid and stired them every 6-8h
Thanks ๐
There may have been too much moisture in your leaves. You could try wilting them longer before you roll them. Or stirring more frequently. The exact timing depends on how much relative humidity and the ambient temperature of your specific area.
I had put a rolled up paper towel in the middle of the jar to absorb any extra moisture.
Thanks for your helpful post. I followed it along and am not at the fermentation stage, I hope it
Goes well.
Can you just hang the leaves to dry and then make tea. My friend in Norway did it this way.
Yes that works.
Yes you can but it will be green tea, if you want black tea you should roll them and then ferment them, and smells more fragrant.
I’ve see this once when I was 5 and don’t under stand why it was being done…. So glad to see this an your example of how to do this. Thank you….
Typo alert and Thanks — I can’t wait to forage some fireweed!
Corrections:
The leaves are ready for rolling WHEN they are dry enough (not THEN)
If the STALK is not harvested the plant will continue to flower (not STOCK)
Remove the leaves from the bowl and SPRINKLE them (not SPRINKLED)
Fireweed tea is caffeine-free with a many health benefits. (delete “a”)
I’m in Zone 8 where it flourishes, by the way, so fireweed is not only Zones 2-7.
Good to know.
Sadly on day 3 of stage 4 the leaves started to grow mould.
I made a large batch this Summer. After drying, half my batch went into a glass jar and half in tupperware. It seems I hadn’t dried the leaves 100% as the ones in the glass jar went mouldy but strangely the ones in the tupperware were fine and I’m still enjoying them now.
The flowers can also be gathered and made into jelly.
This is fascinating! Years ago when in my teens, a couple of friends and I read about fireweed and all its many benefits and had a fun afternoon gathering leaves for tea, rubbing our shoes with the flowers to make them “waterproof” (I can’t remember where we read about this but it didn’t work for us. A tromp through the creek and we were as wet as could be. =)), and trying to get the fibers out of the stalks for thread or something. I live in town now but there is fireweed growing behind our back fence. I’m going to have to try fermenting the leaves for tea. Thanks for all you share!
I just wanted to update that I harvested fireweed leaves last year and successfully made tea leaves. It was amazing how the leaves changed from a green/grassy fragrance before fermenting to a somewhat fruity or floral fragrance afterwards. I did have a little issue with mold as some have mentioned but I just tossed the moldy ones and the rest smelled fine. I loved the tea! I’m making more today and came by here to refresh my mind of the process. Thank you!
How fun to hear.