Essiac Tea is an interesting one.
Some mix and blends are a little overhyped, with a blend being given a particular name and marketed a little too hard  - and you'll see this happen with weight loss blends the most. In many cases, we feel that there are much better singular herbs that do the job just as well in most situations.

With the Essiac blend, we feel it's good enough to warrant listing on Tea Life (view here) as it has a long and remarkable history along with a solid reputation of being a blend of Sheep Sorrel, Slippery Elm, Burdock Root and Indian (or Turkey) Rhubarb Root that compliment each other in line with immune system theory.

A Short History of Essiac Tea 

Way back in the 1920s, some rumors started to circulate from within the forests of Ontario Canada about a tea that can help fight against cancer. A nurse going by the name of Renee Caisse was purportedly the holder of a secret tea blend she had discovered - of which she protected up until just before her death.

The true origin still remains hidden - as Caisse claimed to have gotten this recipe from an English minders wife, who in turn got it from a Native American Indian healer! So the origin of this particular tea blend has had few Chinese whispers going on in the past.

How It Was Named

Essiac is the reverse spelling of Caisse, who as a nurse, continued to prescribe this blend to her patients for free up until her death.

Early Claims Regarding Essiac Tea

What is interesting and as mysterious as the origins of this tea is that the human trial results of this blend have remained hidden and unpublished. While not backed by modern studies or reports, Caisse claimed to have seen an 80% remission rate. While we find this quite hard to believe, we still think this tea warrants further study and investigation.

There's actually a fair bit more to the history of this tea, but to keep this article short we'll need to omit some. One last interesting tidbit - Cassie later on conducted further research together with Dr. Charles Armao Brusch who was the personal doctor of J.F Kennedy at the time.

Benefits of Essiac Tea

We like to focus on results and facts here at Tea Life, so we normally shy away from bold claims but do like to provide all information as much as possible so that our readers can decide and research for themselves.

Let's take a look at the more proven results and what we definitely know about the compounds of this tea.
But first, here's a cool infographic!

This combination of herbs does have a very good level of antioxidants, along with compounds within this blend proven to have a protective mechanism to help prevent DNA damage/degradation and positively affect the immune system.

A study performed by the  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 2006 found that this blend can help protect DNA against mutation and deterioration, which in turn can help prevent cancer. Please note that these particular results do not say it can cure or reverse it.

Following is the summary of benefits of Essiac Tea:

• Antioxidant and Anti-cancer effects
• Anti-inflammatory
• Strengthens Immune System
• Detox the Body

How to Prepare Essiac Tea

This one is a little different from your usual pour and go teas.

Steps:

• 35 grams for every 1 liter of water
• Add to boiling water in the pot for 10 mins
• Leave covered overnight
• The next day bring it to steaming, but not a boil
• Let it cool again - and it's ready
• After this, it should be kept refrigerated

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great preventative blend for the immune system containing a high level of antioxidants higher than that of red wine and green tea. We'll leave it up to you to do further research as there's a lot of conflicting opinions on this controversial blend out there!