Was it ever simply tea?

My Abuelita's daily hot cup of Aztec tea.

The following post is about the medicinal properties of plants and herbs. I am not a trained physician, herbalist, homeopathic or folk medicine healer. This post was written for entertainment purposes only. Please seek medical advice from a licensed healthcare clinician (or homeopath) with any questions or concerns you may have regarding herbal supplements. Thank you. - M.

---

It naturally happens when you spend an innumerable amount of hours with someone. I’m sure you’ve all had a feeling like this. That comforting feeling when we remember all the little habits our grandparents possessed.

The way they took their coffee. That one baseball hat they always wore. Those big rings that squeezed their fingers. And so on.

My Abuelita, like many of your grandmothers I’m sure, had quite a few peculiar habits. At least to my young mind, these habits usually felt odd or out-of-place.

I fondly remember several. She always made the sign of the cross right before a plane took off. She was never without a small bag of mixed nuts in her purse. Whenever she used a toothpick after a meal, that was usually the time to “duck and cover.” (I say this lovingly, of course, because I would give anything to be in her presence just one more time.) And she insisted on covering every single piece of “good” furniture in her house in plastic. Hard, unforgiving plastic by the way.

But the one peculiarity that really sticks out in my mind, other than the obvious stuff related to spirituality, was her choice of beverage with breakfast.

From my earliest memories, Abuelita drank a hot cup of té malabar (a.k.a., Malabar tea) every day with her cinnamon stick-infused avena (a.k.a., oatmeal). It’s a twiggy and fuzzy loose leaf tea — with quite a funky smell! Like the floor of a heavily moss-covered, wooded forest. But now, of course, I love that smell.

At home, Abuelita was always conscientious of her nutrition. (When she ate out or was on vacation, that was a different story…) She had been diabetic already for many years when I came prancing along. Everything was sugar-free this and diet that. She enjoyed treats but without fail ate what the housekeeper prepared that day - which was usually a well balanced meal filled with vegetables, lean protein, fibrous grains, and starches. (Since she was older, she had delegated the everyday cooking task to the housekeeper employed at the time.) And while she loved to eat (another sign that I’m related to her), nothing about her eating habits was particularly noteworthy.

Except for this tea.

This té malabar. Everything else she ate or drank always looked really tasty to me — except this tea.

This weird, stinky, yellowish tea, I remember thinking as a kid.

It smelled medicinal, for sure. And earthy. Reminiscent of something you should only drink if you’re really, really sick. But Abuelita drank it all the time, if not every morning.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture above. It was quite difficult to find an intact image of the box. Image from botanicoaztecaventas.wordpress.com.

And she would prepare a mighty big cup of té malabar with her morning meal! She liked to enjoy her tea from one of those large camping mugs.

A camping mug not too dissimilar to the one Abuelita used daily.

She would use a piece of paper towel as a “strainer” and scoop a generous spoonful of the loose tea into the center of her homemade tea bag. The box that held the tea felt unique, too. Sky blue with red lettering, it even had the drawing of an Aztec warrior as the company’s logo.¹ The mossy twigs and leaves would soak for a few minutes in boiling water, reinvigorating themselves with the moisture. Removing the “tea bag,” she would then typically add a Sweet’n Low or two. (My Mom prefers to add honey, and so do I.)

And presto — a hot cup of pungent Aztec herbal tea!

I’m not that talented so I use an actual stainless steel strainer and some cheesecloth as my homemade tea bag.

The health properties

Why would someone drink this tea? Possibly for the following reasons, according to Abuelita and Mom:

• for improved circulation

• for cleansing of the blood

According to the company’s “website,” the health benefits include: Ayuda a tratar padecimientos de diabetes, como sed excesiva, boca amarga, presión alta, así como para tratar ulceras, problemas de riñones y ulceras.² (a.k.a., “It helps treat diabetic conditions, such as excessive thirst, bitter mouth, high blood pressure, as well as to treat ulcers, kidney problems and ulcers.”)

Mom remembers Abuelita encouraging her and her siblings to drink it when they were experiencing the symptoms of acne (which, to me, feels like a form of cleansing).

Now. If you visit an herbalist shop or perhaps you live near a botánica (a.k.a., a religious or spiritual shop), the employees there would happily give you more information. At least, this has been my experience whenever I’ve gone to a botánica in California.

My recent experience

On my last trip to Los Angeles, Mom and I visited El Mercadito (loosely translates to “the small market”) — which is very humorous because this place is anything but small. It’s in fact a well known shopping plaza with an open-floor plan layout, and an enormous collection of Mexican shops and eateries. And we did a bit of sight-seeing while we were in LA but nothing compared to the magnitude and sensory overload of El Mercadito — it’s not for the claustrophobic or sensory sensitive/avoidant!

The West entrance. That’s my Momma. El Mercadito, Los Angeles, December 2023.

It’s essentially a giant warehouse that was converted into many divided sections. Its two full floors are crammed with vendors, practically on top of each other. There is an East entrance and a West entrance. Everything is written in Spanish. Everyone speaks Spanish, in the kind of way in which you can walk the entirety of the place and not hear any English at all. Every surface is utilized, from the floor to the ceiling. And everything about it, from the smells to the lack of windows, is eerily similar to the markets I visited as a kid when we took day trips to Tijuana, Baja California. I’m eternally grateful to have visited El Mercadito with my Momma — I would have been so lost without you, Mom! Thank you!!

And we only walked around the East side - we never made to the other side!

I went to El Mercadito with 3 goals:

1. Purchase me a “senora” apron.

2. Hunt down a cookie cutter to make cochinitos at home.³

3. Find that sky blue box with the red lettering and Aztec warrior!

— which was helpful because that place was brimming with so many goodies! Being choosy ensured that we weren’t going to spend the whole day at El Mercadito.

Sadly, I did not find my Aztec warrior that day. People directed us to a couple of botánicas and well known ones too, but no sky blue boxes in sight. On the second floor, near the “food court,” we found a botánica filled wall to wall with candles, powders, oils, dried herbs, and on and on — plus, lots and lots of teas. Jackpot!

If you’ve never been to a botánica, I highly recommend! They tend to be treasure troves, you never really know what’s going to be in your bag when you leave. Visiting one can feel a bit intimidating but the shopkeepers are always very nice and earnestly want you to leave satisfied. Luckily, this botánica did have some small bags of té malabar in stock.

Let’s just say I bought “several.”

The shopkeeper advised that té malabar was very useful for “inflammation” issues. And she gently, and wisely, reminded me that consuming medicinal herbs should be done with intention — not simply because you have a hankering for tea (my words, not hers). Just 1 scoop of the loose tea will go far and give you several cups. I then bought some loose leaf arnica for Mom and called it a day.

After a simple lunch of mole (a.k.a., a well-spiced sauce typically made of chilies and chocolate, can come in a wide variety) and birria (a.k.a., a slow-cooked stew with fragrant spices and herbs, traditionally made with goat) with Mexican rice, washed down with a chilled horchata (a.k.a, a rice-based beverage with lots of cinnamon), we left El Mercadito very happy.

Mom says Abuelita would always head down to Tijuana, just on the other side of US/Baja California border, and enjoy shopping for things that were difficult to find in US grocery stores. Té malabar was something she preferred to buy in TJ and after doing some research on my own, I get why!

My Abuelita lived to be 86 years old with many co-morbidities likely brought on by imbalanced nutrition and a hard life won. She had 9 children by the time she was in her mid-thirties. Her husband passed away 8 years prior to her rapid decline.⁴ And her diabetic condition made her particularly vulnerable to a host of potential maladies. It genuinely feels like a miracle she lived as long as she did.

This magical elixir of a tea, along with her faith no doubt, is what I think helped with her longevity.

Or maybe, it's just herbal tea — but still!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I’m sorry that I have slowed down a bit this year. But I feel rested and ready to jump back into writing for you! And for me. I have a beautiful stack of research papers and academic journal articles to read about curanderismo and Aztec herbal remedies. I can’t wait to share my findings with you!

With cariño,

Maribel

1. A company from Mexico, it’s full name is “Centro Botanico Azteca” or “CBA” for short. For the life of me, I had the most difficult time finding any information about them. All I was able to find was a WordPress blog written in Spanish.

2. https://botanicoaztecaventas.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/te-malabar/

3. A classic pan dulce, these cookies are also called puerquitos and marranitos.

4. I think this is pretty impressive considering the saying goes that once one partner passes away, the other one will follow soon.