Some Essiac recipes say to use 1 oz. of herb per quart of tea. But it's not clear if they mean weight or volume. Other recipes specify large quantities (pounds and ounces, or else cups). So in a nutshell, I'm wondering how your 0.35 oz. equate to the ounces or cups stated in other recipes. Is your recipe roughly the same in the end? Is the resulting tea of the same strength?

Thanks for your questions. The "1 oz. per quart" often referred to is a fluid oz. of the dried Essiac herbs. Mary's McPherson's affidavit prefaces it with "Take a measuring cup."

As for the quantity of water, Rene Caisse added extra water to compensate for boil-off and also almost certainly used the 40 oz. quart (vs. 32 oz.) up until Canada went metric in 1970... Mary's affidavit is a conglomerate of what was being done in 1994, more than  15 years after Rene Caisse's death.

The "larger quantities" references also come from Mary's affidavit, which is the recipe for a "master batch" of Essiac. We make several of these at a time when we package the premixed herbs into the smaller quantities. Mary's affidavit is what we go by for our ratios of the herbs to each other - although we base our liquid portions on a 40 oz. quart. Our 10g size will actually make an amount closer to 32 oz....but its based on a 40 oz. quart...if that isn't too confusing!  We are otherwise in complete keeping with the public domain Essiac formula (i.e. Mary's affidavit).

The main factor in the strength of Essiac is the Sheep sorrel root content. Even though there is proportionally more water in relation to the herbs in our tea, it is the correct ratio, and the root brings a special quality to the consistency of the decoction which actually makes it more full bodied - and more potent.

Even if twice as many herbs are used, the tea will not be any more potent unless the Sheep sorrel roots are included, and the higher the ratio the better.

Following Rene Caisse's recommended dosage of 1-2 fl. oz. per day, you will actually use a 2 oz. packet of our tea in the same amount of time as the discount brands with their bigger bags and higher dosages. Rene Caisse was really adamant that "more is not better" when it came to Essiac.

So...our recipe is the same in the end, and the resulting tea is actually stronger because our Sheep sorrel root content is as high as you can get it unless you grow your own 🙂 Enjoy!