Ivan tea buyers. A drink from Ivan-tea: healthy, tasty, profitable

Experts note the trend of increasing demand for natural, healthy products. And for start-up entrepreneurs, this often turns out to be a profitable business, because you can set up a business for the production of such goods at home without spending large investments. One of these areas is the production of Ivan-tea. If you organize an independent collection of plants and buy equipment for the production of Ivan tea, you will open your own mini-workshop.

Ivan tea (popularly - fireweed) is a perennial plant that is classified as a medicinal species. It is unpretentious to growing conditions, and therefore grows freely in fields, wastelands, near pine forests.

The industrial production of Ivan tea in Russia is not very developed. On a large scale, only a few large companies supply it to the shelves of pharmacies and stores. But small shops are becoming more and more. And this gives excellent chances for novice entrepreneurs right now, when competition is minimal, to take their place in this niche.

But the production of Ivan tea as a business is profitable not only because of the lack of competition. The demand for the goods is striking! Many consumers today refuse imported varieties of tea in favor of its primordially Russian "analogue". Due to the beneficial properties of the plant, the sale of Ivan tea will bring a big profit to the businessman - it is not without reason that it is called the “remedy for 100 diseases”, and our grandmothers always dried healing stems and leaves for the winter.

Do not forget that this direction is seasonal - production in the winter-spring period may be idle, because there will be no raw materials. Therefore, it is very important to produce products to the maximum in the season.

Features of Ivan tea production technology

To begin with, it is worth deciding on the “scope” of the business. What will it be - a family production or a whole enterprise that produces granulated Ivan tea? If we are talking about a home business, then many operations (and this is a labor-intensive business) will have to be carried out manually. A full-fledged workshop is equipped with special equipment. Accordingly, the Ivan tea production technology itself is simplified.

The stages of the technological chain both in automated equipment and in a conventional kitchen remain the same - the difference is only in time and the proportion of manual labor.

The production of Ivan tea begins with the collection of raw materials. To give consumers the maximum benefit, collect the plant in environmentally friendly places - away from highways and railways. The process is carried out in a strictly defined period - when the plant blooms. It is difficult to determine the exact time for collecting Ivan tea, since much depends on climatic conditions. For example, in the south it is harvested from the end of June to mid-July, and in the north - from mid-July to the end of August. Our ancestors had a tradition of collecting Ivan tea on the night of Ivan Kupala.

Judging by the experience of successful entrepreneurs, 1 person can collect 20-35 kg of plants per day. Calculate your strength - maybe it's worth hiring workers? The collection and preparation of willow tea should take place with a short interval of time, and therefore, do not leave the cut plant to languish in bags - immediately proceed to the next steps.

Making Ivan tea at home can be described as follows:

First, the leaves are kneaded until they release the juice. If you do this with a meat grinder, you will get a granular product.
This is followed by the withering stage - place the grated plant for a day in a dark place. The use of dryers will significantly reduce the process - up to 8 hours.
To "saturate" the leaves with oxygen, they need to be twisted. After drying, the raw material is no longer so fragile.
Ivan tea fermentation at home and in the workshop is the most important stage in the manufacture of a useful product. Right now, the plant is saturated with a special taste and aroma. The process is carried out on pallets in a cool place.
Are all the conditions for the fermentation of Ivan tea met? Proceed to drying the product. Drying is necessary in order to remove residual moisture from the leaves. The process is short - only 20-30 minutes. Even at home, it is better to use auxiliary equipment - a conventional oven or a special dryer.

After the drying of Ivan tea leaves is completed, the product is considered ready. It can be sold both in packaged form and by weight. Choose the best option for yourself. Packaged products are more expensive, but there will be expenses for special equipment, which is not always advisable.

Is it possible to do without equipment?

Ivan tea dryer

Harvesting of Ivan tea leaves can be carried out entirely by hand - starting with the collection of raw materials and ending with the packaging of products. But be prepared for the fact that the profit in this case will be low - purely physically, you will not produce large batches of products. The maximum that will be realistic is to sell tea to friends and acquaintances. But this is for starters, given the high cost of goods, not bad at all!

A mini plant for the production of Ivan tea, where the necessary equipment will be installed, is a much better option.

Having decided to organize a full-fledged workshop, you will have to register the future enterprise and obtain permission to conduct business from Rospotrebnadzor. This is necessary because no store will cooperate with an entrepreneur offering an unlicensed product for sale.

The price of equipment for making Ivan tea is relatively low. Its complete set differs little from machines for the production of many varieties of tea.

The line includes the following machines and devices:

Curing tables.
Rollers for twisting leaflets.
Drum for roasting raw materials.
Drying cabinet.
Sieve.
Apparatus for filling and packaging (in packages - either portioned or whole).

This is the main equipment list. But since fermentation methods can be different, the line is often supplemented with separate professional machines for partial or complete fermentation - the process is much faster.

An entrepreneur will buy a low-power line for 500,000-800,000 rubles. And to organize a home business, if you have an oven and a meat grinder, you can do it for free.

Sales of finished products and business profits

Distribution channels will depend on the size of the enterprise. A home business does not have many options - neighbors, friends, private buyers. A full-fledged enterprise in this regard has more prospects - shops, pharmacies, fairs, markets.

And so that the meat grinder for Ivan tea does not stand idle, take care of the promotion of products. And this is important even for a family business. Advertisements in newspapers and the Internet, exhibitions of natural products, promotions - many marketing tools can be used!

The most profitable customers are wholesalers. But it will be difficult for newcomers to establish cooperation with them - and production capacities may not be enough, and space on the shelves of a retail outlet is sometimes very expensive.

As for profit, the calculations should be based on production volumes and the established price of the product. At home, completely manually fermenting Ivan tea through a meat grinder will give no more than 10-15 kg of finished products per day, because the product is then dried, losing weight. Of course, at an industrial enterprise, the output is much higher. The average wholesale price of Ivan-tea fluctuates in the range of 800-1300 rubles/kg. Packaged products are even more expensive - about 150-300 rubles per pack of 100 g.

Fireweed narrow-leaved, popularly called Ivan-tea, is a unique plant, the beneficial properties of which have been taken care of by nature itself. It is rich in B vitamins, ascorbic acid, iron, calcium, potassium, bioflavonoids and tannins.

A drink made from the leaves of this plant has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, normalizes sleep and tones the body. In addition, fireweed does not contain caffeine, therefore it is considered an excellent alternative to Indian tea, to which it is in no way inferior in taste. Given the growing consumer demand for natural products, the production of willow-tea can be seen as an actual business. In this article, we'll show you how to organize it.

How to make money on the production of Ivan tea

Fireweed grows freely in the wild. Its most common habitat is the coniferous forests of the European part and Siberia. The plant can be found on dry sandstones, clearings and edges, near crops and near water. Its interesting feature is that it is the first to populate forest and field areas after fires.

Given the wide distribution of willow-tea in nature, you can collect it manually on your own, harvest it using improvised means and sell it in small batches. With a certain skill, the picker can get about 20-25 kg of tea leaves in one day. However, these are too small volumes to talk about serious profits.

Another option is to purchase raw materials from the inhabitants of villages and villages by prior agreement, then process and sell it independently. But there are also disadvantages here: the lack of control over the collection of leaves can lead to a violation of technology, as a result of which the raw material will lose its useful properties and taste.

The best option is the cultivation of willow-tea as (own or rented) with subsequent processing and sale. Only by organizing a full-cycle enterprise, you can get high-quality products in large enough volumes that will provide a high income.

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Production technology

Fireweed reproduces both by seeds and vegetatively. Seeds are collected in September. Each stem is capable of producing 20,000 to 40,000 seeds. Seeds are planted in grooves no more than 1.5 cm deep, sprinkled with earth and watered from a watering can. The optimal distance between rows is from 60 to 90 cm. After germination, the plants are thinned out, leaving 1-2 stems every 30 cm.

Seedlings are planted in the ground in early autumn or spring. With proper care, timely watering, they quickly increase the vegetative mass. Ivan tea is an extremely unpretentious herb. It is recommended to water seedlings and seedlings abundantly only for the first 1-1.5 months. During this period, it is advisable to do this through a watering can or a fine sieve so as not to damage the stems. When the plants reach 10-12 cm in height, they can be watered less often - only 1 time per week.

The flowering period of Ivan-tea is from late June to mid-August. Just at this time it is necessary to collect leaves. This should be done in the morning, when there is no longer dew on the plants. The leaves are collected in bags and immediately sent for processing.

Interesting! Fireweed is considered an excellent honey plant (400-500 kg of honey can be obtained from 1 hectare of this herb), so the production of tea from this plant can supplement.

Further processing of the collected raw materials takes place in several stages:

preparation - at this stage it needs to be sorted out, separated from debris, washed and dried;
wilting of leaves in dark rooms or in special dryers;
fragmentation - the leaves undergo special mechanical processing and secrete juice, as a result of which important chemical processes occur;
fermentation - the resulting mass is laid out on metal or wooden surfaces and left for a while;
drying in ovens or drying cabinets;
thermal exposure - the product is allowed to rest in order to obtain a characteristic aroma and a typical tea shade;
packing and packing.

The grade of tea will depend mainly on the length of fermentation of the tea leaf. The most popular varieties are fermented (classic black) and slightly fermented (green). In addition to the fireweed itself, you can include other aromatic plants in the composition of tea, for example, mint, oregano, lemongrass.

If you consider Ivan tea as small on the territory of your personal subsidiary plot, and your production volumes will be low, then you can carry out all the main operations for processing raw materials manually. If your plans include the organization of a full-fledged enterprise, then you will have to spend money on special equipment.

Equipment and workers

The set of special equipment will consist of the following main units:

tea leaf cutting machine;
drying drum;
roller for twisting;
fermenter;
drying unit;
machine for filling and packing.

It is better to purchase everything you need from one manufacturer. A good option is to buy a ready-made production line. The issue price will be from 800,000 rubles. up to 2,000,000 rubles depending on the configuration and performance of the equipment.

To work on the plantation during the tea leaf harvest period, you will need several pickers. The production itself involves the presence of several workers on the line, as well as a qualified technologist who will display varieties of tea and control the process of its manufacture. It is desirable to have your own equipment maintenance specialist, forwarding driver, sales manager.

Registration of activities and declaration of products

The production and sale of herbal tea in small quantities from raw materials grown on our own site does not require official registration of entrepreneurial activity. The law allows the sale of surplus products of personal subsidiary plots without paying taxes.

In all other cases, it is worth contacting the tax service to obtain the status of an individual entrepreneur (IP) or a legal entity. The code of the type of economic activity according to OKVED, under which this business falls, is 10.83 - "Production of tea and coffee." Do not forget to indicate it when filling out or IP.

Based on the results of consideration of the application, the employees of the service make a decision and issue a certificate of state registration no later than five working days from the date of application.

The next mandatory step is to obtain a declaration for manufactured products. Its quality and compliance with the standard (Technical Regulations of the Customs Union "On Food Safety") can be confirmed with the help of an accredited certification center. Without a declaration, your goods will not be accepted by any store, so this requirement should not be ignored. If you wish, you can also issue a voluntary certificate, which will serve as an additional confirmation of the high quality of your tea products.

Sales organization

It is difficult for a new manufacturer to immediately enter into large contracts, so the introduction of goods to the market should be started gradually from small retail outlets and private shops. Keep an eye on fairs, natural food exhibitions in your city and be sure to take part in them. You can also offer herbal tea for sale in pharmacies and sanatoriums. Over time, when the product gains confidence, it is recommended to switch to large retail chains or open your own company store.

A great way to draw the attention of consumers to your product and stimulate sales is to create an online store and advertise on the Internet. Don't miss out on the opportunities offered by online trading, as for most entrepreneurs who produce such products, online sales are the main source of income.

Profit Forecast

The cost of Ivan-tea in retail is on average 250 rubles. per 100 g, the wholesale price varies from 150 to 200 rubles. At the same time, the cost of a 100-gram package does not exceed 100 rubles. This amount includes the costs of growing and processing raw materials, wages, taxes, packaging costs, equipment depreciation, etc.

This type of activity is feasible even for a child over the age of 14 years. The essence of this idea for a business is that you would collect, ferment, pack, sell, Ivan-tea leaves.
Everyone can do this task. But you should take into account that at first it will be difficult, because this is painstaking work. So, let's begin.

The first thing you should do is find a clearing where this wonderful plant grows - Ivan tea. Note that it is better if you pick Ivan tea leaves away from
railroads and highways. Otherwise, the tea leaves may not go through the fermentation process correctly. It is best to cut off the leaves in early June. At this time, they are filled with juice, and even more so the leaves
have not dried yet. And so you cut off two bags of foliage.

Yes, two bags is not even enough, with them you will get about half a bag of fermented tea. Do not forget that you can not break off the tops with flowers, otherwise the tea will not be able to multiply.
and you will destroy the clearing, and even your income. But let's skip the details. Here you have these two bags of Ivan tea leaves in your hands. And you scratch your head, wondering what to do next. You can't slow down here.

Let's go straight to the second step.
The second step is that we lay out these leaves, with a layer of no more than three centimeters. The temperature must not exceed room

atnu, that is, no more than twenty-eight degrees. If you
do not complete this step immediately, then your leaves will burn. And they will not be suitable for making tea. Every hour, the spread out leaves must be stirred up, most importantly, make sure that the leaves do not dry out
. Your task is to wilt them. The leaves should become soft, as if they had lost their strength. As soon as the leaves have taken this state. We're going to step number three.

The third step is to cut the tea leaves. It is best and easiest if you do this with a meat grinder, preferably a manual one. Don't forget to put on the perforated nozzle as best you can.
bigger. Next, grind the leaves and stir, the resulting granules. Now you can proceed to the fourth step.

Step number four. It has the highest priority, in all the work you have done, this moment is the most responsible. moment of fermentation. Fermentation Ivan tea is
next. We shift the resulting granules into buckets or pans. Now let's put them in the scorching sun. Now your job will be to stir the tea every hour.

The main thing is not to miss the end of fermentation. Determining that the tea is ready can be very simple. Dip your hand in the tea, if it stops giving off heat, then the tea is ready. If you miss this
At that moment, mold will appear on the tea. And so the process of making tea is almost over. But tea needs to dry out. Therefore, we pour it into a pillowcase and hang it for a couple of hours in the sun.
And now the tea is ready. Your task is to pack it up and sell it.

The retail price today is up to 300 rubles per 100 grams of tea.

http://elshin.ru/?p=1618

Why did Hitler destroy the Ivan Chai factory?

At the end of 1941, instead of moving towards Leningrad, Hitler gave the order to send tanks to the village of Koporye to destroy the River of Life facility. Under this code name was an experimental laboratory that produced drinks from medicinal herbs according to old Russian recipes, which were based on Ivan-chai.

The history of the oblivion of "Ivan-tea" and its replacement in Russia with foreign tea.

The consequences of the craze for foreign teas and coffees are now more than obvious. The number of heart attacks, strokes, and nervous disorders has sharply increased everywhere. Partly "guilty" of this overseas, rich in caffeine, tea. Our body, genetically formed over the centuries, was not able to “digest” a shock dose of caffeine, which is essentially a drug, without consequences.

The worst herb that is used in the form of tea is industrial Indian tea.

In Indian tea, two not very good groups of substances have been identified: - these are theophyllines - these are substances like ephedrine, from which drug addicts cook "nonsense". In pharmaceutical medicine, ephedrine is equated to drugs.

And the second group of substances present in ordinary tea is astringent, tannins tannins, which, and this has been proven, in the intestinal lumen “tan” the intestinal wall too, making it impermeable, and prevent the absorption of vitamins and useful substances in general.

Thus, there is a paradox in the world: there are millions of species of vegetation in the world, and in the “civilized world” it is precisely its single poisonous varieties that are industrially supplied: tobacco, cocaine (Coca-Cola), tea and coffee. Accidentally? There is nothing accidental in this world, "my friend Horatio"!

Why is it not commercially put into production in Russia, say, "tea" from "St. John's wort" or "Ivan-Tea", which in Russia grow underfoot and cost a penny. Moreover, drinks from such herbs are certainly healthier than Indian tea? Why was Russia put on "English tea" after the Crimean War?

India is an English colony. After all, before the Crimean War in Russia there was neither English tea nor Persian samovars (and they are actually Persian). But literally in a few years, all of a sudden, as if by magic or by order from above, English tea suddenly becomes a “primordially Russian national drink”, without which Russians now, they say, cannot imagine themselves. And the Russian government began to spend crazy money, buying English tea at the price of silver per ounce, when there is something, and in Russia there is a lot of its own grass. This is a question, by the way, of ingenuity to all Russian patriots.

By the way, at the very time when Russia was put on tea, China, for example, was put on opium, in the so-called "opium wars" of the West against China. The Chinese did not want to smoke opium - they stuffed it into their esophagus. The European Union and the UN have a principle: each nation has its own kind of drug.

Even Academician Pavlov found that caffeine enhances the processes of excitation in the cerebral cortex and increases motor activity. Tea alkaloids enhance cardiac activity, myocardial contractions become more intense and frequent. As a result, a person feels as if a surge of strength. But such surges of activity are accompanied by an increased expenditure of energy.

Regularly consumed large doses of caffeine lead to the depletion of nerve cells. Caffeine is contraindicated in many ailments (or rather, the consequences of an urban lifestyle): insomnia, hypertension, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, cardiovascular diseases. Excessive consumption of drinks containing caffeine leads to an exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

In addition, tea tannins remove calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus from the body. Thus, tea exhausts its immoderate admirers.

The path to the recovery of the Russian nation is simple, like everything ingenious - to return to the roots, to remember the undeservedly forgotten, primordially Russian drink - Ivan-Tea. It received this name in the first half of the 17th century, that is, at the time of the beginning of the tea and coffee world expansion!

And before that, Russian sorcerers called "Ivan-tea" for its powerful healing properties as a boron potion. Especially popular were infusions on the leaves of Ivan-tea, which were used to treat headaches and relieve various inflammations. Ivan-tea also had such nicknames as a bread box or a miller. They appeared due to the fact that the dried, ground roots of "Ivan-tea", following the recommendations of folk healers, were often added to flour for baking bread.

Even "Ivan-tea" was called cockerel apples - for the taste properties of young leaves, which completely replace the salad. The scientific name of "Ivan-tea" is narrow-leaved fireweed. And among the people, as soon as they didn’t call it “Ivan-tea”, which once again speaks of its popularity!

So, our “tea-makers” brewed “Ivan-tea” in such a way that it began to resemble subtropical tea in taste and color. They made it like this: the leaves of "Ivan-tea" were dried, scalded in a tub with boiling water, ground in a trough, then thrown back onto baking sheets and dried in a Russian oven. After drying, the leaves were crushed again and the tea was ready.

Most of this tea was harvested in the village of Koporye near St. Petersburg. Therefore, they began to call the drink, and later Ivan-tea itself, Koporsky tea. Hundreds of pounds of this product were used in Russia. The Siberians and the Dutch, the Don Cossacks and the Danes appreciated it. Later, it became the most important component in Russian exports. After special processing, "Ivan-tea" was sent by sea to England and other European countries, where it was as famous as Persian carpets, Chinese silk, Damascus steel. Abroad, "Ivan-chai" was called Russian tea!

Going on a long journey, Russian sailors always took "Ivan-tea" with them in order to drink it themselves. And as gifts in foreign ports.

However, there were also unscrupulous merchants who used "Ivan-chai" to fake Chinese (Beijing) tea. They mixed Ivan-tea leaves with Chinese tea and presented this mixture as an expensive oriental curiosity. But I must say that in pre-revolutionary Russia, and even after the revolution until 1941, the addition of other plants to subtropical teas was considered shameless falsification, fraud and was prosecuted. Therefore, such merchants, most often, were convicted of such forgeries, and put on trial, sometimes even arranging high-profile lawsuits.

However, even such cases could not deprive Koporye tea of popularity, and already in the 19th century it was a powerful competitor to Indian tea.

Great Britain, which owned huge tea plantations in India, annually bought tens of thousands of pounds of Koporye tea, preferring Russian tea to Indian!

So why did such a profitable production of Kopor tea stop in Russia? The fact is that at the end of the 19th century, its popularity turned out to be so great that it began to undermine the financial power of the East Indian tea company, which traded Indian tea!!! The campaign stirred up a scandal, allegedly the Russians grind tea with white clay, which, they say, is harmful to health. And the real reason is that the owners of the East Indian campaign had to remove the most powerful competitor from their own English market - Russian tea!

The company achieved its goal, the purchases of Russian tea were reduced, and after the revolution in Russia in 1917, when England joined the Entente military bloc, the purchase of tea in Russia stopped completely! Koporye broke...

And just recently, people remembered this healing drink. After a long break, Russian tea was produced according to old recipes and the sailors of the Kruzenshtern took it with them to the round-the-world regatta. The famous lone traveler F. Konyukhov always uses this healing "Ivan-tea" in all his travels!

The underside of coffee cheerfulness

In the near future, it is necessary to introduce "Ivan-tea" into people's food, excluding or, at the first stage, limiting the consumption of subtropical teas and coffee, where there is an excess content of caffeine, which for a Russian person can be used very limitedly.

In the mechanism of action of caffeine, an important role is played by the fact that it inhibits the enzyme phosphodiesterase. At the same time, cyclic adenosine monophosphate accumulates inside the cells, under the influence of which metabolic processes are enhanced in various organs and tissues, including muscle tissue and the central nervous system. But a paper cup of tea or coffee is not considered doping at a distance.

At the same time, caffeine binds to brain receptors, displacing adenosine, which normally reduces excitation processes in the brain. Replacing it with caffeine leads to a stimulating effect.

However, with prolonged use of this alkaloid, like other drugs, its effect gradually decreases.

And from tinted boiling water they often switch to a cup of real tea (a teaspoon of tea leaves for 0.15-0.2 liters of boiling water) washed down in three doses at intervals of 1.5-2 minutes. Then, to the morning cup, the daytime, and then the third, because in the absence of caffeine, the accumulated adenosine occupies all available brain receptors, sharply intensifying the processes of inhibition, fatigue, drowsiness, depression appear, blood pressure decreases and other unpleasant sensations arise.

In addition, tannins contained in tea, and up to 18% of them (the higher the grade, the more of them) bind insoluble compounds and remove calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, metal salts of copper, zinc, nickel and other trace elements from the digestive organs. That is why in the East tea is drunk one hour before meals or two hours after meals, and without any spices and sweets that stimulate the release of calcium-rich saliva and other digestive media rich in enzymes and vitamins.

... And Ivan-Tea blooms from mid-June to the end of August. The flowers open between 6 and 7 am, attracting many bees. This is not surprising, because "Ivan-tea" is one of the best honey plants. It is estimated that bees can store up to a thousand kilograms of honey from a hectare of "Kipreyny" land. By the way, according to experts, fireweed honey is the sweetest, and if the honey is fresh, it is the most transparent. In addition to nectar, bees remove their bee-bread from Ivan-tea flowers.

Seeds of "Ivan-tea" ripen in August. Ripe seeds with fluff fly out of fruit boxes. Fluff flies over the thickets of "Ivan-Tea" and far around - as if several featherbeds were torn apart. Seeds of "Ivan-tea" are distinguished by amazing volatility - the wind takes them tens of kilometers away. Flowers, leaves, less often the roots of "Ivan-tea" are used as medicinal raw materials.

The collection is carried out during flowering (usually leaves and unblown buds are harvested separately).

"Ivan-tea" contains:

Flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, which has an antispasmodic choleretic and diuretic effect).

Tannins (up to 20% of tannins of the pyrogal group, which have astringent anti-inflammatory and hemostatic effects).

Mucus (up to 15%, which provides emollient and enveloping properties, the ability to relieve inflammation, relieve pain, soothe and relieve cramps).

A small amount of alkaloids (these substances are poisonous in large doses, but in small doses they have wonderful healing properties, can improve metabolism, blood circulation, the state of the nervous system, and are good painkillers).

Chlorophyll (a green plant pigment that absorbs light energy, stimulates wound healing, improves metabolism).

Pectin (this substance increases the shelf life of tea).

The leaves contain vitamins, especially a lot of carotene (provitamin A) and vitamin C (up to 200-388 mg - 3 times more than in oranges).

Roots are rich in starch (this is a reserve carbohydrate of plants), polysaccharides (these carbohydrates are involved in immune reactions), organic acids (participate in biochemical reactions, play an important role in maintaining acid-base balance).

In addition, in the leaves of "Ivan-tea" a large number of trace elements were found that stimulate hematopoiesis - iron, copper, manganese and other trace elements necessary for metabolism - nickel, titanium, molybdenum, boron.

Not a single plant can boast of such a set of trace elements!

The unique composition determines the variety of healing properties of "Ivan-tea". It is also a mild laxative, emollient, enveloping, wound healing, analgesic, anticonvulsant. In its anti-inflammatory properties, "Ivan-tea" surpasses all medicinal plants - it has been scientifically proven that it has the highest coefficient of anti-inflammatory action among plants! And according to its tranquilizing effect (sedative, reducing the feeling of tension, anxiety, fear), "Ivan-tea" is very effective.

In folk medicine, "Ivan-tea" has long been considered also an antitumor agent. And scientific studies have confirmed the centuries-old experience of herbalists, a high-molecular compound hanerol was isolated from the inflorescences of "Ivan-tea", which exhibits antitumor activity, has a relatively low toxicity and a wide range of effects on tumors.

Let's summarize what is valuable "Ivan-tea":

- provides prevention of malignant and benign neoplasms;

- enhances potency;

- effective in diseases of the genitourinary system (powerful prevention of prostatitis);

- cicatrizes stomach and duodenal ulcers;

- increases immunity to respiratory viral infections;

- effective for the prevention of caries;

- improves blood composition;

— reduces intoxication of an organism;

- relieves food and alcohol poisoning;

- restores strength during exhaustion;

- useful for stones in the liver, kidneys and diseases of the spleen;

- strengthens hair roots;

- vitamin "C" in "Ivan-tea" is 6.5 times more than in lemon;

- eliminates headaches;

- normalizes blood pressure

Daria and Alexander started selling Ivan tea in 2012. The first clients were friends and their acquaintances who asked to sell them this or that collection of plants.

At the same time, the Platonovs began to study Ivan-tea drinks from competitors in order to understand whether their own products corresponded to similar products on the market. The conclusions that were made after purchasing from various manufacturers turned out to be ambiguous. “Some manufacturers make a good quality product, they revive old recipes. But at the same time, a lot of suppliers appeared on the market, the quality of tea of which does not stand up to criticism. Their “work” can be called discrediting the product and devaluing the very idea of healthy eating,” says Dariya. She and her family rely on healthy and high-quality tea, harvested and processed by hand.

How Ivan tea is made

Making willow-tea is a rather complicated technological process. Tea made by the Platonov family goes through six to eight stages of processing.

The first stage is the collection itself. The Platonovs collect wild plants near their family settlement, on the border of the Tula and Moscow regions near the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve. This is an ecologically clean place where Ivan-tea grows in natural conditions, and not specially planted by man. There it is adjacent to other plants, which is very important for the taste of the finished product. The collection takes place at strictly defined dates - during flowering (June-July). This is a fairly short period, about a month. At this time, there is a lot of work, and you have to work 16-18 hours a day. If the weather permits, then the Platonovs go to the collection early in the morning, as soon as the dew disappears - at 3-4 o'clock.

The collected leaves are then dried to remove excess moisture from them. After that there is a bulkhead, as a result of which the future tea is manually freed from foreign plants and insects, which are also very fond of Ivan tea. “The process of careful manual sorting is very laborious and long, but without it you can’t get a quality drink,” says Daria Platonova.

“Connoisseurs say that our tea has amazing energy. Of course, this is the result of manual work and the love with which we make tea. The machine will never give such a result. It will also be delicious, but it’s completely different.”

Further, the plants are wrinkled (also with hands), and placed for fermentation. After that, the sheet is cut, dried and sifted into different fractions. Ready tea is blended (flowers or other plants are added) and laid for ripening. One batch of tea goes through all these stages for about a week. Ivan-tea is packaged immediately before sale.

The Platonovs do all their work by hand, they do not use any industrial equipment. Although it exists and can facilitate the production process. Due to its cost, the equipment is not yet available to the family, whose business is only in its infancy and is seasonal. For example, a tea leaf rolling machine costs from 200 thousand rubles.

The family plans to purchase a leaf rolling machine to increase production, but handmade tea will definitely remain in the assortment.

Project Economics

When the Platonovs began to produce tea for sale, they spent about 100 thousand rubles on opening their own business, some of which were borrowed. Only certification of products cost about 30 thousand rubles. But now all tea from the Platonovs has a certificate of conformity. The rest of the money went to the production of a drying cabinet, pallets for drying the sheet, branded packaging and labels.

The drawing on the label was given to the Platonovs by a familiar artist. I came to visit them and, after tasting the drink, I drew a sketch. Now this drawing is on all natural paper bags in which tea is packaged. “When buying from us, you can open any package, look, smell - in a word, feel the product with all your senses in order to understand what you are buying. For stores, our packaging may not be the best option. But we are ready to change in this respect, to look for something new,” Daria explains.

The weight of one package is 60 or 100 grams. Since Platonov's tea is hand-rolled, it takes up a lot of space when dried. Therefore, more than 100 grams cannot be placed in one package. If tea is packed into a bag, then the product may lose some of its properties: the leaves will crumble or wrinkle. The cost of packaging is 400-500 rubles, depending on the variety.

In total, the Platonovs offer eight different types of tea. This year, at the request of customers, new items have appeared. These are mixtures of willow-tea with other plants: meadowsweet, which gives an almond flavor, currant leaf, cherry or mint. There are both delicate and more tart fruit flavors. “Diversity is an incredibly important point. We are constantly open to new recipes, ideas and experiments. But on the other hand, if people like this or that taste, they often ask for it next time. Therefore, it is very important to "stand" certain varieties, i.e. produce them from batch to batch with the same taste,” Daria notes.

The Platonovs supply their products to two Moscow restaurants, as well as to the first Russian restaurant operating exclusively on local products - "Mark and Lev" in the Tula region. “We love this restaurant so much. Well done guys! Great idea and great execution."

The Platonovs actively participate in fairs and festivals, which are now the main channel for promotion. There, in addition to selling, they arrange tastings of their teas. The Platonovs also cooperate with the organizers of ethno-festivals and events dedicated to a healthy lifestyle.

Plans and prospects

The family does not have a stationary store, because no big sales. “Unfortunately, it is simply impossible to increase the volume to the “store” without losing the quality of the product, we have already understood this. Maybe this is maximalism, but I do not know other ways to make the product tasty and of high quality. We are able to produce, at best, several hundred kilograms of tea per season. This is not a volume for Moscow,” says Daria.

“Now our task is to cooperate with several more restaurants in Moscow or the region. I think that a restaurant with really high-quality food should definitely have traditional Russian Ivan-chai in its tea list. In addition, our tea can be brewed several times - this is also a plus for restaurant customers. Our production volumes allow us to work on order for several restaurants: when there is a pre-order from a restaurant in terms of volume and assortment, it is much easier to plan production. Next year, we plan to hire people to collect tea, but we will prepare tea ourselves, ”the Platonovs share their plans for the future.

The Platonov family also sees the creation of an online store through which it will be possible to order Ivan tea as its task. “But the problem is that we are far from Internet technologies, and for us this is a rather difficult goal,” Daria admits. Her children, more confident computer users, are now working on creating their own website and pages on social networks.

The business dream of the Platonov family is to put their product on the tables of all lovers of healthy and tasty food. “Compared to the store-bought tea, our tea is like strawberries from the garden against strawberries from retail chains. We as a family and our friends have already switched to their own Ivan tea and do not drink anything else,” says Daria.
https://biz360.ru/materials/340/

15:32 February 10, 2015

Since ancient times, our ancestors began the morning with tea. True, they did not brew overseas herbs, but native Ivan-tea. He invigorated no worse than the strongest coffee. So why then disappeared from use? Exclusive material of the "Commonwealth" specialist.

IN PURSUIT OF POWER

Coffee roots stretch from the Arab countries and the word coffee in translation means energy and strength. In ancient times, coffee was not brewed in water, much less sugar was added to it. Coffee beans were simply chewed as a stimulant. In the 14th century, the clergy were looking for a variety of methods to stay awake throughout the day and tried to brew coffee beans. Since then, coffee has been exported all over the world.

The British began to impose tea on us after the Crimean War. And not by chance. After all, at that time India was an English colony and it was natural that she had to introduce her product into the world market - namely Indian tea. Before the Crimean War, there was no English tea in Russia, they used their native Russian drink, ivan tea, which, thanks to England, was discriminated against in the eyes of Europe.

Currently, the largest tea producers are India, China, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia and Kenya. The last two countries are exporters and producers of high quality black tea. The ideal climate in these countries creates excellent conditions for growing good quality tea, the raw materials are considered environmentally friendly, and the tea acquires a pleasant tart taste.

But despite their unique aroma, unsurpassed taste and invigorating properties, coffee and foreign tea have a number of side effects, and every year scientists find more and more new dangers that lie in a cup of these drinks. It turns out that they also have their own side of cheerfulness, and it lies in the main component of all these drinks - in caffeine.

According to the pharmacological classification, caffeine belongs to the group of psychostimulants, that is, substances that act on the central nervous system, stimulating nerve cells.

In addition, caffeine negatively affects the functioning of the heart and gastrointestinal tract, and also slows down the absorption of certain nutrients by the body. Therefore, it is advisable for heart patients and people with chronic diseases of the digestive system to refrain from drinking invigorating drinks.

And the most dangerous thing for a person is that caffeine is addictive and this is no longer a fact, but a reality. That is why very often it is coffee that is called a drug. Experiments have confirmed that addiction begins to cause withdrawal when there is insufficient intake of caffeine in the body, so when using caffeinated drinks, you must be extremely careful.

It should be remembered that a regular cup of coffee contains approximately 250 mg of caffeine, and the daily allowable dose of caffeine should not exceed 300 mg. Everyone decides for himself how many cups of such drinks should be taken so as not to harm the body.

But if it’s still hard for you to give up coffee, then at least when buying, give preference to ground grains rather than instant drinks, which, in fact, are not known from what they are ground.

In addition to caffeine, tea also contains theophyllines and tannins, which bind insoluble compounds and remove calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, metal salts of copper, zinc, nickel and other trace elements from the digestive organs. Therefore, it is advisable for lovers of foreign teas to drink these drinks after the main meal, in no case on an empty stomach and without any sweets, because they stimulate the release of digestive media rich in enzymes and vitamins, which are subsequently washed out, which leads to dehydration and exhaustion of the body. .

The harm of tea is also due to the presence of dyes and flavors. Flavorings and dyes are added to all flavored teas, for example, with the aroma of lemon, berries, mint. Manufacturers do this to reduce the cost of their production, and sometimes to give new life to not fresh and expired teas. More often this happens with teas packaged in bags, with granular or small-leaf teas. Those traces that you see on the cup after drinking tea remain inside your body.

The most inferior teas are crushed or broken tea. These are generally waste products from the production of various tea varieties that have flooded our market. Inferior grade ground teas include granulated, bagged, brick or pressed (made from the oldest leaves) and slab (made from tea crumbs) teas.

The problem of unnatural tea also applies to bottled teas that are sold chilled, by and large it’s not even tea, but a sweet drink containing tea, in which there are only food additives that give the drink color, aroma and taste, and there are absolutely no useful ones. substances.

A BIG HISTORY OF Humble Ivan Tea

Foreign coffee and tea in Russia can be easily replaced with the ancient traditional Russian drink ivan-chai, which was an integral part of the life of our ancestors.

There is a legend about the name of this plant among the people about a certain Ivan - a guy who liked to wear a red shirt and spend time on the edge, among shrubs and flowers. The villagers, seeing the flash of a scarlet shirt in the greenery, said: “Yes, this is Ivan, tea!”. Over time, the phrase became a habit, and when bright red fireweed flowers played on the outskirts of the same village among the lush greenery, the plant was called Ivan-tea.

Since ancient times, tea drinking in Russia has been held in high esteem. There were always samovars on the tables, and the same Ivan-tea served as brewing.

The first mention of the traditional Ivan-tea is found in the Novgorod chronicles of the 13th century, describing the glorious deeds and battles of Alexander Yaroslavich. In ancient chronicles, this tea is also called « Bogatyrsky tea" or "Tea for boyars or stuffy people". Europeans called it simply "Russian tea".

Our ancestors knew the technology and techniques for making narrow-leaved healing, tasty and fragrant tea from fireweed. The village of Koporye, near St. Petersburg, became the main place for harvesting tea from fireweed leaves, so the drink Ivan-tea began to be called Koporye tea. A little later, in 3 counties of the St. Petersburg province, its production was equipped. The emperor personally issued the St. Petersburg governor a license for the production and sale of this heroic drink to England.

Ivan-chai was in demand among different strata of society, it was drunk even in monasteries, where tea and coffee were banned as stimulating drinks. Even then it was believed that this tea charges with strength and vigor, relieves headaches and stomach ailments.

Such tea was delivered to the imperial table and was widely exported abroad. It is authentically known that in the 19th century it was purchased by thousands of pounds of Denmark and England, and for France and Prussia it was a contraband product. The popularity of this drink in European countries was comparable to the popularity of Persian carpets, Chinese silk and Damascus steel. And Russia's income from the export of willow-tea to Europe exceeded the income from gold and furs.

At the end of the 19th century, the popularity of Ivan tea was so great that it began to undermine the financial power of the East Indian tea company, which traded Indian tea, and it could not adequately compete with Kopor tea. The British could not survive this calmly and accused the Russians that their tea was unhealthy because of the white clay with which they grind it. Thus, the competitor was removed from the English market, and Koporye was ruined.

For a while, Koporye tea was forgotten. However, later the healing drink was reproduced according to old recipes, and the sailors of Admiral Kruzenshtern took him on a round-the-world expedition.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a Russian scientist, an expert in Tibetan medicine Pyotr Badmaev, knowing the healing properties of willow tea, opened an elite private clinic, a health center for high-ranking persons, where he prepared decoctions and tinctures based on this plant and other herbs for the treatment of ailments and general healing of the body. Badmaev himself claimed that his Ivan-tea tinctures would give him the opportunity to live up to 200 years.

But during the revolution, Pyotr Badmaev, who was 109 years old at that time, was declared politically unreliable and thrown into prison, and the employees of his laboratory were shot without trial, the recipes were destroyed, and the production of Kopor tea almost completely stopped. After some time, the scientist was released, but the cell and torture severely undermined his health and he soon died.

After the revolution of 1917, the purchase of tea in Russia ceased altogether. Most of the producers went bankrupt, and the production of traditional Russian Ivan-tea was curtailed. Chinese and Indian teas have completely captured the European and world market. Ivan tea, like a drink, has become a national Russian feature for Europeans, nothing more.

Later, the Bolsheviks came to their senses and realized that strong, hardy, physically healthy citizens were needed to preserve the state, especially in the Red Army. The tea factory in Koporye was restored, and under it, by order of L.P. Beria opened a laboratory whose task was to develop recipes for drinks for the Red Army based on Ivan tea. Such tea was supplied to pharmacies and hospitals in the country of the Soviets.

During the Great Patriotic War, the German occult organization "Ahnenerbe" (German: Ahnenerbe - "Heritage of the Ancestors", full name - "The German Society for the Study of Ancient German History and Heritage of Ancestors"), created by Hitler, conducted research on the unique properties of Ivan tea to create a superman .

At the end of the summer of 1941, the German army was advancing on all fronts. The most fierce battles unfolded in the northern direction. The Nazis rushed to Leningrad, trying to take it into the ring by siege. On September 1, the Nazis take the Koporsky fortress, which served as a reliable shelter for the Red Army soldiers. German tanks are waiting for instructions to continue moving towards Leningrad, but Field Marshal von Leib, commander of the North grouping, gives a strange order - to temporarily stop the offensive, turn tank columns to the side and completely destroy the object called the "river of life". Under this code name was the Koporye tea plant and its laboratory. Hitler could not allow the physical strength and endurance of Soviet soldiers to surpass those of the Wehrmacht. The order was carried out, all employees of the factory were shot, and the factory itself was completely destroyed.

Today, unfortunately, there is no rush demand for this unique drink. It is produced in small batches in the Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov and Pskov regions, and the raw materials are collected and harvested in Western Siberia on an industrial scale. The plant is harvested in ecologically clean areas of the taiga. Since summer is shorter in Siberia than in the central part of Russia, and plants are quite adapted to local conditions, during this time they manage to absorb a much larger amount of nutrients than those growing in industrial zones or on poor soils. Therefore, in terms of ecological cleanliness and medicinal qualities, Siberian tea is superior to that which grows everywhere.

You can buy Ivan tea at a pharmacy, in a department of a supermarket that specializes in selling various teas, or you can order it online. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as in other large cities, online stores have order pickup centers in areas convenient for you, or couriers will deliver tea to your place of residence. Almost all such stores accept orders from residents of all regions of Russia. The manufacturer of this herbal preparation, expiration date and recommendations for use should be indicated on the packaging of the product.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICSBLOOMING SALLY

Ivan tea or narrow-leaved fireweed (Epilobium fnqustifoleum) belongs to the fireweed family. Among the people it is also called - mother liquor, bread box, dry pit, fur coat, down jacket, wild flax.

This is a perennial plant found almost everywhere in the European part of Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus and the meadows of the Far East. Prefers well-lit and humid areas, so it is often found near rivers, streams and lakes, and can also be found along roadsides or on hills.

A plant about 100-180 cm high with a straight, strong stem and flowers collected in brushes, most often located at the top of the stem. Ivan tea blooms in July. Flowers can be of various shades - from white to lilac. When flowering, it forms abundant fluff, which in the old days was used to make cotton wool, and also stuffed pillows and mattresses with it.

Fireweed is propagated by seeds that ripen in August and rhizomes.

Ivan-chai is very much appreciated by beekeepers, because it is an excellent honey plant.

By the way, this plant can be easily grown in your country house. To do this, choose a sunny place and do not forget about watering. Ivan-tea does not require fertilizers and does not take any harmful substances from the soil.

Biochemical composition:

vitamin C;
B vitamins;
proteins;
starch;
polysaccharides, which are abundant in the rhizomes of Ivan tea;

pectins;
mucus;
chlorophyll;
tannins;
phytosterols;
organic acids;
coumarins, triterpenoids, flavonoids and some alkaloids;

macro- and microelements -

“After our study of Ivan-tea, it turned out that it contains from 69 to 71 useful trace elements, depending on the area of growth. This is 2/3 of the periodic table. In particular, the high concentration of copper, iron and manganese in the leaves and flowers of the plant",- said academician, professor, doctor of technical sciences Albert Nikitin.

It is very important that in Ivan-tea, unlike oriental species, there is no addictive caffeine, and there are no purine, oxalic and uric acids in the composition, which can disrupt metabolism.

HEALING PROPERTIES OF IVAN-TEA

In folk medicine, all parts of the plant - leaves, roots, flowers, seeds and stems - are used to treat various diseases. Each of these parts has its own useful properties. Tinctures, medicinal decoctions and ointments are prepared from them.

Ivan-tea - as a drug:
helps to strengthen the immune system - contains a record amount of ascorbic acid - 400 mg per 100 g, which is several times more than in citrus fruits and black currants;
reduces the increased excitability of the central nervous system, relieves insomnia, relieves depression and nervous tension, increases efficiency. It is used for epileptic disease and neuropsychiatric disorders;
helps relieve headaches and counters migraines;
improves digestion and normalizes the microflora of the stomach and intestines. It is used for constipation, treatment of colitis, gastritis and peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum;
increases the absorption of nutrients from food, and also improves carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in the body;
improves blood composition, fights anemia, as it contains a lot of iron;
positively affects the functioning of the heart due to the flavonoid hyperoside and quercetin contained in it;
improves the functioning of the endocrine system and is used in the treatment of diseases of the liver, gallbladder and spleen;
used for the prevention of benign and malignant neoplasms, as it is considered the strongest antioxidant;
improves eyesight;
used in otolaryngology for inflammation of the ear, throat and nose;
enhances lactation and improves the quality of breast milk due to the large amount of vitamins. Therefore, Ivan-tea is very useful during pregnancy and during breastfeeding;
restores strength during exhaustion, and it is also recommended to take it during therapeutic fasting, as it contains a lot of natural protein;
is an effective natural pain reliever, so they are recommended to rub the joints, areas of swelling and muscles for cramps and pain;
has a positive effect on the male body. This tea should be consumed by men engaged in hard work, as well as hunters, taiga dwellers, and tourists. It is known that willow tea helps in the treatment of prostatitis and prostate adenoma, improves potency and erectile function;
improves skin condition - activates the processes of granulation and epithelization of damaged skin areas, therefore it is used for such skin diseases - psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, urticaria, seborrhea, seborrheic dermatitis, sycosis, purulent folliculitis, dandruff, and is also used to wash wounds and ulcers on the skin ;
used in dentistry for the prevention of caries and periodontal disease - doctors advise rinsing the mouth every day with a decoction of willow-tea, the benefits of which will appear in a month. In addition, a decoction of flowers and leaves of willow-tea is useful to give to children during teething;
cleanses the body of toxins and toxins, therefore it is recommended to take it after courses of radiation chemotherapy;
reduces intoxication of the body, is successfully used for food and alcohol poisoning, and also relieves hangover;
it is used to detect violations of the menstrual cycle, during painful or heavy menstruation, uterine bleeding, pain in women during menopause;
strengthens the strength of people weakened by illnesses and people of advanced age;
used for the effectiveness of the prevention and treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases. A decoction of the leaves of willow-tea helps to get rid of cough, accelerates the process of recovery from colds, thins sputum;
has the ability to heal, tonic, relieve fatigue, give strength and vigor, therefore narrow-leaved fireweed is good in a bath, it goes well with birch and oak twigs;
used in cosmetology in the form of smears and ointments;
used in cooking - young shoots of grass are good in a variety of salads, and dried and ground roots of the plant are added to flour, giving flour products a peculiar sweetish pleasant taste.

SECRETS OF TEA FLAVOR

Collection of Ivan tea

When harvesting grass, appearance and location are important, so roadsides and polluted areas should be avoided.

It is better to collect narrow-leaved fireweed from July to September inclusive, before its flower brushes bloom.

Since the beneficial properties are contained not only in its flowers, you can also collect and dry the leaves, root and stems.

Leaves should be collected at the moment when willow-chai blooms, because when the flowers fall, the leaves lose their healing properties.

It is customary to collect the stem in the morning, and in dry weather.

After harvesting, all parts of the plant must be lightly washed to get rid of dust and small insects.

Ivan-tea harvesting technology:

withering- it is necessary to scatter the leaves of willow-tea on a white cloth or gauze with a layer of about 5 cm and dry until they become sluggish. It is desirable to dry under a canopy or some kind of cover so that there is no exposure to direct sunlight, periodically turning them over;
With twisting- the leaves are rolled by hand until they turn dark;
fermentation- twisted leaves should be put in an enameled bowl, covered with a wet cloth and put in a warm place to ripen. At the same time, the temperature should not exceed 27C, and the ripening process should not last more than 12 hours, because due to overexposure and too high temperature, fireweed leaves acquire the smell of cheap tea. Properly carried out fermentation is evidenced by a rich floral-fruity aroma;
drying- after fermentation, fireweed leaves should be finely chopped and spread on a baking sheet with a layer of 1 cm, and then dried at 100C for about an hour. With proper drying, the leaves acquire the color of black tea with a very strong and rich aroma, while the tea leaves should not crumble into dust;
storage- it is best to store tea in glass jars, closing them with airtight lids so that there is no access for air. Flowers and leaves of willow-tea can also be stored in paper bags for no more than 2 years, and roots - up to three.

tea brewing

You can brew Ivan tea in the usual way, or pour two tablespoons of tea with a small amount of cold water so that it covers the leaves and bring to a boil over low heat, then remove from heat and let it brew for 7-10 minutes.

Due to the fact that the plant contains a large amount of essential oils, after preparation, Ivan tea can be stored for 5 to 7 days. But if you are using it for medicinal purposes, then it is better to brew a fresh portion of tea each time, and when used as a drink, drink no more than 12 glasses a day.

A distinctive feature of Ivan-tea from other teas is that for 2 liters of boiling water you need only 2 tablespoons of tea leaves.

Special contraindications for the use of Ivan-tea were not found.

As you can see, Ivan tea is indeed a legendary plant, loved for centuries in Russia, and throughout the world. Deservedly loved, but undeservedly forgotten. So maybe it's time to go back to your roots and remember that there is a Russian traditional drink ivan-chai, which surpasses all oriental teas in its taste and healing power. Start your morning with a cup of fragrant Ivan tea and stay awake all day!

Maya Mikhailichenko, teacher-methodologist in chemistry and biology, excellent student of education, was awarded the honorary badge "Sofia Rusova", especially for the Commonwealth.