What on earth is Labrador Tea?

You may be wondering about the Labrador Tea in our products and what it actually is.

The Labrador Tea plant that we harvest here grows in muskeg bogs along the coast of Northwest B.C. and on Haida Gwaii.

The smell of the muskeg bogs in the summer is intoxifying. It’s a heady mix of the musty, moist scent of layer upon layer of thick, delicate mosses, intermingling with the  primal scent of the Labrador tea plants that jut up through it and tangle around the contorted, stubby pine trees. This combines with the summer breeze coming in off of the ocean and captures the scent of the surrounding cedar, spruce and hemlock trees making for an over- the- top Zen experience. I would say that harvesting Labrador Tea is like forest bathing on steroids, something that we all look forward to each summer.

We harvest our Labrador Tea anytime from early July to the end of August when the plants have lots of oil running through the leaves. We do this by hand, taking only a few leaves from each plant and being careful not to damage the area we work in as it’s not just us that depend on the muskeg bogs being intact. By harvesting this way, we’ve been able to go back to the same areas every year. This also makes us acutely aware of the changes that we see to this ecosystem, but that’s another story for another day.

Every year we harvest about 30 to 50 kgs of Labrador Tea leaves. As soon as we have them harvested, we steam distill them in a 5-lt. distiller.  Each round of distilling takes about two and a half hours, and we end up with a few milliliters, or about a dime size drop of Labrador Tea essential oil.

The rest is hydrosol – commonly called an extract. We add a natural preservative made from Radish Root that’s fermented with lactic acid bacteria called Leuconostoc kimchii.  The end product is called Leucidal liquid and it protects against any bacteria, mold and yeasts that may have been present in our wild harvested leaves.

So what does Labrador tea do and why do we go to all of this work for it?

Labrador tea is an incredible plant. In Northwest B.C. it’s been used for thousands of years by First Nations people who brew the leaves and use them to treat asthma, rheumatism, kidney and liver issues, headaches, arthritis and skin conditions. In our case we use the oil and hydrosol in our products for its’ over the top effectiveness for skincare. Having a local plant from the rainforest that has the skincare properties that Labrador Tea has is really incredible.

So what does it actually do?

Labrador Tea is packed with antioxidants (flavonoids, phenols) that fight the appearance of lines and wrinkles. It has Ursolic acid which is an anti-inflamatory, antibacterial and antioxidant that is present in plants and is extremely important for your skin. It’s proven to preserve the elasticity of skin and it’s extremely effective at delivering Coenzyme Q10 to your skin which is huge in skincare. It’s also far more effective in retaining your skin elasticity, moisture and softness than the Vitamin C and grape seed extracts which are used in most skincare products. The bottom line is that is clears your skin, has amazing anti-oxidant properties, aids in conserving the elasticity of your skin and helps to minimize those tiny wrinkles we have. Not bad for a little bog plant!

When we began designing our formulations, we looked for plants and botanicals that we could harvest locally here on the West Coast and that could compete naturally with the best products out there. Labrador Tea has proven to be one of the key plants in our line based on it’s effectiveness in maintaining healthy, great looking skin!.

It’s well worth adding Labrador Tea based products if you’re looking for a simple and effective skincare regime.

Courtesy of Talon Gillis photography

https://talongillis.com/