Traditional Medicinals

Our roots go back to a third-generation herbalist named Rosemary Gladstar, who was raised close to the earth in the farmlands of Northern California. In the late 1960s, while living in the coastal redwood forest, she met community activist and environmentalist Drake Sadler. The young couple was part of a movement of back-to-the-land baby boomers seeking an alternative lifestyle, including natural foods and herbal remedies. Together, they shared a vision for the rebirth of herbalism in North America, and in 1974 they co-founded Traditional Medicinals.

Traditional Medicinals offer a wide range of natural health teas and organic beverage teas. Whether you're interested in Dandelion Root Tea for Liver Function or a Raspberry leaf as a uterine tonic Traditional Medicinals has you covered! Traditional Medicinals have also committed themselves to provide these traditional herbal remedies at affordable prices for family health and welfare.

Safety & Efficacy

Most of our teas are Natural Health Products – that means they’re safe, effective over the counter remedies.

Natural Health Products (NHPs) restore or maintain good health. The health claims on our tea boxes are supported by evidence, which, depending on the products, may include evidence of traditional use, clinical trial data or references to published studies, and our manufacturing facilities follow Good Manufacturing Practices – procedures designed to keep consumers safe.

To meet the strict licensing requirements necessary to become a Natural Health Product, along with our own high standards, we must ensure that the herbs we’re using have the “right stuff” – they must meet the high standard of pharmacopoeial grade. A pharmacopoeia is an official book of quality standards for herbs, vitamins, and drugs that ensures the right quality and the correct effect for their intended purpose.

Each herb has its own quality standard to ensure optimal activity. That can mean high essential oil content, the right amount of bitterness, or a specific level of an active compound. But the result for each is the same: a tea that has power. So when you’re looking for a tea with verified health benefits, make sure to look for a Natural Product Number, or NPN prominently displayed.

Quality Herbs

Where a plant comes from has a huge effect on its character, much like people. Plants grown in their native environment develop the right balance of chemical compounds. For that reason, whenever we can, we source from a plant’s native habitat. We look for suppliers who can either sustainably collect or cultivate herbs that meet the quality standards we need. This can often take years of development. By fostering long-term relationships and paying a fair wage (through programs like Fair Trade and FairWild), we incentivize our farmers and collectors to create high quality products. We’ve been working with some of our suppliers for over 30 years. Using Fair Trade and Fair Wild standards wherever possible also ensures the sustainability of both people and plant communities.

The overwhelming majority of our herbs are certified organically grown or collected– they aren’t raised using synthetic pesticides or chemicals. And we are proud that our teas are also Non-GMO Project Verified, meaning the plants are bred the way nature intended – no Frankenteas, please.

After being harvested or wild collected and then cut, cleaned, and carefully dried, our herbs make their way to our solar-powered facility in Sebastopol, California. 

Quality Control

Our first job is to make sure that the herbs we’re using are what they claim to be. We call it identity testing. You might think that would be pretty obvious – doesn’t chamomile always look like chamomile? – but there are a lot of herbal doppelgangers out there. And even if it actually is chamomile, not all chamomile is created equal. We’re looking for specific characteristics in each batch of herbs that determine quality. One of the first steps our herbalists go through, after examining a new batch, is to put a sample from each shipment under the microscope. There we see each individual flourish, whirl, and spiral that indicates the herb’s identity.

PURE OF HERB

Now that we know the plant’s identity, we have to test its true character. We only want the pure herb in your tea bag, not some of the nasties like wayward plant parts, leftover sand or dirt. We also look at water content to make sure the herb has been dried properly, and we check for microbes, heavy metals, and, if non-organic, pesticide residues.

TESTS OF STRENGTH

It takes a lot of testing to make sure that pharmacopoeial grade standards are met. Our in-house and suppliers’ labs conduct testing to be absolutely, completely sure that we are getting the systems-invigorating, body-balancing quality we need.

For example, herbs like marshmallow and slippery elm are mucilaginous, which means they are high in mucilage, a slimy (in a good way) substance that produces a slippery, coating effect. On the other hand, many herbs, like peppermint, rely on essential oil content. We use a wide range of tests to make sure our herbs are strong enough to join the proud ranks of pharmacopoeial grade.

CUPPING

Taste, texture, and aroma are a very important but sometimes overlooked part of herbal remedies. They are the first line of defense against poor quality. Herbs must taste characteristic, otherwise something is wrong or missing; for example, dandelion’s bitter taste helps to get digestive juices flowing and aid digestion. The cupping team, led by our professional blend master, tastes and smells a brewed cup and evaluates its properties. This sensory evaluation helps us make sure that each herb and herbal blend has the right taste and aroma.

MANUFACTURING

Our teas are packaged at a Good Manufacturing Practices compliant manufacturing facility. Every lot of finished product is tested to its quality standard before it is approved for sale, to ensure that it will provide the benefit that you expect.

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Traditional Medicinals Organic Throat Coat Tea

Traditional Medicinals Organic Throat Coat Tea is excellent for temporary relief of minor throat irritations with one of its main ingredients, licorice root.

Harmonizing and unmistakable, licorice is traditionally used in herbal medicine to promote respiratory health and help relieve coughs and bronchitis, licorice can be your best friend if you find yourself with a chest cold or heavy cough.

Traditional Medicinals Cup of Calm

In the chaos of everyday life, we could use a little calm, right? How about a cupful? This blend of relaxing herbs like passionflower, chamomile, lavender and catnip will help bring some tranquility to your day (or night).* These herbs are called “nervines” because of their ability to have a beneficial effect on your nervous system.* We love this tea anytime we need to step back and take it easy.

Traditional Medicinals Organic Lemon Everyday Detox

Traditionally used in herbal medicine as a nutritive tonic and alterative to help remove accumulated waste products from the body.

Burdock is traditionally used in Herbal Medicine as an alterative to help remove accumulated waste products from the body; Stinging nettle is used in Herbal Medicine as a nutritive tonic.

Traditional Medicinals Weightless Tea

Weightless® is an herbal tea that assists in relieving temporary water retention with the help of dandelion root. 

The bitters found in dandelion stimulate the taste buds, setting off a chain reaction of flowing juices from saliva to bile and setting the digestive tract in motion. This helps the breakdown of fats during digestion. Dandelion can provide relief from bloating as it acts as a natural diuretic increasing urine output while also providing liver detoxification support. 

Traditional Medicinals Eater's Digest Peppermint