Choose a dosha and the season you are in, and this tool puts together a simple spice tea from ordinary kitchen spices, cumin, coriander, fennel, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon, and tulsi, the holy basil leaf. It shows why each spice is in the cup or left out, in the words of this site’s own spice pages, and it follows the season rule of the Ashtanga Hridayam. It asks one safety question first and suggests nothing if a listed situation applies. It is a kitchen drink, not a remedy, and it gives no amounts for health purposes.
How it works
The candidates are seven. Six are everyday spices on the spices page that this site’s pages describe steeped or simmered in water or tea: ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel and coriander on their own herb and spice pages, and cumin in the CCF tea recipe. The seventh is tulsi, which the kapha food page names as a tea. The other everyday spices are left out for reasons on their own pages: the turmeric page describes turmeric warmed into milk, a milk drink rather than a water tea (the golden milk recipe is that drink); the black pepper page describes no drink; the ajwain and fenugreek pages mention drinks but decline to describe them, leaving that to a practitioner; and the asafoetida page puts hing in buttermilk. Clove, saffron and nutmeg, which their pages describe in tea or milk, are not among the spices page’s everyday spices, and the clove page adds that sources disagree on its energy, several classical lists calling it cooling and many teachers warming, so the season test below could not place it. For each candidate the tool holds two lines from its page: its energy (virya), heating or cooling, and what it is said to do to vata, pitta and kapha.
The tool then applies two tests. The first is the dosha: a spice is left out if its own page says it increases or aggravates your dosha, even if only when used heavily, as the ginger, cinnamon, tulsi and cumin pages say of pitta. Where a page asks only for a light hand or some thought, without saying the spice increases your dosha, the spice stays in and the result says so, as with cardamom for pitta and fennel for kapha. The second is the season. The Ashtanga Hridayam, in its chapter on the seasons (Sutrasthana 3.56 to 57, numbered as on the siva.sh edition), asks for food and drink that is cold in Grishma and in Sharad, the end of the rains, and the opposite in the other four seasons. So for a chosen dosha, in Grishma and Sharad the tool keeps the cooler spices, coriander and fennel, and in the other seasons it keeps the warming ones. The spices page says the same in kitchen terms: more coriander and fennel in a hot climate, and ginger, pepper and cinnamon in the cold.
Of the spices that pass both tests, the cup takes the first three in the order your dosha’s food page lists them: the vata, pitta or kapha page. In spring, ginger goes first, because the Ashtanga Hridayam names ginger water among the drinks of that season (Sutrasthana 3.23). If you are not sure of your dosha, the tool offers the CCF tea of cumin, coriander and fennel, which its page says teachers describe as acceptable to all three doshas. It gives that tea as its page does, in every season: the two tests are not applied to it, so it keeps cumin in Grishma and Sharad and coriander and fennel in the cooler seasons, and the season changes only how it is served.
Reading the result
The result names the cup, then shows a table of all seven spices with each page’s words on its energy and on your dosha, and whether the spice is in the cup, also fits, or is left out and why. A vata reader in Hemanta, for example, gets ginger, cumin and cardamom, with cinnamon and tulsi also fitting; a pitta reader in Grishma gets coriander and fennel, and in Hemanta cardamom alone; a kapha reader in Vasanta gets ginger, cumin and tulsi.
For the method, the tool points to the CCF tea recipe: simmer the spices gently in water, cover, steep and strain, keep to small kitchen amounts and finish the tea the same day. A season note says how to serve it: warm in the cooler seasons, and at room temperature, never iced, in Grishma and Sharad.
Where traditions differ
Sources differ on the energy of several spices. The cumin page says cumin is usually taught as warming, though some modern teachers describe it as gently cooling; the cardamom page says cardamom is often taught as mildly warming, though some regard it as nearly neutral or lightly cooling; and the fennel page says that many modern teachers call fennel mildly cooling while some older descriptions lean towards a mild warmth. The tool treats cumin and cardamom as mildly warming and fennel as one of the cooler spices, following the spices page, and shows each page’s words so that you can see the difference.
The dosha and the season can pull apart. The pitta food page says that in the cold of winter its cooling advice can feel unsuitable and that many teachers then follow the weather, so in Hemanta and Shishira a pitta cup keeps cardamom, a mildly warming spice that the pitta food page favours, and leaves out cumin, ginger, cinnamon and tulsi, whose pages say they can increase or aggravate pitta. The vata food page says that in hot weather many teachers ease off the warm spices, which is what the tool does in Grishma. Autumn is harder: the vata page says many teachers find its warming style most relevant in autumn, but the Sharad of the texts is the hot season after the rains, for which the Ashtanga Hridayam asks for cold food and drink. The tool follows the text and says so; if your autumn is already cool and dry, choose the season that matches your weather.
What it does not do
It gives no amounts for health purposes and makes no claim that a tea treats or prevents anything. It does not use concentrated products, essential oils or any herb other than tulsi, which the kapha food page names as a tea. It asks no health details, only one yes or no question, and shows no cup if pregnancy or breastfeeding, a baby or young child, certain medicines, a hormone-sensitive condition, a spice allergy or ongoing digestive symptoms apply, quoting the CCF tea page’s safety notes instead. For the cautions on each spice, see its own page or the herb lookup. Please read the medical disclaimer, see a doctor for any health concern and a registered Ayurvedic practitioner (BAMS in India) for Ayurvedic treatment.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Why is ginger left out of a pitta tea?
The ginger page describes ginger as heating and says it is said to increase pitta, particularly when taken freely. The tool leaves out any spice whose page says it increases or aggravates your dosha, even if only when used heavily, so a pitta cup uses coriander, fennel or cardamom instead.
↳ Why does the season change the spices?
The Ashtanga Hridayam asks for cold food and drink in Grishma and Sharad and the opposite in the other seasons. The tool reads that as cooler spices in those two seasons and warming spices in the other four, as the spices page also suggests.
↳ How much of each spice should I use?
The tool gives no amounts for health purposes. For an ordinary cup, follow the kitchen amounts in the CCF tea recipe, and keep added spices small. Stop any spice that gives you a rash, swelling, wheeze or stomach upset.
↳ Is CCF tea really good for all three doshas?
Teachers describe it as tridoshic, meaning acceptable to all three. The CCF tea page notes that this is a modern teaching shorthand and that the classical books list the three seeds separately and do not name the drink.
↳ Can I drink spice tea in pregnancy or give it to a child?
The tool shows no cup in those cases. The CCF tea page asks you to check with your doctor or midwife before drinking herbal teas daily or in quantity in pregnancy, and says seed teas should not be given to infants.
↳ Is there evidence that spice tea helps digestion?
The CCF tea page says there is no good research showing that the drink improves digestion or any other health outcome, and the spices page says good research in people is limited for most culinary spices. Enjoy it as a warm, caffeine-free drink.