sassafras tea

American  

noun

1. a tea made from the aromatic dried bark of the root of the sassafras tree, often used medicinally as a stimulant, diaphoretic, and diuretic.

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Etymology

Origin of sassafras tea

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

For the front awning, he used sassafras, a semi-soft wood that darkens with age, smells like root beer when you cut it, and reminds him of the sassafras tea he drank as a kid.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 9, 2023

Farmers' almanacs advise rural readers to drink sassafras tea and rhubarb brews to cleanse the body of winter's ills.

From Time Magazine Archive

We drank sassafras tea, sweetened with some of the sugar Bando had brought me, rubbed our turtle shells clean in the snow, and went out into the forest.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Breakfast was light—acorn pancakes, jam, and sassafras tea.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

He knew where there were good sassafras roots in the woods; maybe he would bum some brush in the fencerows and heat a little water for sassafras tea.

From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt