Making An Infusion

Making an infusion means extracting with water (as making a tincture means extracting 
with alcohol). There's two types of infusions: cold infusion and hot infusion.

- Cold infusion means that you pour cold water on the herb and let it stand for long 
enough for the herb's constituents to be dissolved in the water.

- Hot infusion is the same but with hot water. Usually hot infusion is called herbal 
tea. I sometimes talk about "standard infusion". By this I mean two heaped teaspoonfuls 
of dried herb in a cup of hot water, let stand for 10-15 minutes.

Have you used the above yourself often?

Not lately, because I haven't found horsetail around where I live nowadays. When I was a
kid, I learned this from my mother. We sprayed our blackcurrant bushes with horsetail-
water. A few years back I sprayed my lovage and mints with horsetail-water.

- M