ALWAYS START WITH A WEEKER/MILDER TEA AND INCREASE IF DESIRED
DIFFERENT SIZE/TYPE OF PODS WILL RESULT IN A STRONGER/MILDER TEA
REMEMBER, START MILD AND WORK UP!!!!

1. After the poppy has gone through its flowering cycle, a light brown to purple-blue in color pod is left on the end of the stem. Most pods will be bone-dry, beige-purple and brittle. You need about ten medium size pods or four of the large giganthemum pods per person for this tea recipe. For stronger effect you may use slightly more.

2. Break the pods off of the stems, twisting them so as to create a hole at the bottom of the pod where the stem came off. If the pods have not been drilled or dehisced, the pods will contain a great deal of seeds which you can now remove and save for planting. Break the pods open and empty out the seeds. There is no need to include the seeds in the tea because the ingredients for the tea are in the poppy pods alone.

3. At this point you will need a coffee grinder either mechanical or electrical which can be found at Wal-Mart, Sears or any other department store for between $10 and $20. Put the pods in the grinder, and grind the pods to as fine a powder as possible. The more you grind them the more surface area there is for the flavoring of the poppy to be extracted.

4. Boil 2 cups of water per person/batch. When the water comes to a boil, stir in the ground-up pods and immediately remove the pot from the heat. You want to scald the powder but you don't want it to sit there and boil on the stove, it will break down the flavoring. As the water cools continue to stir in the powder into the water. You don't have to stir continuously, but insure the powder fully mixes with the water. After it is fully mixed let the ingredients seep into the water as it cools and become a light brown-yellow cloudy liquid.

5. After about 15 minutes, using a cheese cloth or strainer, pour the mixture through to separate out the water from the pod powder. As you are pouring the boiled water and poppy pods through the strainer or cheese cloth, use a spoon to stir the mixture so that it does not get clogged, and continues to flow. When all of the water is drained, discard the pungent remnants of the pods.

6. Pour the remaining liquid and serve. For enhanced taste you may add some honey or sugar. What you have left is poppy tea. For an alternate taste you may cool and server with sugar and lemon juice as ice tea.