Herb Tasting Workshop
Choose one of the following options
or just scroll down the page.
Tasting workshop introduction
Sample
of course material PDF File
Tasting Workshop Photos
Important
Notice
 Tasting
Workshop Introduction
 The
only way that practitioners can really understand how to use
herbs is by tasting them
Herb tasting is an excellent way for students and
practitioners to learn about the nature and energetics of
the herb by direct experience. And it's great fun!
Tasting Practical
Class tasting record: Over 20 different Western herbs are
tasted during this workshop, and systematic tasting records
are kept. Each herb is scored on a scale of 0-3 for the bitter,
sour, sweet, acrid, and aromatic tastes. Also, where appropriate,
participants record:
- Temperature effect: whether
each herb has a warming or cooling effect on the body
- Direction of energy: whether
each herb has an upward, downward, inward or outward effect
on the body energy
Integrated System
The new system presented in this workshop goes beyond
the limitations of the old Western and Chinese concepts of
taste.
Jeremy's new system integrates concepts from three paradigms:
- Chinese medicine
- Western herbal tradition
- Phytopharmacology
This system gives the practitioner a broader and deeper understanding
of how to use the taste properties:
bitter •
sour • sweet • acrid • aromatic
Increased Clinical Success
This revolutionary approach to herb taste properties
can lead to more balanced herb combinations and to increased
safety and success in the clinic.
Balance the tastes!
This workshop introduces how to balance the taste properties
of the different herbs in a formula. This links with the table
on Balancing the Tastes in Jeremy’s
text Combining Western Herbs and Chinese Medicine.
We need new herbal strategies to meet
the challenge of changing patterns of disease in the West
This workshop presents a new expanded concept of
the taste properties to treat the new patterns of disease
of modern society.
Range of Potential Functions
Tastes don’t have just one function- they
can have a range of potential functions. Which
function manifests depends on the state of the patient, and
each function of the taste can treat a modern disease.
This workshop discusses the different functions
of each taste, with an example of the Western
diseases that can be treated by each function.
Bitter Functions as an Example
The Western concept of bitter is
mainly the function of digestive tonic, and the Chinese
concept of bitter is mainly the function of clearing Heat.
The new expanded concept of bitter allows us to go much further,
and includes eight different bitter functions.
This allows us to treat some of the most important disorders
of modern times.
| Bitter functions |
Western diseases |
| 1. Cardiac |
cardiac weakness and arrhythmia |
| 2. Digestive |
digestive and appetite disorders |
| 3. Hepatic |
side effects of medical drugs |
| 4. Tonic |
chronic fatigue syndrome, anemia |
| 5. Anti-stress |
tension headache, anxiety, insomnia |
| 6. Antipyretic, antimicrobial
|
new epidemics,
recurring infections and fevers |
| 7. Anti-inflammatory |
rheumatic and skin disorders |
| 8. Immune
regulatory |
auto-immune and allergic disorders
|
Taste the herbs! For
each of the different functions of the five tastes, the associated
Western disorders and Chinese syndromes are given. For
each disorder a specific herb is given with
dose and precautions for use. You will taste 20 of these herbs
during the workshop.
Tasting
Workshop Photos
These photos were taken at the Academie Qing Bai
course on Combining Western Herbs and Chinese Medicine with
Jeremy Ross in 2005.
(If you would like us to remove a particular photo containing
an image of yourself from this website, please email
us and we will do so.)
|
