CCF Tea (Cumin, Coriander & Fennel) : Ayurvedic Benefits & How to make?

There are a multitude of digestive herbs that you might have right in your kitchen, that can help to heal you from the inside to the outside. Yes! You read that right. Of course, without even going to any kind of pharmaceutical or grocery store. You don’t need a prescription for them.

You can just make them a part of your cooking and your health will improve. Tadaaa! Isn’t that absolutely amazing?

Have You Heard About C.C.F Tea?

One of the magic herbs that we will discuss today is actually a blend of three different herbs. You may have heard of something called C.C.F. Tea. It stands for:

  • Cumin
  • Coriander
  • Fennel

This is a very well-known herbal remedy in Ayurveda.

Cumin Coriander Fennel Herbs

When we look at herbs, we need to consider the three different characteristics, which are: Dravya- the substance, Guna- qualities or nature and Rasa- Taste. There are six different tastes in Ayurveda, which are- sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent.

Cumin

The first herb we will focus on is Cumin. You are probably familiar with cumin. It has a pretty strong and pungent smell. It is mostly kept ground in the cupboard. It should be bought in a seed format, like little seed pods.

Rasa or taste:

Pungent and Bitter. If you were to put a cumin seed in your mouth and chew it up, you would get a bitter and a pungent taste.

Dravya:

It is necessary to analyze the Virya of any herb. It is the temperature. Is it warm or cool? In cumin, the virya is slightly warm- a little bit warming to the body.

We must consider the Vipaka, the post digestive effect. How does it actually affect your body? Once it’s down and being digested into the belly. The vipaka of cumin is pungent. That means it’s going to purify the body with a pungent vipaka.

Guna:

Cumin is very –

  • Light
  • Dry
  • Rough. Hence, it will balance all three doshas. It is suitable for any Dosha.

Main action:

  • The biggest reason people take cumin is because, it’s a carminative. It will decrease gas in the body.
  • Increase the digestive fire or agni, because it’s a dipana
  • Decrease the toxins or Ama built up in the body.
  • Reducing and scraping body fat.
  • Helps in clearing the channels.
  • Promotes weight loss.
  • Increase urination and the flow of urine.
  • Decrease worms and parasites.
  • Increase breast milk.
  • In cases of indigestion.
  • To increase appetite.

Coriander

Dhanyaka- Coriander Seeds
Coriander

The second one is coriander, which is the seed of cilantro. We must buy this in the seed form.

The rasa or taste

Sweet, Bitter, Pungent and Astringent. It contains four of the six tastes.

Virya or the temperature

Slightly cool.

Vipaka or the long-term post digestive effect

Sweet.

Guna:

  • Light
  • More oily
  • Very balancing for all three doshas. But it is the best for pitta. If you have a pitta dosha imbalance, add some coriander in your food.

Main actions:

  • Whenever we have Indigestion, which is a pitta trait.
  • If you have a low appetite, coriander will increase your appetite.
  • In cases of fever, it will help in pulling that fever down.
  • Lower burning urination. Do you notice a trend with that? A lot of these things are talking about pitta type conditions with fever, burning, urination and indigestion. So coriander is definitely the apt choice to balance out pitta and the other doshas as well.

Fennel

The last part of this healthy tea is fennel, which also comes from a seed.

Rasa or the flavor

Sweet and pungent.

Virya or temperature

Pretty cool, but neutral.

Vipaka or long-term digestive effect

Sweet. It’s going to help to tone a fight and build anything that has a sweet flavor.

Guna or Characteristics

  • Light
  • Moist
  • Sharp
  • Certainly, it will balance all three doshas.

Main actions:

  • Decrease the gas in the body
  • Increase the digestive fire
  • Helps with ulcers and heart burn
  • Aids in absorption of food
  • Good to get things moving
  • Helps in constipation
  • Increases the appetite
  • Induces labor. Might not be the very best thing if you’re not wanting to have that baby quite yet.
  • Really great for your digestion.

Benefits Of CCF Tea

  • This magnificent potion is extremely nourishing and grounding to your body, without overheating the pitta fire and without increase in kapha.
  • Many people use CCF Tea for cleansing, to clean out the GI tract. I
  • It is a detox.
  • Helps in elimination. So if you are having any elimination problems, CCF tea would be a good way to let go of the toxins.
  • It increases your digestion.
  • Promotes appetite.
  • This tea will help in keeping things moving during the holiday and festive season. That’s probably useful. During this time, we end up eating heavy, sticky food. This light tea will help in clearing the waste out.
  • Purify the mind
  • Absorb the food
  • Promote healthy urination
  • Help with weight management.
  • Most of the people will list it as a tea for helping to control appetite and weight. Hence, this tea might be a good one for loosing that excess weight and fat as well.

When should you consume CCF Tea?

A person can drink CCF tea throughout the day , you can drink as post digestion meal  after lunch and dinner ,you can have CCF tea in the morning as it can aid in detox .

Do not consume CCF tea before going to bed as it diuretic which might lead you to wake up during the night to urinate

It can also depend on the following goals

If you are undergoing a detox while eating a healthy diet – Twice a day once in the morning and afternoon

If you are not bringing any change in your diet – It is recommended to have thrice a day in such case

C.C.F. Tea is a suitable drink in the summer as well, when drunken cool or at room temperature. It tastes best, when consumed warm itself.

How to make CCF Tea at home?

To make this tea you need to take one cup of water, for 1 teaspoon of C.C.F Tea. Buy all three of those seeds in bulk and then mix equal ratios of the three and just measure them out with a teaspoon. If you want to emphasize or over power one Dosha over the other, you could increase the fennel a little bit more, if you want a cooling effect on the body.

If you wanted more emphasis on the Pitta Dosha, you could increase the coriander. If you want to get rid of excess gas in your body, then add more cumin. If you want some more of that warming effect, then you can put more cumin.

Usually an equal ratio of all three, mixed altogether works best! Put a teaspoon of that into one cup of water. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat, let it simmer for about 5 minutes and then strain the tea and serve it. It is extremely simple and easy.

Recipe

Ingredients required

Half tbs Cumin seed

Half tbs Coriander seed

Half tbs Fellen seed

2 cups of water

Method 1

Heat the water

Add all the three seeds together

Keep it on a medium flame

Pour in in a cup

Boil it for 10 minutes

Method 2

Grind all the 3 seeds well together to make it a powder

Add a cup of hot water to the mix and drink it

Tip: You can also add honey to make the tea taste better, but don’t add it when the tea is too hot. Honey in any sort of hot liquid makes it difficult to digest. Wait till tea cool down a little and then add.

Why is it important to boil the seeds for at least 10 minutes?

It is very important to boil the seeds for 10 mins or more than that when you are preparing the tea, how you make the tea really matters to reap out the most benefits from CCF tea.

When these three seeds are boiled for 10 minutes  or longer it helps in extraction of oil from these seeds  which have numerous of health benefits.

Hence it is suggested to boil for more than 10 minutes to reap the benefits of CCF tea to its fullest extent

Possible Side Effects Of CCF Tea

Over consumption of fennel seeds can lead to

  • Making skin very sensitive to sun leading to sun burn, patches on skin
  • If on seizure and epilepsy drugs fennel should be avoided
  • As cumin leads to low blood sugar levels, it should be avoided before surgery as a person is required to maintain their blood sugar level  before surgery
  • Over consumption of cumin is also said to liver damage
  • Some people are known to have allergic reaction to coriander, it is advisable to consult a doctor before having CCF tea

Should you have CCF tea – hot or cold?

A few people have a doubt regarding this. CCF tea should be consumed when it’s hot and the reason is that heat or warmth aids in opening up of the blood vessels which in turns leads to a much greater blood flow in the digestive system, hence it is advisable to have CCF tea hot .

The use of CCF tea in preventing broad range of imbalances

How can CCF work on a variety of imbalance?

This is a common question in mind of people who consume CCF. How is CCF tea able to help when it comes to imbalance?

To understand this more better let’s get to the basic of Ayurveda, no matter the disease according to Ayurveda it comes back to the root cause of digestion, what we cannot digest leads to accumulation of toxins in the digestive system.

CCF tea not only helps in preventing toxin accumulation but also it aids in removing these toxins

How much time it will take to see the result?

The answer to this question depends on the problem a person is facing, it varies from a one person to another, so there cannot be a generalized answer to this level

If you are suffering from indigestion you can start seeing a difference within a day or two.

Hence it is very important to be patient and consistent when adding CCF to your lifestyle

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3 thoughts on “CCF Tea (Cumin, Coriander & Fennel) : Ayurvedic Benefits & How to make?”

    • Hi Cheryl,

      No essential oils cannot be used. Also this is a classical ayurvedic combination, so it would be better to not mix it with other teas if you want the same benefits from it. The properties of the herbs change when you mix them with other ingredients.

      Regards,
      Swati

      Reply

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