Oatstraw and Organoleptics: Learning to Read Herbs With Your Senses

How do we actually know what’s in our herbs?

Herbs rarely come with nutritional labels, and how a plant is grown, harvested, and stored can dramatically change what ultimately ends up in your cup.

There are two ways we can learn more about what our herbs contain. We can turn to tested data, including resources like Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical Database, but we also have another incredibly useful tool available to us wherever we go: our own senses.

In this episode, I’m using oatstraw as an example to explore organoleptics, the practice of learning about plants through taste, smell, sight, and feel.

► What organoleptics means and why it’s such a useful skill for herbalists

► How tested data and our sensory experiences can work together to help us understand a plant

► What oatstraw’s soft sweetness can tell us about its nourishing qualities

► How its silky, slightly slippery texture reveals its moistening and demulcent qualities

► What oatstraw’s subtle mineral-rich salty flavor can tell us about the plant

► Why you don’t need special equipment or a magical ability to start developing your organoleptic skills

With nothing more than taste and texture, I can already recognize oatstraw as nourishing and moistening. Those qualities fit beautifully with how herbalists work with oatstraw as a soothing plant, especially for the nervous system and for people who feel burnt up and fried out.

There are five main flavors in herbal medicine, and each taste offers us a doorway into how an herb works. Learning to recognize those patterns can completely change the way you experience the plants around you.