Mexico's soothing herbal infusion: fresh or dried sprigs of pericón, the anise-scented marigold known as Mexican tarragon, steeped in hot water and sweetened with a little honey or piloncillo, a traditional digestive long drunk across the Mexican highlands
Origin: Mexico
From the journey of Tarragon.
Pericón, the marigold botanists call Tagetes lucida, is the tarragon of Mexico, and brewing it into a tea is its oldest and most enduring use. The plant carries the same sweet anise-and-liquorice scent as the true tarragon of the Old World, though it is no relation, and the peoples of Mesoamerica valued it long before the Spanish arrived: the Aztecs knew it as yauhtli, burned it as incense, strewed it in ritual, and the Franciscan chronicler Bernardino de Sahagún recorded its place in their medicine and their sacred drinks. After the conquest it became pericón, and the gentle, fragrant infusion of its golden-flowered sprigs remained a household remedy across the Mexican highlands, drunk above all to settle the stomach and ease digestion, but also simply for its clean, sweet, calming flavour. The plant is bound to the agricultural year: on the feast of the Holy Cross and around the equinox, crosses woven from flowering pericón are set over doorways, milpas, and fields to protect the coming harvest from storm and harm. To drink té de pericón is to taste the New World's own tarragon, the anise herb that the Americas reached entirely on their own.
Pericón (Tagetes lucida) is also called yerbanís, hierba de Santa María, and Mexican mint marigold, and it is sold dried in Mexican groceries and herbal stalls. It thrives in heat where true French tarragon will not, and gardeners in warm climates grow it as a tarragon substitute. Beyond the tea, the fresh herb is used sparingly to scent corn, salsas, and stews; use it with a light hand, as it is more pungent than true tarragon. Note that Tagetes species should be taken in modest culinary amounts.
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