Valerian Night Tonic

Valerian root, pungent, earthy, and unmistakable even through a sealed dropper bottle. The whole root is extracted at a 1:5 ratio in 45 percent alcohol, strong enough to carry across all of the root's drowsy, slightly sour character rather than a thinned imitation of it. It comes from Valeriana officinalis grown in the Balkans, where the plant has been cultivated for the herb trade for generations. Valerian is the classic sleeping herb of the old herbals, named by the Greeks and used by monastic infirmaries centuries before modern sedatives existed. It is traditionally used to ease the passage into sleep and to quiet a mind that keeps turning the day over long after the day is done. Its smell has always been its one flaw, sharp and unlovely in a way no amount of processing has ever fixed. One dropper stirred into a small glass of water, taken about half an hour before bed, while the room is already quieting down for the night. Hold your nose if you must; the effect does not depend on enjoying the taste. Valerian supports the ordinary business of falling asleep; it is not a treatment for chronic insomnia or any diagnosed sleep disorder, and those conditions are better brought to a physician than to a tincture. Extracted at 1:5 in 45 percent ABV, 50 ml per bottle. Its scent is famously unlovely; its work is not.