Glossary • Flora and Fauna and More-A • Letters Ra~Rz
Rohrl
{ROAR-l}
Appearance: a hardy grass, with many mild variances depending on place of growth
Tisane ingredients: the blades, sometimes fresh and sometimes toasted, sometimes whole and sometimes cut
Home: Gloam (planet of another solar system)
Likes: other grasses; low golden or dusky light; creeks and brooks and springs
Aya ingredient equivalents: barley, lemongrass
The primary family of grasses that grows in the sprawling lowlands of Gloam, with many permutations of small and large environmental adaptation that lead to uniquely different tisane tastes and effects.
During the eclipse season, a portion of the planet is always in shadow. To achieve the full effect required for a truly original brewing of Space Grandma's famous "Fall With Friends" tea, it is necessary to expressly use rohrl grown in the following way:
It must be sown in those lands in the last days of light before the eclipses commence, that it might sprout with the first days of whole dark. Throughout the whole season it must be tended to as it grows up bathed in the deep shadow, then tended with care over the seven days it takes for the eclipses to fade - and the newly-revealed rohrl to adjust to the sun. Let it continue to soak in the light, with less and less tending, for the remaining two thirds of the year. Only then is it harvested, in the last days of the long and lovely light before the eclipses appear again to sow their shadows and chill.
And only then, if and when harvested in those last days, is it fit for tisane.
Grandma's note: whenever substituting roasted barley for Rorhl, halve the amount of Rorhl shoots (so if the recipe calls for 2, use 1 scoop of barley).