le Barde Herboriste
Ingredients

The ingredients

Every product starts with a raw material. Here's where it comes from, how it's harvested, and what makes it unique.

01

Scots pine

Pinus sylvestris

Golden Scots pine resin, gathered from the bark in late summer, is one of the founding scents of the workshop.

Resinous, warm, sun-baked pine grove with a trace of dark honey

02

Red pine

Pinus resinosa

Red pine, with its brick-coloured scaly bark, yields a bright, clean resin that Étienne collects on his walks.

Fresh, bright, clear resin with a lemony edge

03

Eastern white pine

Pinus strobus

The giant of the eastern forests, with its soft five-needle bundles, gives a tender, fragrant resin woven into Québec's history.

Soft, rounded, tender resin with a vanilla note of fresh-cut wood

04

Spruce

Picea glauca / Picea pungens

Spruce gum, chewed by our grandparents and once sold in general stores, is a hard resin with the scent of the boreal forest.

Boreal, smoky, dark resin and crushed needles

05

Balsam fir

Abies balsamea

Québec's Christmas tree hides blisters of liquid balsam beneath its bark, one of the purest scents of our forests.

Green, sweet, forest floor after rain and Christmas tree

06

Eastern hemlock

Tsuga canadensis

A shade-loving tree with drooping branches, hemlock fed the tanneries and lumber camps; its needles brew a citrus-tasting tea.

Tender green, lemony, damp moss and cool shade

07

Balsam poplar

Populus balsamifera

The sticky buds of balsam poplar, the famous balm of Gilead, perfume the riverbanks at the first thaw.

Honeyed, resinous, amber, springtime on the riverbank

08

Labrador tea

Rhododendron groenlandicum

A bog shrub with woolly, rust-coloured leaves, Labrador tea is the drink of the voyageurs and the First Peoples.

Resinous, peppery, wild rosemary and sunlit peat

09

Nettle

Urtica dioica

Scorned by gardeners, nettle is one of the oldest wild greens of Europe and Québec; it loses its sting the moment it is dried or cooked.

Grassy, deep green, cut hay with a light saline note

10

Raspberry leaf

Rubus idaeus

Long before the fruit, it is the silvery-backed leaves of wild raspberry that get picked for a tea tasting like a light black tea.

Dry leaf, light black tea, a distant note of red fruit

11

Chaga

Inonotus obliquus

A black, cracked mass that grows on living birches, chaga is brewed into a decoction tasting of vanilla and charred wood.

Earthy, vanilla, charred wood and birch bark

12

Reishi

Ganoderma lucidum

The lacquered mushroom of Chinese prints, its cap gleaming red like varnish, grown without inputs a few hours from Montréal.

Woody, bitter, lacquer and damp bark

13

Cordyceps

Cordyceps militaris

Small bright-orange clubs grown on rice rather than on insects: a strange mushroom the colour of dusk.

Mild, umami, a marine note and warm straw

14

Lion's mane

Hericium erinaceus

A cascade of long white spines with no cap and no gills, tasting of lobster once it hits the pan.

Mild, marine, fresh crab and pale wood

15

Shiitake

Lentinula edodes

The oak-log mushroom with a cracked brown cap and smoky scent, cultivated in Japan for a thousand years and here for a few decades.

Smoky, umami, forest floor and toasted hazelnut

16

Fire morels

Morchella spp.

The spring after a wildfire, morels rise by the thousand from the ash: a fleeting, spectacular harvest in the Canadian West.

Woody, smoky, hazelnut and earth after fire

17

Astragalus

Astragalus membranaceus

A pale yellow root of the pea family, sliced into long tongue-depressor strips, with a mild flavour of beans.

Dry hay, sweet bean, a touch of licorice

18

American ginseng

Panax quinquefolius

The root that made a fortune for the Jesuits of New France and emptied our forests; today shade-grown in Ontario by hand.

Earthy, bittersweet, dried carrot and licorice

19

Turmeric

Curcuma longa

The orange rhizome that dyes everything it touches, from monks' robes to kitchen tablecloths, with a scent of earth and ginger.

Warm, earthy, dried ginger with a bitter edge

20

Frankincense

Boswellia sacra / Boswellia carterii

The incense of the Magi and the Egyptian temples: pale resin tears that melt on the ember into a lemony, sacred smoke.

Lemony, resinous, balsamic, church smoke and warm stone

21

Vetiver

Chrysopogon zizanioides

A grass whose roots dive three metres deep and smell of wet earth, smoked wood and grapefruit: perfumery's secret foundation.

Earthy, smoky, raw root, grapefruit and hazelnut

22

Ambergris

Physeter macrocephalus (origine)

Treasure of the beaches: a sperm whale concretion aged for years at sea, smelling of ocean, tobacco and warm skin.

Marine, tobacco, warm skin, salt and old wood

23

Avocado oil

Persea americana

The thick green oil pressed from the fruit's flesh, not its pit: the base of nearly every maceration in the workshop.

Green, buttery, fresh hazelnut and cut grass

24

Hibiscus

Hibiscus sabdariffa

It is not the petals you drink but the ruby-red calyces, tart as cranberry: the bissap of West Africa and Mexico's agua de jamaica.

Tart, fruity, cranberry and sour cherry

25

German chamomile

Matricaria chamomilla

Tiny daisies with a hollow yellow heart and a scent of apple, Europe's best-loved infusion flower since antiquity.

Green apple, honey, dry hay and sun-warmed flower

26

English lavender

Lavandula angustifolia

Fine lavender of the high plateaus, with violet spikes and a clean scent, the lavender of linen drawers and July fields.

Floral, clean, herbaceous, fresh linen and a July field

27

Damask rose

Rosa damascena

The perfumer's rose, picked at dawn before the sun carries off its scent: small pink buds for teas and macerations.

Floral, honeyed, fresh petal with a hint of lychee

Our products are artisanal plant-based preparations. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.