OVERVIEW
The one thing that everybody connects with Asterix is his famous magic potion. The one that gives him superhuman strength, speed and endurance. And who would not like something like that?
Sure enough, there are a lot of Asterix’s magic potion recipes to be found. One is in the unofficial cookbook of Asterix. Actually there are two recipes – one for children and one for grownups. Or, more simply, one with and one without alcohol. Then there is an extremely interesting one that I tasted in France – beer based bluish concoction. Half a litre of mesmerizing, beautiful color, amazing taste and definitely some magical properties. Sadly the barman did not want to share with me the secret ingredients. There is also a whole Asterix film dedicated to the recipe: Asterix: The Secret of Magic Potion. Although it does not give away much in terms of ingredients, save a special, unknown ingredient from the Getafix’s sickle. If you want, there is a list of ingredients for the magic potion based on all information from the comics and movies. Definitely not something I would recommend cooking, especially the fish seems a bit too much.
And finally, the internet recipes for the famous potion. It is really hard to find some, since the above mentioned film is the majority of search hits. After some intense search I was able to find only a handful. They were mostly smoothie based drinks, not exactly what I expected. Nevertheless, they were delicious and a great day to start the day.
My potion creation
Despite all this variety in recipes I still wasn’t satisfied. The only solution was to create a new one. Since there are many varieties, I was a bit confused in the beginning. So many possible ways are opened: to create a potion as similar as possible to the original one, to make a delicious alcohol based one or to make a super healthy fitness oriented one. In the end it boiled down to only one: to use natural ingredients to create a potion that really gives you the energy and stamina to overpower an entire roman legion. And the potion should be made from things that you – the druid – can pick up in nature. No synthetic compounds or factory produced goods.
The first ingredient is straightforward: caffeine. It gives you that energy boost and mental sharpness that you would expect from a magic potion. Coffee as a source of caffeine is not the best option due to strong taste that will cover everything else. Green tee is a much better source due to mild taste and potential beneficial effects of antioxidants, which are also present in green tea. Next something to cover the pain aspect. Not something extra strong, but something to gently smooth over any unplesantries. Just to make you feel good and free. Aspirin was developed from willow (salix) bark, which is still used in folk medicine. So this is a perfect addition to the potion. Especially considering the fact that caffeine and aspirin have better effect on pain relief when taken together.
Next some thyme herb. It relaxes your lungs and lets you breathe more easily, but, more importantly, it has astonishing amounts of iron. To aid the iron absorption, a dash of lemon juice is strongly advised. And the lemon will also make the potion taste fresher. Which brings us to the flavor. Peppermint or menthol is a universal flavor associated with freshness and action. And it combines well with lemon. Mint herb not only tastes great due to natural menthol, but also adds other benefits. It soothes the pain and cramps and has mild antiseptic properties. A perfect combination for my magic potion. The final touch is the sugar: it smoothes the strong taste of some ingredients, especially the willow bark. Plus, it gives you the direct energy boost, which combines great with other stimulating effects of the potion.
My potion preparation
Preparation of the magic potion is also not trivial and involves some slow boiling, as the original recipe. Substances from bark are namely relatively difficult to extract. Willow bark needs to be first soaked and then slowly boiled to get all the important ingredients out. On the other hand, herbs with volatile oils, like mint herb, should be minimally boiled or not heated at all, to prevent the loss of volatile oils. Clearly the potion brewing challenge has many faces. I decided to first prepare the bark extract and use a cold brew method for the rest of the herbs. Cold brew method is more than suitable to get all the caffeine and other ingredients out and to preserve volatile oils in the potion. The only thing left to consider are the amounts of the herbs.
The amount of salicylates in willow bark is around 0.5%. Further, 150 mg of salicylates is equivalent to 100 mg acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), which is a suitable dose for my magic potion. This means that I need around 30 grams of willow bark for my magic potion. This looks perfect – 2 spoonfuls per 2 deciliters of water. Two deciliters seems a reasonable amount for a potion – and similar to the ladle used by Getafix. But when I tried this for the first time the potion was undrinkable. It had a sharp, astringent taste that lingered in your mouth for several minutes. Even generous amounts of sugar did improve the taste only a bit. So I reduced the amount 6-fold, which resulted in acceptable taste and still retained some analgesic properties. The taste was still shrap, but not too strong and definitely refreshing in a certain perspective. The potion should, at least in my opinion, taste more out of the ordinary and this was just the thing. Next is the green tea. One standard coffee cup of caffeine per potion seems more than enough, since the potion also contains other stimulants. This means 3 grams of green tea (about 1/2 of a teaspoon) if we estimate the caffeine content at 2%. Next, a teaspoon of dry thyme herb should provide around 6 milligram of iron, that is about 60% of daily requirements. Since this is not your only source of iron, this should suffice. For the menth herb the amount is a guess, or even better, a matter of taste. So I decided to have a teaspoonful of menth herb per 2 deciliters of magic potion. Sugar is a bit more tricky: it depends on taste, but it should be there in order to provide you with the energy.
All said and done, I prepared my magic potion. The whole process took about 8 hours, since cooling and cold brewing requires time. Actual work to mix and cook everything took me less than 30 minutes. The full recipe can be found below.
The recipe
- 10 gram (1 spoonfull) willow bark
- 3 gram (1/2 teaspoon) green tea
- 6 gram (1 teaspoon) thyme herb
- 6 gram (1 teaspoon) mint herb
- dash of lemon juice
- 2 deciliters water
- Sugar
Soak the willow bark in cold water for 30 minutes. Bring to boil and slowly boil for 15 minutes. Remove the bark and allow the potion to cool down. Refill with water to 2 deciliters, to replace the evaporated water and water trapped by the willow bark. Add green tea, thyme herb, mint herb and a dash of lemon. Allow to stand for 4 hours, stir once or twice. Remove the herb residue and sweeten to taste.
