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I am not immune.

On several occasions, I’ve bought one herbal concoction or another that promised to help me lose weight, reduce stress or grow my hair back.

The pictures don’t lie about how that last one worked, but none of the others did anything, either.

The only herbal product I will say ever worked for sure was a CBD gummy I ate to help me sleep.

The blubbery candy tasted like rancid mulch, but it knocked me out cold. I slept right through two alarms, a sunrise and only regained consciousness after my two dogs insisted — loudly.

The CBD left me feeling drugged and groggy, like the heavy bootheel of an angel pressing down on the back of my head.

Despite my willingness to roll the dice with herbal supplements, tinctures and hoodoo, I’ve never gotten into the healing powers of herbal tea.

Sasha at Appalachian Tea told me that was fine. I probably shouldn’t go down that rabbit hole.

“One of the things that I want to be absolutely, 100% clear about, is that herbals are not medicine,� she said. “A lot of the claims about the different herbals are more anecdotal than research-based.�

Some of it might sort of work, Sasha told me, but a lot of it really doesn’t.

“But if you’re trying to use it to treat a medical condition, don’t do that without the permission of your doctor,� she said. “Do not discontinue your medication to treat something with tea.�

“Just don’t,� Sasha added.

Actually, there was very little chance of me doing that. As I’d previously mentioned, the only herbal tea I’d really tried with any supposed medicinal powers was dandelion and burdock tea.

That stuff was supposed to help cleanse my body of toxins.

And cleanse it did. I felt like I’d been hollowed out like a sock puppet.

Still, Sasha said there were a few herbals that did kind of work, but they were commons herbal teas people already knew about — chamomile and mint.

“But there’s still not a lot of scientific study of either of them,� she said.

Chamomile is frequently used as a sleep aid. It may help, though not making it harder to fall asleep probably counts some. Chamomile is caffeine free.

Mint, meanwhile, has been used to calm stomachs and help with digestion for millennia.

King Hammurabi of Babylon, best known for his much-loved “eye for an eye� rule, prescribed them for gastrointestinal issues — once the insurance company approved them, of course.

People believe mint helps with sour stomachs, but there’s little scientific evidence to support that. Pfizer hasn’t thrown in a few billion dollars at the question, at least, but everyone seems to think it works.

Most of the other well-known herbs and spices used in tea medicinally fall somewhere under “folk remedy� or “wives’ tale.� Many of them might have some added value toward helping with everything from menstrual cramps and toothaches to anxiety and ADHD.

But a lot of people drink herbal teas just because they like the flavor.

“One that you run into that people don’t think is herbal is Earl Grey,� Sasha said. “Bergamot, which is in the blend, is used as a natural stimulant. It has stimulating properties, plus the oils and citrus have been known to help people achieve a better sense of alertness.�

Sasha added, “It helps with the alertness, even though the tea isn’t doing anything on a chemical level.�

It’s also delicious.

But regardless of how an herbal tea tastes, its medicinal powers are probably less effective than something prescribed by a doctor.

After a sampling of herbal teas, Sasha showed me more of the tea ephemera, including something called a tea cozy.

I’d always assumed a tea cozy was some kind of fancy coaster or potholder. Instead, Sasha brought out a brass tea kettle swaddled in a little purse.

It looked kind of silly, but Sasha said the cozy was entirely functional.

“They’re used to insulate the kettle and keep the water hot,� she said.

I figured if I had one of those things at home, I’d forget to remove it from the tea kettle and burn the house down.

The last thing Sasha wanted to show me was the difference in scones.

Even if I didn’t know much about tea or tea culture, I thought I knew a fair amount about scones, which are often part of the meal at “High Tea.�

At least, I’m a fan of scones. My love of them goes all the way back to the cinnamon-and-raisin biscuit from Hardees, which maybe served as a backwater, hillbilly kind of gateway into the world of scones.

I loved those things, which were a sweeter biscuit option. I ate many of them and when I couldn’t get them, I began looking around for an equivalent, which started me down the winding path to experimenting with other baked goods.

My favorite scone turns out to be the golden raisin scone, sold across the street from my office at ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Bread on Capitol Street in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.

Sasha told me about two types of scones — the butter scone and the cream scone.

A butter scone, made with loads of butter, has more of regular biscuit consistency. The cream scone also has a lot of butter, but is brushed with cream.

“Cream scones are a little more common,� she said. “They can puff up and be a little like a muffin top.�

I’m probably more of a butter scone guy, if I were guessing.

Scones can either be eaten plain or made into little scone sandwiches containing fillings like jam and/or clotted cream.

Clotted cream sort of looks like Greek yogurt.

Getting jam is easy. Clotted cream is hard.

It’s made using dairy that’s not ultra-pasteurized, which is in short supply in West Virginia and maybe not legal to buy here.

Of course, with the legislature proposing changes about selling raw milk, maybe we could start seeing clotted cream in stores. One day, it might start turning up in gas stations, sold next to the Monster Energy drinks in the cooler.

Sasha tried to describe a process where I might make something similar to clotted cream, if I wanted to try it, but there were too many steps and I run the risk of food poisoning often enough with the recipes I do know.

I decided I’d just stick with trying to make scones for now. Butter on buttered scones was good enough for me.