Spent Chinese herbs after boiling 4 cups of water down to 1 cup of decoction inside the electric Chinese medicine cooker. Trying to resolve excess heat (yang, fire) and dry skin with leaves, bark and roots prescribed by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. House is now full of unpleasant herb scents, I drank the black liquid as rapidly as possible to minimize offending the taste buds (Toronto) 20131230 1415