16 — Tea Recipes
Last updated: May 18, 2026
Tea is the most underrated mechanic in Rust. Every farm, every monument run, every raid benefits from the right tea. This file is every recipe — what it does, how to make it, when to drink it.
How tea works
Tea is crafted at a Mixing Table (Workbench 1, research 75 scrap, craft 200 frags + 100 stone, or buy at Bandit Camp Food Market for 175 scrap).
The Mixing Table accepts:
- Berries (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, White, Black, plus the Black Raspberry variant) — the primary ingredients
- Mushrooms — secondary ingredient for some recipes
- Specific blueprints / mixing recipes that you unlock by experimentation or from
rustlabs.com
A successful recipe takes ~30 seconds at the table. Output is a single tea bottle.
Teas come in three tiers:
- Tier 1 (Lesser) — short duration, mild effect, cheap ingredients
- Tier 2 (Regular) — medium duration and effect, mid-cost
- Tier 3 (Pure) — long duration, strong effect, expensive
Most Pure-tier teas last 30 minutes (not 10 — corrected from older docs). Each Pure tea is crafted from 4 Advanced (which each take 4 Basic), so a Pure equals 16 Basic teas at the raw ingredient level.
The complete tea recipe list
Scrap Tea (the big one)
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser | 5 Yellow berries + 1 White berry | +25% scrap from containers, 5 min |
| Regular | 8 Yellow + 2 White + 1 Yellow Berry Seed | +35% scrap, 8 min |
| Pure | 32 Yellow + 32 White berries (or 4 Advanced) | +200% scrap from barrels for 30 min |
Why it matters: the only tea that scales BARREL farming runs. Important correction: Pure Scrap Tea affects barrels only — NOT containers/crates and NOT recycler. Drink before barrel-heavy farming routes (roads, monuments where you smash a lot of barrels).
Max Health Tea & Healing Tea (two separate teas)
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Pure Max Health Tea | 32 Red + 32 White | +20 max HP (100 → 120) for 20 min |
| Pure Healing Tea | 32 Red + 32 Green | +10 instant HP + 75 HP over time until consumed |
Why it matters: double your effective health for fights. Drink before raids.
Stamina Tea — DOES NOT EXIST
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | Rust does not have stamina teas. The stamina mechanic in Rust does not have a tea boost. |
Why it matters: sprint longer, escape sticky situations. Critical for raid extraction.
Anti-Rad Tea
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser | 5 Green berries | Radiation slowly drains, 5 min |
| Regular | 8 Green + Mushroom | Faster rad drain, 8 min |
| Pure | 10 Green + 5 Mushroom | Strong rad clearance, 10 min |
Why it matters: essential for Launch Site, Train Tunnels, Power Plant deep loot.
Wood Tea
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser | 5 Brown/dark berries | +20% wood gathering, 5 min |
| Regular | 8 Brown + tools | +30% wood gathering, 8 min |
| Pure | 10 Brown + 5 tools | +50% wood gathering, 10 min |
Why it matters: double your wood farm rate. Use during base build hours.
Stone Tea
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser | 5 White berries | +20% stone gathering |
| Regular | 8 White + tools | +30% stone gathering |
| Pure | 10 White + 5 tools | +50% stone gathering |
Why it matters: speed up base upgrades. Use during wipe day stone farming.
Ore Tea
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser | 5 Grey berries | +20% ore gathering |
| Regular | 8 Grey + pickaxe | +30% ore gathering |
| Pure | 10 Grey + 5 pickaxe | +50% ore gathering |
Why it matters: smelt-ready metal frags faster. Pair with industrial smelt setup.
Salvage Tea (DOES NOT EXIST)
Important: there is no "Salvage Tea" in Rust. No tea boosts recycler yield. This was a misconception in older guides. The cheapest way to maximize recycle yield is +20% bonus monuments (Airfield, Arctic Research, Abandoned Supermarket) and the Scope arbitrage at Bandit.
Salvage Tea — REMOVED
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | Does not exist |
Why it matters: more scrap per recycle. Stack with Scrap Tea for monster runs.
Berry Tea (food/water)
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Lesser | 5 mixed berries | +20 hunger/thirst, 5 min |
| Regular | 8 mixed berries | +30 hunger/thirst, 8 min |
| Pure | 10 mixed berries + ingredients | +50 hunger/thirst, 10 min |
Why it matters: sustain field expeditions without carrying food.
Crafting Tea (armor slot rolls, NOT faster crafts)
| Tier | Ingredients | Buff |
|---|---|---|
| Pure | 32 Blue + 32 White berries | +50% chance of extra armor slot rolls for 30 min |
Why it matters: crafting tea was widely misunderstood. It does NOT reduce craft time — it improves armor crafting quality (better protection slot rolls). For faster craft times, use Workbench Level 3 (faster than WB2 which is faster than WB1).
Tea cocktail (rare)
Some recipes require specific seed varieties (Yellow Berry Seed, etc.) on top of berries. Find seeds by harvesting mature plants. Plant your own seed stockpile.
Tea crafting workflow
Optimal solo workflow:
- Set up a greenhouse (see
05_Horticulture.md) - Grow YYYYYY berries of all 6+ colors
- Place a Mixing Table in your base
- Pre-craft 5-10 Scrap Teas as your stockpile
- Drink 1 before each major monument run
- Restock after every wipe cycle
Total time investment: 4-6 hours of horticulture setup. Total return: 30%+ scrap throughput for the wipe.
Multi-tea stacking
Yes, you can drink multiple teas at once. They stack:
- Scrap Tea + Salvage Tea + Crafting Tea = ~30% scrap from containers + 50% from recycling + faster ammo crafts. Triple-stacked monument run.
- Health Tea + Pure Tea = +100 HP + stamina regen. Raid defense god mode.
- Wood Tea + Stone Tea + Ore Tea = +50% on all gathering. Wipe day farming god mode.
Watch the buff timers — they tick down independently.
Tea trading
Bandit Camp doesn't buy tea directly, but other players will trade for it. Some servers have an in-game economy. Pure Scrap Tea typically trades for 15-25 scrap, depending on rarity.
Greenhouses with proper hemp/berry rotation produce more tea than a solo can drink. Selling surplus is a meta passive income.
Common tea mistakes
- Drinking Lesser tier in a Pure-budget situation. Always Pure for serious runs.
- Crafting tea and never using it. Tea expires — keep stockpile reasonable.
- Forgetting to bring tea to a monument. Drink at base before leaving.
- Not stockpiling berries. Grow at scale, sell surplus.
- Mixing wrong berries. Check the recipe before crafting; wrong combination wastes ingredients.
- Drinking Anti-Rad Tea AFTER getting radiation. Drink before entry — preventive.
Pro tips
- Pure Scrap Tea is the single highest ROI item for active players. Always have 5+ in your stockpile.
- Tea + buff stacking is broken in the best way. Run Pure Scrap + Salvage + Crafting for ~1.5x scrap-per-hour over baseline.
- Pair the Mixing Table with the Industrial Crafter — auto-crafter pulls berries from a box, mixing table produces tea, conveyor stores it. Fully automated tea farm.
- Anti-Rad Tea before any Power Plant run. 10 minutes of clean rad-free running through the most radioactive part of the game.
- Health Tea before any planned raid defense. Surprise raid you didn't see coming, drink it mid-fight if you can.
- Berry-color cheat sheet:
- Yellow + White = Scrap
- Red = Health
- Blue = Stamina/Pure
- Green = Anti-Rad
- Brown/Black = Resource gathering
- Always grow Yellow berries first. Scrap Tea is the most impactful.