Thread: Tea anyone ??!!

Originally Posted by Olav Vittfarne

Nice pics as always Sailor. My parents used to have tea glasses like that in the 70s and 80s. Is it iittala?

Iittala it is. One of those series that has been in production for who knows how long and still is.

Sailor, what are your directions for making nettle tea? I like try wild edibles but haven't had nettle tea. I would like to try it. Nettles are pretty common in the creekbottoms around here.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Sailor, what are your directions for making nettle tea? I like try wild edibles but haven't had nettle tea. I would like to try it. Nettles are pretty common in the creekbottoms around here.

Nettle is rather mild so it needs time to soak. Specially when fresh.
First rinse fresh leaves with cold water for few secs. Then put say 4-5 leaves into glass, fill with boiling water and let soak about 8-10 mins.
With dried and crushed leaves use 1 tablespoon and soak about 5 mins.

Sometimes folks also use other herbs like freshly grown birch leaves or young spruce needles together with nettle.
Back many years ago, in the army, we used to make 'tea' or herbal drink from freshly grown spruce needles every now and then. Bit sourish but very refreshing. Still do it every now and then.

But never use leaves or needles that has grown for several months. Only freshly grown, young leaves or needles. However, if you dry them, they are usable for years.

Originally Posted by Olav Vittfarne

Nettles are great. I have a pinch of dried ground nettles on my yoghurt almost every day. And a co-worker of mine makes pesto on nettles. Great stuff.

Haha Nightblade, lingon and hjortron jam on Amazon, the world is truly shrinking. Last year was a bad year for cloud berries here in Sweden(but great for blue berries). Hope this year will be better.

So are nettles sweet ? And yes,the world is shrinking...not sure if that's good or bad yet ?

Originally Posted by Sailor

They are so common plants that some see them as a trouble. Picking is free here. But if you are about to do it, remember to use gloves and do not pick those that grow on the roadsides.

What's the story on not picking roadside nettles then,polluted ? And don't they have stinging needles that you have to remove somehow ??

Steph,

You wouldn't want to pick anything to eat from places where people tend to walk their dogs or that get too exposed on exhaust gas. Etc

Nettles have needles but they go away either by drying and/or boiling for few seconds.

I wouldn't say that nettles are sweet. They taste very green, if you know what I mean. A bit like spinach. Loaded with chlorophyl, vitamins, minerals, anti oxidants and all other things a growing boy needs.

Whoa, nettle tea? Anyone know the cultural background/history of that (I see Sailor is in Finland... is that something common there)? Does it have caffeine? Can it be drunk daily?

Originally Posted by ffourteen

Whoa, nettle tea? Anyone know the cultural background/history of that (I see Sailor is in Finland... is that something common there)? Does it have caffeine? Can it be drunk daily?

I'm pretty sure many cultures probably drink it one way or another.

I'm having some green tea from the travel mug this afternoon.

Trying to figure out what to use this impulse buy for. It's an odd kind of middle size that makes a nice, small matcha bowl but is very large for something like sencha.

Perhaps I'll use it for matcha or when I want a bigger volume of oolong or genmaicha or something.

In any case, here it is with mint cut from the garden: