the mineral tea
a mineral tea is not a quick cup. what you are making is a nettle infusion, and an infusion is a different thing from a tea: the minerals in a leaf are not the perfumed oils that lift off in five minutes. they are the iron, the calcium, the magnesium, and they need hours in the water before they let go. so this one is made the night before, in a jar with the lid shut, and it comes out dark and green and full. nettle is the base and does most of the work. dandelion leaf carries so much potassium that it gives back what it moves. mint makes it something you will actually want to drink.
what you need
- 20 g dried nettle leaf, about 3 heaped tbsp
- 10 g dried dandelion leaf, about 2 heaped tbsp
- 1 tbsp dried spearmint, or a small handful of fresh leaves
- 1 litre freshly boiled water
- a 1 litre jar with a tight lid
the ritual
- put the dried herbs in the jar.
- fill it to the top with freshly boiled water.
- close the lid straight away. the lid is not optional, it keeps the steam and everything in it inside the jar.
- leave it on the counter for 4 to 8 hours, or overnight.
- strain it, and press the last of the water out of the leaves.
- keep it in the fridge in a closed jar, and drink it within 24 hours.
how to drink it
in the morning, before you eat. minerals go in best when nothing else is competing for them, and coffee, milk and bread all compete. so this first, breakfast after.
lukewarm, never straight from the fridge. pour a cup and let it come up, or warm it gently without boiling it again. that is how it is drunk at home. whether a warm cup is taken up better than a cold one is not something we found proven, so take it as practice rather than proof.
one cup, about 250 ml. start there and see how you sit with it before you make it two. honey or a soft date if you want it sweeter.
the sign
it should come out deep and dark, amber going to red brown, clear rather than cloudy, and it should taste green and full, almost like a broth. if it is still pale and yellow it has not had long enough.
what it gives
the benefits people come looking for here are iron and minerals, so let us be precise about which ones. nettle leaf is the base, and it is the part that is well established. it is one of the most mineral dense leaves there is: magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron and vitamin k. one measurement found 76 mg of magnesium in half a litre made from 20 g of dried nettle, close to a fifth of what an adult needs in a day. the long steep is what makes that possible. minerals sit inside the cell walls, so a five minute cup gives you the taste and very little of the rest.
dandelion leaf is here for the potassium, and it is unusual. most things that move water through you take potassium out with it. dandelion leaf is around five per cent potassium by dry weight, so it gives back what it moves. it brings calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese along with it.
iron is the one to be honest about. both leaves carry plenty of it, but a strong herbal infusion is also full of polyphenols, and polyphenols bind iron in the gut so the body cannot take it up. vitamin c undoes part of that, and there is no vitamin c in this jar. so do not count on the iron here. count on the magnesium and the potassium, and get your iron from the food you eat around it.
and what it will not do: this is food, not medicine. it is a good daily habit, not a treatment for anything.
a note of care
nettle tea and dandelion leaf tea both have side effects worth knowing before you make this a habit. this is a strong jar, and most of what follows is about who should ask first.
it moves water. nettle and dandelion leaf are both diuretics, and they add up. nettle also lowers blood pressure. if you take a water tablet, or anything for blood pressure, or your blood pressure already runs low, ask your doctor before you make this a daily habit.
lithium. dandelion slows the way the body clears lithium, which can let it build up. if you take it, leave this alone.
potassium sparing water tablets such as spironolactone, amiloride and triamterene. dandelion leaf is rich in potassium and those tablets already hold potassium back. together that can push it too high, and too much potassium affects the heart rhythm.
blood thinners. both leaves are high in vitamin k, which works against warfarin and the like.
allergy. dandelion belongs to the daisy family. if you react to ragweed, daisies, chrysanthemums or marigolds, you may react to this.
gallstones or a blocked bile duct. dandelion nudges the gallbladder to empty, so skip it.
spearmint is not only flavour. two cups a day for a month has been shown to lower testosterone in women. for most people that is nothing to worry about, and some drink it for exactly that reason, but it belongs on the label.
pregnancy. leave it. the evidence for nettle in pregnancy is genuinely divided, and for dandelion leaf it is thin.