Organic Nettle Leaf

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
March 2022 → A tea with spinach/artichoke notes

I’ll admit, I wasn’t looking forward to this particular sipdown prompt. I like sugary sweet tea (not too terribly ashamed to admit it), so drinking a tea that tastes like vegetables doesn’t sound all that great to me. Even if they are vegetables I like to eat. I did a search through some Steepster notes and found one saying that this nettle infusion has a spinachy flavor, so I figured I’d try it and call it an allergy tea. I’m not having any allergy issues at the moment, but it’s spring now so it surely can’t hurt.

It’s really not so bad, though it is an unsettling shade of green. Like a seaweed green, both green and brown all at once. The flavor is sort of metallic alongside the veg. Isn’t nettle rich in iron? Could that be it? Not one I’d drink for fun but not as terrible as I was expecting either.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to list the prompt at the top!

A tea bag from Derk. I think I have two left (Limeflower and another organic Camomile).
As I expected this day was bad. But not so bad as I was expecting.

I let it brew advised 10 minutes, covered, no squeeze. Read several times the proverb on tea tag. “Plant kindness and gather love.” I am trying to be kind. But I have not gathered love yet in my life.

A nettle. In Czech “Kopřiva”. I have a friend with this surname and he makes fun of it. It was used to a salad, but never had it. We used it as spices and herbs back then in summer camp when I was a kid. It worked very well and it was unique experience. I would like to try it again, but all nettles around there are dusty or dirty in some other ways.

The tea – I really don´t know what to expect. The tea bag looks so pretty. I will trust the Herbalists in Traditional Medicinals company that they know what it is in. The liquor is quite golden, with green notes. It looks quite clear, something is on top, but maybe I just washed mug not properly. I was lazy, okay?

The aroma when dry was kind of weird. I can´t describe it much, but I thought it was like dry food for pets or something. But when brewed, it gets bit tangy; spicy, herbal aroma. Good overall. Actually better than expected.

In taste – whoa. It is very nice! Spicy, drying and mineral are my first thoughts. Maybe biting a bit as plants are. Soothing me a bit. Little honey sweetness and aftertaste.

Overall – it is wonderful, pleasant cup of tea I needed today probably. I was afraid it will be boring, herbal tea, without much to discover. I can not imagine drinking 3-4 cups a day though. It is quite complex – as I wrote, mineral but with honey sweetness. Spicy, but not astringent. Soothing.

Thank you derk; your stash is almost gone.

Nettle Resumé:

*10 years of experience receiving stinging lashes by 6ft tall Urtica dioica plants.
*4 hours of nursing the pain inflicted by wading through patches of stinging nettles.
*Collection of 2 plants for mounting.
*1 evening with a teabag.

Despite all that time romping around in stinging nettles’ damp environs, I never bothered to harvest them for food because why would I want to mess with something that hurt me. Somebody did the hard work for me here, yay.

The dry bag smells like, haha, flake fish food. Nutritious! Steeped, there is still a whiff of that but it is joined by a sweetness and wet green hay, russet potato, earth and grains. In the mouth it is smooth and a little oily, with tastes of citric tartness, minerals and wet green hay. It possesses more of a vegetal and grassy taste than an herbal, leafy one. My mouth is left a little slick and my tongue feels plump and tingly on the sides. The tartness persists long after finishing the mug. Interesting. I find this a nice evening drink. It feels healthy.

Preparation: 8 Oz boiling water one tea bag steeped for 15 minutes.
A cup of one of my faves. Yum! Just bought some more of this today and had to make a cup immediately of it. Very rich as always. No additions.

Backlog from a few days ago:

Two months ago I visited my sister for my birthday, and she made a pot of nettle tea. It was delicious! Incredibly green and juicy, like I had just had a tonic of vitality or something. She offered to give me some of the teabags in her cupboard, but I declined because I figured I could find some myself.

Big mistake going with this brand. I bought it from a health food store about a month ago and it’s horribly dry and dusty. There’s none of that lovely “you feel like this drink is healing your parched throat after a month in the desert” vitality of it.

I’ll try resteeping it with different amounts of water at different times, but this is a pale shade of the stuff my sister’s got.