Raw and Green Real Food Challenge: Nettle and RRL Tea

I’ve had some questions about how I make my tea, so I wanted to explain what I do.  For convenience and space, I make an infusion of nettle, red raspberry leaf and peppermint and then dilute it into tea.

To make an infusion, I fill one half-gallon mason jar with about 2 cups of dry, cut and sifted nettle and 2 cups of dry, cut and sifted red raspberry leaf.  If you only have quarts, then split the ingredients between two quart jars.  I add a generous pinch of dried, cut and sifted peppermint leaves. I don’t measure, I just dump in the nettles until the jar is about 1/4 full, dump in the red raspberry leaf until the jar is half-full, then throw the pinch of peppermint on top.  It works for any size jar, but you don’t want to go over half full to make sure the water has enough room to circulate between the herbs.

I bring 8 cups of water to a boil and pour into the jar, stirring once it gets towards the top to make sure all of the herbs have gotten thoroughly wet.  I pour more boiling water in until it is close to the top, then I cap it tightly with a lid and ring.

I set it on a pot holder in an out-of-the-way place and allow it to cool, usually 4-6 hours or overnight.  During this time, the cooling water will create a vacuum that will cause the lid to seal.

Once cool, I strain it into a bowl through a sieve and press the used leaves to help get the maximum amount of fluid out.  I then dilute it to one gallon, add 10 drops of Concentrace and stevia to taste (I use 1/8 tsp powdered stevia extract but if you like your tea sweet, you might need 1/4 tsp) and pop it into a glass container in the fridge.  It gets cold and we drink from it all day.  My kids enjoy it as much as I do.

You do have the option of adding some sweetener to it (no honey or stevia, it won’t feed the grains) and put water kefir grains into the strained and finished tea.  Treat it like you would any other liquid you are kefiring.

I purchase my nettles, RRL and peppermint in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs or Frontier.

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