There is usually one time in the day that seems like a good time for a cup of tea. But, there are days when you may feel like you need a cup of tea for your health. There are so many alternatives to flavours and types of tea, and you can have loose leaf, stems, or bags. There are all kinds of fancy devices for boiling water, too, but that does not necessarily give you the tea that you want or need. We decided to follow the advice from Yiayia Panagiota. She used to go and pick the nettles from the field, until husband was old enough to pick them and clean them, and make the tea. And, you may know that nettle tea are from the stinging nettle plant; however, not all nettle plants sting.
The stinging nettle plant should be picked while wearing gloves since the stinging part is on the leaves. If you want some guidance for identifying, picking, and preparing nettle leaves, visit the Wolf College website. Yiayia Panagiota let Husband figure out how to pick the leaves without getting hurt. He learned very quickly, and is glad to know the art of identifying the plant and preparing it. But, Husband is even more glad to know that Nettle Tea is available in the store!
Medicinal qualities of Nettles: Nettle stings have been used to deal with a variety of ailments since ancient times in the Greek world. Recent research has indicated that the nettle stings actually are used to reduce arthritic pain (please read this article which was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine). Please note that the nettle tea IS NOT delivered in the same manner as the research cited in the article above. The use of nettle plants (cooked in the form of soup) has been used for many hundreds of year to treat kidney ailments in the Greek world and beyond.
Nettle tea has some medicinal benefits, which we learned from Yiayia, but there are more than, "It will make you feel better!" Yiayia Panagiota would tell you that the tea would cure your stomach ache, clear your cough, help in your digestion, and ease away your worries. That may be her interpretation, but it is valuable advice which we still follow to this day. In fact, the best part is when one of us starts saying the same, "Have a cup of nettle tea and you will feel better!" Web MD has a nice summary of the main benefits that the scientists claim to be true about nettles. But, the only way you can really understand the benefits is by drinking the tea! So, put on the water … it's tea time!
We opened up the bag of tea to see what the leaves looked like inside. There were several hues of green, and the smell was very fragrant. This was a surprise, since neither of us thought that the stinging nettle plant had a scent. Well, the tea does have a sweet, earthy smell that was quite noticeable.
Anyway, looking at the tiny, chopped leaves, it was exciting thinking about all the possible ways to enjoy this drink. Our first step was to share stories about when this tea was most useful. For Husband, it was any time Yiayia was near. For Wife, it was usually when she had a cold. Everyone will use it for different benefits, depending on what that person's Yiayia said.
Using one teabag per cup, pour boiling water over the tea bag. Make sure to allow the tea bag to steep for 3 minutes. That is the time needed to get the rich colour, flavour, and benefits of nettle tea. If you are making tea in a pot, we found that using 1 teabag per 2 cups of desired tea was fine. We then allowed the tea to steep for 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes made the tea taste quite good.
While the tea steeped, we could smell green tea. Oddly, it was similar in smell and taste to green tea, but the ingredient list did not contain any. In fact, we looked at the ingredients listed, and the only ingredient is nettle leaves. That was good to read that this particular tea was made from the actual nettle that we wanted.
When we looked online for some information, we found so many sources for nettle tea and dried nettle leaves, we were fascinated and talked about growing a patch of stinging nettle so we could dry our own leaves. That is a while away, so we can just purchase the tea for now. You can conduct your own search to find out the specific research you want on nettle tea, for us t is about fasting appropriate, taste, and authenticity.
Once we started drinking this tea, it had a light, fresh flavour that took Husband's mind to his Yiayia Panagiota. For Wife, it was a light and refreshing cups of tea that will "ale you feel better." And, even though it smelled like green tea, it tasted more like something that would be good for us. It is a great thing to have access to a store that carries this tea so we don't have to go and try to pick the leaves!
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“An angel fell from Heaven without any other passion except pride, and so we may ask whether it is possible to ascend to Heaven by humility alone, without any other of the virtues.”
St. John of Climacus (From the Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 23, Section 12)
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