How To Make Stinging Nettle Tea - High Nutritious Herbal Drink For Bushcraft, Prepping And Survival

Okay, it's working, lovely, okay. Now then, I've just stopped for a rest. I'm out on a quick bimble over the woods and I want to stop and I want to have a nice brew. I haven't brought with me any tea or coffee. Instead, today I'm going to make myself a nice energising herbal tea and I'm going to make it from a stinging nettle and I've just found a few absolutely lovely specimens here. Vibrant green young leaves on the top. These are going to be loaded with nutrients and everything possible that's good for my body. So, let's get on and I'll show you how I make this really refreshing stinging nettle tea. Now, these stems that I've found here are fresh new growth. They look really, really healthy. The further down the plant you get, the less nutrients and the less healthy that leaf is. But we want to pick right at the top here, maybe the first two or three rows. I don't want to go mullering the whole plant because that way it won't grow back again. But these really are nice specimens and they're going to make an absolutely delicious tea. I'm going to pick the leaves into my canteen but before I do that, I'm not really a hero. I don't want to get stung too much. You can pick them with your bare hands, obviously. But just get yourself a pair of gloves. It just makes life so much easier when you pick from the stem there and just lob them in. These are massive leaves. These are going to be lovely. I'm just picking them in. Now, to be honest, these are such lovely big leaves. I don't think I'm going to need a huge amount because it's only me. So, if I pick, say, a canteen full, that will be more than enough for me. As you see, just picking them from the top here. I don't want to muller the plant completely. There we are, that should do me. So, that's a canteen full of nettle leaves. I've brought with me the very lightweight Solo stove. This is a lovely little camp cooker. Compact, ultra-lightweight, really does the job well. It's a double burn, burns off all the smoke. So, it's a good bit of kit. That's only me, so I don't need a massive amount of water in the kettle. Now, while we're waiting, I'm going to go and get some water. To tell you a little bit about the nutrients in stinging nettles, they are considered almost a herbal superfood because of their nutritional value. Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, all the B vitamins, beta-carotene, calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium. It's full of everything. Zinc. Everything that your body needs. It is a nutritionally rich leaf and plant in general. And it's got massive health benefits to your body. It's extremely good for things like arthritis and gout is another one. Cleanses your kidneys, your liver, your spleen. It's just an all-round fantastic plant, herbal plant, to infuse into a tea drink. You can have it hot, you can have it cold. You can make a soup out of it, you can make a wine out of it. The uses are practically unlimited. You can make a soup, a paste, all manner of things. Here, I'm going to simply be putting the... and then letting them what's called steep. What that is, all the nutrients and the goodness of the leaf will infuse into the water. I'm going to leave it like that for maybe five or ten minutes to really get some good flavours in there. You can, if you want though, just decant it out, let it cool down, put it in the fridge and sip it throughout the day. You'll still get the same sort of values from it. Also, in a previous video of mine, I showed how you can eat the stinging nettles raw, straight off the plant. In this case, once they're boiled up, or once they're in the boiled water, that neutralises the formic acid that's in the stingers themselves and stops them from, in effect, stinging you. So you can eat these straight out, almost as a vegetable. They go very much like spinach, and you could use them on your Sunday lunch as a replacement for any vegetable. They're more than high enough in nutrients to warrant having pretty much on their own. It's exceptionally good for your hair, your skin, your nails, your teeth, and your health in general. I reckon no more than three cups a day though. I don't know the reason for that, perhaps you can overdose on it maybe. But yeah, three cups a day is about your maximum. There we go. Now, I don't normally put the leaves straight into it when it's boiled in like this. So what I'll do, I'll take it off the boil. There we go. And with the leaves, all you want to do is just lob them inside. Now, as I was saying earlier, the leaves now are completely neutralised. The formic acid is out of the stinger. So you can eat these straight away like this, as a warm food. You could add them to your Sunday lunch as a vegetable. Very, very high-nutrient vegetable. As you see, there's no stinger on that whatsoever now. But for the moment, that's been about ten minutes at least. They've been steeping in there, all the flavours infused into the water. So it's time for a taste test. Now, if you're worried about any of the bits and pieces or bugs getting through into your drink, then bring with you maybe a tea strainer or I normally carry with me a bandana. A thousand and one uses for a bandana. And one of them is a strainer. Just put it over the top of your cup and strain the drink through it. But I'm not too worried. If you pour it carefully, now you'll see there, look, that's a lovely green colour. Now, if you've got a sweet tooth and you want to sweeten this drink yourself, you can add sugar. I, knowing that I was coming out here today, knowing that I was going to have a stinging little brew, I've actually brought with me a little bit of honey to sweeten it. And this really makes it delicious. You don't need a huge amount, just a little squirt. And mix him in. Now, obviously, you're getting the benefits of the honey as well. So, cheers everybody. It has a real refreshing taste. It tastes, obviously, like a herbal tea. With the honey in it, it just takes that edge off it and makes it really quite a nice, sweet drink. And you can easily get used to this taste as well. It's not one of them strange ones that leaves an aftertaste or it's bitter or whatever. It's just a lovely, hot, soothing drink. And like I said, with the actual leaf itself, hopefully this has cooled down enough now. If you... It's very, very hot. You take the leaf, pop him in. It does tend to lose a little bit of its flavour compared to eating them raw. But you're still going to get all the nutrients now. So, if you're doing yourself a bit of a meal and you're cooking up some nettle tea as well, then, of course, you're going to use the nettles, put them on your food and then wash them down with your tea. So, there you have it, folks. Herbal tea made with stinging nettles. Not particularly difficult to do. You've just got to avoid getting stung. Make sure it steeps well in the pot, infuses the flavours and then you've got a lovely cuppa. So, for now, thank you very much for watching and I will catch you on the next UK Preppers Guide video. For now then, take care and stay safe. Cheers, folks.