“‘Found some nettles and brewed a tea,’ Shadd announced. ‘Will m’lady take a cup?’
‘Yes, with thanks.’ She cradled the tea in her scarred hands and blew on it to cool it.” -A Clash of Kings
Nettle Tea
Our Thoughts:
Somewhat lacking in fresh wild greens in Boston, we sadly had to default to dried nettle leaves to make this nettle tea. However, if you are lucky enough to have fresh leaves at your disposal, we recommend using those. We’ve planted our own nettles, partly as a defensive wall around our garden, and will update this post once we’ve tried them fresh.
It’s high in iron and vitamins, making it a wonderful surprise infusion by the side of the road while travelling. We actually didn’t care for the addition of lemon to ours, although a good dollop of honey was more than welcome.
The tea tastes very green, without the sometimes unpleasant herbal quality present in many other infusions.
Nettle Tea Recipe
We have taken a few liberties with additional ingredients; it’s unlikely that Catelyn and her party would have had all of these items on hand, but it makes for a much better tea, so we hope you will indulge us. :)
Ingredients:
- 1 Tbs. dried nettle leaves, or slightly less fresh
- honey to taste
- other additions: mint leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick, lemon, etc.