Dandelions are a dark leafy green with wonderful roots, a very rich source of vitamins and minerals. This herbal chai also makes a delicious hot or iced latte! Follow the enticing fragrant bouquet with your nose – feel potent health benefits right to your toes.
Simmer 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat:
2 c. water
3 Tblsp. roasted dandelion root, or 3 dandelion roasted root tea bags
pinch cinnamon (or, a cinnamon stick)
ginger root (ground, or, even better, chopped, with skin)
and add your choice of:
• (anise seed)
• (bay leaf)
• (black peppercorns)
• ([green] cardamom seeds, crush slightly)
• (cloves)
• (orange peel, dried)
• (raspberry leaf, dried)
• (fennel seeds)
• (peppercorns)
• (star anise)
• (vanilla bean)
• (licorice root)
Strain the tea using a fine filter. To this add:
honey, a spoonful
(soy) milk, to taste
Heat again on a low flame, and do not boil.
Enjoy iced, or as a hot beverage.
Go all out for Spiced Dandelion Tea! Starting with a quart of water, simmer all but the dandelion, honey, and milk for 45 minutes, uncovered, add the dandelion, and then simmer another 15 minutes. Strain, sweeten, add milk, and serve.
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Dandelion Sun Tea is a popular way to brew tea, a drinkable form of enjoying fabulously famous healthy raw foods. You get the great benefits that dandelion tea offers for cleansing your system, without heating your kitchen! A nifty method to harness the energy of the sun and make a zero-calorie beverage:
Dandelion Sun Tea
(Sunlight is not necessary… you can make this tea in the refrigerator, too!)
4-6 dandelion tea bags (or loose tea, or clean fresh plants)
1 quart water
Select a 2-quart glass container scrubbed in warm, soapy water. [As an extra precaution against bacteria found in tap water that can turn up in sun tea, dip the container into a weak solution of 1½ teaspoons (or up to 1 tablespoon) bleach to a gallon of water.] Add the water and the dandelion tea bags (or, loose tea); cover. Put in a place where sunlight will shine on the container 3 hours—4 maximum—moving the container if necessary to keep it in the sun. When the tea reaches the strength and flavor you like, it is ready (as it is not steaming hot, you may like it iced). Refrigerate leftovers, with or without removing the tea bags — as you like. Drink within a day.
You may find the taste of sun tea more mellow than tea steeped in water brought to a boil: boiling affects water acidity, and slow seeping coaxes out a slightly different flavor. You might garnish with a sprig of fresh mint, maybe sweeten.
It is possible gentle warmth may brew more than sun tea: warm tap water can facilitate a marvelous medium for microbes (Alcaligenes viscolactis). Discard cloudy, thick, or syrupy sun-brewed tea; bacteria tendrils form ropy strands.
Add a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, and perhaps pepper, if you please, at the start; dandelion properties also provide awesome anti-bacterial power, including inhibiting bacteria growth. With Dandelion Chai – Spiced Dandelion Root Tea you get your wonderful health benefits and a welcome chai spice flavor.
If using fresh plants, see How to Pick Dandelions for Dandelion Tea.
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Form English (or Australian!) words from “dandelion tea”? Use no abbreviations, no proper nouns or pronouns, no improper words, no informal alternate spellings (like nite for night), and no slang. All the letters, organized for your convenience:
consonants: d d l n n t vowels: a a e e i o
How many words can you make in 1 minute? Take the challenge & play! Answers:
A A: a (ad) add addle ade aid aided ail ailed ale alit alone alto an anal and annal anneal anoint anointed anon ant ante anti at ate atone atoned
D D: dale dandelion dead deaden deal dealed deed del [vector differential operator] (deli) delta deltoid den denote denoted dent dental dented dentin dial dialed did die died diel diet dit dite dited dine dined do doe don donate donated done donned dot dote doted dude [ranch] dun dune
E E: eat eaten edit edited eel el elated elation eld elite ell end ended entail entailed eon
I: id ide [fish] idea ideal idle idled in inane indeed indolent inlet inn innate ion iota it
L: lad laden laid lanate land landed lane laned late lateen latin lead leaded led lei lend lended lent let lid lie lied linden line lined lint lion lit load loan loaned lode loden loin lone lot lotion lotioned
N N: nada nail nailed nat nation national neat neaten need neon net nil nit no nod node noel non none not note noted
O: oat odd ode oil oiled oint old olden (oleo) on one
T: tad tail tailed tale talon tan tanned tea teal te [note] ted tee teed teen teil [tree] ten tend tendon tenet ti [note] tiddle tide tided tidal tilde tile tiled tin tine tined tinned toad toddle toil toiled told ton tonal tone toned tonned
Try making a sentence—or phrase—or two, if you like!
It landed and no one noted it. … a tail on a lion … a dial tone...
Phrases using each dandelion-tea letter once: nation dealed; national deed…
Savvy internet marketers recognize the proper name “ed dale” in “dandelion tea” and—easily—30DC Dan (Raine)! [Ed, I'm eager to hear, on the day you find this!]
We hope you add to our dandelion-tea word game and welcome your comments!
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Some of the many traditional benefits of dandelion tea, just for starters:
- Dandelion tea tastes good (especially with a sweetener like honey or sugar—or, a good taste with a no-carbohydrate choice, like xylitol).
- Dandelion tea benefits your health (in fact, it’s very good for you)—as health enthusiasts world wide can attest for this delicious herbal remedy.
- Dandelion tea forms a prime medical ingredient in over half the phytonutrient blends on the market (weight loss, rejuvenation, detoxification; digestive, liver, kidney, & skin supplements).
- Dandelion tea uses include as an ingredient in cooking.
- Dandelion tea aids in digestion, and functions well to relieve digestive disorders like constipation and diarrhea.
- Dandelion tea works great to purify the blood and cleanse the system.
- Dandelion tea enhances detoxification, by stimulating urination and, in addition, by replacing the potassium lost in that process.
- Dandelion tea is one of the most effective herbs for getting the bloat out and helping relieve water retention.
- Dandelion tea has specific action in reducing inflammation, of the gall bladder and of the bile duct, and for rheumatism and arthritis.
- Dandelion tea improves the function of and maintains optimum liver, kidney, pancreas, spleen, stomach, and gall bladder functions.
- Dandelion tea helps in treating chronic hepatitis and jaundice disorders, and encourages healing of damaged tissues caused by alcohol liver disease.
- Dandelion tea helps reduce high cholesterol.
- Dandelion tea contains antioxidants that help your body fight off toxic bacteria and viruses.
- Dandelion tea helps with weight control—especially with weight loss.
- Dandelion tea strengths incorporate well into muscle building programs for weight lifters.
- Dandelion tea actively ameliorates disease—it is a potent disease-fighter—and helps the body heal, helps boost immunity, and combat cancer, heart disease, and age-related memory loss.
- Dandelion tea aids health maintenance for people suffering from Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes.
- Dandelion tea transfers magnificent amounts of minerals and vitamins: A, C, D, E, & B complex, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, choline, and boron, etc. when infused in hot water.
- Dandelion tea can be made solely from the blossoms, the leaves, or the roots (roasted or not)—or, the entire plant.
- Dandelion tea is traditionally served plain (as is), and also made into other beverages—like ale, beer, “coffee”, and wine.
- Dandelion tea as a face wash cleanses complexion, improves skin clarity.
- Dandelion tea makes a great bath addition, especially when made from older, stronger (tougher) leaves.
- Dandelion tea can serve as an inspiration for a great tea party!
- Making dandelion tea by gathering fresh plants is good exercise (and, some people say, improves the look of your lawn).
- Composting spent dandelion tea blossoms, leaves, and/or roots, after drinking your dandelion tea, improves soil composition.
Are you ready for Dandelion Tea? Do you want its health benefit rewards?
You can purchase it here now for a reasonable price!
Tea, the world’s second most commonly consumed beverage, ranks next to water.
We welcome your comments! We want to hear how dandelion tea benefits you!
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Eighth Most Wanted WHAT? Summer Brew! Whew! The news reports that Fantôme Pissenlit, from Belgium, is actually a very good beer. I personally would not know, although I loved visiting Belgium; I do not drink beer, but my husband does—ask him! Why beer on a tea site? This beer is made from… you guessed it! …dandelion tea!!!
In a Jul 15, 2009 post in Inventor Spot, Serious Fun for the Inventor in All of Us, “Don’t let the fact that dandelion tea is the basis for the Pissenlit, which is usually made with barley malt and hops. ( ‘Pissenlit’ means ‘piss in the bed’ in French, and uncooked dandelions are said to have a diuretic effect.) A peppy Belgian brew that pours amber, the flavor is described as acidic or very citric, depending on the reviewer. Orange makes a strong appearance as does spice.”
Come springtime, workers get to harvesting bushels of dandelions from the fields around the scenic farmhouse brewery. They remove the yellow flowers to dry in the sun, and then soak them a few days in water. They ferment the thick, dark dandelion “tea” and transform it into Pissenlit, a traditional drink also made from barley malt and hops. The result resembles a classic saison ale: golden and spritzy, strong and flavorful, having a distinctive hop bite. Even if it’s a strain to taste the brewed dandelion tea, it’s definitely in there in the bottles.
Gives a whole new meaning to “tea time”!
Beer is a beverage imbibed countless thousands of years. Noteworthy side effects can include addiction to alcohol; as always, keep on the proper side of the law, and concerning participating in this popular pastime, proceed at your own risk.
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Ruth’s Dandelion Tea Haiku
Haiku, a Japanese-style poem:
5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables.
Dandelion Tea
Sunny thoughts, anchored deeply—
… invigorating.
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I wanted a cup of dandelion tea. Sounded sweet and simple, until I wondered if I preferred tea made from the blossoms, leaves, or roots—the roots roasted, or not.
Reminded me of the foreigner arriving in New York City, not knowing a word of English, getting hungry. He formulated a plan: follow someone into a restaurant, and if what they ordered looked good, try ordering the same thing himself. Things went quite well, as he listened to the folks ahead of him order bean soup; it looked appetizing, and smelled good. “What will you have?” “Bea-n Sou-p, pl-ease!” He enjoyed eating it that meal… and ordered it the next meal, and the next. Now he wanted anything but bean soup. He got in line, unknowingly behind regulars — who placed a ham sandwich order. He didn’t understand a word anyone said, and waited to see what showed up. The sandwich looked very appetizing, and a whole lot different from bean soup. When it was his turn, he repeated in his best English, “Ha-m Sa-nd-wi-ch, please!” “Plain or rye?” “…??? … ??? … … Bea-n Sou-p, please.”
Blossoms? Leaves?? Or, roots??? Well, I made dandelion tea using the whole plant!
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Just about everybody knows what a dandelion is. In the western world it is a weed, but in many other societies it is an important herb that is used to treat many common diseases and conditions of the human body.
It is also a food, being used in salads and the roots are also used by some as a coffee substitute the same as chicory. It is also used to make a herbal tea, and most people have likely heard of dandelion tea. However, its medicinal properties are not so well known, even though it has been use for hundreds, if not thousands, of years for the treatment of many conditions including those associated with the gall bladder, liver and kidneys.
However, that is not all, and there are several more traditional uses of dandelion in the folk medicine of many different countries including conditions as diverse as water retention and eczema. So, taking all of this into consideration, what exactly are the main benefits of dandelion to the body and what is it that provides these benefits?
Dandelion contains its fair share of minerals and vitamins, and is rich in vitamin C of course, with its strong antioxidant properties. It also contains the antioxidant vitamin A together with several B vitamins and the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D, which is so important for the absorption of calcium by the kidneys and into the bone structure. The minerals it contains is like an encyclopedia entry of minerals important to the human body. It’s not so much what minerals dandelion contains, as what it doesn’t contain.
The list includes phosphorus, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, silicon, manganese and boron, and the organic nutrients include lecithin, carotenoids, terpenoids, tannins, sterols, choline, inulin, aspargine and so on. It would take a whole book to describe the health benefits of each of these, but an attempt will be made later to discuss the more important of them.
Suffice it to say that the list contains antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and substances that help to reduce blood cholesterol levels and also maintain the health of your blood and major organs. However, the effect of dandelion on the liver and the digestive system are due largely to substances known collectively as taraxacin. That is what gives dandelion its bitter taste.
What was once known as taraxin, is now known to consist of sesquiterpene lactones known as eudesmanolide and germacranolide, which although claimed to be unique to the dandelion, are very similar to other sesquiterpenes found in chicory. In fact, dicaffeolquinic acid and chicoric acid (dicaffeoyltartaric acid) have been found to comprise a significant proportion of the extract from dandelion roots, together with a number of phenolic acids and flavanoids. Each of these, of course, is important and effective antioxidants, responsible for many positive health effects in the body.
Among the more important of these is the stimulation of the circulation of the blood throughout the body. The sesquiterpenes are also believed to support the activity of the pancreas, and the presence of so many strong antioxidant species within the leaves and roots of the dandelion explains the traditional use of dandelion for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
Antioxidants support the immune system that causes inflammation when it is under stress. Studies of rats have indicated that dandelion is effective in reducing acute pancreatis, which is itself an inflammatory condition. The large querticin glycoside and flavanoid content of dandelion root extract posses anti-inflammatory properties, and suddenly dandelion is beginning to take on the appearance of a ‘wonder plant’.
However, let’s get away from the technical stuff for a while, and check out exactly what you can use dandelion for. Pregnant and post-menopausal women can gain the benefit of all these nutrients detailed above by taking dandelion extract, and it also has a diuretic effect. Although mild, this can help to remove excess water from the body, and helps to reduce blood pressure and the effects of heart problems. LDL cholesterol levels can be reduced by virtue of its anti-oxidant properties, and can help to resolve minor digestive complaints.
Traditionally it is claimed to have been used as a laxative and a cure for rheumatism. The latter can be explained by its antioxidant effects, and the way the sesquiterpenes reduce the inflammation associated with rheumatism. It is this inflammation of the tissues that causes so much of the swelling and pain of rheumatism and arthritis. Anti-inflammatories help to reduce this effect.
Dandelion is also believed to stimulate the flow of bile from the gall bladder to the duodenum, and help promote the digestion of fats and oils, thus alleviating many of the digestive problems associated with a fatty diet. This also appears to have the effect of stimulating the appetite, and dandelion juice is frequently drunk before a meal for these reasons. It is believed to help bladder and kidney stones, and also helps to alleviate infections of the urinary tract.
Although dandelion is normally safe to take, those with problems associated with the bile ducts should not take it, and if you are already on diuretic drugs, or any medicines designed to lower your blood pressure, you should stay clear of dandelion extract. The same is true if you are taking lithium for manic depression since some of the components of dandelion juice can exaggerate the side effects. It is also recommended that diabetics do not use dandelion extract, and neither should anyone on blood thinning drugs such as Coumadin, or any other form of warfarin.
Although dandelion can be a very effective natural remedy for many conditions, you should always refer to your physician before taking it, since it could interfere with any medications you are currently taking. Your doctor might also be aware of certain medical conditions you have that, while you are not being treated for, could deteriorate in the presence of one of the constituents of dandelion extract.
Although all of this could suggest that dandelion is dangerous to take, in fact what it indicates is that it is very effective against many conditions, and that taking it could lead to the effects of an overdose of the treatment you are already on. Had it not so many contra-indications, dandelion wouldn’t be as effective at doing what it does.
About the Author More information on dandelion root tea is available at VitaNet ®, LLC Health Food Store, vitanetonine.com.
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A healing herb, dandelion contains a rich abundance of calcium, which constitutes fifty percent—or more—of the mineral elements in a human body. Concentrated in bones and teeth, this macronutrient is essential in blood and muscles. A one hundred fifty-pound person has approximately three pounds of this mineral. Calcium works together with Vitamin D to make dense, strong bones. High in calcium, ounce for ounce more than milk, and with a wealth of other nutrients, dandelion makes a long-time favorite choice for tea.
Dandelion is also loaded with calcium in the form of healthy mineral salts, which quickly alkalinize acidic blood. The rich combinations of calcium potassium salts in dandelion chemically “strip” harmful bacilli from moist mucosal tissue in the lungs; compounds in dandelion leaves (xanthophyll and lutein) help disinfect the lungs, making it much harder for toxic bacilli bacteria to remain there. The enormous vitamin A and calcium content in dandelion acts as an effective antibiotic and minimizes any viral activity by boosting immune defenses. Immune cells in a healthy person become active upon detection of intruders, like foreign microbes, and a rush of calcium ions activate the immune cells.
Dandelion has all the nutritive salts (bicarbonate, calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, phosphate, and sodium electrolytes); these help purify the blood and destroy excess acid. These natural ionic compounds are important to sustain life because mineral salts comprise part of every fluid and structure in the human body.
To make your own tea, read How to Pick Dandelions for Dandelion Tea; use six dandelion leaves per teacup. Tear the leaves into strips and drop them into the bottom of the cup, fill with boiling water, and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Strain if desired, and sweeten, if you wish, by stirring in a teaspoon of honey or sugar.
Unsweetened cooled dandelion tea makes an effective skin wash, applied to minor scars and inflammations.
Drinking dandelion tea can give the body a “natural high” or incredible sensation of energy, giving a “grounded” type of energy without unwanted side effects like from caffeine, calcium that helps keep your energy levels high!
Technorati Tags: alkalinize acidic blood, antibiotic, bones, calcium, calcium ions, calcium potassium salts, dandelion tea, energy, healing herb, immune, make your own tea, mineral salts, nutritive salts, skin wash, teeth
What common denominator links memory, mood, and learning—ah, yes, what does dandelion have a lot of, great for your memory? Great for your mood? And great for you, to learn?
Phrased precisely, what is dandelion high in that your body converts to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter both in the peripheral nervous system and in the central nervous system, important in the brain for learning, mood, and memory? (Acetylcholine is low in people who have Alzheimer’s disease.)
Lecithin! This unique phospholipid—the main constituent being phosphatidyl choline—is a nutrient compound that emulsifies fat, lowers cholesterol, and protects the cardiovascular system. Dandelion is rich in this lipid, containing about 30,000 parts per million, nearly twice that of soybeans. Dandelion’s high content of lecithin, with its fat emulsifying properties, also makes it an effective digestive aid.
The important transmitter in the brain at nerve-to-nerve synapses, acetylcholine, uses another component:
Choline! Dandelion’s high concentration of choline and lecithin convert to acetylcholine. In the central nervous system, the resulting variety of effects as a neuromodulator include plasticity, excitability, arousal and reward.
Oh, another physiological function of the acetylcholine that dandelion helps your body make is particularly important: stimulation of muscle tissue.
Acetylcholine! Remember that… your brain is like a muscle! “Use it or lose it!”
In making “uplifting memories” drinking dandelion tea, there’s a lot to learn!
Technorati Tags: acetylcholine, Alzheimer's disease, brain, choline, dandelion tea, learning, lecithin, memory, mood, muscle tissue
