Got Allergies? Try Nettle Lemonade

Spring has sprung🌷and for many people, so too has allergy season.

In this video, I show you how to make a tasty lemonade to soothe those allergy symptoms.

Enjoy!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi! Dr. Jill Crista here.

I would like to show you how to make one of my little treats to get through spring and fall allergies and that’s nettles lemonade.

So I have everything that you need to make your own including the nettles. These you can usually find at your local health food store in the bulk section. And I’m sure they could special order for you if they don’t have anything. And it’s called cut and sifted, as you see. I’m going to move it around a little bit. It’s basically dried leaf that they have already “munched” up for you so you can make it into tea easier. 

You need hot water to make tea, something to make the tea in. I’ve already filled my half-cup of nettles in my measuring cup. So you need some way to measure. Cheesecloth to put over your strainer. Cheesecloth is not a requirement but it is something if you don’t like to drink little flecks of your tea then use cheesecloth. And then something to strain into.

So here it is. Everything that you need. All you do is add your half-cup of nettles into your teapot or tea mixer and then you add two cups of boiling water. So half-cup to one cup nettles, it depends on how strong or herby you can tolerate. And then you let this sit for five minutes.

So we have done that. Here’s our mix. I wanted you to see how dark it gets when it’s been mixed. Now you use, I usually kind of use a spoon to mix it as it’s steeping. Every so often just kind of mix it around to make sure you get a good mix. And then pour it into your strainer with the cheesecloth. Come on everybody let’s work together. Oop, I went over a little bit. So you want to get every little bit of nettle goodness out of here. And then because I want it as strong and as medicinally helpful as possible, I will go around and press out any juices that I can press out of those nettles. You want to get all the goodness. I wanted you to see how dark this looks. It looks like really, really strong tea or coffee. That’s how dark nettles should look. It’s crazy to think that this becomes this; but that’s the truth. 

So then you add however much lemonade to this that you find pleasing. So if you don’t mind a real herby taste, you can just add one more cup. So I think we ended up with about a little less than one and half cups of water, half-cup got soaked up in the nettles. And then you just add your lemonade. 

Now I’m going to make a half-and-half blend which is what I find very pleasing. Fill your cups and then any leftover can be refrigerated for use later. I am such a left hander trying to do this right handed. And then a fun little addition is either adding mint or I ran out to my garden and grabbed some lemon balm. You just pop that onto the top. And there you have yourself nettles lemonade.

Let’s get through allergy season everybody!

This content is health information and not intended as personal medical advice. Viewing will not establish a doctor-patient relationship. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or medical condition. The information discussed is not intended to replace the advice of your healthcare provider. Reliance on information provided by Dr. Jill Crista, employees, or others appearing at the invitation of Dr. Crista is solely at your own risk.