Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons dehydrated spearmint leaves
- 1 tablespoon dehydrated dandelion leaves
- 1 teaspoon dehydrated stevia leaves
- 4 cups boiling water
Instructions
- Look hard at the dandelion before committing to a full spoon. Leaf taken from an old plant in midsummer is far more bitter than spring leaf, and if yours is dark and coarse it is worth halving.
- Rub the spearmint between your fingers and smell it. Mint that has lost its scent in the jar will not find it again in the pot, and there is no sense steeping it.
- Load the infuser with the stevia underneath the other two. It is the smallest and lightest thing here and settles through anyway; putting it at the bottom stops it floating out.
- Steep fifteen minutes with a lid on. Mint gives up its oil early and dandelion gives up its bitterness late, so this window is a compromise rather than an optimum.
- If a cup comes out too bitter, cut the steep next time rather than adding more stevia. Sweetness sits on top of bitterness; it does not remove it.
- Keep the leaf blended in a jar away from the stove and use it inside about eight months. Mint fades first, and once it has gone the dandelion has nothing left to argue with.
