Ya. But without cafienne: why?

I guess I have a soothing morning beverage, similarly to how many people have decaf tea or decaf coffee now

Yes and it tastes aweful

Is that what is called chicory?

It’s a diuretic. See previous post on TIL from a day or so ago. Apparently they’re also called “pissabeds”

You can eat the flower as well, not too terrible

The whole plant is edible. People use the flower as a bittering ingredient in beer.

You can eat the entire plant. A lot of what we classify as weeds are in fact very nutritious plants. See also: purslane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum

Edit: if you ever want to know more about the plants around you, there's an app on android (possibly iphone) called PlantNet that identifies plants when you take pics of them and gives you info on them. Super cool and free.

The Dandelion Coffee can be nice when properly prepared..

.. it’s also investigated that Dandelions have strong anti viral-/ flu properties.

for people who like decaf, or who want a coffee before bed, or people who yada yada, whatever. it's just a nice drink. it's also supposed to be really good for your digestive health, among other things. i make this every spring from dandelions in my yard and it kicks ass. tastes and looks just like coffee and i can drink it anytime i want without worry

Tried this because of a tv show as the characters claimed it tasted just like coffee…

It doesn’t, it’s gross.

I made it. It was okay. It was like a slightly watered down, tangy coffee

[deleted]

The leaves are good for salads, and the flowers can make good wine!

To each their own, but it seems like an awful lot of work for something that tastes and looks just like something I can buy for a dollar.

to each their own, but i enjoy the time spent outdoors and the process of making my own tasty and healthy beverages from scratch

it isn't really that much work, either! dig up some roots, wash them and chuck 'em in a food processor until they're in tiny chunks, then roast them and use them as you would normally use coffee grounds. getting dandelions by the taproot is also a good way to make sure that dandelion will be gone for good if you don't want them in your yard

Chicory is a tall plant with blue flowers.

Just make sure you don’t eat city weeds. These plants can bind heavy metals and they store them in their tissues.

I have given up poisoning my dandelions. They are everywhere in my yard. How many seasons should wait to be sure they are safe to eat, I wonder?

I agree 100%. Was shown this on a survival course as a kid. It's like you made coffee, threw the coffee out and replaced it with powdered rat turds.

Must be the last one of the sheasun!

That's the actual French name. Pissenlit -> pisse en lit (in weird 500 year old french) -> piss into bed.

I'm not surprised creatively carried over to English, as many words did

So just like coffee

You can also make wine out of the blossoms too.

A weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it to grow.

You can also make wine with the flowers. They do absorb toxins so don't use the ones crowing by the road.

You can also use the white sap from the blooms and stalk for warts, dab on some sap, and the wart will turn black, and die.

No it doesn't. That book is bullshit. Blueberry wine in flowers for algernon was a vast improvement

Oh, you mean like tea? 🤣

How is it you know what powdered rat turn tastes like?

My grandma makes honey from then, don't know the exact process, but you needs lots of them and it tasted good.

Tea has caffeine.

Dandelion & burdock anyone?

Thanks for the info.

Dandelion is also a corruption of French "dent-de-lion" (lion's tooth).

Same family but different species, so they're fairly similar. Chicory is a bit more astringent and dandelion has more of a mineral/leafy green flavor.

Better than dandelion root "coffee" 😆

Obviously it depends on the type of weedkiller you used, but most weed killers don't move within the soil and degrade pretty quickly, so new growth that hasn't been exposed to the poison should be generally safe.

My grandmother use to grow them in window boxes for her kitchen.

• Leaves and flowers for salads

• flowers for deep frying (light batter)

• flowers for wine

• roots for tea (it's comparable to caramelized root veggies like carrots or squash)

• Flowers for syrup

She always had bundles drying above the stove and radiators.

Regarding the lawn, use a weed preventer like Preen to prevent new seeds from germinating. Plants are unaffected by it, but it'll stop new weeds from spreading

Ever have chamomile? Another weed that is boiled for tea... Not all tea has caffeine... in fact, very few do...

I've always heard it called tea, same idea I guess.

Dandelions are very high in chlorophyll if you eat them but they don't taste great.

You can buy dried dandelion root as a great treat for pet rabbits. Would not recommend making your own unless you are experienced with this sort of stuff, specifically with small animal (rabbit) diets.

Tea comes from tea leaves. Tea leaves have caffeine unless it is specifically removed. Anything not containing tea leaves isn't technically tea, it's an infusion.

In Spanish, it's also "diente de león". I learned that one recently :D

Doesn't this also cause pee-pee problems??

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/yjpump/til_dandelions_were_called_pissabeds_due_to_their/

>TIL dandelions were called pissabeds due to their diuretic content.

[deleted]

You can also use chicory the same way. Romanians know.

I’ve heard the sap can be used to make artificial rubber

I’ve read dandelions were brought over on the mayflower. A lot of people used to eat dandelion, especially during hard times. They’ve got plenty of vitamin and iron (though they don’t taste all that great)

Not all teas...

Deep tap roots aerate clays or other soils.

Okay, The British. Welcome to the rest of the world. Tea, such as lavender or chamomile tea, contains no caffeine. Tea, the infusion of steeping plants in water, as opposed to the tea plant, of which there are many varieties, most of which do not contain caffeine. Read a book.

Miss me with that dandelion root coffee-like beverage shit

It's not a replacement for coffee, it's a replacement for black tea!!! It's pretty similar to black tea, without the caffeine.

Store bought brands generally market it as a caffeine free replacement to black tea.

I mean dandelions don't have caffeine.

What book?

Dandelion mead is very, very tasty.

[deleted]

[deleted]

I made it, once. Its like watery coffee. I wouldn't bother again, unless the U-boats start sinking all the coffee imports again.

You should look into tea, and read books about teas, generally. I think you need to rebalance your perspective and realize that no one like you when you're this wrong.

[deleted]

Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine

Mead makes sense, sine the flowerhead of a dandelion is heavy in pollen. Wine on the other hand, it does not. It's not sugar.

First, I'm not British.

Second, despite the vernacular usage, tea means tea. That we call other things "tea" does not change the fact that they are infusions, not tea. I also refuse to accept that decimate means the same thing as annihilate, or that literally can also mean figuratively. I read often, thank you. I understand the concept of colloquial usage, but the fact is that the internet has made that "rule" kind of self defeating.

The British would like to speak with you on sharing their opinion on what does and does not constitute tea. You need to read a book and rejoin society. Tea, the plant, versus tea, the product of a process. You approach colloquialisms with all the tact of a psychopath, so you should really just get over yourself to understand that no, you're wrong and need to just stop. You're embarrassing yourself.

EDIT -hey, read a book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

hey, read a book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

You know, I just reread your comment, because you're the least smart person I've interacted with today and I wanted to be sure I wasn't being too harsh, but no, you're just plain dumb wrong. The internet existing does not destroy culture or history. What kind of asinine position is it that now that everyone is able to share information that your information is no longer relevant? You must be a nationalist. Go put on your MAGA hat an enjoy your chamomile tea

[deleted]

Yeh, massively refreshing in the summer.

Why haven't we selectively bred and/or engineered everything to have caffeine yet?

You can eat just about any plant as long as it's not poisonous

It's amazing how much wealth of knowledge has been lost because people just buy their old favorites instead of finding new ways to use what they already have! :)

Wow. You know so much about me! Except you don't. I don't think that the ability to share information with the world is bad. I think that unregulated changes to language is a little idiotic. I appreciate language that means what it says. When any word can mean anything, we are no longer able to truly communicate. It's not a question of relevance. It's a question of literal communication. I'm not a nationalist, either. I think the arbitrary separation of humans based on a line somebody drew is idiotic. I do quite enjoy a good chamomile infusion, though. Helps me sleep.

And before you continue to attempt to insult my intelligence, remember that you're the one spamming someone because they disagree with your beliefs about tea.

I still have my grandmother's "cook" book-- it's more of a grimoire by today's standards though.

Plenty of recipes, but also info on plants, animals, and fungi as well as first aid, childcare, housekeeping, and "problem solving".

Hand bound with a hodgepodge of paper types/sizes, different inks, and different handwriting (not sure who else contributed beyond my grandmother).

This type of knowledge gets lost year by year in families in communities because nobody takes on the task of passing on or preserving information.

If it's not somebody's responsibility then it is nobody's responsibility.

Herb lore has really suffered from this form of cultural atrophy.

There are many plants that we don't yet know all the great benefits of, and once we knew where to look, and what to try, we'll find them eventually!

Dandelion tea is a thing in Ireland.

So you're upset that your original language is not the default one? Sounds pretty nationalist to me. To put things in perspective here, you're very very wrong, so wrong that my argument isn't 'against you', it's against your draconian definition for something that has existed for millenia before you and you're too pee-brained to understand that you aren't angry with me, you're angry that you need subtitles to live in the world. Time to retire...

Not really. If you have a problem pissing, it helps. Else you wont notice anything.

You can make tea? We always made wine instead.

The tea is essentially the same as the coffee product.

But I generally refer to it as a tea as opposed to coffee simply because it is much lighter than your average coffee and is similar in body and flavor to certain black tea blends like Irish breakfast.

You simply separate the roots from the plant, clean them thoroughly, allow them to dry for up to two to three weeks, then either roughly mince them or grind them like coffee beans and steep in boiling water for up to 10 minutes.

I like making large batches of it and preparing it inside a French press for convenience.

Sounds good actually.

"Coffee-like" is an extremely kind description of what dandelion tea actually tastes like.

Oh my God what a treasure trove. Is there any way to pass some information along?

It doesn't have caffeine in it, Yaupon bush however does contain caffeine!

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210223-yaupon-the-rebirth-of-americas-forgotten-tea

This must be true.

I have it on good authority that Dandelions tell no lies.

Don't eat dandelions from outside. Bad idea.

I'm not angry at anyone. I'm also not upset that my "original" language isn't the default. (It's not my original language.) As I've said, I have no problem with the evolution of language (I'm actually hoping it eventually all becomes one language so there are no barriers). My problem is with language, in general, being treated like the rules of language are irrelevant. That leads to multiple, fragmented interpretations of nearly any word, which makes it harder for people to communicate, thus evolving backwards. I'm beginning to feel a little sorry for you, though. Do you always feel the need to insult, based on false assumptions, anyone you think is wrong? I'm not asking as a troll. I'm genuinely concerned. This conversation could have been had without assumptions or insults. Why did you feel the need to immediately take shots at me personally, especially when you later claim that your problem isn't actually with me?

Because it’s poisonous

If you are so versed in language, you should learn what you are: a pedant. Dumbness is only cured through learning. Do you feel that your behavior has changed as a result of action or experiences here? Good. Be less of a pedant and people won't "insult you" for being a pedant, because after all, it's the right word for it, despite most people would have colloquially termed you an idiot or worse. That's your point, right? Just want to be sure you're pedantic about the right thing here...

The best part about all of this is that they think the British would like a word about tea.

The plant/process that they stole from China and India.

Chamomile is 100% an infusion, and does indeed taste good. Coffee does not taste good, as is evidenced by the thousand things we add to it to make it taste good so we can get our cafienne fix in the morning.

My elementary school teacher used to make us pancakes with this flower in Korea. I hope she’s doing well

Oh how my great grandmother loved dandelion wine. Which her bougie kids thought was “trashy.” She passed before I was of drinking age so I never got to try it with her, and now I’m in recovery lol. Oh well.

Dandelion and burdock is the best drink to wash down a chippy tea.

Dandy Blend (https://dandyblend.com/) is a great coffee alternative made from roasted dandelion extract. It's not a perfect replacement but it's good enough (especially if coffee is more of a ritual for you as opposed to being in love with the taste) and one of my favorite substitutes when I'm going sans-coffee. Kinda like weak tasting diner coffee but it works.

[removed]

While bringing up nutrients the clay filters out of water drainage.

100% would buy this if you find a way to make copies

They make you piss fyi (they are literally called piss-in-bed in French for a reason)

The forbidden Coffee

This! Dandelions grown in a basement under LED grow light only guys!

Purslane is tasty! That was a shock to learn, after decades of pulling it out of gardens. It's like crunchy spinach.

> flowers can make good wine

Dandelion wine tastes like if you took the worst white wine and somehow found a way to make it more bitter, dry and disgusting

Be that as it may, you are simply proving my final point now.

To address your comment as something other than a childish outburst:

I am aware that I am, at times, somewhat pedantic. But when I speak, the people around me know what I'm saying to them without having to do ten minutes of mental gymnastics.

Also, have you had fun today, trying to pick on an autistic person? I hope so.

Just make sure you don't pick it where you don't know if dogs piss on it, or if they're sprayed with toxic chemicals or weedkiller.

you can also do this with rhubarb leaves

(please don't do this with rhubarb leaves they're fucking poisonous)

Weed is considered a weed cause in some countries like India it keeps growing prolifically everywhere.

The reason they are in North America at all is because of their useful health and nutrition benefits! People cultivated them with care as recently as a hundred years ago and now people spend hundreds to eradicate them, poisoning us all and destroying the environment. So messed up.

Yes!!! I teach kids and I tell them this all the time. They all know dandelions are invasive so I like to ask " Why do you think folks brought it over I the first place?" It's so fun to watch them problem solve and guess and then have their minds blown that it could be a free staple leafy green for everyone if we just shifted our mindset.

Can you imagine if spinach or broccoli was just growing all over city parks? There's no way I'd let them use pesticides on them! But dandelions? We've all been taught to hate them, and that's just systemic prejudice.

No it can't.

source: I tried it. blech.

In Scotland we have a soft drink called dandelion and burdock, it is absolutely amazing I love it.

It was originally a type of light mead but over the years has evolved into the carbonated soft drink, it is an ancient drink, the roots of both plants combined has been used for thousands of years to treat anemia, skin problems, blood disorders and depression.

Ray Bradbury burner account confirmed

Such a delightful drink and yes it does go well with gin.

Shhh🤫

I had no idea how interesting Dandelions could be. Awesome can't wait to share this info with my nephew next time we see one.

Did you roast the roots and than ground them?

Its very bitter.like,undrinkable.

I don't know about you being an autistic person, I know about you being wrong. Fix yourself and be better. Don't lay your mistakes on your handicap, you are in an opinionated battle and on the losing side here. Tea. Tea. Tea. Tea. Tea. Get it through your head and avoid uncomfortable situations like this in the future. Be as pedantic as you like, but at the end of the day you are wrong and no amount of crying is going to pivot the focus to your handicap from your wrongness. If you need to do ten minutes of mental gymnastics when someone asks you if you'd like a glass of tea, you have much bigger problems than autism.

Edit- also, "be that as it may" is you saying I'm right. Just accept the L and move on. No one is perfect and change is growth. Time for you to grow.

Caffeine is not a diuretic, though it is a laxative.

I keep a bag in my house for when people want decaf. It isn't as good as a real cup, but calling it rat turds is just silly. You're an adult now. You don't need to lie to us for an excuse. Just enjoy your rat turds.

Milky dandelion sap is a bit toxic, like most of those are, esp. with Milkweed. Be sure to wash out the juices first before making/eating yer ensalada.

Yeah, but they're Dandy Lyon!!

Knew this one lawyer whose name was Lyon. Yep another Lyon Lawyer. For some reason his biness would not grow very fast.

Chicory root too

But just so everybody knows, it makes some people very sick.

I've made it, nice if done right. Dandelion ale is also pretty good

Makes a nice wine too.

[removed]

Was think the same thing! Lmao

Dandelion. Must be the last one this season!

Either she made a syrup or just had bees in a field with a lot of dandelions.

Dandelions are one of the most important leafy greens. Practically a miracle crop although nowadays people prefer spinach, kale etc.

Might be a sypup, no bees for sure.

You can even eat it if it is poisonous!

Though I wouldn’t recommend.

Pretty much every plant native to America. Columbus decided that vanilla, allspice, and peppers were the only spices and everyone afterwards just took his word on it.

Wouldn't it be easier to chop them up before drying?

They grow all over the place, imma try that next year.

Huh, so that's why they are called pissflowers in Dutch, I thought it just was because they're so yellow.

People ate them and made stew and tea during the Great Depression

Yes, be that as it may was me agreeing with you that I am sometimes pedantic.

Again, as I am not the one drawing this out, perhaps you should take your own advice.

Pedantic: an insulting word used to describe someone who annoys others by correcting small errors, caring too much about minor details, or emphasizing their own expertise especially in some narrow or boring subject matter.

Sounds to me like I'm not the only pedant here... Which one of us is claiming expertise in language? I certainly never did. You keep dragging me back into a discussion I was done with hours ago, for what purpose, I wonder? Is it to staunchly defend the current use of one language? Or is it to prove me wrong? Is it so important to you to be right on Reddit that you're just going to keep hammering away? Or are you going to stop being childish because I, like many others, choose not to agree with you about the validity of certain linguistic conventions?

Your call.

[removed]

[removed]

You can build doors and staircases out of it too. Of course you also need some clover or grass for the panelling.

If you want a more coffee-ish flavor instead of tea you want to roast the roots before grinding.

The yellow flower tastes okay. I learned they were edible in science class as a kid. After that I used to eat the flower just because I could. It is very mild and kind of sweet.

Can cause migraines. If you are prone to migraines, tread lightly.

I has a tea with dandelion root as an ingredient and it was brutal.

Only if you have no taste buds can you call it that.

To be pedantic coffee isn't technically a diuretic or a laxative. Many people will experience either diuretic or laxative effects, but many will not. So, it's not classified as either because we're not really sure what the fuck is going on. Dandelion tea also is technically not classified as a diuretic, but initial studies show that it appears to affect everybody, unlike coffee.

Plus, weeds are good "soil indicators"- the abudance of given types means the soil might have high quantities of nutrients! For purslane (P. oleracea), it's potassium.

Be careful. So, back in college we had a large drinking festival in the early spring, which is the perfect time to pick dandelion roots. I had a friend very into foraging and natural medicine and he had a source that listed dandelion roots as a way to "detoxify" your body. "Great!" we thought. We'll mix up a big batch of dandelion root tea and drink that after our full day of drinking alcohol and we'll be right as rain.

Two days later we still all felt like shit. We kept drinking the tea, and we kept feeling hung over. Then we actually did a bit more research and learned that really, it was called a "detoxifier" because it was a diuretic. We were dehydrated from a warm day of beer drinking, then drank a tea that kept us from rehydrating.

It tasted fine though. Fairly "earthy" but definitely not as tasty as a good coffee. Coffee can also be a bit of a diuretic, but always consult multiple sources and pay attention to how you body responds to a new chemical.

It's kind of amazing how one's person's point of view can change entire WORLDS worth of decision making, isn't it?

In German it's called "Löwenzahn". Which translates to … yup, Lion's Tooth.

Jokes on you. I learned this in Hetalia

I learned that it was a diuretic a couple of days ago, when I learned on the subreddit that they're called "pissenlit" in French, meaning "piss the bed."

For purslane I was blown away that this weed that grew in the cracks of my driveway was seen as an important food/plant all the way back to prehistoric times. It's good to know a few things you can eat in case there's a zombie apocalypse or something.

Here's a link for others to follow along: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_oleracea

If you ever want to know more about the plants around you, there's an app on android (possibly iphone) called PlantNet that identifies plants when you take pics of them and gives you info on them. Super cool and free.

We owe our teachers so much.

[deleted]

I didn't know that, but I've also never had it fail to identify the plant. :)

Can’t agree more. I haven’t been able to visit her since her retirement because I moved out of the country, I am definitely doing that when I do next year.

Dandelions have been were brought to new lands by settlers as they were easy to cultivate. They were only classified as weeds when it was discovered that weed killers worked against them.

I mean, dandelions are classified as weeds because they grow too much, damage other plants, and generally don't look aesthetically pleasing for most people.

See if you can find dandelion honey. Boil some dandelion flowers and sweeten it with the dandelion honey. Probably going to be the closest non-alcoholic facsimile.

Caffeine is a diuretic in moderate amounts (2-3 cups of coffee) though habitual users develop a tolerance against this effect.

[deleted]

Hahhaaha u makin coffee from this one!!!??? COFFEE CHEAP SUPERMARKET WHY U DO THIS ONE!!!!?????

Yeah, I’m thinking it must taste like perfume.

it’s a disservice to compare the two. they’re both hot and earthy and delicious and taste good with cream and sugar. SUPER easy to make toasted dandelion root tea.

Yea, with no fucking caffeine. What's the point?

Also picture this and also now Google photos does this.

Same here, my grandmother loved Dandelion wine and always had some ready for when she wanted a drink.

I remember my grandma showing me how to cook dandelion greens when I was a kid. Fry them in leftover bacon grease with a touch of vinegar. Sure miss her.

wonder what it taste like