Making Mormon Tea or Indian Tea - A Brewed Sun Tea

Description

After finishing a Shade Tarp using our PSTL Tarp, I decided to make a sun tea from the famous Mormon Tea (Ephedra) plant found all over the West. Over the years I've had a brewed tea from this plant often. I learned about the plant as a child from my grandparents who were pioneers in the Western US.

I camp each week all year round, the things I do and the gear I use are part of what make my time in the outdoors enjoyable. Check out the gear I use, most of which we make and also sell online. Links below.

With our system, "take less gear then do more with what you do take"

Check out our ponchos http://wildernessinnovation.com/shelter/personal-survival-shelter/

PST Line of Tarps

http://wildernessinnovation.com/survival-supplies/survival-items/personal-survival-tarp/

Tarp Accessories Kit

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Survival Blankets

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Osni Narrow Blankets featuring APEX insulation

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Look at our Hammock Shelters http://wildernessinnovation.com/shelter/hammock-survival-shelter/

My Playlists - More Info

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Buy an HD Poncho / Hammock http://wildernessinnovation.com/shelter/poncho-survival-shelter-hd/

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Our Fleece Poncho Liners http://wildernessinnovation.com/survival-supplies/survival-items/pss-liner-fleece/

APEX insulated Liner / Cloak / Under Quilthttp://wildernessinnovation.com/shelter/osni-cloak-multipurpose-coat/

Poncho Accessories Kits

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I use Lume Cubes for lighting at night while shooting video

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1192933-REG/lume_cube_lc_22b_lc_11b_2_x_pack.html?ap=y&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr77n_eS72wIVxrrACh2JLAbpEAQYASABEgIF_fD_BwE

My video camera is a GoPro Hero 4

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My GoPro is fitted with a Sennheiser Mic https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1315658-REG/sennheiser_microphone_for_gopro_hero4.html

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Video Transcription

I can just shove that quarter tab through my tie up going to the tree so now that that toggle right there just goes right to you there that'll hold it it won't go anywhere gotta use a prusik loop to do this and these are our new Dyneema lash it cord press ik loops Dyneema twine holds even though it's so small that holds 500 pounds so what we do is we just go around and through once rounding through twice then we just snug it up now we want to make sure we're feeding there we go so we're feeding to the from the inside to the outside then you just kind of tension it up a bit and this these Dyneema they bite in here like crazy credibly good grip so what I'm gonna do is I just shove the end of my this is a corner on my tarp I just shove that through the prusik loop and then I can slide this however I need to to tension it that was very quick and simple to do and I've got a shade that's what I wanted a shade tarp of shade cloth this area out here just full of this plant called Mormon tea if the early settlers everything used to make a tea out of this it can be a tea that you steep with hot water or you can even do a Sun tea that's what I'm going to do today I'm gonna make a sudden tea out of this so I'm going to gather some of these green spikes all right back in here the green jointed part of the plant looks a lot different than it does not we're just showing you that one it's a little easier going on the plant back in here it's not out in it's not so harsh a little bit more of the shade probably has a little bit or moisture getting the ground being underneath this juniper here

so I'm just gonna cut me off a good a good hand for this won't have enough to have a good batch of tea here let this sit and brew in the Sun all day or you know good part of the day I decided just to let these brew right here in this pan and the Sun I've got a Powerade bottle I was going to use but I thought it'd be harder to get all those little stems out of there let's go see how our Sun tea is doing I put this on my stool out here on the point so I have no shade it's just fully exposed to the Sun and as you can see here the water is turned kind of a yellow orange color so I'm extracting the minerals and the the plant resins and all that sort of thing into the water and that's going to be for filtering now first of all I'm just gonna go ahead and get all that big stuff that I can get out I'll just go ahead and get out a lot of other stuff just some of the plant scales and some of that sort of thing that are left in here and so I'm going to pour this mixture through this shirt to try to strain you know as much of that as I can but just to make it look a little bit prettier Oh filtrate okay so it didn't fill a clear up but hopefully I can pour this without spilling too much of it I thought I had a funnel in my kit but apparently not but I think will do just fine here gave me almost 32 ounces there so that's a handful of it's a handful of Mormon tea a little twigs and steeped about half a day or so in the Sun and now into a bottle like this I'm gonna put it in right in the ice so this thing gets really chilly let me just taste it for a second as an ice has a nice flavor it's not bad at all not bitter or nothing like that all right well let's take a look at this Mormon tea iced tea let's sit in the iced water here let's look at color nice kind of golden color to it very cold

as a nice flavor that's pretty darn good tell you the what not bad and that's unsweetened I just straight up tea straight up Mormon tea excellent I think I gotta have a little more swing of it hey it is cold and good refreshing feels clean and nice you