Far from being a nuisance weed, dandelion is a fantastic plant with many health benefits. It’s easy to grow and learning how to make dandelion tea, salads, wine and more will turn you into a dandelion crusader rather than a dandelion hater!

The botanical name of the common dandelion is, Taraxacum officinale, in the asteraceae family. Here we cover how to make dandelion tea and turn it into a tasty brew with benefits using dandelion root, flower and leaves, singularly or in combination.

If you’re growing dandelion, either on purpose or by accident, you’ll want to know how to harvest and prepare dandelion for tea, so we’ll start there. If you’re not growing dandelion, you can purchase it online, such as roasted dandelion roots as well as dried dandelion leaves and flowers, and experiment with making your own concoctions.

If you want to cut to the chase for the quickest option, you can buy some of the many dandelion teas readily available today. Dandelion has become so popular and widely known for its health boosting benefits, that you can also find dandelion in capsule and tincture forms.

Reconsider bemoaning your weeds and investigate if they may actually be weeds with benefits!

“Learning the many dandelion benefits will turn you into a dandelion crusader rather than a dandelion hater.”
~GardensAll.com

HOW TO HARVEST DANDELION

First rule of plant harvesting, never harvest dandelions near roads or lawns that have been chemically treated. 

Every part of the dandelion is useful and beneficial. From leaf to seed, flower to root for food, even dandelion stems have worthy applications. Dandelion stems have a milky sap containing latex with medicinal and industrial uses. However, since the stems and seeds aren’t used for tea, we’ll skip covering those in this article.

Learning how to harvest dandelion roots, flowers and leaves is easy and makes for a quick and healthy tea right from your yard or garden!

When it comes to the health benefits of dandelion, most people are more familiar with the dandelion tea made from the root. However, dandelion flowers have significant health benefits too and also add a hint of sweetness to your dandelion tea.

Including dandelion flowers in your herbal tea also adds delightful color and gourmet flare as you sip the steeping brew.

Harvesting Dandelion Flowers

How to Harvest Dandelion Flowers

First, never harvest dandelions near roads or lawns that have been chemically treated. Harvesting dandelion flowers is quite simple: just pluck off the flower heads

When to Harvest Dandelion Flowers

Dandelions can bloom early spring to fall, depending on your region, with peak flowering typically in late spring, early summer.

Dandelion flowers can be harvested any time that they’re blooming. However, the best time to harvest dandelion blossoms is earlier in the season for the freshest, most vibrant and sweetly flavorful blossoms. Don’t over harvest the blossoms though as they are good early spring food for the bees. We like to leave one blossom for every blossom picked.

How to Process Dandelion Flowers

Fresh Dandelion Flowers

If you’re using the fresh blossoms for tea or salads, you may want to place them in a bowl of cool water to rinse them and keep them fresh and open until use. Soaking will also flush out any little creatures, should there be any hitchhikers in the petals.

You can also make tinctures and oils out of fresh dandelion flowers. If you’re going to dry them, it’s best not to soak them first, or if you do, use a salad spinner to remove excess water before laying out to dry.

Dried Dandelion Flowers

Drying dandelion flowers are an easy way to preserve them for year round use in teas, cooking, soap, cosmetics and salves. You can dry the blossoms by sun, dehydrator, freeze dryer or oven.

How to Harvest Dandelion Root

Harvesting dandelion root takes more effort, but there are a few tips that can make digging up the dandelion root easier.

Using a small hand shovel or trowel, dig deep a few inches out from the base of the plant. Dandelions are a long taproot that contributes to their survival. Pull the whole plant up from loosened soil, root and all. Whenever possible, it’s helpful to harvest dandelion root a day or two after a rain or watering while the soil is still moist which makes harvesting easier.

When to Harvest Dandelion Root

You can harvest dandelion any time of year, except for wintertime in cold regions when the ground is frozen.

If you want the most health benefits and medicinal properties of dandelion tea, the best time to harvest dandelion root is in fall or early winter. When the plant growth slows more energy goes into the roots.

For harvesting dandelion root, this simple dandelion weeder tool makes quicker work of digging down to unearth the long dandelion taproot.

How to Process Dandelion Root

• Wash soil off of roots and dry.
• You may also wish to scrub the outer skin with a scrub brush.
• Rinse well and dry.
• Chop into small pieces about the size of dice onions
• Use fresh for up to one week, stored in fridge
• Dry in sun, food dehydrator or oven on low heat at around 200°F

If you don’t have dandelion root you can benefit by the readily accessible dandelion root available in bulk at your favorite herbal supplier, and on Amazon. There are also plenty of good brands selling dandelion tea in teabags.

We buy ours because we don’t want to dig up the dandelions we have (excepting for the occasional ones that crop up in pathways and areas not suitable for harvesting the leaves. Otherwise, we let our dandelion grow as a perennial vegetable that we planted for food and medicine.

Here are links to finding all of these various dandelion products on Amazon, from tea to tinctures, roots to capsules and even seeds for planting your own.

Where to Buy Dandelion

• Dandelion Blossom Jelly
• Dandelion Root –
  • bulk dandelion root
  • capsules
  • teabags
• Seeds

How To Make Dandelion Tea

Dandelion Tea Recipes

While the most commonly used part of the dandelion for tea is the root, you can also use the flowers and greens alone or in combination. The root is most often used because it is considered to be the most nutritious and medicinal part of the dandelion plant.

However, if you have plenty of dandelions to harvest, might as well make use of the entire plant in tea and other recipes and concoctions. To help you with that we’re covering tea made from each and all combinations here.

Making Tea from Dandelion Root

After harvesting dandelion root, make sure the roots are clean before making tea. Flowers can be either fresh or dried for tea making.

Learning how to make dandelion root tea (or how to make dandelion flower tea) only requires a few simple steps:

Dandelion Root Tea Recipe

1 Serving

1. Bring water to a boil in a kettle or pot
2. 2 teaspoons chopped raw, dried or roasted dandelion root
3. Place dandelion into an infuser or tea ball in a mug and fill with hot water
4. Steep 5-10 minutes, sip and enjoy. 

Notes:

• Use more herb for stronger brew, less for milder
• FLAVOR ENHANCEMENTS – Try any one or more combinations of these for variety:
  • Add honey or stevia
  • Citrus juice, peel or dried fruit
  • Cinnamon stick
  • Fresh ginger
  • Lavender, hibiscus or other herbal teas
• Add an infusion of this tea to your water bottle for a diluted version to sip throughout the day
• Dandelion tea can be combined with any other herbal tea for a less earthy flavor

This is the basic recipe and recommended variations whether you’re using just dandelion root, leaves and/or flowers. However, we’ve provided a few variations below.

How Make Dandelion Decoction 

Instead of pouring boiling water over the roots to steep, a decoction is made by boiling dandelion root in a stainless steel tea ball directly in a pot full of water for around 20 minutes minimum. You can also place roots directly in the water without tea ball if desired, and strain water when complete. This process is called “decocting”, and allows the greatest medicinal benefits to be extracted from the herb or root. Add additional flavorings desired.

How To Make Dandelion Flower Tea

For a simple dandelion flower tea recipe, blossoms can be either fresh or dried. Repeat the same first steps for how to make dandelion root tea, but replace with dandelion flowers or petals in your infuser or tea ball.

FRESH BLOSSOMS

• 2 Tablespoons dandelion blossom whole, lightly chopped, or stripped into petals.

DRIED BLOSSOMS

• 2 teaspoons dried dandelion flower petals

How to Make Dandelion Greens Tea

• 2 teaspoons dandelion greens, steeped for 5-10 minutes.

Dandelion Root, Flower and Greens Tea

• 1 teaspoon each of dandelion root, flowers & leaves; this can be fresh or dried. Try it both ways and see which way you prefer.

Dandelion Tea Health Benefits

While dandelion root tea may have stronger health benefits, there are dandelion flower tea benefits, too.

Dandelion Root Tea Benefits

• Improved digestion
• Liver health and detoxification
• Fever reducer
• Lyme’s disease support
• Menstruation support

Dandelion Flower Tea Benefits

• Improved digestion
• Some vitamin C and K
• Gentle fever reducer
• Gentle purifier and detoxifier

So… before cursing, pulling and tossing out those dandelions from your lawn, put them to good use! Harvest your dandelion as free but powerful supplements! Try dandelion root or dandelion flower tea and put those weeds to work for you.

You can find more on the health benefits of the dandelion plant in this article on dandelion benefits.

Dandelion Greens

You can also enjoy the dandelion greens! Dandelion greens salad is one of our favorites at GardensAll, and you can use dandelion leaf greens in any way you’d use fresh spinach. If a 100% dandelion greens salad is too bitter for your palette, you can start by adding a few leaves to a salad mix.

The younger the leaves, the more tender and less bitter, so start there. We love dandelion greens salad with balsamic vinaigrette. 

Dandelion Tea With Daisy Fleabane

Once you get into the wonderful world of herbal teas you can make from your own yard and garden, there’s no end to the concoctions you can create. The next image is an example of dandelion tea with daisy fleabane, another beneficial and medicinal weed.

Even Dandelion Seeds Are Beneficial

Good for Wildlife Food and Also Edible for Humans

Few children — or adults — can resist grabbing a puffball of dandelion seeds and giving a wish and a fierce blow to see how many can scatter from the stem.

The beautiful dandelion seed globes are also a popular subject for nature photographers able to capture the magical sphere adorned with dewdrops and sunlight.

But beyond fun and beauty, dandelion seeds are actually edible and can be nibbled from the fluffy stem and also made into seed milk. This is good to know for survival skills, however, for everyday use it’s not that practical because dandelion seeds are smaller than sunflower seeds and require a large collection to amount to enough to use for food.

However, the seeds are beneficial to wildlife such as grouse, partridge, pheasant, quail, and wild turkey. These birds will enjoy the seed heads, whereas songbirds like blackbirds, goldfinches, sparrows, siskins, and towhees eat the seeds.

SOURCE: For dandelion seeds information: CommonSenseHome.com

Please check out these other articles for lots more on growing dandelion and dandelion benefits. Dandelion season is coming up soon!

Dandelion seeds are actually edible and can be nibbled from the fluffy stem and also made into seed milk.
~GardensAll.com

Awesome Video on Dandelion Flower Benefits

We love Adam Haritan of Learn Your Land YouTube channel and website, LearnYourLand.com.

Top feature Image by Shirley Hirst from Pixabay

Thanks to Contributing Writer – herbalist Adrian White:
Adrian is a professional freelance writer, herbalist, and organic farmer. Her work can be found in publications like The Guardian, Good Housekeeping, Civil Eats, and Rodale’s Organic Life. She is co-owner of Jupiter Ridge Farm where she grows diverse vegetables, mushrooms, and herbs in the Driftless Area of the Midwest.