Soaking Feet In Strong Tea

[Josh Calhoun]

hi all, as some of you know i am starting a thru hike next year on Feb the 16th. i have heard that soaking your feet in a strong tea will help to tough the skin and make you a little less likely to develope a blister. is this true? have any of you already done this? and if so what kind of tea?

thanks in advance for all of your anwsers. this site has helped me out tremendously in my preperation.

[SawnieRobertson]

Hi, Josh. I think the best way to avoid blisters is to take thyself to the New Balance store. Lightweight hikers and trail runners avoid all sorts of unhappy developments. If you really think that leather hiking boots are the way for you to go, then defy what the salesman will tell you. Get the boots and your Smartwool hiking boot socks. Soak the socks in water. Wring them out. Put them on. Put on the boots early in the morning with the wet socks on. Wear them. They will be perfectly fitted when you remove them that night.

[SCGamecock]

From Backpacker.com:

Q. Does soaking your feet in black tea before a hike reduce sweat and prevent blisters?


A. Here's a pre-hike soak routine: Boil four cups of water and allow eight black tea bags to steep for 10 minutes. Pour the tea into a basin filled with two liters of cooler water, and soak your feet for 30 minutes, repeating daily for a week. Not into wasting all that good leaf? Wearing two pairs of socks, with the inner as a wicking layer, will keep your feet just as dry–and save 56 tea bags per week of hiking.

[Deacon]

From Backpacker.com:

Q. Does soaking your feet in black tea before a hike reduce sweat and prevent blisters?


A. Here's a pre-hike soak routine: Boil four cups of water and allow eight black tea bags to steep for 10 minutes. Pour the tea into a basin filled with two liters of cooler water, and soak your feet for 30 minutes, repeating daily for a week. Not into wasting all that good leaf? Wearing two pairs of socks, with the inner as a wicking layer, will keep your feet just as dry–and save 56 tea bags per week of hiking.

I tried this routine earlier last summer and it did nothing as far as toughening my feet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jakedatc]

Yep, good fitting shoes and socks that work for YOU is the best bet. some people like thick socks, some like thin socks, some like 2 socks.. it depends.

doing some multi day hikes beforehand will help you find where any problem areas are. and STOP and FIX any hot spots before they become blisters. if you catch it early you can put some duct tape or mole skin over it then that skin will toughen up naturally.

[RED-DOG]

The only thing that will toughen your feet is hiking and proper fitting boots, or trail runners.

[Josh Calhoun]

i use trail runners, wool socks and hike many many miles a year. just wondering if it will help any

[SassyWindsor]

No doubt this is a waste of potentially good tea.

[daddytwosticks]

Note to myself...if I run into Josh on the trail next year, DO NOT accept any tea from him. Even if it is served over ice w/lemon wedge on the hottest of summer days! Have a great hike.

[Slo-go'en]

Best way to prevent blisters is not to hike in wet socks or shoes. I know a lot of you don't like them, but I never use anything but goretx lined boots and rarely have a blister problem, at least not from wet feet.

[colorado_rob]

No doubt this is a waste of potentially good tea.

I would disagree here. Seems like a good way of making a good strong teat even stronger!

[T.S.Kobzol]

Just to be a devils advocate here... I have seen plenty of folks getting blisters on long trail this year and they we're (gasp) wearing trailrunners, especially when wet.

I have had my (gasp) leather boots on and had no blisters at all.

So, I am not denying the appeal of trolleybuses but it is all in how you use it.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

[T.S.Kobzol]

And replace trolleybuses with trailrunners. My phone irritates me sometimes.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

[hikerboy57]

I tried this routine earlier last summer and it did nothing as far as toughening my feet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

did you use lemon?

[HikerMom58]

.......................................

[snifur]

on my thru i did not experiance not one blister or hot spot. not one. i wore hikeing shoes (not boots). each morning i rubbed my feet with mint rubbing alcohol. then put on my nylon liners and smartwool socks and hiked for the day. nylon liners to keep friction off the foot. when my feet got wet i would ring them out hourly or swap to dry socks. then at the end of the day i would use the mint rubbing alcohol again. as far as the shoes go i had to change them out three times due to the size of my feet kept expanding. but again, no blisters or hot spots.

[vamelungeon]

Will soaking your feet in strong tea keep them from going to sleep? Or should I use coffee for that?

[hikerboy57]

Will soaking your feet in strong tea keep them from going to sleep? Or should I use coffee for that?

try red bull.
crystal meth might help. it wont toughen your feet, but you wont care anymore.

[hikerboy57]

i used to use thorlo hiking wicking hiking socks and used to get blisters fairly regularly. since ive switched to thinner socks, and have been blister free for the past few years.you can toughen your feet all you want. once theyre wet for a while, the un-toughen.
ive played guitar since i was eight years old and have calluses on my fingertips. but if i go swimming, the calluses soften and my fingers become tender.

[Marta]

According to "The Wildly Successful Two-Hundred Mile Hike" and borne out by my own experience, the ingredients that brew up a blister are moisture and friction.

In general trail runners breathe better than boots and hence produce fewer blisters. But it's far from foolproof. In some situations boots can keep your feet dry enough that you're better off than if you wore trail runners.

The worst socks are probably cotton because they absorb moisture and wrinkle up. Various anti-blister sock schemes are two pairs of socks (allowing the thick outer pair to slip up and down over the thin inner pair), one thick pair (allowing boot or shoe to move without abrading the skin beneath), and one thin pair (allowing the boot or shoe to glide up and down without causing friction on the skin).

Some people are blessed with rhinoceros hide tough feet and won't get blisters no matter what they wear or do.

As with so much else in life, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

*Your shoes or boots need to be large enough to allow for the swelling that occurs when you are carrying extra weight and are on your feet for eight or ten hours. If your shoes or boots are too small, none of the following measures will help. You are much better off to have your feet slipping around inside your shoes than to have a snugly secure fit that will turn into too tight five or six hours down the trail.

*During a couple of your daily breaks, take off your shoes and socks, shake out the dirt, take out the insoles, let everything dry. In hot weather, change socks and even insoles. Remove grit and dirt from between your toes. Soak your feet in cold water. Give them a bit of a massage. Sit or lie down with your feet above the level of your hips.

*Cleanliness helps. Wash them off before you go to sleep. Rub them with alcohol or Purell to keep fungi and the like at bay.

*In hot weather, rinse out your socks and hang them to dry during the night. Take the insoles out of your shoes during the night so both shoes and insoles will dry better. Get as much grit as possible out of your shoes every time you go to put them on.

*Be alert to the niggling discomfort that signals that a blister is going to develop. It's just a tiny bit of discomfort, hardly worth mentioning. You can tough it out. You won't want to stop because it will annoy the people you're hiking with, or they'll get ahead of you. But if you don't stop right then, you WILL end up with a blister and you'll be lame for at least a week. Do yourself a huge favor and stop before the layers of skin separate and get fluid between them.

Yeah, this all seems pretty fussy, but even a Ferrari can't go with a flat tire.