This afternoon, I’m going to sound like a hack selling some cure-all elixir on the street corner. This homemade, heart-warming, health-giving brew is so good, it’s worth the risk of like sounding like a shill, though.
I promise, this potion of minced fresh ginger slowly steeped into hot water, finished with spoonfuls of honey and squeezes of lemon or lime has cured me of: oncoming colds, indigestion, being freezing, exhaustion, and even the Sunday blues.
I first had a tea like this in a much richer variation, a thick, sweet liquid served hot in tiny cups. You could only drink a few sips, the tea was so rich and sweet, but the taste was so developed that when we looked at the recipe we were amazed to find just three ingredients: ginger, honey, and citrus. The instructions explained a lot. Those ingredients simmered for a long time, maybe even hours, until they reduced and the tea grew syrupy. In the end, I never made it this way-it was just a little too much.
When you need to drink a lot of tea-when you’re dehydrated or feel like you might be coming down with something like a spring cold-that syrupy stuff doesn’t do. You just can’t drink enough of it. And that’s the reason I started brewing a weaker version. The ginger steeps for at least twenty minutes, so there’s plenty of spice and flavor. I can’t explain what deliciousness happens to that flavor when you add the honey and lemon; that’s the moment the cloudy ginger juice goes from a simple tea to an elixir you might want to sell on a street corner, or at least tell everyone about.
The tea has become such a staple of my drinking life that when Skinnygirl Daily asked me to share a recipe inspired by my participation in the Healthy Habits Challenge, I knew it was time to post about the brew. There’s no one food or drink that makes me feel so consistently good after I eat or drink it as this tea, and so I thought I’d give you the magic formula for making the cure-all stuff yourself. Drink it after an indulgence, to ward off a cold, or to chill out at a moment when you feel some creeping nervousness. It’ll cure what ails you.
This post was sponsored by Skinnygirl Daily, to help spread the word about their Healthy Habits Challenge. You can sign up for the challenge to get and share inspiration about small changes you can make to live a healthier life. You can also follow along on social media along using the hashtag #SkinnygirlHH. Thanks for supporting BGSK’s sponsors!
**Recipe**
Fresh Ginger Tea with Honey and Lemon
Makes 4 cups (I drink them all myself)
Ingredients
1/4 cup chopped ginger (from a roughly 2-by-4 inch piece, peeled)
4 cups boiling water
about 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
juice from 1/2 a lemon
Place the minced ginger in the bottom of a glass pitcher, four-cup measure, or French press (that’s what I used). Pour the water over, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, stir in the honey to dissolve, then add the lemon. Taste, adding more honey or lemon if you like. Pour into a mug or glass, straining if you wish (I never do, since the ginger naturally settles on the bottom). Drink hot, warm, room temp, or cold.
