Feel Better With Ginger Tea

I always joke that West Indian parents think ginger tea (and VicksVapoRub) is the cure all for anything. Have a stomach ache? Ginger tea. PMS? Ginger tea. Cold, sinus infection or flu? Ginger tea. I could call my parents and tell them that I broke my foot and I am pretty sure that they would suggest some ginger tea as a healing aid.

All jokes aside, wether it’s nausea, cramps, or an oncoming cold, ginger tea really does seem to work wonders for a number of different ailments.  As we head into cold and flu season, ginger tea is always my go-to to stop a “tickle” from becoming something worse.

While you can buy ginger tea in tea bag form at most grocery stores, truthfully, they don’t taste that great. I’ve tried a few hoping to find an -on-the-go option, but they all taste horrible. The only way to make ginger tea is by making it yourself with fresh ginger root. That taste is incomparable. (And actually good.)

For years, making ginger tea seemed daunting to me, namely peeling the ginger. How was I to peel this fibrous root without accidentally hurting myself in the process? Well, thanks to one of my many Food Network binges in college, I learned that peeling ginger couldn’t be easier. All it required was the edge of a spoon to scrape off the skin. That’s it! No knife required, crisis and injury averted.

With the skill of peeling ginger taken care of, now to make the tea. A roughly 2-inch piece of ginger will make a pot of tea that will last a couple of days. Once the ginger is peeled, it is chopped and placed in a small saucepan with four cups of water and a generous heaping of cloves. (I use around 10. Now you can make the tea without the cloves but it really adds a nice flavor and has amazing health benefits, making this tea a true powerhouse for immunity.) Over medium heat, let the tea come to a boil, for about 5-7 minutes. The longer it boils, the more the ginger and the clove is extracted.

Once the tea has been boiling for a few minutes, it is ready. Simply strain the tea into a cup and that’s it. The end result is a flavorful and strong tea. The first batch will no doubt be the strongest, but by the next boil, it starts to weaken. The ginger is reusable, and from that one piece of ginger, I will get roughly four to five cups of tea over a couple of days. By the fourth cup, you will be able to tell that the tea is starting to weaken, so at that point it either goes in a smoothie or thrown in to the compost.

Ginger tea taste great on its own, but you can also enjoy it with honey, sugar, or even lemon. (A cup of hot ginger tea with lemon is how I start many mornings at home.) It’s even great as a hot toddy, something I discovered recently. Ginger tea, honey, dark rum, and bitters combine to make an instant feel good elixir. When I got sick a few weeks ago, it was the perfect cold remedy, especially since I felt 100x better by morning.

So wether it’s for a cold or horrible menstruation cramps (I can attest that it’s amazing for PMS and cramps), ginger tea truly is an essential cure all for a number of common ailments, one that I hope you will find beneficial too.