Not only does this taste amazing, but it’s very healthy. Ginger, honey, AND lemon all have nutritional benefits and even medicinal purposes. Ginger is excellent for digestion, and drinking this tea when your stomach is upset is a perfect way to calm things down a bit. Honey, when in its pure and raw form, can help alleviate allergies and the common cold, is packed full of antioxidants, and can also act as a digestive aid. Lemon is packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants. This is a sweet treat you can feel great about drinking whenever you want- and a great alternative to sugary juices or sodas. Sip on it while you’re making your grocery list or reading a book. So. It’s healthy, it’s delicious… and it’s easy to make. It definitely meets my three criteria for the ideal recipe :-)
First, you’ll need to peel and slice the ginger. This can seem a bit intimidating if you haven’t done it before, but there’s a trick that I want you to know about: peel the ginger with the side of a spoon. Trust me, it will work! It takes off just the skin, whereas with a peeler, you also take away some ginger so it’s more wasteful. And don’t worry about getting every speck of the peel off- you’re just going to boil it and strain it out anyway. If you have extra, store it (peeled) in your freezer. You can use a microplane zester to grate it directly from the freezer for recipes like carrot ginger soup or fried rice. Place the prepared ginger in a pot with 6 cups of water and the zest of one lemon. Two, if you like things really lemony. Boil, then steep for a while- 30 to 45 minutes.
At this point, strain the liquid through a mesh sieve into a pitcher. The tea will be warm, but not scalding. Now, you can add the honey and lemon juice. This is important: you need to wait until the liquid has cooled a bit before adding these ingredients. Adding them to boiling water would negate a lot of their nutritional value. Now for the fun part- making it fancy! After the tea has cooled, serve it over ice and dress the glasses up with slices of lemon and sprigs of fresh mint. It will be almost too pretty to drink. Which makes it a great beverage to serve at your next party, especially as an alternative to cocktails. More of a coffee drinker? Try this milk and honey cold brew iced coffee recipe. For a hot version, try this hot fresh ginger tea. Recipe below! Enjoy :-)
