A few years ago when T Cafe opened (Remember Dooney’s in the Annex? –> I saw them on Restaurant Makeover back in 2008 or 2009 and was excited to go try it out… then it closed and became T Cafe in 2009). I fell in love with the idea of T Cafe, where food and tea merged. I never got to trying out too much of their food. I always ordered the same sandwich but changed up the teas. A cozy place to chill out on my laptop, sip on tea and have a quick bite. But their teapots always dripped and that drove me crazy.
Anyways, during one of my visits to T Cafe (It is now closed), I had the day off and I had a sore throat and runny nose, the start of a cold I thought. Grreeat. 😦
As I picked out my herbal tea, the server asked me if I had a cold? I guess she could tell by my runny/skin-peeling-from-too-much-blowing nose. She told me that the best remedy is a tea made from ginger slices, cayenne pepper, honey, and lemon juice. I asked her to repeat everything because it sounded sooo simple. She told me to make it when I got home. And I did. And it helped me get over my cold really fast – a few days at most.
I remember one time, I felt a cold coming on – the feeling of something in your throat (before the soreness develops). I made this tea. And the sore throat never came. Yeah…
The concoction might sound sort of strange but I’ve grown to really like it. Sometimes, I put too much cayenne and I still drink it. Some like it hot! It feels really good when you have a sore throat you’ve got the kick from the cayenne. 🙂
Here’s my easy peasy recipe. It’s just a rough guideline, use as much or as little of anything as you like.
Ginger, Honey, Lemon & Cayenne Tea
Ingredients
- 2-3 thin slices of ginger (about 1/4 of a cm thick)
- 1 slice of lemon or 1 wedge of lemon
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- few shakes of cayenne pepper or about 1/4-1/2 tsp
- Mug of boiled water
Steps:
- Boil water in the kettle or stove top
- While water comes to boil, dice ginger, slice lemons, and gather honey and cayenne.
- Put ginger, honey and lemon (first give the wedge a squeeze, if you’re using it) into mug. Pour hot water over it.
- Add cayenne and stir. Drink up!
My tip on making this a breeze and not having to take out the cutting board every time when you make this drink – at least for a few days. PREP!
- Slice a bunch of ginger
- Slice up a lemon
- Put both in the fridge in a bowl and just use whenever you are making a new tea.
And you’re golden!
What are your go-to cold remedies and concoctions? How do you fight your colds naturally?
