Pick me up

I once knew a singer who told us, he ate a lemon if he ever had a sore throat on a day he had to perform. He ate a lemon. Like that. Brrr.
Apparently, something in that lemon soothed his throat sufficiently to sing no matter how he felt. But I sure felt glad my mum stirred a spoonful of honey into my tea whenever my throat needed soothing.

Years later, I first came across ginger tea. I was pregnant with my second and quite willing to try anything against morning sickness -which I tended to have troughout the day. Not only did it seem to help, it actually tasted good too. And not just to my weird pregnant taste. I kept on drinking ginger (and preferably ginger and lemon) tea long after giving birth. But mostly just the simple supermarket stuff.

For a proper pick me up, freshly brewed ginger lemon tea is the way to go though.

All natural goodness, easy to make and easy to adjust to your own taste.

Today definitely called for it.
But you don’t need to get soaked by the rain first -as I did.

You don’t need to have a cold.
You don’t need to have a throatache.
You don’t need to feel nauseous.
If you do, this will make you feel better, sure.
But if you don’t, this will still make you feel better. And taste good at the same time.

And apparently, drinking fresh ginger lemon tea on a regular basis boosts your immune system, due to the anti-oxidants and vitamins found in ginger and lemon. Personally, I’m not sure how much you’d have to drink for that effect to set in, but it definitely will not hurt you to drink as much as you like.

So, to ease life on gloomy autumn days (or any other): the recipe.

Well, it hardly is a recipe:

• Slice lemon and ginger -a good slice each per cup, or more to taste
• Put in a cup or pot
• Add boiled water, give it a good stir and let stand for a few minutes
• Add turmeric and/ or honey to taste

That’s it.

For a stronger tea, grate your ginger.
It’ll be even stronger if you leave the ginger to simmer in the water for about ten minutes. You can use a regular tea infuser to make it that bit easier to get it to your own desired strength.

Wrap your hand around your cup, lean back for a moment and let the rain dissolve into the background. Enjoy!