Ginger Tea

In my quest to take it easy the last few weekends I’ve been spending a lot of time on the computer doing blog stuff (I find it very difficult to actually do nothing!).  While visiting some of the other contributors at the link parties I attend, I came across this Ginger Tea from Nellie Bellie.  A little piece of information about me – I love tea!  I’m addicted to Sweet Tea, flavored tea, all kinds of tea.  I knew as soon as I saw this recipe I had to try it.

Fortunately for me, the next day after seeing the recipe we went grocery shopping.  Unfortunately I was about halfway through when I remembered that I wanted some fresh ginger.  My husband, being the awesome guy he is, ran back to the produce department to search for some root (even though ginger really isn’t a root) that he had never seen before in it’s natural state.  It took a while but he came back bearing the fruits of his labor.

While he was out digging for roots I was foraging for tea and a tea ball.  I bought just plain old Lipton tea bags and planned to use the ball for the ginger.  Of course the cheap piece of crap tea ball that I bought wouldn’t open and I ended up cutting myself attempting to use it.  Sooo I decided to throw the ginger in au natural and strain it out later.

Ginger has many healing qualities.  It has long been used as a tummy soother (Ginger Ale anybody?), it is also believed to be an anti-inflammatory and sleep aid.  It also tastes really yummy!

The tea was excellent.  I’ve been having problems with sleeping lately, I”m going to try drinking a cup of this before bed time to see if that helps relieves some of my sleep issues.

Here are the original ingredients from the recipe over at Nellie Bellie

Ginger Tea

1 tablespoon minced (I grated mine) ginger
2 cups boiling water.
1 black tea bag.
1/4 cup evaporated milk (or cream or 1/2 & 1/2 or milk)
4 tsp sugar (to taste)

Basically boil the water, add the ginger (in a tea strainer) and tea bag.  Let steep for up to five minutes, I typically let my tea steep for about three minutes.  Add sugar and milk to taste.

How easy is that?  I like sweet tea but even I thought that was REALLY sweet so if you normally drink your tea unsweetened you may want to cut back a bit.  I also tried the tea before and after the milk and didn’t really notice a difference.  Unless I can find some health benefit that I’m unaware of, I’ll probably leave the milk out.  I didn’t really think it changed the taste much so for me it’s more of a hassle to add it in.

Do you have any great ginger recipes you can share?