I’m always recommending to people to make a fresh ginger tea so I thought I should make a blog about it. This is a common remedy for all sorts of digestive complaints and ginger is one of the strongest home remedies in Chinese medicine that can really help regulate the digestive system and also what we call “warms up digestion” because it’s quite a warmer.
If you are noticing that you’ve got a chronic digestive situation, these kinds of issues are important to look at in your life and this is one of my specialties. I help women and men who get it—people who are seekers and empathic and sensitive folks who really make breakthroughs by tapping into what I call the Subtle Body or the way that your mind body system works in a technical way.
Often, even though people are making strides maybe with their naturopath or their acupuncturist on digestive things on the outside, what they’re not getting to is that deeper emotional inner block in the Subtle Body really makes all the difference in healing.
So to start making your own ginger tea at home, use fresh organic ginger root.
Use probably about an inch and a half of ginger and remove some of the skin.
Sometimes you can just take the back, non sharp side of the knife and scrape off the light parts. I find that this helps take the skin off without removing too much. I usually do that while it’s all together. I don’t cut it and then take it off just because it’s easier to hold on to the root to get into the little crevices.
Now cut them into little medallions enough for one person for a small pot.
Put those guys in the sauce pan and cover them with water usually it’s about this finger lengths (show in the photo) above where the water line is and it doesn’t have to be perfect, but you want to make sure to put enough in there so that the pot is not boiled down and ruin your pot. Be generous with the amount of water and you get extra bonus points if you leave this overnight.
Because ginger is a root, it takes a little more oomph to get its medicine out of there compared to an herb that is a flower or a leaf. Those types of plant material give up their medicine a little bit easier. You can see that when you pour boiling water over peppermint, a lot of those phytochemicals and the properties of peppermint are very easily coming out. That’s why you get that strong smell. With ginger, it’s a root. We need to usually boil it or soak it for a little bit longer to get the medicinal properties.
Put it on the stove and put it on high. What we’re going to do is we’re going to let it come to a boil and then once it comes to a boil, we’re going to cover and simmer for 20 minutes. So it’s pretty simple.
Turn it down to just below the middle. My stove just has a low to high and middle, so it’s going to be just below the middle and I’m just going to watch that it goes to simmer.
And then important step for me, I’m going to set my timer to about 20 minutes. You could do 25 also to make it a little bit stronger and we’ll come back and check.
So now the tea is boiled. I think these little strainers are nice and it’s really good when you’re making other tea or loose herbs but you can probably also manage to drink around them or just pour it off there. But I use this little guy.
I like it pretty straight, but if you like, you can add some raw honey. Honey is one of those things that you want to make sure you get from a quality source. There’s been some reports over the past couple of years that if it’s coming in a squeezy plastic bear, it’s probably not a high quality honey. Not to be biased against that cute little bear but in general you want raw honey and ideally local from the area where you are. This can actually help with allergies and things like that.
One of the things that I will often do, especially in winter times or if I’m going through something that I feel like my digestion needs a boost, I will soak the ginger overnight and then put it in a thermos so I can drink a little bit throughout the day. I think a little bit of ginger tea sip throughout the day is easier for your body to take in rather than going to down a whole mug right away, but however you do it, just get it in you. That’s how it does its job.
If you’re really hurting digestive-wise, like if you’re in a place where all of a sudden you’ve got terrible stomach upset or you feel like you ate something funny, you can actually just take a little nub of ginger and just start chewing on that. It’s pretty strong, but that’s also a good remedy in a pinch!
I find that the best way to eat fresh ginger is slowly. Gently touch it with your teeth over time and eat it over the course of like 15 to 20 minutes and then the heat is a little more bearable.
And that is how you make a lovely digestive-boosting cup of ginger tea!
Disclaimer: This program is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health or counseling services. No practitioner-patient relationship is established and the training content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and nothing here is intended to diagnose, cure or treat any disorders.