It’s officially fall and in a few days it’s Mehregan, the Persian Festival of Autumn.  One of the things that I look forward to, when we enter the fall season, is drinking cups of warm tea regularly. The summer weather in Los Angeles in recent years has become less and less bearable, and as far as I am concerned drinking warm tea is not part of my daily routine. But let’s not talk about how it’s 81°F right now and focus on today’s fall related post!

A few years ago my trusted acupuncturist, and friend, Dr. Sepi shared a natural remedy for soar throat went I visited her to get acupuncture while sick.  The remedy was incredibly easy to make: Simply brew some lemon and fresh ginger slices in boiling hot water, then add honey and drink warm throughout the day. To this day, every time I have a soar throat I still make this simple tea and it really helps sooth my throat.

Not too long after, Dr. Sepi told me about a tea made with ground Turmeric, Ginger, and Cinnamon that she had come across. At the time this conversation took place the Western world was just becoming aware of the benefits of Turmeric. Since the recipe used ground spices I promptly went to my spice rack and excitedly prepared the tea.

I took one sip and my first reaction was: YAK!

I convinced myself to take another sip and thought about the excitement in Dr. Sepi’s voice as she said how much she liked the taste of said tea.

I took a second sip. Lawrd was it awful!!!!

I promptly poured the tea down the drain and went on with my business. As far as I was concerned Dr. Sepi could go drink her Turmeric Tea to her heart and health’s content! Moi? No thank you!!!

Fast forward a few months, low and behold I came across fresh Turmeric at one of my occasional visits to Whole Foods. With much excitement I purchased a few roots and went about experimenting making Dr. Sepi’s tea with fresh ingredients.

Turmeric Spiced Tea 2

My what a difference. The tea was mild but good. I recently did some extra reading about the benefits and preparation of Turmeric Tea.  I made a small change that actually made the tea over the top good. Instead of brewing the spices in hot water for 10 minutes, I simmered them for thirty minutes.

Turmeric Spiced Tea 2-2

This made a huge difference flavor wise. The color of the tea changes dramatically and the flavors are very bold.

Turmeric Spiced Tea 2-3

Specifically, ginger adds an intense spicy flavor; I don’t know about you, but I personally like my food spicy, not my tea! Now you do have the option of using less ginger, but I found a way to mellow down the spiciness. I simply added some fresh squeezed lemon juice and the tea was perfection, in my humble opinion.

Turmeric Spiced Tea 2-4

One of the things that I really like about this tea is that the cinnamon stick adds a natural sweetness to it and you don’t need to add honey like a lot of recipes suggest. What I also found is that you can make Iced Tea with this recipe and it’s actually really really good, too!!

Last but not least, I would like to thank the Western world for finally catching on to the wonders of the Eastern world.

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Turmeric, Cinnamon, & Ginger Tea
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 cup
 
Ingredients
  • 1 tsp grated fresh turmeric
  • ½ tsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1 tick cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ slice of lemon
  • 1½ cups water
Instructions
  1. Place turmeric, ginger, cinnamon in a sauce pan. Add water and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for 30 minutes.
  2. Strain tea and discard ingredients.
  3. Add lemon juice and half slice of lemon.

 

Now please see the recipes that a group of us Persian bloggers have created for Mehregan!

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