One of my favorite local soup spots also makes an insanely good ginger lemon tea. When I’m sick, I know that a bowl of their spicy diced pork noodle soup and a ginger tea will clear my sinuses right up. I had a terrible cold before Christmas and it was all I wanted. They deliver the soup but, for some reason, they won’t deliver the tea. I was on my own for that. 

I’ve tried making ginger lemon tea at home before, but until now I haven’t had much luck getting the sharp, spicy ginger flavor that I love. I even tried ginger tea bags, but those were awful. After a little crowdsourcing on facebook and a lot of experimenting, I finally nailed it! Just like the restaurant’s version, this tea is loaded with spicy ginger flavor and has just enough honey to soothe a sore throat without being overly sweet. I’ve been drinking it nonstop over the last month> I stock up on ginger and lemons every time I go to the grocery store!

How to make the BEST ginger lemon tea

Ginger lemon tea is really easy and all you need to make it is fresh ginger root, lemons, and honey. Some people also add turmeric or cayenne pepper, but I like to keep things simple.

This tea is all about the technique. Start with loads of fresh ginger. You’ll want a piece about the length of your thumb for each large cup of tea. Peel the ginger, then thinly slice it. Next, put the sliced ginger in a cup and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. (In a pinch, you can also use one of those plastic squeeze lemons. They aren’t perfect, but they work.) Use a muddler or a spoon to muddle the ginger and lemon juice together. You really want to pulverize the ginger in this step. I tried using grated ginger as a shortcut, but you lose too much of the juice. The flavor just isn’t the same. Muddling is definitely key. 

Add a teaspoon of honey to the cup, then pour boiling water over it all and give it a good stir. Now comes the hard part—let the ginger lemon tea steep for 5 minutes to bring the flavors out (and let the water cool down!)

In addition to being a great way to clear your head, ginger has a ton of health benefits from treating nausea to helping with indigestion. Plus it’s just flat-out delicious, even if you’re feeling great to begin with! Give it a try and let me know what you think! If you have extra ginger, you can also use it in these pineapple ginger immunity smoothies, another great recipe for this time of year. 

Print

Ginger Lemon Tea

Ginger lemon tea is a great way to warm up on a cold winter night. The spicy ginger and soothing honey is also excellent if you’re battling a cold or the flu.

Course 40+ Healthy Drinks Recipes

Cuisine American

Keyword ginger lemon tea

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Calories 38kcal

Author Lauren Keating

Equipment

• OXO On Cordless Glass Adjustable Temperature Electric Kettle, Stainless Steel
• OXO SteeL Muddler with Non-Scratch Nylon Head and Soft Non-Slip Grip

Ingredients

• 4- inch piece fresh ginger
• 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons honey

Instructions

• Bring three cups of water to a boil. 
• While the water boils, peel and thinly slice the ginger. Divide the ginger between two large tea cups or mugs. Add the juice from half a lemon to each of the cups. Muddle the ginger and lemon to release the juices and break the ginger down. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of honey into each cup.
• Fill each cup with boiling water. Stir well, then let steep for 5 minutes. Do not strain.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 38kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Sodium: 2mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g

Drinking chocolate flavored with warm spices and topped with orange vanilla whipped coconut cream is perfect for sipping slowly on a frigid winter day.

I was planning to share a new salad recipe with you today, but the forecast says we’re about to get buried under a ton of snow and I couldn’t do that to you. Or to me – it’s been too cold to even think about eating a salad.

Instead, how about a warm drinking chocolate that’s rich enough to pull double-duty as dessert? Now that’s more like it. Even better, it’s dairy free!

If you love hot, spicy drink recipes be sure to also check out my Gingerbread Hot Chocolate and my Orange-Cardamom Dessert Coffee with Rum. You’ll also love this white hot chocolate starbucks copycat recipe! and, of course, you can’t go wrong with aged eggnog!

Do you remember back in the early-2000’s when Starbucks had a huge marketing campaign around their chantico drinking chocolate? It was incredibly rich, thick hot chocolate served in an espresso cup. It reminded me of drinking molten brownie batter and it was insanely delicious – and probably had enough calories to last a week but that’s another story. Then one sad day not long after it launched, they pulled it off the menu. Apparently it wasn’t very popular.

Anyway, I took one sip of this spiced drinking chocolate from The Whole Coconut cookbook and was instantly transported back in time. This drink reminds me a lot of chantico, except not as sweet and with cinnamon and cayenne pepper to make it extra cozy. It was love at first sip.

This drinking chocolate is topped with whipped coconut cream that’s flavored with orange and vanilla – two of my favorite flavors to pair with chocolate. (When I was in college I worked at the coffee beanery and we had a drink that was half coffee, half hot chocolate with orange and vanilla extracts – it was to die for and is another coffeeshop drink that’s sadly no longer on the menu.)

It’s warm and cozy and perfect for a snow day. Save the salad for next week.

Print

Orange Vanilla Drinking Chocolate (Dairy Free)

This recipe requires a little pre-planning – the coconut cream, mixing bowl, and beaters need to be very cold – but it’s well worth the wait. Leftover whipped cream will keep for about 1 week in the fridge.

Prep Time 8 hours hours

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 8 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Lauren Keating

Ingredients

For the whipped cream

• 8 ounces coconut cream
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch sea salt

For the drinking chocolate

• 3 ½ ounces dark chocolate chopped
• 1 cup canned coconut milk
• ½ cup coconut water
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

• Refrigerate the coconut cream, a metal mixing bowl, and the beaters from a hand mixer (or whisk attachment from a stand mixer) for several hours until thoroughly chilled.
• Transfer the coconut cream to the chilled mixing bowl. Using a mixer, beat the cream on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Add the orange zest, sugar, vanilla, and salt; beat again. Refrigerate until ready to use.
• Gently melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside.
• Combine the coconut milk, coconut water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a low simmer, whisking continuously. Whisk in the melted chocolate, cinnamon, and cayenne. Serve immediately, topped with 1 heaping tablespoon of the whipped cream.

Notes

I buy small cans of coconut cream from Trader Joe’s – they’re perfect for recipes like this one. If you can’t find coconut cream, you can make it by refrigerating a can of full fat coconut milk overnight. Open the can very carefully – the cream will be in a solid mass at the top. Scoop is out and save the coconut water underneath for smoothies or to use in this drinking chocolate recipe.

I worked in a local coffee shop during my senior year in college. I absolutely loved that job! One of my favorite drinks on our menu was half coffee and half hot chocolate, flavored with orange and vanilla. It was full of flavor, but because we used extract instead of flavored syrups, it wasn’t sticky or overly sweet.

A few weeks ago Shawn and I went out for dinner and decided to order dessert. I was pretty excited to see that they also had dessert coffees – it’s been so long since I’ve been anyplace that’s served them, and I honestly forgot they were a thing.

I’ve been on a dessert coffee kick ever since. The orange in this one was inspired by the drinks we used to make at the coffee shop. The bright citrus combined with cardamom is the perfect way to bring a little brightness to a dreary winter day and whipped cream adds the perfect touch of sweetness. (I know… cardamom cookies, chai French toast casserole…I’m cardamom-obsessed at the moment!)

I also added a hefty splash of The Real McCoy’s 5-year aged rum to my coffee – not enough to make the coffee totally boozy, but enough to give it a nice kick and add another layer of complexity. (The rum is aged in bourbon barrels, which give it an amazing flavor.)

Since I used orange zest instead of liquid flavoring, you can prepare the coffee grounds a few days before you plan on brewing them – a container of flavored coffee and a bottle of rum makes an excellent last-minute gift for the holidays. Leave some out for Santa with a plate of Nutella-stuffed oatmeal cookies, have a mug on New Year’s Eve when you need some caffeine to keep awake, or serve it with New Year’s brunch (I won’t tell!).

Print

Orange-Cardamom Dessert Coffee

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Calories 160kcal

Author Lauren Keating

Ingredients

• ½ cup 4 scoops freshly ground coffee
• 1 orange zested
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 8 cups water
• 4 ounces 5-year aged rum
• 8 tablespoons whipped cream for serving

Instructions

• In a coffee filter, mix coffee grounds, 2 tablespoons orange zest, and cardamom. Brew with 8 cups of water.
• Add 1 ounce of rum to each of 4 coffee mugs. Fill to the top with coffee. Top with whipped cream; sprinkle with remaining orange zest.

Nutrition

Calories: 160kcal | Protein: 1.3g | Fat: 9.4g | Cholesterol: 3mg

Fresh ginger gives this latte a subtly spicy, warm flavor (a little bit like chai) and the honey adds the perfect touch of sweetness. To make it, start by infusing milk with fresh ginger. The easiest way to do t to peel a nub of ginger (about the size of the tip of your thumb) and cut it into coins that you soak in the milk for about 10 minutes. Then, add honey and bring it to a gentle simmer to warm it up. I like to use wild, raw honey with has a deep, moody flavor and isn’t quite as sweet as clover honey.

Then, you add the flavored milk to your espresso. I recently received one of the new Nespresso VertuoLine machines, and I love using the Altissio espresso for this drink. It’s intense enough to stand up to all of the milk in the latte, but not so strong that it masks the flavor of the honey.

After hearing a few of my friends rave about the VertuoLine over the past few months, I couldn’t resist when offered one to review. I’ve been using it for the past month, and I’m completely in love.

The machine is small, so it doesn’t take up a ton of counter space, and it’s the first Nespresso machine that makes regular coffee in addition to espresso. The coffee and espresso are both delicious – rich, full of body, and not too bitter. They’re also both topped with a magical layer of crema (the light-colored layer of “froth” formed when the oils from the coffee beans combine emulsify under pressure. When I used to work in a coffee shop, pulling a shot of espresso with the perfect layer of crema was the death of me. This machine makes it a no-brainer.)

The machine is really straight-forward to use – just pop in the pod, push the lever to the side, and hit the brew button. In about 15 seconds, your coffee will be ready – this thing is fast! The used pods fall into a container on the side of the machine where they’ll collect until you’re ready to recycle them.

There are also a few adjustments you can make. My favorite is the “top off” feature, which lets you brew a little more coffee than the normal amount. I’ve been buying stronger roasts and using this feature to fill a larger, travel-sized cup instead of using two pods for my morning coffee.

The only downside is those darn pods. At 95-cents for a coffee pod (and 75-cents for an espresso pod) they’re definitely more expensive than other single-serve coffee systems. They’re also only available online, which is kind of annoying if you don’t realize you’re running low and need to order more. (UPDATE: I’m told you can also buy the capsules at Nespresso flagship stores and select retailers. You can find retail locations via this link.)  I also wasn’t a fan of the flavored coffees – both hazelnut and vanilla versions are available, but I found both to be slightly bitter and the flavors didn’t come through strongly enough.

Print

Honey-Ginger Latte

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes minutes

Total Time 12 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Lauren Keating

Ingredients

• ¾ cup milk
• 1- inch fresh ginger peeled and sliced into coins
• 1 teaspoon honey preferably wild and raw
• 2 ounces freshly brewed espresso

Instructions

• Add the milk and ginger to a measuring cup; let steep for 10 minutes. Pour into a saucepan set over medium heat. Add the honey and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. (Do not let the milk boil.) Discard the ginger slices.
• Add the brewed espresso to a serving cup. Pout the warm milk cover the espresso. Serve immediately.