Ginger is great and easy way to spice up what you're cooking up.
A bit of ginger root adds a certain zing and pizzazz to life. The sharp, distinctive taste adds a spring to your step with the remarkable flavor. In fact, I often begin my day with a cup of ginger tea to start my day off right.
I am not exactly sure when ginger became one of my favorite flavors — perhaps it was after I received my bright sun-kissed orange car in high school, which I aptly named Ginger.
Ginger is one of those flavors that you either can’t get enough of or run away from with pure disgust. In New York City, I offered a few friends my newly bought bag of crystallized ginger to clear their palettes. The overwhelming taste did not agree with some of them, so they swore ginger off for life. Unfortunate, if you ask me.
Ginger is produced and formulated in a variety of ways: powder, crystallized, fresh, pickled and many more that I can’t wait to feast upon. Based on the form and amount in the dish, the taste can be mild to overpowering.
Ginger Iced Tea Recipe
Servings: 5
Time: 3 hours
Ingredients:
6 cups of water
6 bags of green tea
1 cup of sugar
2 inches of peeled and sliced ginger root
1 sliced lemon
Directions:
- Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and remove from heat. Place the tea bags in the boiling water and bring to room temperature. When the water is at room temperature, remove the tea bags from the mixture.
- Meanwhile, construct a simple syrup with the ginger by bringing 2 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar and cut ginger root to a boil. Once the simple syrup begins to boil, lower the heat to a simmer and stir occasionally. Remove from heat once the sugar dissolves. When the simple syrup is at room temperature, strain the ginger root from the mixture.
- Once both of the mixtures are at room temperature, combine the tea mixture and the simple syrup in a tall pitcher until chilled.
- To serve: place ice in a tall glass, pour the chilled ginger iced tea and garnish with a lemon slice.
Alternative: If you don’t wish to go through the fuss of making your own homemade ginger iced tea, you can improvise a bit. Just boil water, add Celestial’s Jammin’ Lemon Ginger Herbal Tea, allow it to come to room temperature, remove the tea bag, add ice and drink away.
In addition to its taste, ginger also offers a long list of health benefits. Livestrong notes that ginger assists in relieving pain, kills or slows the growth of cancer cells and prevents liver damage. Traditionally, Chinese medicine employed ginger to “expel, cold, wind and dampness, and is believed to stop the reverse flow of Qi (energy)” according to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Next time ginger is offered on the menu, give it a try and let me know what you think.
Cassie Fait is a senior studying journalism and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. Email her at cf301411@ohio.edu
