A Throat Soothing Lemon Ginger Tea

We make this lemon ginger turmeric tea every few days in the winter, and I drink potfuls of it any time I have a sore throat or cold. It’s soothing, tastes great, and the spices, lemon, and honey are great if you’re feeling under the weather.

I’m always disappointed by store-bought teas with this flavour profile – they’re just not strong enough – and making it this way means you can adjust to your personal preferences. Fresh turmeric and ginger also have a much sharper, more pleasant taste than the dried spices used in packaged tea.

This type of ginger spice tea has its roots in ayurveda, which is linked to the practice of yoga. You might see similar teas served at different studios, and almost all workshops worth their salt will offer a type of yoga tea. I first started making it when I did my yoga teacher training about ten years ago.

I first published this recipe in 2017. It’s been updated with new step-by-step photos, improved information, and slight updates to the recipe.

Ingredients You’ll Need and Why

You don’t need loads of ingredients here, and several of them are dried spices, but for the best tea flavour you’re best using freshly opened packs or buying them from a bulk store with a high turnover. Below are my testing notes from over a decade of making this tea you can find the full recipe card is below.

• Dried spices: you can alter the recipe to increase or decrease certain ingredients. If you’d like it to have a more pronounced cinnamon flavour, for example, add an extra cinnamon stick. Other additions could be star anise, fennel, or nutmeg. I often add the small bit leftover from grating my own nutmeg, once it’s too small to safely grate any longer. Peppercorns should be in the above photo too!
• Turmeric: if you can’t find fresh turmeric, you can either substitute a small amount of dried (¼ to ½ teaspoon) or leave it out. Fresh turmeric is getting easier to find these days, though, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
• Ginger: you need fresh ginger for this recipe. There’s absolutely no need to peel it – I never do, even in baking – just chop roughly and add to the pot.
• Honey: some flavour notes from the honey will come through in the tea, so use a type you like. I usually go for a local creamed blossom honey and won’t use a very strong type like chestnut or forest honey for this.
• Lemon: fresh will taste the best. You can use bottled lemon juice in a pinch but might need to adjust the amount.

How to Make Lemon Ginger Turmeric Tea

This is a mix it and forget it kind of recipe, with a fairly long simmering time that you don’t need to be in the kitchen for. I think it could also be made in a slow cooker but haven’t tried this.

Step 1: wash and chop the ginger and turmeric, and gently crush the cardamom pods. Add to a pot with the water and other dry spices. Use a heavy lidded pot if you have, like a Dutch oven.

Step 2: bring to a low boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for at least half an hour. The water level shouldn’t really decrease, but the tea should take on an orange colour and strong spice scent when it’s ready.

Step 3: turn off the heat and stir in the lemon and honey. You can strain out the spices beforehand if you’d like, especially if using a harder honey that you might want to whisk in. Sweeten to taste at this point.

Step 4: strain the tea and serve hot or warm. It can be gently reheated on the stove if it cools before you finish it, or served cold if you’d like. If you’re only going to drink a cup or two a day, I recommend storing the tea without stirring in the lemon and honey, and then heating up enough for an individual cup and adding those directly to your cup to taste.

If you can’t see the recipe video, please watch it here on YouTube instead.

Expert Tips for the Best Tea

• Only boil the spices: remove from the heat before adding the lemon juice and honey to avoid cooking those ingredients.
• Add lemon to taste: especially if you’re drinking a lot of it, because that lemon will start to make your teeth feel funny after a while. Use less lemon, or omit it, if you’re planning on drinking this for several days in a row.
• Use a tight-fitting lid: you don’t want to reduce the tea during cooking, so a good heavy lid without holes is ideal. It’s just going to be simmering, not boiling, but the liquid shouldn’t evaporate much if possible.
• Add pepper: To get the greatest benefit from turmeric, it should always be combined with pepper. All of the spices in this tea are great for reducing inflammation, but turmeric is an anti-inflammatory powerhouse.
• Don’t overdo it: both ginger and turmeric can help with inflammatory disorders like rheumatoid arthritis when used over time, but any diet changes like this should always be discussed with a medical professional.

More Warm Drinks to Make Now

I’m ridiculously picky about warm drinks, and only drink spice teas like this and unsweetened fruit tea (no rooibos, black, or green tea – I know). To keep hydrated in the winter months when it’s so cold, these are the drinks I make.

• Similar to this recipe, I often make cranberry ginger tea with fresh or frozen cranberries for a refreshing warm drink, or homemade orange peel tea with orange peels, spices, and juice.
• To help keep colds at bay I try to keep ginger shots and honey elderberry syrup on hand. The latter needs to be made a little earlier in the year but freezes well for winter use.
• For something a little more decadent, as an evening treat or for a holiday drink, try this spiced pear cider and dairy-free hot chocolate. I’ve been having hot chocolate almost every evening so far this month.

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