Grandmother’s remedies are either the real deal or just sugary hot water swallowed to clear one’s conscience. This one belongs to the first category. Five raw ingredients, no mystery, and an effectiveness against those first November chills that would make a box of medicine blush.
Ingredients :
- Fresh ginger — This is the engine. Not powdered ginger — fresh, with its thin, slightly wrinkled skin and pale yellow flesh. Grate it fine on the smallest setting of your grater: the finer it’s grated, the more it releases that characteristic heat and essential oils into the water.
- Garlic — Get local garlic if you can find it. Imported garlic bleached with chlorine loses some of its active properties. Crush it with the flat of a knife rather than cutting it — crushing activates alliin, the compound that makes all the difference.
- Raw honey — Supermarket honey that has been industrially heated is essentially just sugar. Look for honey labeled ‘raw’ or ‘unheated’ from a local beekeeper or organic shop. It is often thicker, cloudier, and more complex — and that’s exactly what you want here.
- Lemon — Use the zest if your lemons are untreated — it concentrates essential oils that the juice alone doesn’t have. Treated lemons? Just stick to the juice, it’s already very good.
