Lemon Wellness Tea for Sick Days

Inside: Even the healthiest among us succumbs to the occasional sick day. Tissues, a warm throw, and this lemon wellness tea for sick days are the perfect companions to help you on your way back to feeling better.

Tea mug with lemons, ginger, honey, cayenne in a measuring spoon, and honey--ingredients for Lemon Wellness Tea for sick days. — Lemon Wellness Tea for a winter’s day.

January has been a month of head colds and coughs around my house. Seems like we went from exciting goals for the new year to the goal of not using so many cough drops and tissues! But we’re regaining our health. As for this month, well, slow starts are better than no starts!

But back to the tea. . .

My friend Candace gave me this recipe years ago, and I’ve made it whenever I feel like I’m coming down with something. Or, when I didn’t get ahead of the sniffles, I’ve brewed the lemon tea. It’s packed with some of nature’s best cold-fighting, germ-killing ingredients. But instead of me rambling on about it, let’s get right to the recipe:

Three whole lemons, sliced
5 cups of water
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
honey or real maple syrup to taste

Slice lemons and put into a pot filled with the water. Start to bring it to a boil, though you want to keep it at a simmer. Add smashed garlic cloves, grated ginger (can add powdered ginger in a pinch, but use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon instead), and cayenne pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Strain and sweeten with honey or maple syrup to taste.

Cup of Lemon Wellness Tea surrounded by lemons, ginger, cayenne pepper in a measuring spoon, garlic, and honey. — A nice lemon tea with a strong hint of cayenne!

Note: Ginger root keeps well in the freezer, and you can keep it for other recipes, so if you can, buy fresh.

Honey is soothing for your throat and a natural cough suppressant, so you might want to use that for its added benefits rather than the syrup. Because the tea is quite sour from the lemons, I ended up using a combination of sweetener and honey–otherwise I probably would have wanted to use more honey than I really need, carb-wise.

The cayenne does make this a bit hot, so use with caution if you have trouble with spicy food. While the tea is better with the cayenne, this tea would still have some wonderful cold-fighting properties without it.