The talk about ginger can get my mom all energized. She is a strong believe in how good ginger is for our body. There may not be enough formal research or scientific papers to support this probably, but I do kinda swear by this tea to help me keeps my stamina all high. I have been routinely drinking ginger tea for probably more than 6 months now. I don’t get sick easily unless I don’t clock in enough sleep. Seriously, no matter what I do, if I’m lacking in sleep department, everything goes down the drain. EASILY ! If my kids are sick, you can be assured I will be sick too. So, I’m not saying that just drinking this ginger tea makes me a super woman. NO! Doesn’t work that way! In case you aren’t tired of hearing this yet: Plenty of rest, exercise, and nutritious food ! Okay, stepping down from my dietitian stool now!
Anyway, yes..ginger dates tea. I added Indonesian palm sugar or we call it gula jawa in Indonesian in this tea. This gula jawa is unlike any palm sugar out there. It’s very aromatic, dark in color. They are not similar to Thai/Vietnamese palm sugar which is lighter in color and somewhat different in taste. Gula jawa is very commonly used in cooking and dessert in Indonesia. It makes things taste better. It makes this tea taste so much better too. I don’t make this tea very sweet because I drink it regularly, but it’s up to you how sweet you want to make it. This tea is great all year long even in summer time, and I don’t drink it cold, I always drink it warm ! Try it out, you might like this cuppa !
Ginger dates tea (about 4 cups)
Ingredients
- ½ lb fresh ginger 250 gr
- 6 red dates
- 3 black dates optional
- 4 cups water
- Indonesian palm sugar or use coconut sugar - amount is up to how sweet you want it to be gula jawa, I use 2 Tbsp. You may substitute with regular brown sugar if you must
Instructions
- Use a spoon and scrape the skin off the ginger. I find it easier to do it with a spoon because I can get to all the difficult to reach place. The finer you cut the ginger, the better. The tea is going to be more concentrated. You can either use a grater to do this (it's a lot of work I know), or you can roughly chop them and pulse them in food processor, or you can cut them manually into sticks. It's up to you. But I won't suggest leaving the ginger whole or just cut in large pieces
- Use a scissor to cut few snips on the red dates and black dates, if using, (to release flavor)
- Place 4 cups of water in a medium sauce pan, followed by ginger, dates, and sugar. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to let it gently simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat after 15 minutes but let the tea sit for another 15 minutes before you strain it
- Strain the tea to a glass jar with lid and keep in refrigerator for no more than one week. Or you can serve it warm immediately. This tea is pretty concentrated and a bit "spicy" in taste because of the ginger. It's going to take some get used to especially if you never have this before. You can mix it with some hot water if you don't like it too concentrated. If you keep this in the refrigerator, make sure you warm it up before serving. I won't suggest drinking it cold
Other types of Chinese drink and soupy dessert you might like:
Red dates tea
Goji berry tea
Rice and ginger tea (Bee Teh)
Black dates, ginger, goji berry, longan, dang shen tea
Sweet potato ginger soup
3 comments
Love the sounds of this herbal tea!
Thank you Lu Ann 🙂
I love my tea! This one sounds interesting, and delicious!