Recipes for Writers: Homemade Ginger Tea

What qualifies a good Writer's Recipe? 

First, it must acknowledge the facts of a writer's life:

1: We have no time.

2: We are stressed.

3: We will eat whatever leftovers or snack is most easily reached by our keyboard-numbed fingers, be it healthy or terrible for us, in order to finish a makeshift meal within five minutes and get back to writing a scene. 

4: We tend to be overcaffeinated, dehydrated, and probably malnourished. 

Therefore!  An ideal writer's recipe is quick to prepare, low-stress and uncomplicated, lasts for several days of leftovers (therefore saving future food preparation time), and... is good for us. 

Enter, the ultimate writer's drink: homemade ginger tea.  This is the perfect hot drink to stave off writing doldrums and winter blues.  Also, ginger is supposed to make you smarter, or some such thing.  So next time you're stuck on a plot line, boil up some ginger root for super-tea.    Caffeine free and delicious.  Boil a gigantic pot and reheat the ginger water for days to come.

Go ahead.  You deserve it. 

Ingredients: hunk of ginger root, 1 lemon, honey

(optional: dash of red pepper powder and himalayan sea salt, if you're going for the five chinese flavors of salty, spicy, pungent, sweet, and sour in one mug of sheer perfection.*)

Full disclosure: I did not invent this recipe.  I worked a summer at a backcountry chalet in Glacier National Park, spending 10 weeks 7 miles away from any roads or civilization or wifi, and our wonderful manager would make a batch of this whenever one of our crewmembers seemed to be coming down with a cold, or worse.  (The last thing we wanted was a flurry of flu in the backcountry, with no hospitals and no replacement staff if we keeled over.)  It worked, every time.  

Use real lemons instead of extract if you can afford it (but don't feel bad if you can't.)  There's always more vitamins in the real thing.  And if you slice up a whole ginger root, and boil your biggest pot, you can have ginger water to reheat for a week.  Many, many mugs of tea.  

Step 1: Peel ginger root and slice into flakes.

Step 2: Boil ginger root for 30 minutes to several hours.  30 minutes if you don't want a strong ginger flavor...  3 hours if you go out to feed the horses or go for a long walk on a back road and forget about your tea.  Not to worry, it'll still taste fine.  (Boiling on a wood cookstove not required.) 

Step 3: Scoop hot ginger water into a mug, stir in a tablespoon of honey, and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.  Stir until all the honey's dissolved, and...

Enjoy the perfect concentration-boosting mug of ginger tea.  Boiling fresh ginger packs more punch than any tea bag. 

* Now, the reason I also add a dash of red pepper and sea salt to my mugs of tea...

My lesson on electrolyte depletion and dehydration. 

Last winter, I went to see an acupuncturist during the computer screen headache fiasco.  This was my first time trying acupuncture - it was AWESOME, and I came out feeling lightweight and airy.  But the most lasting thing I learned from that session was to hydrate with more than simple water.  This acupuncturist was incredible, and so kind.  She talked about how common caffeine addiction is these days (cough, cough) and, as a result, widespread dehydration.  We all know to drink lots of water.  But water alone is not quite enough, and gatorade and so-called electrolyte sports drinks tend to be mostly high fructose corn syrup (yuck, yuck.  Avoid at all costs).  Caffeine and diuretics force fluids through our body faster, and as a result you're losing more trace minerals too, in your urine every time you pee.  Sometimes you get so dehydrated you can drink water and more water but still just feel... empty.  Your body can't process fluids, without also receiving salts and electrolytes to add to your cells.  So, this acupuncturist shared a lesson from her own days as a recovering coffee addict: an older mentor gave her the advice to follow the system of 5 Chinese flavors, and replenish her body's vital nutrients as well as water in every cup of tea she drank. 

Add lemon, and ginger, and honey, and salt, and hot pepper.   You can add these to your mugs of actual green tea, too.  Cayenne pepper for Spicy/Acrid; lemon juice for Sour; honey for Sweet; sea salt for Salty; ginger for Bitter/Pungent. 

There is some ancient wisdom to be had here (more than can be learned in one lifetime).  If you haven't yet looked into the five flavors and corresponding effects on organs and healing in traditional Eastern medicine, I'd strongly suggest you keep investigating.  And if you want an incredibly enlightening and also lightheardedly-written guide to QiGong and energy healing- complete with scientific evidence and explanations- I'd strongly, strongly, strongly recommend 'The Way of Qigong' by Kenneth S Cohen.  (Given to me by a friend; I read it three times in one winter.) 

I had further proof of just how many trace minerals and essential salts we lose every time we sweat and urinate this summer, in Glacier Nat'l Park.  The mountain goats (which are usually somewhat rare, and fairly shy) positively congregated around the backcountry chalet where I worked, their bulging black eyes fixed hopefully on every passing human.  They wanted... salt.  If hikers left socks drying on railings, the socks soon disappeared; mountain goats stole and chewed on multiple sweaty articles of clothing.  If hikers walked off trail to relieve themselves in the trees, mountain goats recognized the distinctive tinkling sound and came running, in a sometimes-frightening horde.  And every morning, without fail, a handful of mountain goats would be feverishly licking the rocks in front of the chalet, where male guests sometimes failed to make the walk to the outhouse the night before, and simply relieved themselves over the railing (despite frequent reminders by chalet staff to not do precisely this.  So much for keeping the wildlife wild). 

An unexpectedly... intimate relationship with the local residents. 

We want your pee.

Anyway.  Enjoy your ginger tea and replenish your body's salt!

Happy writing, fellow scribblers.  Whatever your current project, may it go well, and even if it doesn't, carry on.  We want to read the worlds you write. 

-mlj