Creative Cleansing: Ginger and Lemon Iced Tea!

Raw or cooked, ginger has amazing healing properties that we all need in our diet. Plus it’s great for your energy, your skin and your overall health in general. After this long and hot summer, we are definitely in need of some self-care. Which today, involves iced-tea!

It’s easy to make ginger-infused drinks at home, a gentle way to remove all the summer toxins from your body. We tried it out for ourselves, and I think we did a pretty awesome job. A member of the Total Cleanse team made some Ginger and Lemon iced tea this week, and is sharing their recipe. It’s simple, taking less than 10 minutes of prep time and using only a handful of ingredients

What you’ll need:

1) Raw ginger, fresh (add as much or as little as you like)
2) 1 lemon (or lime) chopped into pieces
3) Cinnamon or Tumeric

Optional: add some fresh raw local honey as a natural sweetener!

TC Pro Tip: if you want to use honey in this recipe, as a sweetener, make sure to buy it at a farmer’s market or grocery co-op. Unfortunately, a lot of honey is called “natural” or “organic” but those labels are deceiving. Bottles sold in the big chain stores don’t have pollen, may have pesticides, and are not GMO free! Those are things you definitely don’t want in any food.

For this recipe, I used honey from my neighbours’ beehive.

Step #1: Start by chopping both the lemon and the ginger (Pictured below)

These can be thinly sliced, diced, or as large chunks. Whatever you prefer! 

Step #2:  Add ~3 cups of water to a small pot, and bring to a boil.

Step #3: Once the water is boiling, add the lemon and ginger.

Step #4:  Simmer on low heat and let the lemon and ginger seep

I left a timer on, and waited about 10 minutes.

Finally, add a dash of cinnamon and the honey to taste. If you like, add a dash tumeric as well. I used about 3 spoonfuls of honey, and there is no strict measurement. It’s really a personal preference. I just prefer a sweeter ice tea so I added more.

After this step: take the pot off the stove and let it all cool down. Here, I set a timer and left it to cool for 45 minutes.

Once it has cooled down, strain into a large jug or big mason jar.

After straining, I let my ginger & lemon iced tea seep in the fridge overnight. You can drink this beverage right away, if you prefer a hot beverage, or over ice right away!