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Cold Quell Tea
At the very first sign of a flu or cold here’s a recipe for beating it. Note it’s important to drink this tea within the first 24 hours of onset, for, as my acupuncturist Leslie Shanai, Lic.Ac. writes, “Once the disease has gotten a good foothold ginger tea will no longer be effective. It may even have a detrimental effect of adding unnecessary heat…” 
Leslie recently promised me that this remedy would stop my flu in its tracks….and it did! She has some other common sense flu quelling guidelines in her blog. Plus this description of why fresh ginger works: It “assist(s) the body in flushing out pathogens that have entered the body from an external source. Dried ginger has a different property than fresh and is more useful in aiding weak digestion.”
Therefore do not substitute powdered or dried ginger or ginger tea bags in this recipe. Only fresh ginger effectively dispels pathogens.
Ginger Tea
2 inches ginger root, thinly sliced (no need to peel the skin)
4 cups boiling water
honey to taste (optional)
Place ginger in boiling water, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain into a cup and (optional) sweeten to taste with honey. Drink all the tea in one sitting, one cup after the other, until it is all consumed.
Thanks for your comments. I guess if I start using it more I wont need to freeze it!
Thanks for the tip it sounds great! I buy ginger and put it straight in the freezer. I find it very easy to grate this way into recipes or add to tea. The benefit for me is that it doesn’t spoil before I can use it. Is this method suitable for making the tea, or am I destroying the nutrients this way?
That’s a good question. I’m not as concerned about the loss of C and B Vitamins that happens with frozen veggies as much as I am concerned about the “thermal” properties of a food. In general, I don’t use frozen veggies as according to Chinese Medical theory freezing reduces their ability to warm you. But that’s a subtle point and I haven’t any science to back it up. Check my article on the thermal properties of food. If freezing your ginger works for you, continue to enjoy it that way. Or you might do an experiment and make two cups of tea using frozen ginger in one and unfrozen in another. See if you can detect any subtle differences between the two cups.
I keep my ginger unwrapped in the fridge and it holds well.