Can You Make Ginger Tea Without Ground Ginger?

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Ginger tea is an excellent drink that tastes good and has many different health benefits. Many people understand how good ground ginger is for you.

If your grocery store doesn’t often carry ground, you can purchase fresh ginger and use it to make a healthy cup of tea.

General Uses of Ginger

Ginger is an herb that is generally used in cooking and baking as a spice. It also has many different health benefits and is often used medicinally in tinctures and teas.

An article by The Nerdy Farm Wife says that there are actually around fourteen different common uses of ginger.

Since using fresh ginger is so simple, it is easy to make a wide variety of products using it. You can literally use ginger to make everything from candy and soda to beauty products such as salves and scrubs.

Other common uses of ginger include but are not limited to making syrup, homemade compresses, and, of course, ginger tea.

Ginger tea can be used in two main ways. You can drink it straight or you can use it to make a compress. To make a compress, all you have to do is get a clean cloth, soak it in cooled ginger tea, and place it on your problem areas.

Homemade ginger compresses are a great way to eliminate pain from achy joints and muscles and it is a simple process to make a ginger tea compress.

Health Benefits to Ginger Tea

There are a number of different health benefits to ginger tea. According to a Health Line article, some studies claim that ginger tea can help lower high blood pressure, help decrease symptoms of nausea and stomach problems, and, as stated before, help reduce muscle aches and pain from arthritis.

The power of ginger to alleviate nausea is so widely known that even pregnant women who are experiencing morning sickness and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment have been known to use ginger tea to help reduce their nausea.

In a separate Health Line article, there are claims that ginger can prevent symptoms of aging, including heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, because it contains powerful antioxidants.

Ginger tea can also help balance your blood sugar when you are fasting and help with weight loss. The benefits of ginger tea even include lower cholesterol and increased hydration.

Making Ginger Tea

If you do have access to fresh ginger, you can make tea without grinding it up. In an Alpha Foodie recipe, all you need to make ginger tea are filtered water, lemon, either ground or fresh ginger, and honey.

Making ginger tea is super customizable as you can add many different flavors and spices besides lemon and honey to it. Several herbs go well with ginger to create a nutritious and tasty drink.

For example, mint and cinnamon are some of the common flavors that people often add into ginger tea.

The first thing you’ll want to do when you decide to make ginger tea is simply chop up your ginger. Then without grinding it, add your ginger and fresh lemon slices to a saucepan of water and bring it to a boil.

Once your tea has come to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and let it stand for about five minutes. If you are craving a stronger tea, you can steep it longer. After your tea is steeped, strain it, add in some honey for sweetness, and enjoy.

There are actually several other different ways to make ginger tea without grinding your ginger. For example, you can grate your ginger or even use ginger pulp.

Ginger pulp can be found at most health food stores if you are looking for it and is really easy to use if you want to make tea.

Of course, if you don’t have any fresh ginger or lemons on hand you can always use ginger and lemon juice instead. Let’s not forget about tea bags!

Many different tea brands have blends of ginger tea bags that can often be found at local grocery stores and can be more easy to find in some cases than fresh ginger.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Ground Ginger

There are a number of reasons why using ground ginger isn’t as advantageous as fresh ginger. In an article by The Spruce Eats, the author explains that ground ginger can taste more mild and can be less beneficial to your health than fresh ginger.

Ground ginger also presents another problem. If you leave it in your spice cupboard for too long, it can become stale and completely lose its flavor. Fresh ginger, on the other hand, can be preserved and used at a later date.

Among the several different ways to preserve fresh ginger, freezing it is one of the most common ways. Ginger is easy to freeze and you don’t even have to thaw it out before you use it.

Using a cheese grater, you can grate as much as you want, put it in a zippered bag, and throw it in your freezer. Preserving your fresh ginger will ensure that you always have a supply on hand when you decide to make a cup of ginger tea.

Flavors That Pair Well with Ginger

Honey and lemon are commonly added to ginger teas but there are several different herbs, spices, and flavors that can be added to ginger tea to dress it up. In an article by Taste Essence, there are four main flavors that pair well with ginger.

Nutmeg tends to have a sweet and spicy flavor, which makes it very similar to ginger. When adding nutmeg to your ginger tea, you can either use grated nutmeg or fresh nutmeg.

If you have fresh nutmeg on hand, you will likely need to grind it before you use it. Grinding fresh nutmeg will give your nutmeg a stronger flavor, smell, and taste.

Another flavor that goes well with ginger is cinnamon. Now, cinnamon often is said to have a warmer and sweeter flavor than ginger and it can bring your tea to the next level. You can either add cinnamon to your tea by sprinkling some on top of your drink or by placing a cinnamon stick into your cup.

Allspice or Jamaican pepper is actually a fruit. It is normally dried and ground into a fine powder before it is used, which can make it the perfect garnish for a delicious cup of ginger tea. Allspice is yet another flavor, similar to nutmeg and ginger, that tastes spicy as well as sweet.

Similar to the taste of cinnamon, the spice mace also has a sweeter and warmer flavor. Mace pairs well with ginger because it is actually derived from the same plant as nutmeg. Some people like to use mace in place of nutmeg because it tends to have a more delicate, subtle flavor.

In general, ginger is a wonderful herb that can be used for a wide variety of things. Drinking ginger tea has many different health benefits and ginger tea is relatively easy to make.

In fact, making ginger tea is so easy because you can use fresh ginger, which will eliminate the need to use ground ginger. Because of its taste, ginger can be paired with a number of different spices to make your tea even more flavorful.

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