For What Ails You

I may still be new to the vegan lifestyle but I've always been into super hipster beverages.

Funny that we, the American youth, think these cultural representations so novel that we turn them into another form of entertainment.  What may seem so normal to other nations we have turned into curiosity- the hipster subculture celebrates not the rich heritage, or historical import of such things, but the novelty.  As soon as others jump on the band wagon, the novelty is lost and the herd moves on.

But I digress. I was talking about super vegan hipster drinks, remember?

So today I have added Tumeric Tea to my list of exotic drinks I've made/tried.  It didn't turn out great, because I searched around for a recipe and, not finding one that suited me exactly, simply went about willy-nilly.  That is to say, I sorta made it up as I went along.

It wasn't bad, only I added too much soy milk and it overpowered the tumeric-ginger concentrate.  I also think I added too much cinnamon-but now my house smells warm and spicy and gorgeous.

See? You just gotta look at the bright side.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Tumeric Tea, it is also called by any combination of "tumeric", "golden", "tea",and "milk".  Tumeric itself is an orange-ish root that somewhat resembles ginger.  It is hailed as the Queen of Spices and has been used for centuries for culinary, beauty, and medicinal purposes.  Used principally in the East, I know it from the salves and tinctures my grandmother uses to counter inflammation and arthritis.  It is said to help prevent colon cancer and cystic fibrosis, as well as a number of other ailments.

But be warned: fresh tumeric is hell to scrub out. It literally stains golden everything it touches.  I bet King Midas had tumeric for hands. (haha!)

I guess I'll include the recipe, even though calling it that is a bit of a stretch. 

Half a little knob of fresh tumeric
A quarter of a bigger knob of ginger
2 tsp of cinnamon (I would use less)
a pinch and a half of nutmeg
lemon zest
2 cups of water
some kind of sweetener, to taste (I used yellow rock sugar to keep with the Eastern Asian feel)
some kind of milk (I used soy...with an overly liberal hand)

*pro tip!* To skin the ginger and tumeric, use the side of a spoon and hold the knob against the palm of your hand

I threw everything in a pot except the milk and simmered on medium heat for, like, 13 minutes.  It smelled pretty divine, if you must know.  Anyhow, next I strained it carefully (not really- I made a huge mess) and stirred in an entire batch of soy milk.  That's around 4 cups.  Huuuuge mistake.  The spicy flavor was masked by the taste of soy milk, so please add less of your milk of choice.  I think coconut milk would be nice.

recently discovered snapchat, so...

I poured the rest into a big bottle and I'm bringing it with me to practice.  Just to shake things up, you know?