#PhilosophicalFriday 3 – Ginger Tea

#PhilosophicalFriday 3 – Ginger tea – jiang cha

Sometimes even a philosopher gets a common cold. So what does he do?
One common herbal medicine that warms you up from inside is ginger tea. It is getting more and more popular in the West and is easy to make from scratch at home.

As you want to use it for „medical“ reasons, it makes sense to buy organic ginger. – Then you may use the whole root without hesitation. Take care: Old roots (the more wrinkled ones) are hotter than young ones, so you make your first basic choice about the taste of the tea in the shop.

Here are some recipes for you!

Recipes for ginger tea

• Strong ginger tea
  Take about 3 to 4 centimeters of a root and cut it into thin slices. Put them in boiling water and let simmer for 10 minutes. The tea will get a strong ginger taste.
• Ginger water
  If you are focusing on wellness and hydration, you may let the tea cool down and use it bit by bit to make your own ginger water – with just a little taste of ginger.
• Regular ginger tea
  If the strong version is not for you, just put the sliced bits of ginger into a mug of hot water and wait for 10 minutes. This gives you a more mellow ginger tea.
• Ginger and lemon tea
  Some people cannot really stand the taste of ginger. A popular workaround is to add lemon for freshness. You may put slices of lemon (organic!) into the tea. If you do not like the slight bitterness of the resulting taste, just squeeze the juice of about half a lemon into the ready made ginger tea.
• Winter Tea
  Still not happy with the taste? Try adding some honey for sweetening and (ground) cinnamon for fragrance. – This will give you a tea of golden color which is perfect for long winter evenings.

The philosophy of ginger

Now the tea is ready, and you are sitting on your sofa with a nice warm blanket. The philosophical question of the day for you is about the Chinese character for ginger: Why is it that the traditional writing 薑 does combine the short sign for sprout/grass 艹 with the sign for border or boundary 畺 (two fields 田 with three borderlines in-between)?
Hint: Maybe taking a close look at a ginger root will give you an idea…

Special question for the advanced thinker: Why is it that the alternative writing of ginger 姜 looks more like a sheep 羊 plus a woman 女? Any connections springing into mind? 🙂

Chinese tea