Ginger tea

Saenggangcha 생강차

Having a cup of hot ginger tea at lunchtime has been a part of my routine for a few months now. Not only do I enjoy the taste but it always soothes my stomach and makes me feel relaxed and comfortable. When I researched the health benefits of ginger, I found evidence that ginger can cure nausea, headaches, migraines, stomach congestion, flu… many different ailments! It sounds like a panacea!

I don’t know if it can sure all those things, all I know is that it always makes me feel good.

I’ve been developing my own variation on traditional Korean saenggangcha so I decided to share it with you. This might be the simplest recipe on my website! It calls for very few ingredients: ginger and honey. That’s all you need! Don’t forget to float several pine nuts on the tea.

Enjoy my hot tea, pulp and pine nuts!

And just in case you don’t like pulp, I’m posting the traditional saenggangcha recipe, too.

Ingredients

Ginger, 1 cup, pureed
1 cup of honey
pine nuts for garnish

Directions

My hot ginger tea

Peel a little more than 1 cup’s worth of fresh ginger. Wash and drain thoroughly.
Puree the ginger with either a grater or food processor.
Put 1 cup of the pureed ginger into a bowl. Add 1 cup of honey and mix well.
Transfer to a glass jar and store it in the fridge as you use it.
To serve, mix 2-3 tbs of the mixture into a teacup of boiling water. Garnish with several pine nuts on top.

Enjoy the hot tea!

My cold ginger tea

Mix 3 tbs of the mixture into a large glass of cold water. Add some ice cubes and garnish with several pine nuts on top.

Enjoy the cold tea!

Traditional Korean ginger tea

Thinly slice 1 cup of peeled ginger. Mix with 1 cup of honey or sugar.
Transfer to a glass jar and store it in the fridge as you use it.
To serve, boil 3 tbs of the mixture and 1½ cups of water in a ceramic or Pyrex kettle for about 10 minutes. Pour only the tea into a cup and leave the ginger slices in the kettle. Garnish with several pine nuts on top.

Enjoy the traditional hot tea!

Posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2012 at 12:42 pm. Last updated on October 5, 2014.
Tagged: cold tea, ginger recipes, ginger tea, hot ginger tea, hot tea, 생강차, korean dessert, korean food, Korean food blog, Korean kitchen, Korean tea, Korean traditional ginger tea, Maangchi recipes, Maangchi's ginger tea, saenggang, saenggangcha, traditional Korean tea, vegetarian food

52 Comments:

Joyce Yu Irvine, CA. joined 9/09 & has 16 comments
Posted February 26th, 2020 at 2:44 pm | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi! How are you?
I made this tea today and it was a great success.
Thank you sharing this. Perfect to drink when you’re feeling under the weather! More power to you!!

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Arthemisefairy The Netherlands joined 12/18 & has 2 comments
Posted December 13th, 2018 at 7:27 am | Log in to reply.

This is a lovely tea, but I do have a question. In your video you mention near the end that the ginger-honey mixture can be stored in the fridge. Considering the properties of honey I would recon it will stay good for very long, but still I wonder, how long can it be kept before it goes bad? This is of course assuming I won’t have finished scooping out the jar before that point has been reached ;p
Thank you!
Herroherro Durham, nc joined 5/18 & has 1 comment
Posted May 5th, 2018 at 9:00 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi! I made this and I left it on the counter thinking that the ginger will infuse more in to the honey and now the honey is pretty watery. Is that normal and is it okay to drink? And is it okay to leave it out on the counter? Thank you! ❤️
[email protected] Makati City, Philippines joined 2/18 & has 1 comment
Posted February 5th, 2018 at 7:24 pm | Log in to reply.

I followed your instructions, et voila! I made my own Saenggangcha using your recipe! Thank you very much!

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted February 17th, 2018 at 1:46 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  Wow it really looks gorgeous!
ImaneH Québec, Canada joined 1/18 & has 1 comment
Posted January 20th, 2018 at 4:07 pm | Log in to reply.

Can I add slices of lemon/lemon juice in this to make a ginger/lemon tea? :)
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted February 17th, 2018 at 1:46 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  Yes, sounds good!
ColtPixy Bergen, Norway joined 7/17 & has 4 comments
Posted July 5th, 2017 at 2:09 pm | Log in to reply.

Thank you for the perfect gift idea for Christmas, I’m always looking to making my Christmas gifts less expensive (I’m on a very limited budget each month) and this will make perfect presents for the adults in my family without having to spend a huge amount of money!