MY FAVORITE HEALTHY DRINK - MASALA TEA

I encourage you to look for health not only in natural cosmetics. I am sure that since you are reading our blog, healthy eating is equally important to you. If vegetable and fruit cocktails, cold brew, matcha, kombucha and other trendy, health-promoting drinks are boring you a bit, reach for one of the most important drinks according to Ayurveda. It is a tea called masala tea or "yogi tea" - a favorite drink of yogis and... millions of gourmets in Asia who appreciate the healing properties of its ingredients.

And don't worry, to prepare it, you don't need a mortar, a cauldron suspended over a live fire or very exotic, hard-to-find ingredients. Here's a great recipe for beginners!

Herbal infusions drunk as a remedy for various ailments are not a new fad for many of us, but rather a return to natural, proven methods of taking care of health, used for hundreds of years. Even in the era of advanced medicine, herbs can be beneficial to patients, supporting their pharmacological therapy. Or even prevent it altogether, if used regularly and from the moment various ailments appear. Masala tea, as a mixture of herbs and spices, works on many fronts - it cleanses the body and blood, fuels the digestive fire (called "agni" in Ayurveda), warms, accelerates blood and lymph circulation, regulates digestion, relieves indigestion... and even, as some sources suggest, acts as an aphrodisiac (worth checking out!).

How will masala tea benefit you, apart from the fact that it tastes great? It heals the body, pleases the senses and soothes the mind thanks to the power of the ingredients that make it up. It contains ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and cloves – in other words, health itself! In order and in a nutshell: ginger has antioxidant properties, cardamom has antibacterial properties, black pepper supports metabolism, cinnamon supports the circulatory system and the heart, and cloves reduce inflammation. And all together… they taste divine. And smell just as divine – you will see that yogi tea fills the house with a beautiful, exotic aroma. And for long hours! It is truly a wonderful drink. Such natural drinks from Ayurvedic recipes allow us to increase immunity and enjoy health for a long time. Attention! Tested on myself and the whole family.

Since I want you to take advantage of the benefits of masala tea, and I know that Far Eastern recipes often put beginners off with their high level of complexity, I am sharing a simple recipe developed by the famous American yoga teacher Adrienne Mishler. She runs a blog and a YouTube channel called “Yoga with Adrienne,” subscribed to by over seven million people worldwide! It is worth checking out – there are over 500 recordings of yoga lessons of various types and levels of advancement. A real treasure trove of goodness!

MASALA TEA RECIPE

I know masala tea from India, but this time I got the recipe from Adrienne. It will allow you to prepare masala tea at home – and in a few minutes. Let's get to it!

What do you need?

• any pot with a capacity of two or three liters;
• one or two bags of your favourite black tea (it couldn’t be simpler!) or a similar amount of loose-leaf tea;
• 20 black peppercorns;
• 15 cloves;
• 3 cinnamon sticks;
• 20 cardamom seeds;
• 8 slices of fresh ginger.

Boil water in a pot. If you feel like it, crush the spices, crush them in a mortar or chop them into small pieces… but you don’t have to do that. The boiling water will bring out their flavor and aroma anyway! Throw the spices into the boiling water and let them “dance” in the boiling water for a few minutes. Then add the tea bags or tea leaves and, lightly covering the pot, boil everything for 10-15 minutes. Then strain out the remaining spices and tea and… voilà, it’s ready! You can drink the tea intensely, “straight from the pot”, or treat it as an essence for dilution if it is too intense in flavor.

Finally, some good news: masala tea tastes great even when cold. In our home, we also drink it on hot summer days. Try it on a hot day and let us know how you like it!