Ginger Turmeric Pepper Tea

A blend of ginger, turmeric and black pepper, three staples of the Indian kitchen, steeped into a golden, spicy, slightly earthy cup. Steeped in a covered mug at 96°C for eight to ten minutes.

Origin & Story

Open an Indian spice box and these three are near the front. Ginger and turmeric are close cousins, both rhizomes from the ginger family, and both are roots you can slice and simmer. Black pepper is a stranger to them, a climbing vine native to the Malabar Coast of Kerala that was once so valuable that the Romans are said to have paid for it in gold.

Pepper is the old one. Cultivation in Kerala and Karnataka is traced back to around 2000 BC, peppercorns turned up in the mummy of Ramesses II, who died in 1213 BC, and for centuries pepper was the most important of the oriental spices in the world's markets. Vasco da Gama's arrival at Calicut in 1498 was, in its way, a voyage for pepper.

Turmeric brings color. The golden-orange dye in the root is the reason curries are yellow, and in India turmeric is more than a spice: it goes into cooking, into rituals and, in the haldi ceremony before a wedding, onto the skin of the bride and groom.

Together they make a drink that tastes of the kitchen: ginger's bright heat, turmeric's mild, earthy bitterness and pepper's slow burn. Roots need more time than leaves, so give it eight to ten minutes, covered, and a squeeze of lemon or a spoon of honey softens the edges.

Steep 5 g of the root blend in 240 ml of water at 96°C for eight to ten minutes in a covered mug.

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