I’ve been on a fresh ginger kick lately. Something about the zingy, spicy flavor is so summery to me, and this Iced Ginger Honey Lemon Tea is the most refreshingly sweet and tangy beverage you could possibly have. It’s perfect for a hot summer day!
Not only does this taste amazing, but it’s very healthy.
Ginger, honey, AND lemon all have nutritional benefits and even medicinal purposes. Ginger is excellent for digestion, and drinking this tea when your stomach is upset is a perfect way to calm things down a bit. Honey, when in its pure and raw form, can help alleviate allergies and the common cold, is packed full of antioxidants, and can also act as a digestive aid. Lemon is packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants.
This is a sweet treat you can feel great about drinking whenever you want- and a great alternative to sugary juices or sodas. Sip on it while you’re making your grocery list or reading a book.
So. It’s healthy, it’s delicious… and it’s easy to make. It definitely meets my three criteria for the ideal recipe :-)
First, you’ll need to peel and slice the ginger. This can seem a bit intimidating if you haven’t done it before, but there’s a trick that I want you to know about: peel the ginger with the side of a spoon. Trust me, it will work! It takes off just the skin, whereas with a peeler, you also take away some ginger so it’s more wasteful. And don’t worry about getting every speck of the peel off- you’re just going to boil it and strain it out anyway. If you have extra, store it (peeled) in your freezer. You can use a microplane zester
to grate it directly from the freezer for recipes like carrot ginger soup or fried rice.
Place the prepared ginger in a pot with 6 cups of water and the zest of one lemon. Two, if you like things really lemony. Boil, then steep for a while- 30 to 45 minutes.
At this point, strain the liquid through a mesh sieve into a pitcher. The tea will be warm, but not scalding. Now, you can add the honey and lemon juice. This is important: you need to wait until the liquid has cooled a bit before adding these ingredients. Adding them to boiling water would negate a lot of their nutritional value.
Now for the fun part- making it fancy! After the tea has cooled, serve it over ice and dress the glasses up with slices of lemon and sprigs of fresh mint. It will be almost too pretty to drink. Which makes it a great beverage to serve at your next party, especially as an alternative to cocktails.
More of a coffee drinker? Try this milk and honey cold brew iced coffee recipe. For a hot version, try this hot fresh ginger tea.
Recipe below! Enjoy :-)
Iced Ginger Honey Lemon Tea
Ingredients
- 4-5 inches fresh ginger peeled and sliced
- 6 cups water
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup honey
- fresh mint and lemon slices for garnish optional
Instructions
- Combine ginger slices, water (6 cups), and lemon zest in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and steep for 30-45 minutes.
- Strain using a mesh sieve into a pitcher. When it's cooled off a bit, add honey and lemon juice and stir until honey is dissolved.
- Allow to cool. Serve over ice with a garnish of fresh mint and lemon slices, if desired.
Notes
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Deneen
What I made was ginger tea crystal add it with hot water with a couple of slices of lemon with the peel and let it sit overnight. It’s very refreshing. To drink in the morning or throughout the day.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Maria L
This a wonderful way to enjoy a glass of refreshing ice tea.
Simple to make low calorie without extra additives.
I appreciate you sharing the recipe.
Sincerely,
Maria L
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Nicole Pilkington
Delish!! I drink hot ginger lemon water in the winter and have been missing it. This is so light and refreshing for summer!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Erica Parfitt
I make Ginger lemon iced tea. Instead of peeling and slicing my Ginger I use frozen Ginger and I grate it on the fine side of a cheese grater Peel and all then after it has steeped I strain it through a clean blue j-cloth.. WORKS WONDERFULLY!!!
I think it would work well for this recipe as well
Elizabeth Lindemann
I love using a grater for frozen ginger for things like stir fry sauces and I agree that would work really well here too! Thanks so much for the suggestion!
Eleanor Armstrong
Has a diabetic is there any way to bring down the carbs in this recipe and still have it taste just as wonderful
Elizabeth Lindemann
Good question! I’m not an expert, but I imagine you can substitute a diabetic friendly sweetener for the honey and still get good results. I also really like ginger tea with just lemon and NO honey. It’s not sweet, but it’s really good. Hope that helps!
Ameya
I made this tea and it was super easy!!! I am 14 years old and I made this recipe for me and my family. Everyone loved it!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Woo hoo! So glad you and your family liked it! And so happy to see young people like you cooking from scratch- it’s SO IMPORTANT! Keep it up :-)
Aime Augsburg
Love this! So refreshing, healthy, spicy & not too sweet. All good things. I am not peeling the ginger at all. There is a lot of waste! Instead, though, I am grating it along with making the lemon zest. The more exposed surfaces there are to the ginger, the more flavor there can be extracted. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything about this recipe. Thank you.
Elizabeth
Great idea to not peel the ginger! So happy you liked the recipe :-)
Sharyn Douglas
How long will the left over keep in the fridge, please
Elizabeth
I haven’t done any official scientific experiments for this, but it should last at least a week!
Marcella Oleman
I peel the ginger then i slice it and put in a blender and crush it then I put spoon sizes of it on a plate to freeze. Next day I make a cup of Lemon, Ginger & honey tea. Am i doing it wrong?
Elizabeth
Wow, I LOVE that idea! There’s definitely more than one way to make tea from fresh ginger. The way you’ve done it allows you to have ready to go individual portions! I’m definitely going to have to try this, thanks for sharing :-)
Emily | Oat&Sesame
So very refreshing! I brought two big jugs of this to a community garden party and everyone loved it! Even the kids!
Elizabeth
Thanks Emily! So glad it was a hit! :)