An anti-inflammatory golden tea, ready for your office, ready for the road

We’re all about turmeric these days and after a popular post on making turmeric tea from fresh turmeric (here), we’ve been asked a number of times for a tea recipe that uses turmeric powder. Of course, you can check out our turmeric milk recipe (here) and simply add water instead of milk, but we’ve got something pretty stinkin’ handy to recommend instead: a turmeric honey paste that makes an instant tea (just add water) and transports very easily. This is a great solution for taking to work or lugging to a hotel. I wouldn’t attempt to get it through airport security, however. 😉

The inspiration comes from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks (here) who makes a honey turmeric paste and pours warm water over a spoonful of it for a turmeric tea. We have tried it on for size and point out that you will want to experiment with the ratio of turmeric to honey for your specific case. The recipe below is quite strong in turmeric. You may want a higher honey ratio. This paste will be most convenient for you, especially in an office or hotel situation, if it suits you completely ratio-wise. At home I keep a paste that is not too sweet but sweeten up the final drink a bit for the boys.

As for the pepper, a bit of black pepper makes it easier for your body to benefit from the turmeric itself. We are used to black pepper in chai drinks — even though it may look strange, the flavor is not really strange at all. You may even want more black pepper to suit your own palate, but the amount here is more than enough to achieve the benefits.

I should add that the drink has been approved by two picky boys. I’m stunned actually. Should your picky drinkers turn their noses up, add ground ginger to the mix to balance the underlying bitterness of the turmeric.

Keep the paste in your refrigerator. Use a local raw honey if you can. If the honey is raw, use water short of boiling — just warm enough to melt the honey into the drink.

I discuss this convenient paste in the video below.

Turmeric Tea Paste Ingredients

• 2 1/2 tablespoons of turmeric powder (or more to taste)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of black pepper
• 1 cup of honey
• 2 tablespoons of ginger (optional, if the above is too bitter)

Turmeric Tea Paste Instructions

To make the paste, I used a 1-cup canning jar and filled it in layers — a layer of honey with a tablespoon of turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, another layer of honey, and so on. I then mixed it up with a knife in the same jar, making clean-up very quick.

Store your page in a covered container in your refrigerator.

Turn It Into Tea

For tea, simply use about a teaspoon of paste in a tea cup of hot water. Squeeze in a bit of fresh lemon or lime to brighten the flavor.

Too Bitter?

If you find the turmeric flavor to be too bitter, use boiling water to make your tea. Boiled water will help reduce the bitterness. The boys discuss this problem in the video below.