I’ll show you how to bring turmeric, ginger, and lemon together to create incredible turmeric tea ice cubes. Once you’ve made them, pop a few into a glass, add some sparkling water, and you’ll have a refreshing anti-inflammatory drink to enjoy when the temperatures jump outside. It’s the ultimate summer mocktail!
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Table of Contents
- The Benefits of Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
- Disclaimer
- Ingredients to Make Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
- How to Make Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
- Variations
- Recipe Tips
- Storing
- How to Use Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
- How to Make a Simple Syrup to Sweeten a Cold Drink
- More Healthy Drink Recipes
- Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List
- The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy
- Kitchen Academy Videos
- Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes Recipe
- Shop for items used in this blog post or video
The Benefits of Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
These turmeric tea ice cubes contain many nourishing and healing properties, with each ingredient shining in its own way to give you the ultimate anti-inflammatory cold drink. Best of all, you can also use these ice cubes to make a hot tea. Just add a cube or two to your teacup, pour in hot water, stir, and enjoy the perfect soothing beverage.
As I discuss in the following sections, the lemons, ginger, and turmeric bring many anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-microbial, and anti-bacterial properties to help you.
The Benefits of Lemons
For these ice cubes, we will use the entire lemon, including the zest, pith, pulp, and juice, to give us a significant boost of vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants. Vitamin C, along with all parts of the lemon, may help our immune systems work properly, which in turn may help protect our bodies from developing diseases.
- Learn more with the National Institutes of Health: Vitamin C Fact Sheet.
Lemons also contain anti-bacterial properties that can help fight off assorted infections in the body.
The Benefits of Ginger
The spice ginger, whether used fresh or in its ground powdered form, is well known for its antioxidant properties and anti-inflammatory properties to help fight off damaging oxidation and inflammation in our bodies. And ginger is also a strong anti-microbial with additional anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties.
Ginger’s anti-bacterial properties are especially powerful to help keep infections caused by bacteria at bay.
The Benefits of Turmeric
Turmeric is especially well-known for its anti-inflammatory properties. The specific ingredient within turmeric that receives the credit for its ability to fight inflammation in the body is curcumin.
- Learn more with the journal article: Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Curcumin in the Inflammatory Diseases: Status, Limitations and Countermeasures
Note that for the human body to absorb as much benefit as possible from curcumin, you can supplement food or drinks prepared with turmeric with a bit of black pepper. Black pepper contains a compound called piperine which enhances the absorption of curcumin.
- Learn more with the journal article: Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers
Disclaimer
I am not a doctor or medical professional. If you are not feeling well, please seek professional medical attention and medicine. And if you are thinking of supplementing your treatment with home remedies, be sure to talk to your medical professional about them. It’s important that you get the medicine and treatments you need to get back to good health.
Ingredients to Make Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
Find the full printable recipe with measurements below.
To make lemon, ginger, and turmeric tea ice cubes, you will need:
- 1 pound of fresh ginger – unpeeled if organic
- 1/2 pound fresh turmeric – unpeeled if organic
- 6 lemons – organic or well-scrubbed non-organic
- A dash of freshly ground black pepper
- Water
How to Make Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
Find the full printable recipe with measurements below.
Lemon, ginger, and turmeric Ice Cubes are easy to make with the following process:
- Slicing the ginger into approximately 1″ pieces.
- Slicing the turmeric into approximately 1″ pieces.
- Zesting the lemons.
- Juicing the lemons.
- Slicing the lemon pith and pulp into approximately 1″ pieces.
- Placing everything except the lemon juice into a soup pot, covering everything with water, and simmering for 1 hour.
- In the last 5 minutes of simmering, add in a dash of black pepper.
- Remove from the heat and sift out the solids.
- Allow the liquid to cool, and add the lemon juice.
- Pour the tea into ice cube trays and freeze.
Variations
Try these variations with the recipe:
- Instead of fresh ingredients, you can use powdered ginger and powdered turmeric.
- You can also choose other types of citrus in place of the lemons. For example, you can use limes, oranges, or grapefruits.
Recipe Tips
Try these tips when making the recipe:
- Using a large soup pot works best for this recipe.
- Do not discard the solids after making the turmeric tea ice cubes. In my recipe video, I give you a BONUS recipe by showing you how to turn the solids into a slurry, dry the slurry, and then turn the dried slurry into a nutritious powder. You can add the powder to smoothies or use it to make a cup of tea.
Storing
Once the lemon, ginger, and turmeric tea ice cubes are frozen, remove them from the ice cube trays and store them in a freezer-proof container or bag. Use these ice cubes within 6 months for maximum efficacy.
How to Use Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
You can easily use these turmeric tea ice cubes to make cold and hot beverages.
- As an iced drink, drop 4 ice cubes into a tall glass, fill with sparkling water, stir, and serve.
- As a hot drink, drop 1 ice cube into a teacup or 2 into a mug and fill with hot water from a tea kettle. Stir and allow the ice cube(s) to melt. The tea will be the perfect temperature to enjoy.
Making these ice cubes ahead of time means that you do not have to take time to prepare these when you want to serve a cold refreshing mocktail to company, or you need a hot cup of tea to soothe you while battling a cold or flu. These ice cubes will be in your freezer and ready to go to work for you to make both cold and hot beverages!
How to Make a Simple Syrup to Sweeten a Cold Drink
If you want to sweeten your beverage made with lemon, ginger, and turmeric ice cubes, it’s best to use a healthy simple syrup, especially if you are sweetening an iced drink.
You can make a simple syrup by mixing part water with part sweetener. The exact ratio depends on your preferred level of sweetness, but most simple syrups are either a 1:1 ratio, which is one part sweetener to one part water, or a 2:1 ratio.
More Healthy Drink Recipes
In a traditional foods kitchen, you can make a whole host of nourishing drinks—mocktails as they are often called—to boost immunity, improve gut health, and simply lift your spirits without the use of alcohol. These include shrubs, switchels, drinking vinegars, homemade ginger ale and fruit sodas, kombucha, kefir, and more!
And for more recipes that use turmeric, ginger, or lemon, be sure to check out how to make:
- An Ancient Cold and Flu Home Remedy
- Fire Cider Tonic
- Ginger “Bug”
- Lemon Hot Toddy (alcohol-free)
- Turmeric Tea
- Turmeric Golden Milk Spice Mix
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Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes
Equipment
- 1 Soup pot
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Sharp knife
- 1 Large bowl
- 1 Spider strainer or slotted spoon
- 1 Ladle
- 1 Spice grinder or mini-chop Alternatively, you can transfer dried solids to a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin or other heavy weight.
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh ginger, chopped If organic, leave unpeeled. If non-organic, peel. See Recipe Notes for powdered alternatives.
- 1/2 pound fresh turmeric, chopped If organic, leave unpeeled. If non-organic, peel. See Recipe Notes for powdered alternatives.
- 6 large lemons If using other citrus, refer to Recipe Notes below
- 1/8 – 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper, optional
- 6 cups water
Instructions
- Add the chopped ginger and turmeric to the soup pot. (If using the powdered form, add to the soup pot. See Recipe Notes.)
- Zest lemons, and add zest to the soup pot.
- Slice lemons in half and juice. Set juice aside.
- Chop lemon pith and pulp, and add to soup pot.
- Fill the soup pot with water.
- Bring mixture to a boil over high heat on the stovetop and then immediately turn to low.
- Cover the soup pot and allow the mixture to simmer for 1 hour.
- If using black pepper, add to soup pot at the last 5 minutes of simmering time.
- After 1 hour, turn off the heat, remove the soup lid, and using a spider strainer or slotted spoon, remove the solids from the liquid and transfer the solids to a bowl. Set the solids aside. (See Recipe Notes.)
- Using a ladle, pour the liquid through a mesh strainer placed over a bowl. This will catch any bits and bobs that the spider strainer missed.
- Allow the liquid in the bowl to cool to room temperature, then add the lemon juice and stir well to incorporate.
- Ladle the mixture into ice cube trays and transfer the trays to the freezer for at least for 4 hours or until completely frozen.
- Once frozen, transfer the ice cubes to a freezer-proof container or bag and place them n the freezer.
- The Lemon, Ginger, Turmeric Tea Ice Cubes will maintain their efficacy for up to 6 months.
- To make an iced beverage, place 4 ice cubes in a tall glass and fill the glass with sparkling water. Sweeten with simple syrup made from a whole sweetener, if desired. Stir well and enjoy!
- To make a hot beverage, place 1 ice cube in a tea cup or 2 ice cubes in a mug and fill with hot water from a tea kettle. Stir until the ice cube(s) dissolve. Sweeten with a whole sweetener such as honey or Sucanat, if desired. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Working in batches, blend all the solids with water to create a slurry.
- Line two half-sheet baking pans with parchment paper and divide the slurry between the pans.
- Spread the slurry across the parchment paper as thin as possible using a spatula.
- Dry the slurry in an oven set to its lowest setting.
- Dry the slurry till it becomes crisp. This may take 6 hours or longer.
- Break crisps into shards and grind into a powder.
- Store powder in a glass jar in a cool dark pantry.
- Add up to a tablespoon of the powder to smoothies or to a teacup or mug to which you add hot water to make a tea.
Nutrition
Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Favorite Turmeric Tea Ice Cube Supplies
- Favorite Aprons
- Soup Pot
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Portable Cooktop (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
- Spider Strainer
- Spatula
- Mesh Strainer
- Ladle
- Glass Bowls
- Ice Cube Tray Box
- Silicone Molds
- Spice Grinder
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Recommended Reading
Disclaimer:I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, including text, images, videos, eBooks or eGuides, social media, or other formats, were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched in a video or read on this website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video and website will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this website or corresponding video channel.
Mary…
I just finished watching this video on YouTube and you asked for suggestions on what to do with the parchment paper after dehydrating. My first thought is that I will cut it into small squares and store them in a sealed container to use as deodorizers for my kitchen trash cans and also for air fresheners in the laundry room and garage as well. I will find plenty of places where these potpourri sheets would be welcome. Thank you for your contribution to making our lives not only healthier, but also better and self sufficient.
Blessings …. — Susan
Hi Susan,
I love your idea of cutting up the used parchment paper to use as air fresheners!
Thank you so much for your comment and for sharing your idea with all of our sweet friends.
Love and God bless,
Mary