Warming Golden Turmeric Milk

Golden turmeric milk is an infusion of turmeric and other delicious warming spices in a milk of your choice. It’s easy to prepare, tastes great and has some wonderful health benefits. I’m not big on promoting super foods as I believe all foods have medicinal properties and the ingredients of this tea are no exception.

You can use almond milk, coconut milk or full fat milk from cows, goats, or sheep or any other nut or animal milk you like.  I like it best with home made almond milk which is quick and easy to make and tastes so much better than the store bought ones.

Golden Milk

• 1 cup milk, whatever sort you like

• 1 tsp ground turmeric or 3 tsp fresh turmeric – organic is best for medicinal properties

• ½ tsp  ground Ceylon cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick

• ¼ tsp ground cardamom

• ¼ tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh ginger

• 1/8 tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp manuka honey or to taste

• 1 tsp coconut oil

• Place all ingredients into a small sauce pan and heat for 3-5 minutes over medium heat until hot but not boiling.

Delicious home made almond milk

• Soak ½ cup almonds with ½ tsp salt in water overnight

• Strain & rinse the almonds and place in a blender with 2 dates, 2 cups spring water and ½ tsp organic vanilla essence

• Blend and strain (optional) – I strain the milk for making tea but leave it unstrained for making porridge and the like

Turmeric is obtained from a ginger-like rhizome of curcuma longa, a tropical herb from India. In Chinese Medicine it is known as Yu Jin and is classified as a herb to invigorate the blood. It is cold in nature, and spicy and bitter in taste. Turmeric is fat-soluble, so the use of coconut oil helps to increase its benefits.

• It invigorates the blood and promotes the movement of qi so it helps alleviate pain as all pain is about stagnation.

• It clears heat and cools the blood so it is a potent anti-inflammatory

While turmeric itself may be cold in nature mixing it with pepper, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom will certainly turn it into a great winter warmer.

Cinnamon – rou gui – warms the interior and expels the cold. It warms your yang (your warming, drying, active energy), improves your blood circulation so is great for cold hands and feet in winter and reignites your digestive fire so helps you rebuild qi and blood as you better absorb the nutrients in the food you eat.

Cardamom – bai dou kou – aromatic damp transforming herb – warms & strengthens your digestive system, moves qi so improves circulation, dissolves dampness (dampness is present when your tongue is coated, or when it feels like someone has turned up gravity or when you’re hungry but just don’t want to eat)

Ginger – sheng jiang (fresh), gan jiang (dried) – use fresh ginger when you’re on the brink of a cold or flu as it helps your body release any pathogens, use dried ginger when you want to warm yourself up or dry yourself out

Black pepper – Hu jiao –  warms the interior and expels cold – it warms your digestive system which would explain why it significantly increase curcumin’s bioavailability