I got bronchitis last week. I took no photographs of my tea. But I wanted to share the recipe with you anyway in hopes of doing some good for the world.

The weather changed, everyone started coughing, and one of those evil colds came around from which no one is safe. Although I pride myself on rarely getting sick, I got the cold, it settled in my lungs, made friends with my asthma, and before I knew it: bronchitis. Ugh. This was a rough one and there was at least one day that I had to spend in bed, not eating a thing, feeling so tired and weak and ingesting nothing but water and tea, pills and puffs of my inhaler.

I drank lots of tea. Tea of all kinds.

But this was the only tea that seemed to do anything. It’s pretty potent stuff. So when you are really sick, in an awful, congested, sore throat, headache, death eating a cracker way, this is the brew to brew.

Garlic, honey, lemon, fresh ginger, fresh chili. All of these ingredients are wonderful at kicking butt, not to mention honey, which is so much more than a sweetener. Think you won’t like garlic in tea? Stop whining and drink it. This is going to be way more powerful then some old dried leaves sitting in a tea bag, sitting in a packet, sitting in a box that’s been sitting on a shelf in Whole Foods for months and costs $8. And it actually tastes nice. Plus, when you are that sick, you will like anything that makes you feel better.

Old family legend: my dad told me that his father never got sick. The minute that old man felt a cold coming on, he wrapped his body in a blanket, his head in a towel, got out the salt and pepper shaker and proceeded to eat an entire onion raw, like it was an apple. Result: never sick.

Ingredients
Big chunk of fresh ginger, unpeeled, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic (give it a nice whack so it splits)*
1 jalapeno chili, left whole but cut a slit in the side
2 tsp (or more!) of honey
1 lemon
2 cups water

1. Add the chili, ginger and garlic to water and cover. Bring the water to boil, then turn down low and simmer the chili, ginger and garlic in the water for at least 20 minutes. The more you simmer, the stronger the flavor. Stronger is good.
2) After 20 minutes or so, strain into a mug, add the honey and the juice of a 1/2 a lemon and drink. Then drink a second cup with more honey and the other half a lemon.
*Or don’t cook the garlic at all, but crush and mince it and add it raw to your mug of tea right before drinking. That’s what I did.

Feel better.