Your chances of getting that nasty flu strain are high, even if you nabbed a flu shot as a preventative measure. Hot liquids are a must as soon as you first feel that snotty sniffle or tickle at the back of your throat. Herbal tea and chicken soup may make you feel better, but don’t count out the power of probiotic and fizzy drinks (high brow) and even Emergen C (every brow / low brow).
[jump] Herbal tea by the gallon helped me heal quickly from my own sneezes and aches from being sick (even if I did feel weird for craving and drinking black coffee, which tends to dehydrate but hey, addicts need their daily fix). Pro tip: put your face in a close but safe distance to the steam from the boiling water when you make the tea. This helps open your passages and get you relaxed, with the bonus of getting some sort of low rent facial.
At this week’s Winter Fancy Food show, I noticed turmeric was trending, and showing up in a variety of herbal teas. Of course, it’s great to find and buy fresh turmeric, but when I’m sick, I barely have the energy to walk the eight feet from my bed to the kitchen (also, Duc Loi did not have fresh turmeric root in stock when I sent my helpful husband on a supply run). Numi Organic Tea has an entire line of turmeric teas that launched last year; my favorite is the Three Roots flavor, bringing hints of licorice and ginger to the hot cuppa. Numi’s turmeric teas are yellow in color, which is expected with a root that is similar in shape to ginger and often referred to as “yellow ginger” in China.
Another winning beverage is Rishi’s organic turmeric ginger tea that is billed as using an Ayuverdic traditional recipe “for longevity, strength and balance” but I love it because the hot tea tastes good and seems to help get the mucus out by helping keep the nasal passages moist. Bruce Cost ginger ale’s passion fruit version rocks a pleasing turmeric note and feels like a tastier, less sugary version of the 7UP I remember guzzling when I was sick as a kid.
Both the apple and cayenne flavors of L.A. based Health-Ade kombucha are worth a taste if you don’t have your own kombucha factory at home. It helps that the crew that make Health-Ade are a youthful, healthy and funny bunch, in a truth in advertising sort of way. Also, the company did start out in the farmers' markets of SoCal. The jury’s still out for me personally as to whether or not kombucha has psychosomatic effects for clearing up colds, but I felt refreshed, full and happy after downing a bottle in the aisle of the fancy food tradeshow and imagined the germs were getting killed by each effervescent sip. Similarly, Pok Pok Som’s drinking vinegar helped me feel better and the version with honey seems especially soothing on the throat.
Ladle me some bubbly thoughts at: writereadeat (at) gmail.
