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Ginger Tea (Saenggang Cha in Korean)

Ginger tea on the magazine

A few days ago, Michael was coughing a lot and he said he had a sore throat and mucus. I am not a doctor, but he thinks I can fix him. :) He basically doesn’t trust modern medicine and loves oriental treats so much. So I made this ginger tea for him. It has a warm character, helps blood circulation and keeps your hands and feet warm. It also helps stop coughing and clears mucus. Though oriental doctors recommend not to drink it, if you have a fever.

Ingredients

ginger tea ingredients
  • Fresh ginger - 80 g
  • Fresh cinnamon pieces- 20 g
  • Water - 8 cups
  • Optional (just before you serve the tea) - 4 to 5 pine nuts, 1 tsp of honey

Preparationginger tea cooking

  1. Clean the ginger well (peel the skin off as well). - I scrubbed it with rough cloth first then used a spoon to scrub off the skin
  2. Rinse the cinnamon in cold water. (You don’t need to cut them into small pieces, mine was already in small pieces.)
  3. Thin slice the ginger.

Cooking

  1. Put the ginger, cinnamon, and water into a pot.
  2. Boil it on medium (or low) heat for about 25-30 minutes.
  3. Sieve the ginger and cinnamon. (Use a white straining cloth if you can, to catch the small dirt from the cinnamon)
  4. Serve it in a tea cup. (You can also add some pine nuts and honey)
ginger tea

It gave me more than 1.5 L of tea (about 7-8 cups of tea). This is how I keep the rest.

ginger tea in a bottle

Michael just reheats a little amount of tea whenever he drinks it - 2 times a day. Here is a comment from the consumer :

“This is my favourite drink. It helps sooth my throat, and is very relaxing.”

This is a picture of the cinnamon (Korean name :Gyepi) I got last year from Homeplus. (about 5,800 won - US $6.10)

Cinnamon

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12 Responses to “Ginger Tea (Saenggang Cha in Korean)”


  1. 1 Kat Nov 30th, 2006 at 5:00 pm

    this tea sounds really soothing for a sore throat and that is a LOT of cinnamon you got!

  2. 2 sue Nov 30th, 2006 at 5:41 pm

    I’ve never bought fresh cinnamon before, so I didn’t know what to expect. :)

  3. 3 ZenKimchi Nov 30th, 2006 at 5:57 pm

    I love 생강 차! Great tea for the holidays.

    And, yeah, I brought a small package of stick cinnamon with me from America when I first came here almost three years ago. I still haven’t used it all. Yet it’s good to know I can find it fairly easily at the big box supercenters.

  4. 4 sue Nov 30th, 2006 at 6:39 pm

    Hi ZenKimchi,

    How did you think to bring cinnamon to Korea from the US, that was good planning. I hope you make some good ginger tea.

  5. 5 ZenKimchi Dec 1st, 2006 at 9:31 am

    When I was packing, I didn’t know what would and wouldn’t be available. Since I’m a food nerd, I packed herbs and spices just in case I couldn’t find them here. I have since found in Korean stores most of what I packed except cloves, allspice, and Texas chili powder. Oh, and Old Bay Seasoning–which is a form of currency for foreigners from the Gulf Coast.

  6. 6 kangmi Dec 1st, 2006 at 10:49 pm

    I’m interested in the “fresh cinnamon” part. Does this just mean cinnamon bvark versus ground cinnamon?

  7. 7 sue Dec 2nd, 2006 at 10:52 am

    ZenKimchi
    My husband and I visited Australia recently, and would you believe it, we forgot to bring back any of the spices we had meant to get. No worries though, like you said, I can get most of them here anyway.

    Kangmi
    That’s right, I use cinnamon bark, not ground cinnamon. I always use the freshest or more natural ingredient if possible.

  8. 8 jerry Jan 19th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

    hi

    i am searching for the powdered cinnamon drink i love so much. its pure cinnamon with maybe some sugar, and i have a photo of the label if anyone wants it. its the kind you can put in pine nuts with, its just cinnamon not the kind with
    persimmon, i thought somone said its called ‘pi cha’ [pi tea] but there is no tea just cinnamon.

    does anyone know where it can be bought in america or canada ?

    warm thanks
    jerry
    email me directly at ; greggregbo@yahoo.com

  9. 9 sue Jan 19th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

    Hi Jerry,

    I think you meant “Gyepicha”. Gyepi is the cinnamon.
    Have you tried a Korean grocery shop yet? I tried online Korean grocery shops based in the US, but I couldn’t find it.

    My recipe for cinnamon tea is very similar to the post above, yet it is not powdered. (I will do the cinnamon tea post in the future though)

    I hope other readers can help you.

  10. 10 Karlsfoodie May 1st, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    I had this last nite at a local korean restaurant.. fell in lvoe with it.. and i wanted to do it myself.. I knew that i can find that recipe here… thanx yeah

  11. 11 Carlos M. Ortis Jul 6th, 2008 at 7:08 am

    I am interested in finding thism tea in a pre mixed version since I am not very good at making this kind of thing and itb sounds like something bthat might help my throat. Is there a mail order or something like that? i live in Vernon , Connecticut , USA . I like Korean Food but am not aware of anything Korean in this area.

    Thank You,

    Carlos M Ortis

  1. 1 Ginseng Tea (Insam Cha in Korean) at My Korean Kitchen Pingback on Dec 3rd, 2006 at 9:47 am

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