This ginger lemongrass tea recipe is a fragrant, no-caffeine tea blend that tastes great both hot and iced. Made with fresh lemongrass leaves, you can jazz it up with some edible flowers, mint leaves, or slices of lemon to make the perfect Asian summer drink!
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Ingredients
You only need a few simple ingredients for this tropical drink:
- Fresh Lemongrass Stalks: You need to bruise them then cut them into ½ inch rounds. (If you use whole, uncut lemongrass, you will need many stalks to get any flavor!) Frozen and dried lemongrass, or lemongrass leaves, can be used too- available at the Asian grocery store. Alternatively, you can use lemongrass simple syrup. (If so, omit the sweetener.)
- Fresh ginger root: Ginger goes really well with lemongrass but if you don't have any fresh ginger or ginger powder in your pantry, don't stress and just omit it. I use 3 slices for 1 litre of water. If you don't have enough, mincing or grating your ginger will release more flavor. Remember not to add too much as ginger has a very powerful flavor and can taste quite spicy. (Other herbs/ ingredients you can add are lime, lemon, chamomile and mint, if you don't have ginger.)
- Sweetener: I recommend adding brown sugar to your cup of lemongrass tea with ginger. It will complement the warming effects of ginger. (Without sugar, this lemongrass drink will be very bland! You can also use pandan syrup, honey, or white sugar. (For ways to sweeten tea without sugar, click here.) I have not tried maple syrup.
For more easy lemongrass recipes, such as this coconut chicken soup, click here.
Variations
- Lemongrass green tea: add some green tea leaves (or tea bag) to your tisane if you need a pick me up
- Lemongrass tea with lime: add a squeeze of calamansi lime (substitute: lemon juice) to each cup of lemongrass ginger tea. A lemon wheel on the side of the glass looks great too!
- Tropical tea: Pandan leaf and lemongrass is a common combination in South East Asian cuisine. Add some pandan leaves to your pot for added flavor.
- Indian lemongrass tea with milk: Add some milk, jaggery and black tea leaves. (About ½ Cup of milk for every 4 Cups of water used.)
Where to Buy
You can get fresh lemongrass at the Asian markets.
However, even mainstream grocery stores have started stocking dried lemongrass which can be used as a substitute in this lemongrass herbal tea recipe.
Step by Step Instructions
- Rinse the ginger and lemongrass (soil can get trapped within the layers so be thorough.)
- Slice the ginger but don't bother peeling it.
- Bash the lemongrass with something heavy, like a meat tenderizer, then cut it into ½ inch rounds.
Tip: You can also cut lengthwise, but rounds have more surface area, so you need less lemongrass. Also, it's a fast job with a pair of kitchen scissors.
4. Add the lemongrass, ginger and water to the small saucepan of of hot water. Bring it to the boil on high heat.
5. Once the pot has reached a rolling boil and you can smell the lemony aroma, reduce the heat to medium and allow it to simmer for a minimum of 10 minutes.
Tip: If adding green tea (optional), make sure to only add it in the last 3 minutes, or it will be bitter.
6. Once fragrant enough for you, switch off the fire and sweeten to taste.
7. For hot tea: Sieve out the lemongrass and ginger, then serve now if enjoying a hot glass of lemongrass ginger tea.
8. For iced tea: allow the pot to cool.
Once not too hot, place the homemade lemongrass tea in the fridge for 1-2 hours. (If you put the hot pot of tea in the fridge, it will raise the temperature of the fridge.)
Once cold, sweeten to taste then serve as is, or with ice cubes.
Health Benefits
Lemongrass tea is a drink commonly served at Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. Because lemongrass is associated with detoxing and weight loss, fresh lemongrass tea (and lemongrass essential oil) is often found at spas. (However, this is mostly anecdotal and there isn't strong scientific evidence to back up this claim.)
The health benefits of lemongrass that scientific studies have found evidence for are:
- Lemongrass is rich in antioxidants.
- It has therapeutic effects, such as antibacterial, antidiarrheal, anti-fungal, anti-amoebic, antifilarial, and anti-inflammatory properties.
- Lab studies have shown that lemongrass has anti-cancer properties, but this has not been researched in humans.
- It is a natural diuretic and can help with bloating.
Note: lemongrass is also known as citronella and used in many mosquito repellents!
Side effects: a study showed a moderate decrease in the systolic blood pressure, a mild increase in the diastolic blood pressure and large degrease in the heart rate when male patients consumed lemongrass. Hence, care should be taken not too consume too much of this herbal tea.
Expert Tips
Tip #1: The fresh lemongrass stalk is very tough and fibrous, so make sure to sieve it out before serving the tea. You can keep the lemongrass and add it to your pot of soup, such as Tom Yum Goong!
Tip #2: You can fill disposable tea bags with cut, dried lemongrass to make your own lemongrass tea bags as gifts.
Tip #3: If you want beautiful golden hue to your drink, pop a couple of slices of turmeric into the pot of boiling water.
Recipe FAQs
if you get a lot of sun, a lemongrass plant is easy to grow. If not, it's tough! After cutting the lemongrass, the root end of each stalk can be kept in water. Within a few days, it will put out roots. You can transplant your lemongrass root to the soil once the roots have been established.
Cut them into smaller pieces- about ½ inch long. If you live somewhere hot, the sun can do the job. If not, leave them in the dehydrator for 3-4 hours. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can use the oven on a low setting.
As a pure tisane, lemongrass tea doesn't have caffeine. However, some people like to add tea leaves (e.g. jasmine tea) to their lemongrass drink. If so, the lemongrass jasmine tea would contain caffeine.
Recipes that Go Well with Lemongrass
Enjoyed this Lemongrass Tea recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & if you REALLY liked this tropical beverage, a comment would make my week! Thank you and have a great day!
Ginger lemongrass tea recipe
Equipment
- Rolling Pin Substitute: something heavy to bash the lemongrass
- Sharp scissors Substitute: knife and cutting board
- Pot
- sieve Substitute: tea strainer
Ingredients
- 1 Cup lemongrass, bashed then cut into rounds, about ½-inch long 2.82 oz/ 80g or 8 lemongrass sticks for me (will be different if your stalks are of different lengths) Substitute: lemongrass leaves
- 3 slices ginger No need to peel.
- 4 Cups water
- Brown sugar Optional. Substitute: honey, white sugar etc
Instructions
- Place the lemongrass, ginger and water in a pot. Bring to the boil over high heat.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for a minimum of 10 minutes. Taste, and simmer for longer if the flavor is not strong enough.
- Once happy with the flavor, switch off the fire and sieve out the lemongrass and ginger. (You can keep them to add to soup.)
- For hot tea: sweeten to taste then serve now.
- For iced tea: allow the tea to cool then refrigerate for at least 1-3 hours. After chilling, serve with or without ice cubes.
Notes
- Lemongrass green tea: add some loose leaf teas (or tea bag) to your tisane if you need a pick me up
- Lemongrass tea with lime: add a squeeze of calamansi lime (substitute: lemon juice) to each cup of lemongrass ginger tea
- Tropical tea: Pandan leaf and lemongrass is a common combination in South East Asian cuisine. Add some pandan leaves to your pot for added flavor.
- Indian lemongrass tea with milk: Add some milk and black tea leaves. (About ½ Cup of milk for every 4 Cups of water used.)
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
If you've found this simple Lemongrass Tea recipe useful, please do share it on your social media and tag me @greedygirlgourmet!
Olly says
Loved the recipe! The ginger complements the lemongrass really well and you are right it is SO bland without sugar!
Zen says
Hi Olly glad you enjoyed this lemongrass tea and agreed with me about the sugar!!