MegaTea – Cold Smackdown

For the most part, I have been warmly welcomed here in Spain.  I have a good group of friends, supportive coworkers, and several adoptive families.  But there is one segment of Spanish society that has declared out and out war on me – viruses.  Last year I had three debilitating colds in two months and here I am again, two weeks into my second year  laid low.  Great. It’s as if Spain has thrown down the gauntlet – if you can survive the anti-foreign body security measure of their collection of viruses with your foreigner’s immune system, you are worthy of residency in the country.  Challenge accepted with lethargy. And hey, it gives me a chance to play such games as Fever or Not?  as I yell at the Celsius thermometer.

When I get sick, I get a super impressive cough that usually leads to me losing my voice and sounding like a very creepy man.   When we lived together, Gabrielle used to have me make threatening phone calls to all our friends.  Rosa just calls me Manolo the truck driver.  The real problem is that I’m an assistant teacher, so losing my voice is a big deal.  I got sent home from work one day because listening to me made my coworkers wince.

What does all this whining have to do with my food blog?  Well.  In the midst of those three colds last winter, I got increasingly shacknasty and desperate and started soliciting cough remedies from pretty much everyone I knew.  Herbal tea, hot water with lemon, tea with honey, hot water with ginger, and from my parents – hot whiskey.  Anything that would soothe my throat and help me stop coughing so I could sleep and drag my butt through my commute and back.

In my cold medicine addled state a brilliant idea came to me.  What if I were to combine all of these ideas into ONE?  It would be like the Power Rangers or even Captain Planet – a MegaTea!

First, make your tea. Mine is a mix of lime blossom, orange blossom, lemongrass, and lemon balm, so if you can find a nice citrusy or floral herbal tea, that would be your best bet.  No caffeine, because this is a nighttime tea – it’ll knock you out it’s so relaxing.

When the tea has steeped for a few minutes, remove the tea bag.  Add about a 1/4 tsp of ginger.  Fresh if you have it.

Squeeze a large lemon wedge into your tea.  Be generous, because hey, it’s vitamin C.

Now add two spoonfuls of honey.  I really don’t care much for honey, but it’s the perfect thing for this tea.  It’s soothing and the flavor meshes well.

And for the final touch, a half shot of whiskey.  That’s right.

Now this sounds weird, doesn’t it?  The color is strange, and it doesn’t even smell wonderful.  But it tastes awesome.  After three days without a voice, half a cup of this restored me to the correct gender.  My cough was silenced.  I felt human.  It’s not a permanent fix – obviously you need to take your cold medicine and rest up, but if you need that little extra push, then this is for you.  I’m going to go make a cup right now.  I should invent more recipes under the influence of Sudafed.

Cough Fighting MegaTea

1 herbal tea bag

1/4 tsp ginger

Big wedge of lemon

2 spoonfuls honey

1/2 shot whiskey

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