With my mom undergoing aggressive chemotherapy for stage 3b cancer, I became more aware of the food and drinks that I consume.  This led to my falling in love with lemongrass. Locally known, as tanglad, lemongrass is commonly used in cooking chicken. In fact, if you are a fan of Andoks litson manok, you’d know that they roast this with a bundle of lemongrass stuffed inside.

Of all the herbs and vegetables I can use for tea, why lemongrass? Three things. First, my uncle grows them in our backyard garden along with other vegetables. I can cut a stalk or two anytime I want. My only concern is that the plant won’t reproduce as fast as I consume it since I’ve been drinking lemongrass everyday for about 5 days no.

Second, research has shown that lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) can help prevent and cure cancer. An Israeli study revealed that lemongrass causes cancer cells to commit suicide or apoptosis. “A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral toprompt the cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube,” says the researchers.

Third, the smell and taste of lemongrass reminds me of my grandmother and my childhood. As children, I helped my lola sell sago’t gulaman every day after school. My lola would add lemon flavoring to our gulaman to add a hint of tang into it. When I do my own gulaman, I would add a lot of lemongrass and my lola would complain that I put too much.

Lipton Lemongrass Tea

Since last week, I’ve tried lemongrass ice tea and lemongrass flavored tea. Today, I noticed that I’ve got of a box of Lipton Yellow Label Tea and wondered whether it would combine well with lemongrass. I’m glad to say that it did and now I have another lemongrass inspired drink to enjoy.  I am sharing the recipe with you here:

Ingredients:

-A bunch of lemongrass, appriximately two stalks

- 5 cups of water

- a bag  or two of  Lipton Yellow Label Tea 

- sugar (optional)

Preparation

1. Boil the 5 cups of water for about 5 minutes and then turn off the fire.
2. Put in the bunch of the lemongrass and  let it steep for a while.  You will notice that the water turned to yellow. Taste if the flavor is alright for you. Personally, I like it a bit stronger than this so I let the water steep for a while longer until it becomes light brown in color. For purposes of this recipe, I chose a lighter flavor. Thus, when the water turned yellow, I  removed the bunch of lemongrass from the water.

    

    

3. Let a teabag of Lipton Yellow Label tea steep on your lemongrass tea. Taste until you achieve the desired flavor.
4. You can serve this drink hot or you can do what I do — I put it in the freezer and let it go a bit “icey” for that iced tea effect. If you are going to serve this to children, add sugar. 
5. If you want your hot tea to be stronger, let another bag of Yellow Label Tea steep in.

For more delicious tea recipes, check out the Facebook page of Lipton Philippines.

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