When I’m particularly crushed by a hangover, crushed so small I feel like a child lost in a supermarket car park as night falls, I make this vanilla rooibos. It is a few-ingredient miracle that never lets me down.
But you don’t have to suffer from a hangover to enjoy it. You may be trying to get over a nasty flu or a stomach upset. Or you may just be in search of something utterly delicious. This tea will make you feel better, even if nothing ails you.
Strictly speaking rooibos isn’t a tea—it’s a herbal infusion from the Cederberg mountain of South Africa (not a true tea derived from the plant Camellia sinensis). But that doesn’t mean it’s not packed with good stuff. Rooibos has been used for thousands of years by the people of the Western Cape, including the Khoi and the San tribes, especially for children with stomachaches. Not only does it have many of the antioxidants (flavonoids) found in tea, it’s also rich in minerals like calcium and iron.
If you find yourself waking up to a shattering hangover, I highly recommend more than one cup. At the very least, it tastes wonderful. It will treat you far more gently than coffee and, since there is no caffeine in rooibos, you can go back to bed, hydrated, and sleep it off.
A flake of salt and a drop of something sweet like maple syrup bring out the caramel-toffee notes. And combining those ingredients with the mineral electrolytes in rooibos can help the body reabsorb water.
Vanilla sends it over the top. The flavor of custards and cakes, its soothing aroma can softly seduce even the most addled brain into believing everything will be alright. Although it is possible to get synthetically flavored rooibos, it’s very simple to infuse your own loose-leaf with a pod. The incredible flavor more than rewards you for the small effort.
Organic Rooibos
Nyanza Vanilla
How to make My Magical Hangover Tea:
Fill an airtight glass jar (I use one with a flip-top, rubber-sealed lid) with about 8 oz. loose-leaf rooibos. Take 1 vanilla pod and cut it lengthwise, as if opening the belly of a fish. Stick it in the jar so that it’s entirely covered by the rooibos (cut the pod into pieces if you need to). Put the jar in a cupboard you use regularly and let it infuse for about 2 weeks, giving it a shake every so often.
The vanilla-infused rooibos (you can leave the pod in) will last in the cupboard for many months without losing its flavor, so long as you’re careful to keep it airtight. This will cover about 75 cups, so you’re set for awhile.
Whenever you aren’t feeling well, add 1 heaping tsp. vanilla rooibos to 1 cup just-boiled water. Infuse for 3–5 minutes, strain, then stir in a splash of maple syrup and a flake of sea salt. To really lift and brighten the flavor, you can add a lemon twist on top, just like you would over the martini that got you into this trouble in the first place.
This recipe was adapted from Henrietta Lovell’s award-winning book Infused: Adventures in Tea, published by Faber & Faber.