Rooibos has been used for millennia in South Africa as a rehydrater, and this rescue remedy is an easy and delicious way to do battle with a New Year’s Day hangover. It’s equally good served hot or cold: make it the night before and refrigerate, or warm your hands around the comfort of a hot mug. If you’re made of sturdier stuff, turn it into a hot toddy by replacing the lemon juice with 25ml good dark rum.
Red right hand
Serves 1
5g loose-leaf rooibos – wild-harvest, ideally, because it tastes amazing and, unlike teabags, is sustainable and its production involves no nano-plastics, bleaches or glues
Juice of ½ lemon, plus 1 strip zest to garnish
10ml maple syrup
1 flake of sea salt
Infuse the rooibos in 300ml just-boiled water for five minutes, then strain into a mug. Squeeze in the lemon juice, then stir in the maple syrup and salt. Pinch the strip of lemon zest over the top of the drink, so the citrus oil spritzes the surface, and serve.
Henrietta Lovell, founder of Rare Tea Company and author of the Infused: Adventures in Tea, published by Faber & Faber at £20. To order a copy for £17.40, go to guardianbookshop.com.
