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Wedang Jahe (Indonesian Ginger Tea)

Posting Date: 04/05/23

Wedang Jahe (Indonesian Ginger Tea) originated in Java, Indonesia. Wedang means hot beverage and jahe means ginger. Traditionally, it is served hot but you could also serve it cold. The drink is normally served when it is raining or when one is feeling under the weather. If you are not familiar with ginger, it has many health benefits. It is good for nausea, helps to treat indigestion, reduces menstrual pain, eases arthritis pains, and helps with immunity against cold.

There are many variations of this drink. The main ingredient in all of the variations is ginger. Almost all variations are made with water. However, you can substitute water with milk. In my recipe, I use ginger, water, lemongrass, palm sugar, and pandan leaf. Another variation uses honey instead of palm sugar. Another variation uses lemon juice to add lemon flavor. The lemongrass version uses more lemongrass than what I use in my recipe. Some variations don't use pandan leaves at all. Another variation adds spices to the drink, such as cloves, black peppercorns, and a cinnamon stick. You can make it fancy by adding a little bit of sparkling water and ice cubes just before serving.

The recipe makes about 3-4 servings.

Ingredients:

100 grams fresh ginger or about 3 to 4" fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 lemongrass, white part smashed with the back of knife and green part discarded
1 pandan leaf. If you cannot find it in Asian stores, leave it out. Don't use pandan essence or paste or otherwise, it would look freakishly green.
1000 ml water
150-175 grams palm sugar or to taste. I like it on the sweeter side, so I use 175 grams of palm sugar. If you use palm sugar in a disc or block form, make sure you grate it so that it is easier to dissolve in water. I use palm sugar in powder form, so I don’t need to grate it. You can find it in Walmart or online. If you cannot find palm sugar, substitute with brown sugar.
Optional: lemon wedges

Methods:

Place ginger slices, lemongrass, pandan leaf slices, and palm sugar into a pot. If pandan leaf slices are too long for your pot, make a knot for each slice so that it fits in your pot and is easier to handle. Pour in water into the pot. Heat the pot over high heat. Stir the water from time to time to help dissolve the sugar. Once the water has come to a boil, reduce the heat to low. At this point, you can barely taste the ginger flavor in the water. Continue to heat the water for another 10 min to make sure palm sugar has completely dissolved. Stir the pot to make sure the sugar has completely dissolved and taste the water to make sure you can taste stronger flavor from ginger, lemongrass, and pandan leaf in the water. Remove the pot from the heat. Discard ginger, lemongrass, and pandan leaf or you could use a strainer to do it.
If you want to serve it hot, serve it right away with lemon wedges if preferred. Otherwise, chill it in the fridge before serving.

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