Winter is just around the corner and with that comes cold & flu season. For some of us, it’s already begun. If you get tired of the stuffy nose and the sore throat, consider sipping on some cayenne pepper tea for a bit of relief.
This may sound like an odd idea. Wouldn’t it be way too hot? Well, it certainly can be, especially if you are not used to eating spicy foods. But by using just a little bit of cayenne, you can build up a tolerance to the heat and then get all the advantages this pepper has to offer at this time of year. Heck, you might even start to enjoy the taste of a little hot tea.
Most recipes I’ve seen for cayenne pepper tea recommend using a teaspoon of cayenne powder in an eight ounce glass. This is going to be way too hot for you if you aren’t a regular consumer of peppers and other foods with heat though, so I think you should start with a much smaller amount. For the Master Cleanse recipe, it is recommended to use about an 1/8th teaspoon of cayenne, so I think that amount is a good place to start with. Really, just a pinch will do the trick.
Put on the kettle like you usually do for making tea, and then add your pinch of cayenne to your tea cup. Once the water has boiled, pour it on and stir. If you want to add some additional flavor, some lemon zest or even a slice of lemon would be just great.
Lemon also has some helpful properties. Vitamin C is great for boosting your immunity. Some tea lovers also like to add a bit of honey to sweeten the tea, sooth the throat and the sugar in the honey will also help mitigate some of that heat. Just be sure not to add milk as dairy usually makes your mucus situation worse.
Let your tea cool for a bit so you don’t scald your throat and then sip it at your leisure. You can try drinking the tea for one or two cups per day for the next few days and it should help you loosen up some of that mucus and get you back onto the road to feeling great again.
I find that the cayenne pepper tea really helps to clear that stuffed up feeling in my head and in my chest. After a few good honks into a tissue, I can usually rest a bit easier without feeling like I’m breathing through a wad of cotton.
You can find out a lot more about cayenne pepper and mucus and how this spicy pepper can contribute to your health at my website: http://www.cayennepeppercleanse.com/
