This Korean date and ginger tea is a simple homemade tea. It is good either hot or cold. It tastes good and it is also good for colds. Koreans believe that dates and ginger help keep the body warm, so it is especially good in the winter. Dates, ginger, honey, and pine nuts are all healthy ingredients. 😀
Yield: 4 Cups
Short Korean Lesson
- DaeChu (대추) = Dates
- SaengGang (생강) = Ginger
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients
- 20 Dried Dates (10 oz)
- ¼ Cup Ginger
- 6 Cups Water
- ½ Cup Honey
- Some Dates and Pine Nuts for Garnishing
Directions
Wash 20 dried dates in water twice and drain.
Slice the ginger thinly until you get ¼ of a cup.
In 6 cups of water, add the ginger and dates. Once it starts to boil, cook for 20 minutes on medium-high.
Meanwhile, remove the date seeds by cutting the fruit and the skin away from the seeds without breaking the flesh. Roll the date flesh and slice it into ¼-inch pieces. It should look like a flower-type shape.
20 minutes later, add ½ cup of honey, and cook for 5 more minutes on high.
Depending on your tastes, you can adjust the amount of sweetness with sugar or honey.
Drain the tea and discard the dates and ginger.
Garnish the tea with pine nuts and a slice of a date before serving. Try this someday. Thank you. 😀
dveej says
Wait…I’m confused: the dates are BOILING, so how can we remove the seeds while they are boiling? Please clarify this: I like ginger tea and am looking forward to trying this recipe!
Ecclasyas says
The dates that you remove the seeds from are different dates. Which means you boil 20 dates and at the same time you bring extra dates and cut them. The extra dates that she took the seeds out from and cut them are only for decoration. Which means they are optional. 🙂
Aeri Lee says
hi Ecclasyas,
thanks for answer ^^
Ecclasyas says
Thank you so very much. I am definitely going to try this. I am browsing through your website looking for recipes to learn and cook everytime. Thank you. 🙂 I’m 17 years old so I wanna learn new recipes all the time. 🙂
layping says
these dates are also known as red dates, chinese dates or jujube. below is a link about it.
http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/121Kaleidoscope3764.html
Ariel says
We make this tea often at home, and sometimes add goji berries/wolfberries in it (dates and goji berries seem to be a fairly common combo in Chinese medicine…).
Slicing open the dates can enhance the flavor of the tea, as the dried skin sometimes makes it harder for the flavor of the dates to come out in a short amt of time. Try the dates after the tea’s done–if they’re still relatively sweet, the dates can still be used for tea.
nora says
hi aeri
i have a question for u. why korean or chinese girls so skinny? i always over weight . i wanna be skinny . do u have a any advice
rae says
There are many reasons that Korean women are skinny or thin. I would like to point out a couple of things. Biologically, most Korean women have small figure. Korean cuisine traditionally consist of more vegetable and fish than meat. Fruit is considered a major dessert. Both fat and sugar has been minor portion of daily meals. However, because of western food (such as burger, pizza, and sweat dessert), obesity seems to be an issue nowadays. Sociologically, Korean women have a pressure to keep their body very thin regardless their age as in many other countries worldwide. Many Korean women try different method to keep their body thin. If they gain a couple of pounds, they are hurry to shed off those pounds before it gets too serious. I heard this is very similar to some of European countries including France.
logic says
Dear nora, a human being gets skinny by exercising regularly and eating sensibly. It’s not so much your genes, even though that’s a convienent excuse to explain obeisity these days. Like Rae says here, a lot of western food has additives and chemicals that are bad for you and increase your weight gain. So if you want to be skinny, stop eating soda, diet food, frozen food, canned food, premade food, junk food, and start cooking sensible food at home and working out every week.
Aeri Lee says
hi nora,
It can be different reasons..but I think.. diet (food) will be a big difference. We eat lots of vegetables and don’t eat dessert like cake..cookies.. pie.. ice cream.. instead.. everyday.. after meal.. we eat fresh fruits for dessert.. for diet.. people like to eat multi-grain rice instead of white rice.. rae and logic already gave you lots of good information about it.. so.. hehe
I will try to post more healthy food that will be good for diet in the future… please try many of vegetable recipes.. thanks and good luck for your diet. ^^
p.s Aha I forgot one thing.. exercise will be important too..and They try not to eat food after supper.. 6pm..
Julia says
I made this today. I couldn’t find jujube dates so I had to use the middle eastern kind which probably made the tea taste quite different to the authentic Korean tea (I never had a jujube, do they taste very different?), but it still came out very tasty and warmed me right up! Just what I was looking for, in fact I’m sipping on a cup of it right now – mhmm 🙂
I also left out the honey because I’m vegan, I originally wanted to replace the honey with sweet agave nectar but my dates sweetened the tea enough on their own.
I was wondering though, what do you do with the dates after the tea is cooked? Since dates tend to be rather pricey where I live, it seems like a shame to just throw them away. Do you have any use for them? Well, I guess I could always eat them plain, but they soaked up quite a bit of liquid and didn’t look very appetizing any more.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe, I always get excited when you post new entries. Keep up the great work!
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Aeri Lee says
hi Julia,
Thanks for great review.. ^^
Oh.. I didn’t try middle eastern kind.. so can’t tell the difference.. I guess it’s similar enough to use..
actually… after cooked… since the flavor from dates come out and mixed with the tea..the cooked dates doesn’t have much flavor.. kind of plain.. but if you want to eat.. you can.. ^^ we just throw away..
^^ please try more recipes..
Kim says
The flavour is quite different and not at all the same for medicinal use.
I would just use the dates in smoothies or some sort of baked item.
Definitely try to find jujubes though (not really dates though they are called red dates), even if you order online. If you have an Asian market of any nationality, they should have jujubes…except Japanese. Mine don’t seem to carry then, but all the others do. So blessed to live in a very multi-cultural city!
Love your recipes Aeri!
Aeri Lee says
hi Kim,
Thanks for your comment. 😀
Janet says
lightly sweet with a slightly spicy kick in the back of my throat when i drink it! i like it!
joanne says
once it`s cooked how long can u keep the tea ? ❓
Aeri Lee says
hi joanne,
I like to drink this tea for about a week. 🙂 thanks
Ian says
I have a Korean friend and she gave me some sachets of E-Mart Ginger Tea which is the same thing,complete with Pine Nuts. It is in the form of an instant tea and delicious, the “dates” tasted more like Cranberries than the Dates we have in packs with a plastic “branch” up the center of the pack we use as a fork…
I tried this recipe with half the “usual Dates” and half Cranberries and it is pretty authentic as far as I can tell. Originally from England but I now live in Greece and we have a similar tree here who’s Greek name eludes me but when it is in fruit I will try it in this tea.
Thanks for the recipe.
Ian
Aeri Lee says
hi Ian,
That is a very clear and useful idea to share with others. Cranberries.. oh.. Thank you. 🙂 If somebody can not get dates.. it will be great to try cranberries instead. ^^
Ahuva says
Hi. Thank you for this tasty recipe I’m drinking it right now… so good!
I tried to garnish with the dates but they sank haha…..
Aeri Lee says
hi Ahuva,
Very good choice. Thanks 🙂
jenn says
So good!!! Spicy and nice thank you for posting!
Aeri Lee says
hi jenn,
Thanks ^^