Fresh Ginger Tea with Honey

I have something to tell you, and I'm going to tell you carefully because it's still very early and I don't have many words for it yet. We think we're pregnant. I took a test on Tuesday and it said yes, and I took another test on Wednesday because I'm a nurse and I know that the first test can be wrong and the second test confirmed it, and I sat in the bathroom of our apartment and looked at both tests and then looked at myself in the mirror and thought: well. That happened fast.

We've been married seven weeks. We were not trying not to. Sean D. and I had talked about children — we both wanted them, we both wanted them fairly soon, we're in our late twenties and in good health and we had exactly the conversation that reasonable adults have about these things. What I had not factored into the reasonable-adult conversation was how it would feel in the moment of confirmation, which is to say: like everything shifted two inches to the left and the world is the same world and also completely different.

I called Meghan before I called anyone else, because Meghan is the person I call when something significant happens and I need to say it out loud before I decide what I think about it. Meghan said, "Oh my God," and then asked approximately eight clinical questions in a row, which is the Meghan response to significant news: gather information before emoting. By the fifth question I was laughing, which was the right outcome.

Sean D. came home from school and I told him and he sat down on the kitchen floor for a moment — just sat down on the kitchen floor, which is not where people usually sit — and then he looked up at me and said, "We're going to be really good at this." And I believed him. Because we are going to be really good at this.

I couldn't eat much this week. But I made ginger tea — fresh ginger steeped in hot water with a little honey — which is the thing I always recommend to patients who can't eat, and it helped, and I thought about that in a new way.

I’ve recommended this tea to patients more times than I can count, but I had never quite understood it the way I understood it on Wednesday night, sitting on the bathroom floor with two positive tests and a world that looked the same and completely different all at once. Fresh ginger steeped slow, a spoonful of honey, and nothing else — it’s the simplest thing, and somehow that week it was exactly enough. If you’re in a season where eating feels hard or the ground feels unsteady, this is where I’d start.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

2 cups filtered water
1 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced (about 10–12 thin coins)
1 to 2 tablespoons raw honey, to taste
1/2 small lemon, for juice (optional but recommended)
1 small pinch of fine sea salt (optional — helps with hydration)

Instructions

Slice the ginger. Peel a 1 1/2-inch knob of fresh ginger using a spoon (the edge scrapes cleanly without wasting flesh). Slice it into thin rounds — the thinner the coins, the more flavor you’ll draw out.
Simmer low and slow. Add the ginger slices and 2 cups of water to a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, then reduce to low. Let it steep at a quiet simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. The water will turn pale gold and smell warm and bright.
Strain into mugs. Pour the tea through a fine mesh strainer into two mugs, leaving the ginger slices behind. Press gently on the ginger with the back of a spoon to release any last flavor.
Sweeten and finish. Stir in 1 to 2 teaspoons of raw honey per mug while the tea is still hot, so it dissolves fully. Squeeze in a little fresh lemon juice if you’d like — it brightens the ginger and adds a gentle vitamin C boost. Add a tiny pinch of sea salt if you’re feeling depleted.
Sip slowly. This tea is best taken in small, unhurried sips. It works best on an empty or unsettled stomach when you need something gentle before you can manage anything else.

Nutrition (per serving)

Fresh Ginger Tea with Honey — The Cup That Changed Everything