– What’s up everyone,
welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I’m Adriene, and today
we’re taking it off the mat and into the kitchen, learning how to make
a traditional yogi tea. So this is really special to me, one of my
favorite drinks because it really takes me way
on back to when I was first introduced to
the practice of yoga and first found love. Also, way back to my
yoga teacher training days, but also, way back to
traditional Indian medicine or Ayurveda. Thanks for
joining me, let’s get started. (upbeat music) Alrighty my friends, so yogi
tea is very similar to chai, in fact these two teas you know, are pretty much the same thing. Although, the yogi tea,
the traditional concoction really focuses on the herbs, so a chai is kind of
like you fill it with some extra milk and some extra sugar, and it’s really great.
Same ingredients. But, this traditional
concoction is really focusing on the herbs,
it’s a six ingredient recipe, plus your water. And per, you know,
the Ayurvedic science, or tradition, everything
is there for a reason. So, the tea is very warming, it’s super awesome for
digestion, circulation, and everything there,
again, is for a purpose. So, let me introduce
you to our six ingredients. Alright so the first
ingredient is black peppercorn. Great for the sinuses,
great for circulation, awesome for digestion, it’s
also really great for the skin, and respiratory system.
Black peppercorn is awesome. Alright next we have
the clove, whole clove. Obviously really
warming, aromatic, it’s really great as
an anti-inflammatory, and really, really great,
high in antioxidants, just also adds to a
little bit of the taste. Alright, next we
have the cardamom seed, and this is a little
seed pod that is actually a derivative of
the ginger family. Ginger Rodgers, she
popped one of these out, just kidding. And it is amazing.
It’s so aromatic, just the smell alone
reminds me of being like back in 18 or 19 in my
teacher training. So awesome. Great for heartburn,
great for balancing out acidity in the stomach,
super awesome for bloating, for gas, who doesn’t want
to tend to that, am I right? And yeah, smells
really good as well. Alright, next we have cinnamon and we have a whole cinnamon
stick here, so not the powder, and cinnamon has so
many wonderful qualities, again, really great for
digestion, it’s very warming, so it’s soothing for
the respiratory system. If you’ve ever
wondered about the benefits of cinnamon, look it up,
because there are so many studies that show
that cinnamon has helped just with balancing blood sugar, has helped reduce
symptoms of diabetes, heart disease, like so
much stuff so check it out. And we’re gonna go
with a whole cinnamon stick to also provide a little
bit of flavor for our tea. Alright, next up
we have ginger root. And ginger root is
really like the MVP in Ayurveda. Has so many wonderful benefits, great for all systems go, really wonderful
for digestion as well. This one in particular,
great for joints, arthritic pain, also
really great for us gals, so just a slice of ginger
in a cup of warm water’s super awesome when
you’re suffering from cramps. And yeah, ginger root
is like the queen bee here. Alright, last but not
least we have our black tea. This is the ingredient
that really just brings it all together, synergizes
all the other ingredients. It can be really good
for focus and concentration, for some, not all,
because it is caffeinated, and of course you can
gage how much caffeine you want by the
amount of time in which you choose to
steep it in your pot. Alright, the next few
steps are super simple. You’re gonna want
to boil some water. So I have some boiling
water on the stove already. And while that is happening, you’re gonna wanna do
three more simple steps before you throw
everything in your pot. Okay, so the first one is,
you’re gonna want to make your tea with
love in your heart. So even if you’re
not really feeling love, we’re just gonna
take a quiet moment to take a deep breath in,
inhale lots of love in. Feels good, and then
just exhale lots of love out. Check, sweet.
Alright, the next thing is, for the cardamom pods,
you’re gonna wanna split your pods. Never
thought I’d say that. So you’re gonna take a knife,
take the pod, take a knife. And rather than using the
sharp knife to cut your pod, you’re just gonna take
the flat edge of the knife, or the flat side of the
knife, put it on the pod, bring the opposite hand on top, and then just press down,
almost like we do with garlic. ‘Til it pops or splits,
a little or a lot. And then I prepped
some cardamom seeds here, pods open and as you can see they kind of have fallen apart and that’s great because were
gonna strain them out later. So those are ready to go. The last thing you
wanna do is slice your ginger, and I just want to
point out that you do not have to peel the ginger, because we’re gonna
strain everything out anyway. So you just slice
your fresh ginger, and then it’s ready to go. Alrighty, so now we’re
ready to make our tea. We have a boiling pot of water, I put two quarts water in here, but you can do
different things based on how much tea you want to make. I like to make a big batch, it really fills the whole house
up with a wonderful smell, and then you can save it because you can
enjoy this tea hot or cold. So we have our boiling H2O here, the first ingredient
I’m gonna drop in are my peppercorns, about
20 of these for this batch, you don’t have to be
super specific unless you really want to,
but around 20. Just drop them in and
watch them dance. It’s cool. Next up we have our whole clove. So for the clove about
15, again, doesn’t have to be super specific in my opinion. But just around 15, and you
can watch them dance as well. Next up we have our cinnamon, depending on how
much cinnamon you like, you can do three to five sticks. So we’re doing three
today, just one, two, three. Dropping the whole stick in. And then finally, our
glorious cardamom seeds. They’ve been split so
they’re nice and loose, and we’re just gonna drop
those in and watch them dance. And about 20 of those. Alright, next up we
have our fresh ginger, about eight slices here. Again, you can amp up the
ginger or tone down the ginger, based on what you like. I like a lot of
ginger, personally. Like to get the healing
effects that ginger, in my stomach, so great. And then we just kind of let
this go for a couple minutes, it’s already starting
to turn a different color. And dance, you definitely
want to keep it rolling. The boil, rolling. Just
for a couple of minutes. And it’s already
starting to smell super awesome and amazing, really great. Alright, after you’ve allowed
these ingredients to come and dance
together for a little bit, you’re ready to add your tea. As I said before,
I have a tea bag here, but you can use loose tea. You’re just gonna
drop that puppy in. And you can take a
little spoon, if you want, and just kind of
move it around. And stir. Alright, ah, and it
already looks so beautiful. Alright, after
you’ve stirred it, we’ll put a lid on it,
and we’ll let it brew for 30 minutes, at least, you can you also turn
the heat down a little bit, and walk away and
just enjoy the smell and really you can let it
go for two to three hours, it’s really nice. But you just want to be
careful about your caffeine level, if that’s something
you’re concerned about. So we’re gonna let
this brew for 30 minutes, then come back and strain it. Alright, so it’s
been about 30 minutes, I have my strainer here. You wanna make sure you
have a strainer that is small enough to catch everything. And I’m just
gonna slowly pour my tea over the strainer
into another pot, or if you have a
pitcher that works, you can do that as well. I’m just gonna
pour a fair amount in. Smells so awesome. And then slowly take this back. If you have anything
extra, I like to bottle it up, or I like to give it away as
presents too, for friends, just little jars. And then I just take this out, and whatever you
caught in the strainer, you take over to
the sink, and yes. This is amazing, our yogi tea. Okie doke, so let’s try our tea. I’m gonna ladle it into my mug, since I have it in a pot here. But sometimes I’ll pour it
into something over the sink, even a big mason jars is nice. Has beautiful color,
oh my gosh, yes. So we used to drink this in
between my teacher trainings and I think this came over
into America via Yogi Bhajan in the late 60’s, who
served it to his students. His American
students here. Smells amazing. So typically, we drink
the yogi tea either as is, or you can sweeten
it with a little honey. So I’m gonna put a
little honey in mine. And then you would also
add a little bit of milk. So you can add regular milk,
you can add soy milk, I use almond milk. But it just really helps kind of keep it
nice and smooth. We’re gonna do a
little bit of honey here. Stir it around. And I’m using local honey
because I live in Austin, Texas and that’s just
the smart thing to do ’cause it’s good
for your allergies. And then once all the
honey has come off the spoon, you’ll add your milk. And I will just
drink this all day, and it’s a great substitute
for coffee or other things that you might drink
to keep your energy up. So beautiful. Yeah, really went for the milk. And then one last little stir and one last little
inhale and exhale of love. Alright, and there we have it. Made with love,
a traditional yogi tea. Let’s give it a taste. It really is so good and it
really does take me way back, so sweet. Alright, from my
heart to yours, namaste. Enjoy your yogi tea, leave
questions, comments below. Let me know how it goes and let’s stay connected,
take care my friends, namaste. (upbeat music) Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o8ZWkKZfiE
