Spiced mead with strong black tea

A spiced mead with strong black tea is wonderful on a cold frosty night, lower in alcohol than a more traditional glühwein; less of a glow but it's more healthy.

Drunk not too hot it is also a powerful natural probiotic; it contributes to wellness. Don't kill those friendly bugs that are found in homemade wines, meads and beers.

Written by Dr. Bernard Preston (BSc, BEd and DC)

Disclaimer

Spices

Dirt cheap

You can pay a lot of money for beautiful manicured rolls of cinnamon but the coarse bark is very cheap; start with a small chunk. It's a strong condiment; you can add more next time you brew your spiced mead with strong black tea if you find it a bit anaemic.

Elaichi seeds are also known as cardamom; unknown in Western culture it's a great favourite in the East. In fact, after black pepper it is the second most consumed spice in the world according to the McCormick Science Institute^[2]. It has a beautiful warm flavour, used in perfumes in times past.

Cinnamon has special properties to help with lowering raised blood glucose in those who are insulin resistant.

• Cinnamon and diabetes
  

Ginger is well known for a compound that helps keep the immune system in balance; turmeric is perhaps an even better source.

• Ginger helps prevent the spread of cancer cells

And cloves are renowned for a compound called eugenol which is a powerful antioxidant and it helps prevent the spread of pathogens in the body.

• Herbs eugenol oil
  

Natural honey

Carbs and starches in general have been given a very bad name by food companies that insist on extracting the best parts and adding various chemicals because all the flavour has also been lost; such that it is now difficult to find natural honey, unrefined flour and true wholegrain corn. You are unlikely to locate them on ordinary grocery store shelves.

Worse we have rather grown to like the ultrarefined carbs; cream scones that slide deliciously down the throat, chocolate cake in which only the cocoa has any merit and a thousand sweet treats.

Natural honey to the astonishment of all has a low GI, reduces fasting blood glucose and actually helps with weight loss; if can find it. 

• Glycemic index of honey
  

Homemade mead

Alcohol also gets bad press but for the right reasons; even small amounts of commercial wines and beers are strongly associated with an increased rate of serious cancer, especially of the breast.

• How much alcohol causes cancer?
  

There are cogent reasons for thinking that homemade meads, beers and braggots may be the exceptions that prove the rule; they are not loaded with sulphites.

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal is not a person many will be familiar with. He was a brilliant mathematician and physicist, the father of modern probability theory about four hundred years ago. His name is given to the unit of pressure. 100kPa is the same as 1 bar being pumped into your car tyres each week.

Pascal's Wager is a delightful and sobering game that you can and should play when difficult decisions have to be made.

• Pascal's Wager applied to the alcohol causes cancer debate
  

Loose tea

There are two good reasons to use loose black tea and not a bag. The first is that it simply tastes much better; we have little idea how much enjoyment of our daily cuppas we have lost from our idleness and disinclination to dispose of the leaves from the pot.

But far more important is that researchers have found that each teabag literally produces billions of very tiny plastic specks in the cup; these nanoparticles as they are known can and do cross the blood-brain barrier and become lodged in the walls of our capillaries and cerebral matter.

It frightens me and it should scare you that one in nine Americans over the age of 65 is already showing signs of Alzheimer's Disease; I am certain it is much the same in the rest of the world where they are consuming the ultraprocessed foods found in typical grocery stores.

• How much plastic is in the human brain?
  

That little plastic bag that the tea comes in is one of the leading contributors.

Shun them and enjoy loose tea, it really is much nicer though you should wait four minutes to brew before drinking; if you want to enjoy old age with your all your marbles intact.

Unchlorinated water

Chlorination of our sources of drinking water has unquestionably been one of the great strides in the prevention of serious diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Yet drunk daily it has a negative effect on the microbiome.

Stomach acid of course is mainly chlorine; exactly how this should be worked out remains debatable.

When boiling the water to make spiced mead with strong black tea I recommend using that which is unchlorinated.

Spiced mead with strong black tea

Spiced mead with strong black tea is made with honey and cardamom; it really is a treat that can be enjoyed by all and sundry without the slightest guilt.

Experiment with Rooibos tea too.

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