A Sri Lankan spiced citrus tea that is instantly restorative

On our recent holiday to Sri Lanka, we travelled from the south of the island into the country's heartland to visit Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya. It was a magical car journey up mountains, past rice and tea plantations, through sleepy villages and small towns, bustling with tuktuks and colourful buses and so many school children, always dressed in white.

The journey, which took over 8 hours, over bumpy and windy roads, up and down mountains, took its toll on us. When we arrived at our beautiful eco resort (Taru Villas Maia), I thought I had reached the limits of what my perimenopausal body can endure (not much, I guess, compared to what some people are able to do).

Thankfully, we were welcomed at the resort with cold towels and the most healing welcome drink I have ever had:

A hot, sweet drink with beautiful citrus and ginger flavours and a rich orange colour - a sort of spiced citrus tea. I am still kicking myself for not asking what the tea was made of, but I have tried to recreate it, to the best of my recollection, so that I can make myself a cup of this healing concoction any time I feel under the weather.

Soothing and restorative Sri Lankan spiced citrus tea

750 ml water

Juice of 3 mandarins or satsumas

3 cm piece of ginger - chopped into chunks and bashed in a mortar

4 cardamom pods - bashed

1 small cinnamon stick

2-3 tsp honey (to taste)

1 tsp black tea

Chop the ginger into chunks and bash it in a mortar to bring out all of the flavour.

Add it to a saucepan with the mandarin/satsuma juice, cardamom and cinnamon, top it with the water and bring it to a boil.

Let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the tea leaves and let it steep for another 2 minutes.

Strain through a fine sieve into a teapot and stir in the honey until dissolved.

This is essentially a citrus chai (as opposed to a milky one). It really needs the sweetness of the honey to give the drink ‘body’ - the sweetness allows you to taste the other flavours and prevents the drink from tasting watery. Sri Lankans use a palm sugar called Kithul Jaggery to sweeten drinks and dishes, so I imagine that might have been an ingredient in the drink I had at Taru Villas, but honey works well and has its own healing properties.