I love you, honey (and lemon)

Hubby showed me an article about Korean honey tea a while back. It is simple to make but can be found at most Asian markets.   

Korean honey tea is not really a "tea" at all.  It only becomes "tea" when boiling water is poured over the prepared ingredients.

I made up the recipe a month or so ago, stuck it in my fridge and pretty much forgot about it.  It wasn't until I got the flu that I remember that the concoction was "brewing" in the back of the refrigerator.  What is more soothing to a sort throat and cough than honey and lemon?

It was the perfect hot beverage and exactly what I needed when I was feeling crappy.  Although, I think it would be fine and refreshing any time.

In a jar combine sliced lemons and real honey.  Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.  The honey acts as a natural preservative so it doesn't spoil.  You can continue to add lemon and honey to the jar whenever you have half a lemon you don't know what to do with or a bit of left over honey.

The lemon and honey combine to make a sweet, citrusy concoction not unlike marmalade.

When you want to make a cuppa add a lemon slice and a dribble of honey into a mug and pour boiling water over it.  Experiment with the honey/lemon and water ratio to get the taste you want.  I've found that one slice of lemon and a tablespoon of honey makes a nice mellow mix.  I also experimented with adding a tea bag when I pour in the boiling water.  And that was really nice!

I will keep a jar in the fridge year round.  I imagine it would also be a delicious addition to iced tea in the summer time.

Yum!

Some food for thought about honey.  You will note that I indicate to use real honey in the mixture.  That's because the vast majority of honey you can buy at the grocery store isn't really honey at all or barely honey, at the very least.  

Most of the junk labeled "honey" on store shelves is nothing more than honey flavored corn syrup.  Either that or it is so filtered and processed that all the good stuff found in honest to goodness natural honey is removed.

Why?  Because most of the "honey" that floods the U.S. market is imported from China.  Chinese honey  is cheap honey.  They dilute it with high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners then go on to add other chemicals and antibiotics.  Chinese honey is also known to contain a scarily high content of heavy metals.  NOT GOOD.

It's best to get honey from a local bee farm that way you know it's the real thing.  However, that's not always reasonable.  If you can't find a local supplier, you can feel fairly confident that organic store-bought honey is the real stuff.