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Herbs & Cultures

Jamu in Indonesia →

Wedang jahe, hot ginger drink

Roasted ginger, crushed and steeped with palm sugar: the hot drink of Central and East Java.

Traditional use

Time
20 minutes
Makes
2 cups
Ginger

Wedang is Javanese for ‘boiled drink’. For wedang jahe, fresh ginger is first roasted in the fire, then crushed and steeped in hot water with gula jawa (palm sugar) or rock sugar. Sometimes pandan leaf, lemongrass, cloves or cinnamon go in too. Ginger drinks like this have long been taken as an herbal remedy in large parts of Asia.

Ingredients

  • A 5 cm piece of fresh ginger
  • 1–2 tbsp gula jawa or rock sugar
  • 400 ml water
  • Optional: a pandan leaf or a stalk of lemongrass

Step by step

  1. Roast the ginger over a gas flame or in a dry frying pan until it has black spots.
  2. Crush it with the flat of a knife or in a mortar.
  3. Bring the water to the boil with the ginger, sugar and pandan leaf, if using, and steep gently for 10 minutes.
  4. Pour into glasses while hot.

Tips

  • In Java fresh or condensed milk is sometimes added.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    Asia · Herb · № 1

    Ginger

    Zingiber officinale

    Traditionally used for nausea and digestive discomfort; it has a warming flavor.

    Ayurveda+6Folklore

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.