When I Lost My Voice, Orange Peel Chai Brought It Back
Every Wednesday, Bon Appétit executive editor Sonia Chopra shares what’s going on at BA—the stories she’s loved reading, the recipes she’s been making, and more. If you sign up for our newsletter, you’ll get her letter before everyone else.
When I lost my voice earlier during the pandemic, I tried everything to fix it. First I tried my hardest to just stop talking, though for a chatty person like me (who also has days packed full of meetings), that’s not as easy as it sounds. So I started to go through bags of cough drops, all kinds of home remedies, whole citrus groves full of oranges, and plenty of over-the-counter meds—and I really doubled down on drinking soothing teas.
Sadly for me, my go-to formula—boil a ton of ginger with water, add spices, throw in a teabag, steep, strain—wasn’t doing anything. I tried adding honey; I tried losing the caffeine; I tried this great onion syrup from Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz. I bought a fancy new mug to keep water hot all day and set up a little tea station by my desk. I called my grandmother; I texted some chefs I know. Nothing worked.
And then a friend sent me a cocktail kit that had dried oranges in it, and on a whim one day I threw one in with some crushed cardamom and cinnamon—and it actually helped. When I ran out of the cocktail garnishes, I started throwing in orange peels, which previously I’d just let pile up on my desk over the course of a day as I went through wedge after wedge of citrus during meetings. The taste is more subtle, but the effect is the same.
So when my coworkers asked if anybody had recipes that might be suitable for a story on food waste for the May issue, I developed the orange peel chai. It’s totally adaptable—use the spices you like, omit the ones you don’t, caffeine completely optional—and, if you try it, I hope it picks you up on days when you’re feeling low.
Get the Recipe:
Orange Peel Chai
Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit
