Hot lemon drink…when did we start drinking this? Well, over two years ago, we headed over to Nepal to host our first Beyond Workshop for photographers. We stayed with our dear friends, Gautam & Rekha, and their very large family. As many of you know, like in India, drinking tea is a very integral part of the culture in Nepal. And typically that tea is filled with milk and sugar, two things that aren’t always beneficial to one’s health, especially when consumed two to three times a day, every day. Our friend Gautam had taken to replacing his tea drinking with drinking what he called a “hot lemon”. This is basically a drink made up of hot water and freshly squeezed lemon juice.One day, when we were asked if we’d like tea by one of Gautam’s beautiful daughters, Wes (my studly husband) asked for a hot lemon. And that’s where it began.
Now we LOVE lemons here at the Mullins household! Every morning we drink a hot lemon, which Wes swears by. In the two years he’s been drinking hot lemon, he hasn’t gotten sick while it’s been a part of his daily regimen. Is the hot lemon the reason? Perhaps. Or maybe Gautam deserves all the credit for making us so much healthier!
We typically enjoy the juice from the lemon, so we use actual lemons for our hot lemon drink. But if you want to leave the “juice” out of the equation, you can simply have hot water with a bit of lemon vitality oil. But the juice and the oil have quite different properties. The juice tends to lend a bit more “punch” to the flavor of your drink, along with little bits of pulp, which we quite enjoy. But it would take many lemons to equate the health benefits of a couple of drops of lemon essential oil. One lemon tree can produce between 500 and 600 pounds of lemons in a year. It takes about 15 lemons to fill up a 5ml bottle.
Lemon juice tastes great, but lemon essential oil is so healthy.
Lemon essential oil is cold-pressed from the rinds of lemons, giving its aroma all the brightness of the freshly picked fruit. With its bright and joyful aroma, Lemon oil benefits skin and hair as much as its aroma benefits your environment. From a scientific perspective, lemon essential oil is very high in limonene, much more so than lemon juice. In the ancient world, Egyptians used lemon oil to cleanse their bodies of toxins. It also aids in digestion, supports healthy respiratory function, and provides immune system support, especially during seasonal changes. Because some citrus oils like Lemon can cause photosensitivity, avoid applying to exposed skin before spending time outside.
Lemon oil uses:
- Boost your home cleaning with the cheerful scent of fresh Lemons! Add a few drops to naturally derived floor, window, and surface cleaning solutions. Do not use Lemon oil on granite or stone, as it may etch the surface.
- Make Lemon part of your beauty routine, adding it to skin care products to reduce the appearance of blemishes or to conditioner and DIY hair masques to give your hair a smoother, shinier look.
- Diffuse Lemon alone or with other citrus and crisp-smelling oils such as Tangerine, Grapefruit, Orange, Bergamot, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Tarragon, and Eucalyptus Radiata to create an aromatic environment that is clean-smelling and positive.
- Essential oils are also extremely potent and concentrated. So even if lemon oil and lemon juice were identical substances, it would take a very large amount of lemon juice to equal the potency of 1-2 drops of oil.
Hot Lemon Recipe
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
-Your favorite Griswold Moose Mug (or any mug will do…but let’s just admit that Clark
W. Griswold’s mugs are awesome)
-½ organic lemon
-1 to 2 drops of lemon vitality essential oil*
-hot water to fill your mug
-1 tsp raw honey (I love cold pressed raw honey)
-1 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar**
-salt to taste***
*you can add this for a bit more nutritional value, but this is completely optional.
**i am not a fan of the flavor of apple cider vinegar, but I add this because of its benefits (you can Google the benefits if you want to learn more). So if you just want to enjoy the pure flavor of lemon, you can leave this out.
***wes likes to add salt to cut down on the acidic flavor of the lemon. I am not a fan of salt in mine so this is purely optional!
