A unique and tasty combination, pandan lemongrass tea is our latest addiction. Though I have been living in SE-Asia for seven years and have been served pandan lemongrass tea probably a million times, only recently I started making this highly delicious and healing drink at home.

The best part, we have all ingredients growing around our outdoor kitchen. Though I want to go out in the garden and take a million pictures of our pandan and lemongrass plants to show you guys, only this morning we had a highly venomous Malayan pit viper hanging around those plants.

Though I have gotten used to snakes, usually it’s always non-poisonous varieties that roam around our house. It’s our cat who alerted us of this intruder being less than 1 meter from our outdoor kitchen. We quickly took her away and are all inside the house right now hoping it snakes away by itself.

Though we might have to ask a friend used to handling snakes to come and relocate it as Malayna pit vipers are one of the only snakes that will stay put.

This is not my pic (took it from a quick Google search), but this is exactly what’s hiding under one of the pandan plants…..

A kind reminder that we share this place with poisonous creatures…. Next time I will definitely pay more attention when harvesting lemongrass or pandan leaves.

Anyhow, I just browsed through my pics and found these pics of our plants (see pics below) I can use right now. I will go out once the intruder has safely been removed and take more pics I will share for Natural Medicine’s Garden Journal Challenge Early June.

But for now, we are gonna stay out of the garden for a bit.

Pandan plants

In this pic (above), some of the pandan plants were still on our terrace, but now they all moved to our garden.

Lemongrass

PXL_20210311_091028302.MP.jpg

The lemongrass plants have become massive bushes, but again these are old pics... new ones coming soon....

LEMONGRASS AND PANDAN TEA

Lemongrass and pandan tea has a unique and calming taste. According to some sources, pandan leaves can successfully treat headaches and fevers. Topically the leaves can be applied to wounds and help with several skin problems. Pandan leaves may also help ease painful joints caused by diseases such as arthritis.

Lemongrass, on the other hand, has traditionally been used to treat a host of conditions, ranging from treating stress and anxiety-related issues to soothing a cough or settling an upset stomach.

INGREDIENTS (MAKES 2 LITERS)

8-10 pandan leaves (depending on how big your plants and leaves are)
6-8 lemongrass stalks (depending on how big your plants and leaves are)
2 liters water

Though I don’t like sweetened tea you can always add some maple syrup, raw honey, or raw palm or cane sugar if you like.

PXL_20210312_093910100.PORTRAIT.jpg

DIRECTIONS

With a scissor, cut the Lemongrass and pandan leaves into small chunks.

FYI: To get more healing compounds out of the lemongrass, slightly smash the stalks with the back of a big kitchen knife before cutting.

PXL_20210601_104536270.PORTRAIT.jpg

Bring 2 liters of water to a boil. When boiling add lemongrass and pandan leaves and simmer for 7 minutes. Cover the pot to avoid loss of the healing volatile oils.

PXL_20210601_104610969.PORTRAIT.jpg