Ending Shark Week on a Sweet Note

Okay, so I'm dipping my toes—so to speak—into herbal remedies, and I'm starting with a basic but important one (at least if you menstruate*): red date tea.

Delightfully sweet, red dates replenish the body and provide you with energy after blood loss. Talk about a natural upper! In this tea's most basic form, you boil the red dates in water for about an hour, but many variations of the tea exist and, really, it comes down to personal preference.

You can add ginseng (which helps balance estrogen levels and also adds a nice earthy flavor to contrast the dates), or you can toss in some sliced ginger, which is another energy booster. Or, via Mom's sister, Auntie #6, you can hard-boil an egg in the mixture, letting the sweetness of the dates seep in through the shell to give the egg a honey flavor (which Mom relayed to me on a follow-up phone call, saying that it was SO obvious, she couldn't believe she forgot). 

But I went with the simplest—just red dates—mostly because I had leftovers from making steamed chicken with red dates and goji berries. 

So don't let the next [insert preferred period euphemism] get you down—drink up and prepare to conquer the world because as Queen Bey taught us, who run the world? GIRLS! 

Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS (FOR 1)

PREPARE

1. Wash and place red dates in a pot with water.

COOK

1. Bring mixture to a boil, then let it simmer for about an hour. 

2. Perform sacrilegious dark witch magic or read up on how to become the next RBG—your prerogative.   

3. Taste mixture for sweetness after an hour. If you like it sweeter, continue to boil until desired flavor is reached. 

DRINK

Pour into your favorite mug and drink up!