Late Friday, I had a severe allergic reaction to something, and after a panicky, emergency visit to Beijing United in the middle of the night (1100 RMB! but I was completely reassured that nothing was wrong with me beyond an allergic reaction), I woke up the following morning with all the symptoms of the flu. I’ve been sleeping in all day today and all day yesterday; when standing for five minutes makes you tired, you know that it’s time to get some rest.
A few months ago, I’d come across this article from Time’s China blog, and I had always wanted to try this “ancient Chinese remedy” of boiling Coke, ginger, and lemon. However, I’d always reached for the Nyquil the minute I became sick, so I filed away this remedy for later use.
Luckily, I managed to become sick again, and this wonderful opportunity opened up.
Scott boiled together some Coca-Cola, lemon, and ginger, and it tasted wonderful. My sinuses cleared up immediately and I’m sweating out my illness like mad. Eat the ginger, it makes the concoction really work and frankly, the Coke-infused ginger slices tastes wonderful. I can’t wait to try this again; hope I can sleep through all this caffeine and sugar though!
15/01/2008 at 3:47 pm Permalink
Must be tried! (I have an unsafe fascination for drinks of Hong Kong inspiration)
17/01/2008 at 10:50 pm Permalink
i’ve never heard of this one.
i’ll have to ask my “po po” about this
18/01/2008 at 12:30 am Permalink
Cedric, just wait until the next time you have a cold!
Tessa, some of my Chinese coworkers say, “Oh yeah, I drink this all the time!” and the others say, “WTF?”
18/01/2008 at 2:14 am Permalink
Omg, my mom used to try forcing me to drink boiled Coke with some honey whenever i was sick, but being the little snooty brat I was, i always refused. (Plus to me it tasted groooooss). I also heard that in the Navy they unoffiicially give warm Coke to people to cure horrible seasickness….who knew it was the miracle elixir?
18/01/2008 at 2:16 am Permalink
HEY! Sweet blog Fiona! Is Beijing going nuts with the coming of Olympics? Are you going to any of the events?
18/01/2008 at 3:26 pm Permalink
Hum… that’s a neat one! I might give it a shot while away
20/01/2008 at 4:04 am Permalink
Hey Fi! Just got a chance to take a look at your new blog site…cool beans =) Saw this first blog and it certainly brought back memories. My mom used to add salt to this drink called ‘sasporilla’ which is very similar to coca-cola and have us drink it at the first sign of any cold symptom. She would also boil ginger with rock sugar next. We’ve definitely had our share of hot coke w/lemon once we came to the U.S. In fact, they serve it commonly in the Hong Kong cafes in our San Gabriel hood. When you come back next time, we’ll have to take you to one of them for old times sake! =)
20/01/2008 at 5:17 am Permalink
Hey Fio, like your new blog! Ordered what I thought was ginger beer once in Chengdu and it came as warm coke with ginger, absolutely minging, hope you are feeling better though!
23/01/2008 at 9:28 am Permalink
this actually works my mum used make it for my dad coz he used get realy bad colds an it always worked itried it the other day for my bf and he was much better the next day and it tastes gd to
27/01/2008 at 4:02 pm Permalink
Hey man, keep up the updates!
23/03/2008 at 12:35 pm Permalink
I’ve never tried hot cola + lemon with ginger, but my mom definitely used to make hot cola + lemon. Adding the ginger sounds interesting tho…:D
I have no idea why hot cola works, but I hear it’s because of one of the ingredients (that’s in 7-up/sprite as well) that works miracles on colds?
11/08/2010 at 7:33 am Permalink
Guys, this works a treat. its made up my childhood. so whoever hasnt tried it, give it a shot. It tastes great too. x
09/01/2013 at 1:14 am Permalink
Boiled Coke and ginger REALLY WORKS!!! I lived 10 years in Beijing and one of my employees made it for me at work, I drunk it and sweated out my cold! We got to respect the Eastern medicinal practices, which some date as far back as 5000 years b.c. How far back does your countries hystory go?
p.s adding some lemon slices will add some vitamic C needed for recovery!
28/01/2013 at 7:35 pm Permalink
Not sure if it works that well but it feels quite comfortable for your throat when it hurts… Drinking it right now