Healing Spiced Chocolate Tea (paleo)

Packed with antioxidants and deliciousness, this spiced chocolate tea is just perfect for a winter sore throat.

If you’ve never heard of chocolate tea before, let me introduce you. It’s hot chocolate. Basically. Just without all the sugar and dairy. Though you can use dairy, if you want. I definitely have! It just isn’t the best thing if you’re struggling with a bunch of mucus in your sinuses and throat.

A nourishing treat.

Most chocolate teas out there are various combinations of cocoa or cacao with liquid and sweetener. They’re not necessarily for your health. They’re just a tasty drink. I’ve seen versions with black tea (which I would not recommend having before bed) and a version with bay leaves (Cuban? I think?). I like to add some fun ingredients to make my chocolate tea a little more nutritious in its value. Cayenne, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon go beautifully in this tea making it packed with healing properties. That way you can drinking when you’re healthy to stay that way, or when you’re feeling under the weather to help your body heal.

Spiced Chocolate Tea

Cayenne. You might only know cayenne as a heat additive in your food, but let me tell you, it’s so much more than that! It’s helpful for a myriad of digestion issues, cholesterol, blood circulation, pain relief, sore throats, fevers, and more. Cayenne is full of antioxidants (vitamins A, E, and C) that support your immune system and it’s great at breaking up mucus.

Cloves. Did you know cloves are rich in antioxidants? So go ahead and eat another gingerbread cookie…. Kidding. Maybe. Really though, cloves contain a special antioxidant called eugenol, which reduces oxidative stress. This antioxidant is a natural germicide keeping harmful microbes from growing and spreading throughout your body. Cloves also help stabilize your blood sugar and relieve pain.

Ginger. Ginger is one of the best inflammation-fighting foods we have. It’s been used for digestion, to easy nausea, help fight fungal, bacterial and viral infections, and to ease coughs. I personally use it to help ease asthma attacks in myself, and croup in my youngest. Ginger contains magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and phosphorus.

Cinnamon. This sweet and hot spice is loaded with antioxidants that help fight inflammation. It is also antibacterial and antiviral. Just remember when purchasing cinnamon that the cheap stuff sold at Walmart or you grocery store is probably cassia cinnamon, which can actually be toxic in high doses (though low doses have been shown to help lower blood sugar). It’s safer to us Ceylon cinnamon whenever you need to ingest it!

Cocoa. Chocolate (cocoa and cacao) is full of polyphenols like catechins, flavonol glycosides, anthocyanins, and procyanidins. These antioxidants help protect your body against inflammation, oxidative stress, and cellular damage, which cause disease. Cocoa is also high in calcium, iron, magnesium, copper, and phosphorus. It also helps stimulate your body to produce endorphins (natural painkillers) that help relieve a sore throat while the antioxidants heal! Beware that cocoa does contain theobromine and caffeine, which are known stimulants. So even though this spiced chocolate tea only contains a little cocoa powder, if you’re super sensitive to caffeine you might not want to drink this before bed.

When you’re purchasing your cocoa powder, keep in mind that Dutched cocoa (cocoa processed with processed with alkali) does not contain as many antioxidants as other cocoas. I like to use Azure Standard’s fair-trade, organic cocoa powder, but in a pinch I also use the cocoa powder from Aldi. It’s also fair-trade, though not organic.

Honey. Not only is honey delicious, it’s packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals like phenolic acids, flavoniods, niacin, thiamine, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, vitamin C & B6, calcium, and iron. It also is full of good bacteria, helping to give honey its anti-fungal and probiotic properties. It’s important to purchase local raw honey when you’re using it for its health properties. A lot of store-bought honey is pasteurized, which kills the good bacteria in it. A good rule of thumb when purchasing honey is: the darker the honey, the higher the antioxidant levels.

More healing drinks.

Need more soothing, healing drinks? Here are a few of my favorites. They’re all warming, so they’re great for the fall/winter months. Though you can definitely enjoy them any time of year!

In the recipe card I’ve linked to some of the products from my affiliate partners that I like to use. Purchasing through these links won’t cost you anything extra. Thanks!