Dry ginger

In the tradition

The texts treat fresh ginger (ārdraka, our adrak) and dried ginger (śuṇṭhī, sonth) as two different things — and dried ginger is the one they praise. Its names say so: Viśvabheṣaja, "the medicine of the world", and Mahauṣadha, "the great herb". It is one of the three pungents of trikaṭu, with black pepper and long pepper.

How Ayurveda reads it

Sonth is pungent to taste and heating, but its after-digestion effect (vipāka) is sweet, and it is light yet unctuous rather than drying. That combination is why it is described as settling Vata and Kapha without the dryness of most pungent spices. It can raise Pitta.

It is classed as dīpana and pācana: kindling agni and helping the undigested (āma) to be digested.

In the Indian kitchen

Sonth goes into panjiri and gond ke laddoo in winter, into sonth ki chutney (with tamarind and jaggery) for chaat, and into kadha and chai masala. New mothers in Punjab are traditionally given sonth sweets.

How we use it

We use dried ginger root, cut or ground, in our kahwas, churnas and chai blends. A little goes a long way: it is the warmth you feel at the back of the throat.

Where a pack says adrak or ginger, it means this: dried ginger. None of our blends uses fresh ginger.