What is Bandrek
Imagine that you are just coming home from your tiring activity whole day and you need a warm cup of beverage to boost your energy back but still can make you sleep in peace, not a cup of black coffee that will make you stay awake not able to have a good sleep to get back to another busy life tomorrow.
Or if you are feeling cold and not very well and need something sweet and spicy to make your body warm yet still delicious. That is when you know you need to try Bandrek, an Indonesian sweet and spicy beverage you will love.
Bandrek is a Sundanese traditional sweet and spicy beverage. Sundanese people who is living in a highland with cool temperature usually have bandrek to warm their body. Rich in spices in its ingredients, no wonder Bandrek has a warm effect to your body. Made from a mixture of ginger, palm sugar, cinnamon, cloves, pandan leaves and pinch of salt, it is really easy to make and taste mindfully delicious. If you want more rich taste you can replace water to milk.
Ingredients to make Bandrek
- 500 ml of water
- 80 grams of ginger
- 4 cloves
- 2-3 tbsp of Tuan Kelapa’s palm sugar
- 6 cm of cinnamon (or you can use cinnamon pwder)
- 2 pandan leaves
- 1 stick of lemongrass
- Pinch of salt
How to make Bandrek
- Wash all the ingredients well
- In a medium saucepan, bring water into boil add in all the ingredients
- Cook over low heat, stir it well until it boils slowly
- Remove from the stove and strain
- A hot sweet and spicy Bandrek is ready to be served
Bandrek Tips and fun fact
- If you want to have a rich and creamy taste, you can switch water to a fresh milk as you prefer
- To have a more hot and spicy taster, you can also add in some black pepper
- Shredded ginger will give you more spicy taste
- If you want to keep the temperature warm longer, put the bandrek in a thermos
7 Benefits of Bandrek for Health
Since you know how to make Bandrek, now you can make Bandrek everytime you need a warm beverage or whenever you feel like you want. Beside its warm effect and delicious taste, Bandrek has bunch of benefit to your health, which is not surprising because Bandrek is made with a mixture of various types of spices.
- Fight Cancer
Many are pessimistic if the clove content in Bandrek is not able to fight cancer. In fact, further research shows that cloves in Bandrek have the ability to prevent cancer, especially in the digestive tract, skin, and lungs.
- Toothache medicine
Again, the clove oil content in Bandrek also has benefits for toothache medicine. Even the content of clove oil is also useful as an analgesic or also known as a painkiller.
- Lowers Blood Pressure
The reason is that in this Bandrek there is also ginger. Ginger can work as a blood vessel softener and stimulate the release of the hormone adrenaline. Thus, the blood in your body can flow better and can also ease the work of the heart when pumping blood.
- Prevents Inflammation
It turns out that the flavonoid content found in cloves is useful as a preventative for inflammation. Therefore this Bandrek is very well consumed for people with rheumatism. And this clove can also be used as an expectorant to overcome various problems in the respiratory tract.
- Overcoming Colds
Actually, this cold is not one of the names of the disease. This cold occurs when the body is feeling excessive fatigue. Therefore, with the nature of warmth that can be given by this Bandrek, of course, it can easily treat this cold.
- Prevents Bloating
This flatulence is a condition in which the stomach cannot expel toxic gases from the back. And it turns out that this Bandrek is a natural remedy to treat flatulence.
- Kills Pathogens
In this bandrek also contains antioxidants that are high enough so that it can protect the body from several diseases.