Handmade in Acadiana – Angel’s Ginger Water

Powered by Ginger

Spicing Up Diets and Improving Health

By Patrice Doucet

Photos by Sarah Soprano

In 2015 Paul Pickens found himself at a life-threatening crossroad. Weighing almost 400 pounds and his body riddled with ailments, he was on several medications. Trying to get his health on track, he turned to something as simple as water.

“My legs had gotten so swollen and arthritis had settled in my feet to the point that I was walking with a cane for a while,” Pickens begins to share. “I had shortness of breath and developed a skin condition I think I got from working offshore. The doctors couldn’t tell me what was going on with me. I was taking steroids and other medicines that didn’t help me, so I stopped taking them.”

Having drank lemon water much of his life, Pickens began researching the benefits of other additives. “I met with natural herb people and with people who were on their own healthy journey. After I became involved in martial arts, I learned breathing techniques and became more aware of my body,” he recalls.

He began experimenting with water by combining fresh ginger, shown to be good for the kidneys, and a little garlic, reported to take parasites out of the body. He added turmeric, for the heart and brain and learned that cinnamon loosens mucus and lowers blood pressure, helps with diabetes, blood pressure, removes inflammation and a slew of other conditions.

It took Pickens about five years to perfect the recipe and the results surprised even him. “The water helped regulate my blood pressure and I started losing weight and people began to notice; I lost 100 pounds in 2017,” says the man who once went by the nickname “Big P.” When friends saw the change in me, they were ready to listen. People were coming up to me randomly asking me how to make it. Word got around, and before long I was making the water for friends, family and former classmates. They still pull up in my yard to tell me things like their arthritic pain is gone. Some have told me it helps them think clearer. A friend was diabetic and taking shots and I made him some water. His glucose levels corrected themselves so much that his doctor asked him what he did to improve it. When he told him he’d been drinking the ginger water, the doctor said ‘No way.”

Sales of his amazing product catapulted Pickens to start his business Angel’s Health & Awareness and sell his water by the gallons and half-gallons at markets in Lafayette, namely Fightingville Fresh and the Moncus Park Market. “People were driving from Baton Rouge, Leesville and Alexandria to buy it,” he recalls. To his customers he was an angel.

“Everyone was calling me an angel for helping them with my water. During COVID, customers were buying a lot of the water for everything from sore throats to taking toxins out of the body. People still tell me ‘You’re my angel,’ but we’re all angels in our own way uplifting and helping each other on our health journeys.”

Before turning his ginger water into a business, Pickens taught others how to make the brew, but they always reported back that it didn’t come out the same. The secret may be that he anoints each batch while making it. “I ask God to bless those that drink the water,” he reveals.

With well intention he also uses a different process from other makers explaining, “I boil it and bring it to a cooking stage. It smells good, like food- it’s like eating food as you’re drinking it. You can make a gravy out of it; I put it on my son’s cream of wheat – it makes the food taste awesome.” Pickens describes the taste as “smooth and dandy,” and says those who are, at first, leery of the ginger taste are usually sold after one tasting.

To receive the full benefits of the water, he recommends drinking a coffee cup-worth twice a day, first thing in the morning, before breakfast, so that the herbs can go straight to the organs, and then before bedtime. “You have to be consistent in taking it,” he stresses. “I tell customers that they can add a bit of lime or lemon to help boost the immune system, and if they warm the drink it fires up the digestive system.”

Customers from teens to those 70 and older partake in the nutritious drink- and it’s safe for children five and above.

Angel’s Ginger Water can still be found at the farmers markets at Moncus Park and Fightingville Fresh as well as Drug Emporium, Fresh Pickins’, grocery stores in Washington and Opelousas, Natural Nutrition Center in New Iberia, and has been introduced to a few stores in New Orleans. The containers have been shipped out of state, and Pickens and his son have delivered all across Acadiana.

Pickens looks back at his personal accomplishments – and his journey still continuing – and says, “If I hadn’t taken this path, I’d probably be out of here. I’m proof that it’s never too late to start anything. This is my calling that came from my life and speaking my truth.”