Chrysanthemum Tea

Chrysanthemum tea （菊花茶）is a flower-based tisane made from chrysamthemum flower of the species Chrysanthemum morifolium or Chrysanthemum indicum.

It is very popular in East Asia and S.E.Asia.   To prepare the tea, dried crysanthemum flower are steeped in hot water ( or boiled ), sweetened with rock sugar or granular sugar.  It is often served hot, but also popularly served chilled especially during hot days.

竹蔗凉水 SugarCane Herbal Tea

竹蔗 ( literally means bamboo cane.  竹 = bamboo, 蔗 = sugarcane ) is a kind of sugarcane, dark purple in colour, at 1-2cm diameter, it is skinnier than the normal sugarcane ( Saccharum officinarum ). It is also less juicy, and less sweet.  Very much favoured by the Chinese community as the main ingredient of infamous sugarcane herbal tea.

I supposed bamboo cane should be Saccharum sinense, but can’t be 100% sure.  It is also known as Chinese cane.

Fresh Chinese bamboo can be bought in most Asian fresh market.  Dried ones find their ways to hypermarkets and sundry stores pre=packed.

before cleaning ......                                                                 after cleaning ......

If you have fresh Chinese cane, it is vital to clean it off any debris, dirt, buds and dried leaves.  Scratch it, scrub it, rub it, wash it.  Then, cut it into about 10cm long ( for them to able to fit into my pot, of course ), chopped them into 2 - 4 vertically.

Simmer them in a huge pot of water with big chunk of chopped carrot, till the water turns yellowish and smells of sweet sugarcane aroma.  Ironically, add in a bit of sugar to sweetened it up.  Serve hot or chilled.  Discard off the sugarcane lol .

Minus all the hassle of cleaning and chopping, one can always head to any grocery stores or hypermarkets to have pre-packed dried Chinese cane.  Those dried packs are mostly produce of China, often have other herbs added to it : arrowroot, carrot, and Imperatae root.

雪梨茶 Snow Pear Herbal Tea

材料

雪梨干，无花果干，蜜枣干，橘饼，北杏，南杏

功效

止渴润喉，生津止咳

评语

未必好喝

红薏米水 Red Barley Drink

Sometime ago, at Broga town, I encountered red coloured barley drink.  ( not exactly red, purplish to be more exact )

I believe it to be coloured with leaves of Rhoeo discolor ( 蚌花 ), a herb of the Commelinaceae family, native to tropical Americas.  It is also called Tradescantia spathacea.  More commonly known as “Moses-in-the-Cradle”

The leaves are about 30 – 40 cm long, green upper surface with purplish lower surface.  The white flowers with boat-shaped bract suggest their name “Moses-in-the-Cradle”..

In Mexico it is used in alternative medicine to treat cancer, but there are not concrete scientific reports that validate their antitumuiral property.  Some study however suggested the extract of Rhoeo discolor decrease the formation of liver preneoplastic foci in rats.

The Chinese somehow seems to think it has cooling property, thus incorporated it into barley drink.  It taste funny though.

Barley Drink 薏米水

Job’s Tears 薏米 ( also known as 薏苡仁、苡仁、薏仁、白薏仁, coixseed ) are grains of Coix lacryma-jobi  ( 川谷、薏苡) of the family Poaceae native to East Asia.     

Job’s Tears are misleadingly, sold as Chinese pearl barley in Asian markets, despite the fact that they are not the same genus as barley ( Hordeum vulgare )

There are 2 varieties grown : Coix lacryma-jobi var. lacryma with hard shelled pseudocarps which are very hard, pearly white, oval structures used as beads for making rosaries, necklaces, etc ; and Coix lacryma-jobi var ma-yuen which are used as cereal and for its medical properties in parts of Asia.

In Chinese culture, Job’s Tears is commonly cooked in sweetened water and consumed for its ‘cooling’ property. 

Many like to cook it with a specialty bean curd, which is cooked till it disintegrated into whitish colloid, similar to soy milk.  I tried to cook this before, but the bean curd seems impossible to break apart. 

I like it simple : with sweetened winter melon, blended and served chilled with a slice of lemon.

罗汉果 凉茶

1．罗汉果 ( dried fruit of Siraitio grosvenori )

2．百合 （ dried bulb scales of Lillium brownii var viridulum )

3．冬瓜糖  ( sweetened stripes of Cucurmis hispida fruit - winter melon strips )

4．蜜枣 ( sweetened fruit of Ziziphus zizyphus )
5．桂圆 ( dried fruits of Dimocarpus longan )
6．白木耳  white fungus ( dried Tremella fuciformis )

Additionally, can add

莲子 lotus seeds ( seeds of Nelumbo nucifera )

白果 ginkgo seeds ( seeds of Ginkgo biloba )

Simmer all ingredients ( except white fungus ) in 3 liter of water, for 1 hours ++ untill the gingko seed, or lotus seed softened.  By then, the 罗汉果 has started emitting its aroma.

Only then, put in all the white fungus.  Bring to boil for a while, and it's done !
( don't cook the white fungus too long.  Over-cooked white fungus tends to be hardened, and losts its agar-like chew )

Serve hot.   But I perfer to have it chilled during a hot summer day !