Tien Chi flower tea

Dry


Steeping in water

I hope everyone had a wonderful Chrismas holiday! Mine was relatively easy, 2 parties with deliveries and a case of wine, many guests brought wine, so we drank almost 2 cases. Tea was not on the menu though. Both Chrismas eve and day, I didn't get out of my parent's house a bit. It was laid back and family alone time!

My girlfriend's mom came back from Hong Kong a week ago, she brought back these Tien Chi dried flowers for me. They look like little broccoli flowers. I steeped 10 flowers in a gaiwan filled with hot boiling water for 2 minutes. Tea tastes like American Ginseng, sweet, hint of bitterness leaving a cool feeling in back of tongue. Very soothing in mouth and in stomach. This will be my new comfort tea, replacing Kuding tea, because it's less harsh in taste.

Tien Chi - Araliaceae ginseng plants 田七, an herbal medicine grown only in Yunnan and Guang Xi province China. Raw Tien Chi can help stop excessive bleeding, disperse bruise. Cooked Tien Chi prevents blood clog, coronary disease; enhance blood circulation.

Young Ku Ding Cha

I managed to take a good shot with this new camera. However, I can't seem to get rid of the blue hue as you can see on this white porcelain cup. The clarity is much better though.

This Ku ding cha is in small natural dried young leave form instead of the nail form, looks like Bi Luo Chun almost. It taste less bitter than the larger leave nails. Leaves are so young and tender, it's actually edible, refreshing and bitter at the same time, leaving a clean mouth feel. If you like the benefit of the Ku Ding Cha, but less bitterness, this is the one to drink. It's selling for $40 per lb at YHF, normally cost $50 to $60. I am not advertising for YHF, but it is a good deal.

High mountain kuding yen cha

Kuding cha, also known as "bitter tea" is a unique Chinese tea. Kuding Tea is made from the leaves the holly category of ilex, t ilex or ligustrum.In Chinese, "ku" means bitter, describing the taste, and "ding" means nail indicating the shape of the dry leaves. The bitterness of the tea is an acquired taste to most. While the first impression is strong bitterness, sweet taste immediately follows leaving a bitter sweet after taste, resembling fresh bitter melon.

Quote: "Kuding tea has reputation of "health tea", "longevity tea" and "slim tea". It has been proven that kuding tea can diminish inflammation and ease pain, enhance salubrity and clean out toxins, reduce fat and blood pressure, and keep the body fit. Kuding tea is widely used to cure cold, rhinitis, itching eyes, red eyes, soar throat and headache. Kuding tea is very effective in weight loss. Kuding tea is mostly produced in the provinces of Yunnan, Hainan, and Fujian. " This sounds a little over the top, but there might be a good portion of truth to it.

I find this to be a wonderful tea while I was recovering from the ordeal, which was a period of time my taste buds were numb. It's also psychological that the bitter sweet taste also reflect human life, it can be bitter, however the sweetness is what you look forward to ultimately. This will be my comfort tea from now on.

3 to 5 "nails", gaiwan, boiling water - Glacier vending, Tony suggested hotter the better.

1st brew: 45 sec, light green tea soup, roasty, bitterness that stings your tongue, as soon as you swallow, sweetness follow and lingers for a while, not much aroma, leaves began to unfurl

2nd brew: 60 sec, a true green tea soup, intense bitterness with sweet under tone, mostly sweet after taste. The bitter taste shocks you like jumping in a frozen lake, shocking but kinda feels good too. Okay, I am exaggerating, maybe like iced cold water in your face.

3rd brew: 90 sec, green again, mellow bitterness, sweet after taste

Open leaves: large tender leaves, tender as green vegetable, 2 leaves on stems

This tea can take HOT water, 5 brews is not a problem. After drinking this tea, my body feels the need to rest, I can sleep better as well. I wonder if it contains caffeine, most likely not, if it does, my body would react differently. $39 per lb, it can last a long time.

I also tried making this tea with New Zealand Artesian water, it didn't bring out the bitter flavor like the vending machine water did. It's smoother and lighter in taste, both the bitter and sweet taste were lighter.

Flower tea

While we are on the subject of tisane, here are a few I have. Lavender in purple, jasmine in white, rose bud in red, osmanthus in yellow.

I always like mild light tea, no mater it's tisane or actual camellia sinensis. Half a tea spoon of the small flowers such as lavender, osmanthus is sufficient enough without overpowering your smelling sense and taste buds.

5 rose buds in a cup of boiling water steep for 1 minute is all it takes to bring out the fragrance and sweetness. It can last 3 brews.

Jasmine, this particular batch is not good in quality. I am not sure if it'd taste any different for others. My mother just bought a jasmine plant, I'll collect the buds once the plant matures, see if it makes any difference.

I remember when I was little, the local Southern Chinese collect flowers from various subtropical plants for tisane, such as fresh honey suckle, Mi Lan (not sure what that is in English), fresh rose, jasmine, etc... Each has it's own health benefit, cooling or detox/cleansing property usually.