Eight Treasures Tea

Welcome to Foodie Friday (aka my first actual recipe in 1000 years…)! I’m all about the hot drinks/soups right now, so I’m coming at you today with a recipe for how to make Eight Treasures Tea (八宝茶 / Ba Bao Cha)!

Tofu of course had to investigate it!

Background: I am almost always cold and have been told on many an occasion that I should get my thyroid checked. (I will eventually.) But in the meantime, my aunt had studied a little traditional Chinese medicine and recommended an herbal tea to help improve my circulation.

The ingredients for it inadvertently equated to 1/2 the ingredients to a Chinese herbal tea that dates back to the Tang Dynasty. It’s now more commonly known as “Eight Treasures Tea.” Those four ingredients (red dates, goji berries, chrysanthemum flowers, dried longan) seem to be consistent throughout all the Eight Treasures Tea recipes I’ve come across, but there are variations with the other 4 ingredients.

_{Please note that these are not medical statements + what works for one person may not work for another. I mainly just drink this for the taste + as an alternative to water, but if it has these benefits, even better! I included NCBI articles for each of the ingredients in case you want to do your own reading! The general consensus with this and most other herbs = that more substantial studies would need to be done to be able to definitively state that these really do have the purported health benefits they claim to have.}

I like using this contraption for tea! It combines a teapot + infuser to make the brewing process a super easy/efficient process. The fact that it’s easy to clean + dishwasher safe is also a plus, haha. (Not a sponsored post but that is an affiliate link — I bought this on my own but really like it!)

• Goji berries (枸杞, also known as Chinese wolfberries) are small red berries that have a concentrated sweet flavor and are often used in snacks, steeped in herbal infusions, + used to enhance the flavor of soups, stews, and meat dishes. (We use it in our hot pot broths too!) They’re very often used by Chinese herbalists and are thought to benefit the eyes, nourish the liver/kidneys, and help with dizziness. (ncbi)
• Red jujubes/dates (红枣) have a sweet flavor + neutral nature. They are a common ingredient in Chinese herbal formulas as a balancing agent to nourish the blood + soothe insomnia. (ncbi)
• Dried longan (龙眼) is a sweet fruit that’s often confused with lychee. In Chinese medicine, it’s typically used dried + added herbal teas/soups. It’s thought to nourish the blood, calm anxiety, + help with insomnia. (ncbi)
• Chrysanthemum flowers (菊花) are a fragrant pale yellow flower that’s often dried + steeped to make tea. It has a sweet pungent + very slightly bitter flavor. Thought to help soothe burning/itchy eyes in allergy season + reduce tension/blood pressure! (ncbi)
• Dried hawthorn berries (山楂) has a tart/tangy taste + is thought of as a very “nutritious fruit” because it’s loaded with amino acids, vitamin C, and has a lot of antioxidants + anti-inflammatory properties. It’s thought to potentially help with a number of disease processes, including hypertension and diabetes, but further studies do need to be done. (ncbi)
• Licorice root (甘草) is one of the most commonly used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine + has a warm/subtly spicy flavor to it. (ncbi)
• Rose buds (玫瑰) are often used in spice combinations, steeped to make teas, and added to meat dishes, syrups, and desserts. They have a fragrant/sweet flavor and are used to lift the spirit, ease the mind, and relax tension.  (ncbi)
• Dried tangerine peel (陳皮, has a slightly bitter/pungent + tangy flavor. It’s thought to help relieve indigestion, nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, and cough. Tangerines and oranges are thought of as lucky Chinese New Year symbols! (Tangerine sounds like the Chinese word for “luck” + orange sounds like the Chinese word for “wealth.”) (ncbi)

You can get most of these ingredients at most Chinese supermarkets (e.g. Ranch 99) and if not that, then online. The licorice/hawthorn might be a little more elusive though. (I got those two at a Chinese herb shop in my hometown.)

Eight Treasures Tea (八宝茶 / Ba Bao Cha)

• Interested in trying out recipes using ingredients often used in traditional Chinese medicine? Check out my review of Nutritional Healing with Chinese Medicine!
• What’s your favorite type of tea (if any)?