Traditional Chinese herbal beverages - herbal tea

In China, herbal tea is a general term for herbal beverages, and is also a common drink in summer. The name is related to its function. Although it is called herbal tea, there is actually no tea in the drink. Herbal tea is mainly made of chicken bone grass, Prunella vulgaris, honeysuckle, monk fruit, etc. The so-called "cool" refers to the Chinese herbal medicines with cold properties and the ability to dissipate heat in the human body. It is boiled in water and made into a drink to eliminate the summer heat in the human body, or to treat diseases such as sore throat caused by winter dryness.

Types of herbal tea

According to different effects, herbal tea can be divided into 4 categories

• Heat-clearing and exterior-resolving tea: mainly suitable for people with internal heat and fire, which are often manifested as sores in the mouth and tongue, ulcers at the corners of the mouth, insomnia and dreams, yellow and stinging urine, dry and bleeding nose, yellow and thick sputum, or swollen and painful gums, inflamed tooth roots, bad breath or loss of appetite, dry mouth and thirst, etc. Representative medicinal materials include honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, mountain branch fruit, scutellaria, etc., suitable for drinking in spring, summer and autumn.
• Jiegan tea: mainly treats exogenous wind-heat, colds and flu in all seasons. Symptoms include severe fever, slight aversion to wind, headache, sweating, red and swollen throat, cough, sticky or yellow phlegm, nasal congestion and yellow mucus, thirst and thirst, etc. Representative herbs include Isatis root, etc., suitable for drinking in all seasons.
• Qingre Moisturizing Tea: mostly suitable for people with dry cough, less phlegm, dry mouth and throat, representative herbs include Adenophora, Polygonatum, Dragon Pear Leaf, Winter Wheat, Tremella, etc., especially suitable for drinking in autumn.
• Qingre Huashi Tea: mainly suitable for people with heavy damp heat and bad breath, mostly manifested as bitter mouth, dry mouth, sticky mouth, thirst, thirst without drinking, red face and lips, mouth and tongue sores or facial acne, headache and heaviness, red tongue, yellow and greasy tongue coating, etc. Representative herbs include honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, cotton wormwood, and wild smilax, suitable for drinking in summer.

Technology characteristics

Herbal tea is a beverage that people in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have developed in the long-term process of disease prevention and health care, guided by the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, and made of Chinese herbal medicine. It has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxification, promoting body fluid and quenching thirst, removing fire and dampness, and accompanies people's daily life. It has specific terms to guide people's daily drinking, with no dosage restrictions and no need for doctor's guidance.

Technology process

The production process of traditional herbal tea

The production process of traditional herbal tea generally includes 7 basic steps: cutting and grinding, weighing, soaking, boiling, adding water, boiling, and storing medicinal materials.

1. Cutting and grinding

The cutting and grinding of medicinal materials is mainly to divide the original larger medicinal materials into small pieces, so that the medicinal materials increase the contact surface with water during boiling and reduce the time required for boiling; secondly, the volume of medicinal materials cut and ground is small, which is also convenient for accurate weighing.

2. Weighing

In order to ensure that the amount of medicinal materials meets the requirements of its formula, they are generally strictly weighed before soaking. Excessive amounts of medicinal materials will make the herbal tea too potent and easily have adverse effects on the human body, while too little will reduce the efficacy and fail to achieve normal health care effects.

3. Soaking

After soaking, the water infiltrates the medicinal materials and dissolves the effective ingredients of the medicinal materials, thereby ensuring the efficacy. Generally, herbal teas based on flowers, leaves, and grasses should be soaked for about 20 minutes, while herbal teas based on rhizomes, seeds, and fruits should be soaked for 1 hour. The higher temperature in summer can shorten the soaking time; in winter, the medicine is dry and hard, and the soaking time can be slightly longer.

4. Put into the pot

Since medicinal materials will produce complex chemical reactions during the boiling process, ceramics are the best choice for boiling herbal tea. If metal utensils are used, the metal elements are likely to react chemically with the Chinese medicinal ingredients in the medicinal materials during the boiling process, reducing the efficacy of the herbal tea. In addition, ceramics have a mild heat transfer performance and are evenly heated, which is conducive to the boiling of herbal tea.

5. Add water

In ancient times, people were very particular about the water used for brewing. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", the water used for brewing is divided into two categories: heavenly water and earthly water, with a total of 43 types. In fact, for modern people, any pure, impurity-free water that can be drunk can be used to brew herbal tea. As for the amount of water, it is usually appropriate to spread the medicine in the pot, and then add water to soak more than 2~3 cm (about 1 finger joint) of the medicine.

6. Boil

Generally, herbal tea should be boiled "first with high heat and then with low heat", that is, boil it with high heat first, and then keep it in a slightly boiling state with low heat to prevent the juice from overflowing or boiling. In addition, pay special attention to not frequently "opening the lid" and stirring when boiling herbal tea, because herbal tea has a lot of fragrant and pungent properties. If the lid is repeatedly "opened", the volatile components in the medicine will rise and disperse, thereby reducing the efficacy of herbal tea.

7. Storage

Generally, single-store storage mode mostly uses thermos bottles to ensure that the flavor of herbal tea will not be lost and the quality will not deteriorate in the short term; chain stores or franchise stores use fixed plastic containers to transport from the production site to the store, and then put them in the refrigerator for storage. When selling, they can be cold or heated according to the needs of customers.

The value of herbal tea

The long history and widespread folk nature of herbal tea culture, recognized effectiveness, strict inheritance and latecomer effect make it a "dark horse" in the world beverage.