Chinese herb tea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chinese herb tea, also known as medicinal herbal tea, is a kind of tea-soup made from purely Chinese medicinal herbs in Guangdong, China. It usually tastes bitter or lightly sweet and its colour black or dark brown, depending on what kinds of herbs are used. Although tea is in its name, it seldom contains any part of the tea plant.

Guangdong is sub-tropical. The weather is usually hot and wet. Cantonese chooses some herbs classified as cooling in Traditional Chinese medicine, boil them in water to made herb tea to relief the hot and wet in the body. Therefore, Chinese herb tea is referred to as cold tea in the Chinese language.

There are many kinds of cold tea. Different kind of tea can cure or relief different kinds of diseases. Some is for sore throat, some for flu and others.

The tea is quite popular in Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong. Many families make their tea made at home. Some families are herb tea specialists and they open their own shops, selling different kinds of herb tea. Some shops have been open for 150 years in Guangzhou and 50-60 years in Hong Kong. It is not hard to find these shops in Hong Kong.

In 1990s and 2000s, cold tea has been bottled, canned or boxed by some herbal tea specialists and is being sold in supermarket as fewer and fewer families have time to make them home. These products are usually sweetened and do not have their original flavours.

In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and many other cities with large Asian communities, "Cold Tea" is a code word for "Beer". After bars have to legally close, you can find all night Chinese restaurants that will serve you beer in a teapot, simply by ordering "Cold Tea".