This healing home remedy is also a tasty drink for common cold symptoms. This recipe treats mild or beginning symptoms such as: chills (more than fever) cough with clear or white phlegm (not yellow or green) nasal congestion a tickle in the throat (but not a sore throat!) headache bodyaches a floating pulse These symptoms […]
August 11, 2017
January 12, 2014
Kombucha Tea
Kombucha tea is an ancient fermented drink, long used in Asia and Europe for its detoxification and healing properties, due to the fact that fermented drinks are probiotic. Made from beneficial live cultures and yeast, it is fermented with tea and sugar for around ten days. As the drink ferments, it becomes slightly sour or tangy, a colony of healthy bacteria and yeast forms. Vitamins and other antioxidants are also produced.
August 12, 2013
Chilled Tamarind Drink / Agua Fresca de Tamarindo (Luó Wàng Zĭ)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of tamarind pods (8 ounces)
- 8 cups of water
- 1/2 cup of sweetener, or more if needed (palm sugar or honey or other)
June 12, 2013
Chilled Hibiscus Tea / Agua Fresca de Jamaica (Fú Róng Hūa)
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cup of Jamaica (Hibiscus) Flowers
- 3 cups of water
- 4 cups of water to make 2 quarts of the final drink
- 3/4 cup of coconut palm sugar or 1/2 cup honey
- Ice cubes
February 7, 2013
Fresh Ginger Syrup with ‘Shēng Jiāng’ 生薑
This recipe is easy to make and lasts a long time when stored in a well-sealed container in the refrigerator. You can use Ginger Syrup to make other drinks such as teas, medicine drinks, ginger spritzers (mixed with bubbly water) and alcoholic beverages.
Medicinal Benefits of Fresh Ginger (Shēng Jiāng 生薑):
Fresh Ginger exhibits a spicy, warm action on the Lung and Spleen/Stomach. This means that Fresh Ginger warms up the metabolism of the lungs and digestive system and is great for cold cases with excess dampness.August 20, 2012
Honeysuckle Flower & Licorice Root – Cleansing Drink
In addition to being sweet, honeysuckle flower is cold in nature and is useful in treating all types of heat. It can treat 'summerheat' symptoms (thirst, headache, sweating, heat stroke, etc.). Honeysuckle works like a natural, herbal antibiotic to fight infection. This flower also can detoxify and reduce inflammation. Honeysuckle has antimicrobial effects against many pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Pseudomonas. Honeysuckle is also antiviral and has been show to deactivate the PR8 strain of the influenza virus.
September 21, 2011
Monk Fruit Natural Sweetener (Luo Han Guo 羅漢果)
Monk Fruit (Luo Han Guo 羅漢果) is a sweet, herbal alternative to traditional sugar that is safe for diabetes. It is 250 times sweeter than cane sugar.
Monk fruit can moisten dry lungs and stop dry or heated coughing. Indications include dry cough with or without sputum. The sputum may be scanty, blood-streaked and/or difficult to expectorate. Other symptoms may include dry throat and tongue.
Monk Fruit is also ideal to use in the summer as it cools the body & relieves thirst. In Asia it is often used to sweeten drinks and used as a daily beverage in the summer. In can be decocted alone with water, then the fruit is removed and the liquid can me mixed with other flavors to make various beverages.
March 28, 2011
Indian Chai Tea – With Warming & Healing Herbs
Chai Tea is a tasty and healthy beverage that is especially balancing on cold days in the fall and winter. Many of the herbs that are used to make chai tea have the medicinal value of warming & increasing the metabolism of the internal organs, and pushing out the coldness that tries to enter when the temperatures drop. We can use the internal warmth from the herbs to increase our vital energy throughout the day.
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger root - Sheng Jiang (Release Exterior)
- 1 whole star anise, broken up - Da Hui Xiang (Disperses cold, Regulates /Moves qi)
- 1 tsp orange peel - Chen Pi, grated (Regulates/Moves Qi)
- 4 pieces cinnamon bark - Rou Gui (Warms Interior)
- 1 tsp black cardamom seeds - Yi Zhi Ren (Tonify Yang)
- 10 whole cloves - Ding Xiang (Warm Interior)
- 5 whole peppercorns - Hu Jiao (Warm Interior)
- 1 tsp ground fennel seeds - Xiao Hui Xiang (Warm Interior)
- 5 cups water
- ¼ cup black tea (like Assam or Darjeeling)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 cups milk
November 30, 2010
Japanese Sour Plum & Bancha Twig Tea
Tea Leaf (Camellia sinensis):
In class we made a home-remedy that is a mixture of the pickled Japanese ume plum along with a certain type of green tea called bancha or kukicha (from the tea plant Camellia sinensis). A little soy sauce and ginger can be added for flavor and warmth. Umesho bancha tea can be taken if there is discomfort after fasting or long-term illness. It is often given to a mother at the time her baby is delivered. The following is for 1 serving. The preparation time is about 3-5 minutes, and the cooking time is about 7-10 minutes.
September 17, 2010
Tea Leaves as Medicine
Many types of tea are made from the leaves of the camellia shrub with the botanical name of Camellia sinensis. The different types are due to the different ways of processing, fermentation and oxidation of the leaves. Camellia teas include black tea, green tea, oolong tea, pu’er, and white tea.
Overall Health Benefits of Tea
Recent research shows that all forms of tea:
- inhibit tumor growth
- strengthen the immune system
- help to fight heart disease
- contain antioxidants
- reduce cavities
- help with digestion
- relieve thirst
- help slow down arthrosclerosis