Longan Red Date Tea

I like to brew this sweet dried fruit tea when the weather is cool and wet. As this tea is more on the "warm" side for it involved mainly dried fruits, and dark brown sugar. It has a nice sweet flavour similar to our popular "Cheng Tng 清汤"  dessert. The reconstituted ingredients like the longan, chinese barley, and winter melon strips can be served with the tea 😋🍹

Servings: 4 persons

Ingredients

1200 ml water

4g fresh pandan leaf

25g candied winter melon strips

12g chinese barley

3g red date

16g honey date

11g dried longan

60g honey rock sugar/rock sugar

30g dark brown sugar

(amount of sugar can be adjusted to your taste)

Directions

1. Rinse Chinese barley, red date, honey date and dried longans.

Add all ingredients, except the honey rock sugar and dark brown sugar, to a heat resistant teapot. Bring to a boil.

2. When the water starts to boil for about 5 minutes, add honey rock sugar and dark brown sugar in. Lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Let the tea cool down to room temperature in the pot.

3. Enjoy the tea warm or cold with longans and winter melon strips 

Roselle Apple Pineapple Tea

A sweet and slightly tangy fruit and floral tea brewed using Royal Gala red apple, honey pineapple, dried roselle bud, pandan leaf and honey rock sugar. Love the sweet fruit scent and the lovely orangy pink of the tea 😍

Serving: 3~4 persons

Ingredients

The quantity of each ingredient can be adjusted according to your preference.

1/2 red apple
1 cup honey pineapple
1 blade pandan leaf
1000~1200ml water

some honey rock sugar/yellow rock sugar

1 dried roselle bud

Directions

1. Cut red apple and pineapple into chunks.

2. Heat water, pandan leaf and red apple chunks in a glass pot.

3. When small air bubbles start to form at the bottom of the pot,

add in the pineapple chunks, and bring into a boil.

4. When the content starts to boil, 

add in your desired amount of honey rock sugar or yellow rock sugar.

Lower the temperature and allow the content to simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Turn off the heat, and drop in the dried roselle bud and let the content cool down to room temperature.

6. Serve the tea warm or cold 😋😎

Corn Silk Winter Melon Barley Tea 玉米须冬瓜薏米茶

When we bought a fresh ear of corn, we usually would harvest the corn kernels and discard the rest. In fact, you can keep the corn silk and brew with China barley, candied winter melon strips and pandan leaf, into a delicious cup of tea. For the health benefits of corn silk, you may want to click the link to find out more 😊

Servings: 3 persons

Ingredients:

30g China barley
15g candied winter melon strips
1 blade pandan leaf
corn silk collected from a corn cob
1000ml water

yellow rock sugar/raw sugar to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse China barley. Set aside.
 Collect the corn silk and wrap in a small leaf of corn husk. This step is optional, it only helps to "organised" the messy corn silk 😉

2. Add the rinsed China barley, winter melon strips, pandan leaf, corn silk to 1000 ml of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 ~ 15 minutes.

Add yellow rock sugar to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes or till the rock sugar dissolves.

3. Filter the tea and serve warm or cold 😋

Watercress Chrysanthemum Tea

A light and fragrant tea brewed using discarded stem of watercress, together with fragrant dried chrysanthemum flowers and pandan leaf. I have tried brewing Watercress Honey Drink earlier, but found it a bit bland. Hence, I tried adding a few dried chrysanthemum flowers to it, and it really smelled wonderfully 😄

Ingredients

You may change the ingredients and quantities according to your preference :)

The remaining stems of a bunch of 200g watercress
1000ml water
1 blade pandan leaf
1 honey date
1 seedless red date

a few dried chrysanthemum flowers
a few dried wolfberries/goji
some honey rock sugar* to your taste
 * you can replace honey rock sugar by rock sugar and honey

Directions

1. Keep the discarded stems of the watercress. Wash before use.

2. Add watercress stems, pandan leaf, honey date and red date to a pot. Bring to a boil for about 5 minutes.

3. Add some honey rock sugar, dried chrysanthemum flowers, and dried wolf-berries, reduce the heat to low. Simmer for about 5 minutes and turn off the heat. Let the content simmer for about 30 to 60 minutes.

4. Strain the tea and serve warm or cold 😊

Green Apple Pineapple Tea 青苹果凤梨茶

I had 1/2 a green apple and some cut honey pineapple slices lying in the fridge for almost a week. They were too old to be consumed raw. In order to save them from the bin, I tried to boil them into sweet tea. Yes, I loved this fruity tea which left a fresh and sweet aroma in my throat after sipping it 😍 It would be a nice and refreshing tea to be served on a hot weather ⛅🌈🚿

Yield: 4 x 250ml drink

Ingredients

1/2 green apple, diced
1 blade pandan leaf, tie into knot
1000ml water

1/3 honey pineapple, diced

2 tbsp rock sugar

All the ingredient quantities can be adjusted according to your preference

Directions

1. Add diced green apple, pandan leaf and water into a glass or non-metal pot. Bring to a boil and add in the diced pineapple.
As the fruits used are acidic, it is best to avoid using metal pot.

2. When the content boils again, add rock sugar to your taste. Stir the content with a porcelain spoon. Lower the heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

3. Let the content cools down to room temperature in the pot.

4. Serve warm or cold 😋

Watercress Honey Drink 西洋菜蜂蜜茶

I first tried this mild sweet tea in a Hong Kong style cafe in Chinatown. It is a good idea to salvage the discarded stems of watercress and brews them into a nice glass of vegetable honey tea. If you like watercress soup, you will like this tea, but in a sweet version 😊

Ingredients

You may change the ingredients and quantities according to your preference :)

The remaining stems of a bunch of 200g watercress
1000ml water
1 blade pandan leaf
1 honey date
1 seedless red date

4 dried longans, optional
some rock sugar to your taste
some honey to your taste

Directions

1. Keep the discarded stems of the watercress. Wash before use.

2. Add all the ingredients, except the rock sugar and honey, to a pot. Bring to a boil.

3. Add some rock sugar and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for about 10 minutes and turn off the heat.

4. After about 30 minutes and the temperature has reduced substantially, add in about 1 to 2 tbsp of honey to your taste.

5. Strain and enjoy the drink warm or cold 😋