In the era of Shennong, the custom of drinking tea had already begun, and it has a history of over 4,700 years to this day. Tea, as an important treasure of Chinese culture, is hailed as a “living fossil” in the art of tea. It is not just a beverage but also a reflection of a lifestyle and the wisdom of health preservation. Today, let us explore several classic health-preserving tea recipes and experience the health secrets within the aroma of tea.

Today, I share these tea recipes with everyone to let you know the methods available in spring to help nourish the spleen and stomach, resolve food stagnation, and increase appetite.

One, Spleen-Strengthening and Food-Dissolving Tea Recipe

Hawthorn Barley Apple Water

Ingredients: Use green tea as the base, add 1 cored apple, 10 grams of hawthorn (3 fresh hawthorns or 10 grams of dried hawthorn), 20 grams of roasted barley malt, and boil with 1000 milliliters of water.

Effects: Hawthorn is adept at digesting meat, aiding the spleen and stomach in transformation, and also has the effects of protecting the liver, stimulating appetite, and quenching thirst; roasted barley malt can effectively resolve food stagnation, especially suitable for after feasts or for children with abdominal distension due to excessive intake of fruits and vegetables. This tea recipe is suitable for those with weak spleen and stomach, poor appetite, and those who wish to protect the liver and strengthen the spleen in spring.

Drinking Suggestions: Can be used as daily drinking water; in cases of food stagnation, it can be consumed multiple times on the same day; without food stagnation, it is recommended to drink 2-3 times a week. If you want to add sweetness, it is suggested to use brown sugar instead of red sugar to prevent rapid blood sugar increase and phlegm production.

Precautions: This tea recipe is suitable for most people, but it is more appropriate for children over two years old who have started on solid foods. If the drinker has loose stools, green tea can be replaced with ripe pu-erh or black tea.

This tea recipe has many advantages.

Nowadays, whether it’s children or adults, meat is consumed daily, and hawthorn can help us digest meat well.

Moreover, hawthorn is sour in nature, which is beneficial for the transformation of the spleen and stomach, liver protection, appetite stimulation, and thirst quenching. Occasionally giving children one or two fresh hawthorns can also aid in the transformation of the spleen and stomach.

Roasted barley malt can resolve food stagnation, particularly useful after feasts or when children have no appetite and feel full and uncomfortable due to overeating. Drinking a cup of roasted barley malt water can effectively digest food stagnation caused by fruits and vegetables.

This tea recipe combination is a good choice for people with weak spleen and stomach, those with no appetite, or those who want to protect the liver and strengthen the spleen in spring. For tea lovers, you can add one or two grams of tea leaves, boil them with 1000 milliliters of water, and use it as drinking water for the day.

If you want a sweeter taste and are worried that children might find it too sour, you can add a small piece of yellow rock sugar for flavoring, which is made from sugarcane.

Question: Which type of constitution cannot drink Hawthorn Barley Apple Water? Are there any taboos?

If you are using it only to resolve food stagnation and strengthen the spleen and stimulate appetite, it is basically suitable for everyone.

But if green tea is used, due to its slightly cold nature, it is recommended to switch to fermented ripe pu-erh or black tea for those who frequently have loose stools, defecating two to three times a day.

This tea recipe is suitable for men and women of all ages, but it is best for children over two years old who have started eating fruits and meat.

Question: How often should it be drunk?

If food stagnation is found on the same day, you can drink this tea throughout the day;

If there has been no food stagnation recently, drinking it two to three times a week is sufficient. Because the main function of this tea recipe is to promote fluid production and strengthen the spleen, drinking it three to four times a week for daily maintenance is fine and will not have a significant impact.

Question: Can red sugar be used?

It is recommended to use brown sugar, not red sugar.

Because red sugar can raise blood sugar levels, it is also more likely to produce phlegm and stay in our spleen and stomach, which may cause acne in women.

So, if you don’t want to use rock sugar, it’s best to buy brown sugar.

When I usually make health-preserving tea and need to add sugar for flavor, I buy health-preserving brown sugar and rarely use red sugar. Although many people think that drinking red sugar water occasionally is beneficial, it is not suitable for women, those with weak spleen and stomach, children, and people with diabetes, as excessive consumption of red sugar can easily produce phlegm.

Two, Stomach-Warming and Cold-Expelling Tea Recipe

Ginger Tangerine Peel Black Tea Water

Ingredients: Take 15-20 grams of ginger (about 3 slices, as thick as a finger), add a small half-year-old Xinhui tangerine peel (usually a quarter), and a small amount of black tea, and boil them together in water.

Effects: This tea recipe uses ginger to warm the middle and dispel cold, tangerine peel to regulate qi and strengthen the spleen, and black tea to warm the stomach and nourish the spirit. It is suitable for those with stomach cold, excessive stomach acid, as well as women with cold uterus and those who have been exposed to cold. Drinking it during food stagnation or loss of appetite is also beneficial.

Drinking Suggestions: It is usually recommended to drink it in the morning; if there are special circumstances like cold exposure at night, it can also be consumed at night. For women experiencing menstrual abdominal pain, drinking it in the morning can help alleviate discomfort.

Precautions: This tea recipe is suitable for those who frequently have stomach cold, excessive stomach acid, women who often feel cold in the abdomen, and those who have been exposed to cold wind or cold. However, it is more suitable for children with cough and excessive phlegm or during mycoplasma infection, as tangerine peel has the effect of resolving phlegm. When selecting Xinhui tangerine peel, choose those with natural color, pure aroma, and a refreshing taste without acidity after brewing, avoiding those with overly dark color or strange odors.

Dr. Han Mingcheng recommended a similar tea recipe online, with some modifications to make it less spicy. If you can tolerate spiciness and have a slight cold, you can increase the amount of ginger, juice it, and mix it with water to drink, which can be effective for mild colds, coughs, and fevers caused by cold exposure.

This tea recipe can also be consumed during food stagnation or loss of appetite.

However, because it contains ginger, it is recommended to drink it only in the morning; if you come home at night and find yourself exposed to cold, feeling stomach cold, or chilly, you can drink it at night.

But for daily health maintenance, such as dispelling stomach cold, body cold, or menstrual abdominal pain in women, it is recommended to drink it in the morning and not after sunset.

Regarding this tea recipe, some mothers asked if children can drink it. If children have been coughing with a lot of phlegm recently or are in the process of treating mycoplasma infection, this tea recipe would be more suitable than Hawthorn Barley Apple Water because it includes tangerine peel, which is also good for resolving phlegm.

In clinical practice, we often recommend that parents boil Xinhui tangerine peel in water for children to drink as their daily water during cough periods.

Some mothers also asked about the many counterfeit Xinhui tangerine peels and how to select them.

Remember these points:

Do not choose those that are too dark in color, do not choose those with strange aromas;

After brewing, taste the water; it should be refreshing and not sour;

The color of the tangerine peel should be close to the natural color of an orange peel, neither too dark nor too yellow, similar to the color of dried orange peel or freshly peeled orange peel at home.

Those that look too beautiful or have a particularly bright sheen are usually sulfur-treated. Next time I buy new tangerine peel, I can take photos to compare for everyone, as the price difference of tangerine peel is significant, and it’s hard to distinguish between real and fake. Many on the market claim to be Xinhui tangerine peel but are actually counterfeit.

Later, if everyone is interested, I can share in detail how to identify the quality of tangerine peel.

Good tangerine peel has a color close to the natural color, and the water it brews has a refreshing orange aroma without acidity, and the orange peel can be steeped multiple times, becoming increasingly refreshing without becoming astringent.

If the tangerine peel has been treated with sulfur or other special methods, after a few brews, the taste will become particularly bitter or slightly sour.

Some mothers mentioned that homemade tangerine peel easily molds, and the preservation of tangerine peel is indeed important because it must be kept dry and is prone to mold.

Especially during the humid season in the south, it can easily mold if not careful. If you want to preserve tangerine peel for ten or fifteen years, without a good storage place or regular sun-drying and proper care, it is very easy to mold.

Three, Gentle Stomach-Nourishing Tea Recipe

Dark Tea

Introduction: Dark tea, such as Anhua dark tea, is made through fermentation and has a gentle nature, suitable for drinking on an empty stomach without harming the spleen and stomach.

Effects: Suitable for women, frequent drinkers, those with poor gastrointestinal function, patients with enteritis, and those with high blood lipids. It helps regulate intestinal flora, improve gastrointestinal health, and is beneficial for people with “three highs.”

Drinking Suggestions: Can be consumed daily, especially suitable for those who want to regulate their gastrointestinal system through tea.

Precautions: Dark tea is suitable for most people, but those with impaired kidney function should drink it in moderation.

Anhua dark tea is made by fermenting ordinary tea leaves. After fermentation, this tea is gentle in nature and does not harm the stomach or spleen even when drunk on an empty stomach.

For women, or men who frequently drink alcohol and have gastrointestinal issues, as well as those with enteritis, dark tea can be used to brew or boil water.

People with high blood lipids can also drink dark tea daily.

Some northern herdsmen often boil dark tea with beef or mutton to treat gastrointestinal diseases, and there is a saying there, “Tea cures all diseases.”

So, if your intestinal flora is not good, you have intestinal diseases, and you want to improve your gastrointestinal condition through tea, dark tea is a good choice.

For women and some people with “three highs,” dark tea is also a good option. It can be said that among all teas, dark tea is relatively suitable for everyone, more universal than Pu-erh.

Four, Heat-Clearing and Food-Dissolving Tea Recipe

White Tea

Effects: White tea has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, as well as beautifying and nourishing the skin, suitable for children and adults with heavy damp-heat.

Drinking Suggestions: High-quality white tea is expensive; daily, you can choose more cost-effective varieties.

Precautions: Children with heavy damp-heat can appropriately consume fermented foods, such as ripe Pu-erh, to clear damp-heat.

Pu-erh is divided into raw Pu-erh and ripe Pu-erh; raw Pu-erh is slightly cold and not suitable for women and those with weak spleen and stomach;

Ripe Pu-erh is relatively gentle and has some spleen-strengthening and gastrointestinal-protective effects.

Many people are not familiar with tea identification techniques and find it difficult to distinguish between real and fake raw and ripe Pu-erh.

If you are worried about buying tea that is not suitable for you, you can prioritize dark tea, which is one of the reasons why Chinese Anhua dark tea sells well globally.

Question: After drinking dark tea, I feel very comfortable. Is dark tea warm in nature, and is it different from the warmth of black tea?

Answer: Black tea tends to make people feel hot, while dark tea sinks downward and can help regulate the middle jiao qi, suitable for people with abdominal distension, diarrhea, and constipation.

Question: What tea is suitable for children and some adults with heavy damp-heat?

Answer: You can try white tea, which has the effect of clearing heat and also has beautifying and nourishing effects. Good white tea is very expensive, like white peony, which can cost several thousand yuan per jin, or even more, not sure if there’s any speculation involved, but good white tea indeed costs over a thousand yuan per jin.

If you want something more economical, I recommend dark tea. For children with heavy damp-heat, it is suggested to eat fermented foods for a period, such as ripe Pu-erh, which helps clear damp-heat. For daily tea drinkers, dark tea is also more recommended.

Question: Can people with poor sleep drink tea?

Currently, there is no clear research indicating that tea excites the brain’s nerves and affects sleep; what might affect sleep is the higher content of theophylline in milk tea. For ordinary sleep disorders, it is important to distinguish the cause of poor sleep, and the relationship with tea may not be significant.

However, if tea is brewed as thick as tea soup in the Northern Song Dynasty, the high theophylline content might affect nerves and sleep quality. As we usually use a health pot to boil water with one to three grams of tea leaves, it rarely affects a person’s sleep.

But it does vary from person to person; some people might not sleep well after drinking a little tea or milk tea that night, partly because of the high theophylline content in milk tea, and partly because of an allergy to theophylline.

For those allergic to theophylline, it is recommended not to drink tea after the afternoon; if you must drink tea, it is better to do so in the morning and not after 2 PM. Occasionally drinking tea is good for intestinal flora and the spleen and stomach.

From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, tea, especially the bud tips, has a stronger generative force, and strong tea is more likely to cause insomnia, but non-strong tea generally does not affect sleep, unless the person has very weak kidney qi.

For people who are prone to insomnia but want to drink tea, it is best not to drink it; if you must, you can add something calming to boil with it, such as sour jujube seed, schisandra, or psoralea, which have calming, kidney-nourishing, and kidney-qi-converging effects.

Sour jujube seed is now quite expensive, but a little bit is enough when brewing tea, so the cost won’t be high.

Since many of us have not developed the habit of drinking tea daily, the tea recipes shared today are suggested for daily regulation and nourishment of the spleen and stomach; there is no need to drink them every day, three to four times a week is sufficient.

These tea recipes do have high requirements for ingredients, such as pure yellow rock sugar, real tangerine peel, and good dark tea.

For daily use, you can choose Apple Barley Hawthorn Water, drinking it two to three times a week. Roasted barley malt generally has no fakes, apples won’t be fake, and hawthorn is easy to buy. However, since hawthorn is slightly cold in nature, for children with inherently cold spleen and stomach, if drinking this tea recipe for food stagnation, do not exceed three days, and drinking it once a week is very good.

Summary: Tea recipes have high ingredient requirements; you can choose Apple Barley Hawthorn Water, and children with cold spleen and stomach should pay attention to the duration and frequency of drinking this tea recipe.