Kapok flower five-flower tea
Hong Kong's favourite five-flower herbal tea, led by kapok flowers: it clears heat and damp and leaves you feeling fresh on muggy days.
- 35 min
- Serves 3
- Simmer
- Easy
Why it suits you: Damp-Heat shows up as spots, a bitter taste or bad breath and sticky stools, and Grain Rain's damp plus rising heat lets it build up. Five-flower tea clears heat and drains damp; with little or no sugar it leaves you refreshed rather than cloyed.
Method
Prep 5 min · Cook 30 min- 1Rinse all five flowers, keeping the honeysuckle and chrysanthemum to one side.
- 2Put the kapok, pagoda tree and frangipani flowers in 1.5 litres of water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.
- 3Add the honeysuckle and chrysanthemum and simmer for 5 more minutes. Stir in the rock sugar if you want it sweeter, then strain.
- 4Drink it warm or at room temperature, never iced. It travels well to work in a flask.
Cautions
- This tea is cooling: avoid it during pregnancy or your period, or if your digestion runs cold or you get loose stools easily.
Chef's tips
- Herbal shops sell ready-mixed five-flower tea packs, each making about 3–4 bowls. Two or three times a week is plenty — don't drink it every day in place of water.
The TCM view
Kapok flowers are sweet, bland and cool and clear heat and damp. Honeysuckle is sweet and cold and clears heat and toxins. Pagoda tree flowers are bitter and slightly cold, cooling the blood and clearing liver fire. Frangipani is sweet, slightly bitter and cool, clearing summer heat and damp; chrysanthemum is sweet, bitter and slightly cold and clears wind-heat. Together they are cool and light, draining damp without being too bitter or cold.
