Hot pineapple & hawthorn tea
A sweet-and-sour hot fruit tea — hawthorn gets the blood moving and ripe pineapple brings natural sweetness, so it needs very little sugar.
- 30 min
- Serves 2
- Boil
- Easy
Why it suits you: Blood Stasis needs warmth and movement, and iced drinks make it worse. Pineapple is in season at Start of Summer; paired with blood-moving hawthorn, a little brown sugar and ginger and served hot, it warms you and gets circulation going with little added sugar.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min- 1Peel the pineapple, cut out the eyes and dice it finely. Give the hawthorn slices a quick rinse.
- 2Bring the water, hawthorn and ginger to the boil, then simmer gently for 10 minutes until the tea turns rosy.
- 3Add the pineapple and brown sugar and simmer for 5 minutes more, then turn off the heat and leave covered for 5 minutes so the pineapple scent comes through.
- 4Pour into a flask with the pineapple pieces and sip slowly through the afternoon, eating the fruit as you go.
Cautions
- Avoid hawthorn if you are pregnant. With excess stomach acid or a stomach ulcer, don't drink it on an empty stomach.
Chef's tips
- Choose a ripe pineapple that smells fragrant; wet-market fruit stalls also sell it ready-cut.
The TCM view
Hawthorn is sour, sweet and slightly warm; it aids digestion and moves blood to disperse stasis. Pineapple is sweet, slightly sour and neutral, quenching summer thirst and helping digestion. Brown sugar is sweet and warm and gently moves blood; ginger is pungent and warm and warms the channels. Mildly warming overall — it moves blood without drying, and works best drunk hot.
