Our year-round hot and humid weather makes it easy to become dehydrated if you don’t drink enough water to stay hydrated. This is sometimes made worse during celebratory seasons like the Chinese new year where we consume a lot of cookies & new year ‘goodies’.

What is ‘heatiness‘?  Heatiness in the body also results from the amount of ‘heaty’ food you consume. Some common heaty food are durian, chocolate, spicy food and more. When your body is heaty, it can cause acne, sore throat, mouth ulcer and nose bleed. In more severe cases, it can lead to fever.

So we decided to share some Chinese Herbal Tea recipes that will help dissipate the heat in your body. (Remember – always use Pure water so the water contaminants do not striped away the herbs goodness)

Luo Han Guo Tea

The benefit of a Luo Han Guo drink includes expelling internal heat in the body, coughs and treating sore throat. You can even find it selling in the coffee shop with longan fruits in the drink. It is affordable & easy to make

Here’s what you need:

• Monk fruit (Luo Han Guo)
• 50 grams sugared winter melon strips  or Rock Sugar
• Water

Break off a small piece of the fruit and let it steep in hot water for 10 minutes. Strain out the piece of the fruit and it’s ready to be served.

Chrysanthemum Tea

With its known cooling properties, Chrysanthemum tea has tons of benefits and is the herbal drink to go when the weather gets hot. Chrysanthemum tea to beat the heat is probably something you’ve seen your mother make. Its super easy recipe makes it a popular choice amongst many households.

Here’s what you need:

• Dried Chrysanthemum flowers
• Red dates
• Wolfberries
• Rock sugar
• Water.

Firstly, soak wolfberries and chrysanthemum flowers for 15 minutes. Once the pot of water has boiled, add in every ingredient except for rock sugar. Let it simmer for 15 minutes. After simmering, add rock sugar at the end to taste and turn off the heat when the rock sugar has dissolved. Strain out the dried chrysanthemum flowers and it’s ready to be served.

Hawthorn Green Tea

Hawthorn berry anti-inflammatory properties and it may aids your sore throat symptoms and it often use to aid digestion and bloating. If you felt you have ate too much in this celebratory season, make this cup of tea – you can whip this up in 5minutes.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 tea bag of green tea
• 2 – 3 slices of dried hawthorn
• Water

Firstly, steep your green tea into the cup   then add in the dried hawthorn. Let it  steep for 5 minutes.

Hawthorn is slightly sour, and it is good indigestion and bloating issues. Studies have also shown that it can help to reduce cholesterol when coupled with green tea, to boost its oil cleansing & cooling effect.

Barley Tea

Barley also has detoxifying properties and cooling quality. To fully benefit from chinese barley drink, eat the barley grains as well when you are drinking your barley!

Here’s what you need:

• Small winter melon
• 1 cup of barley
• Pandan leaves
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 5 cups of water

Boil water and barley seeds together for 15 minutes over low heat. After 15 minutes, add in melon cubes and pandan leaves for another 15 minutes. Turn the stove off and leave it to cool before adding honey.

Winter Melon Tea

Winter melon tea is regarded as the best hydrating health tea. It has the effect at cleaning out kidney waste and excess water. It is also a magical drink for slimming and reducing edema.

Here’s what you need:

• 1000g Winter Melon
• 150g Brown Sugar
• 50g Rock Sugar
• 300g Water

Wash melon, remove seeds the cut into slices (about 2 cm thick). You can leave the skin on.  Put the melon slices into a bowl, add the brown sugar and mix well, cover with plastic wrap for 1 hour. Then put the melon into a pot, add water and rock sugar, simmer over low heat for 1 hour. The melon will release its juices and melt during the cooking process. Occasionally stir it to avoid sticking to the pot. The concoction is ready – sieve it through a filter. You can drink it warm or store them in the fridge if you like them cold. You mix it with water according to your favorite preference of sweetness too.