Warming Chinese herbal tea for cold days (post run hydration)
Warming Chinese herbal tea for cold days (post run hydration)
Tea Name:
Warming red dates, longans, and red and black wolfberries Chinese herbal tea (which I use for post cold day runs). In fact, I also add this into a thermal flask for the car post colder rides (which is like mid September in Toronto!). Where’s Hong Kong weather?
Traditional Chinese Name:
红枣茶 (hóng zǎo chá)
Nature: Warming
Taste: Sweet
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OK, honestly, I really feel the temperature variance in my lungs when it hits 13C or lower in Toronto.
This means, I’m already going into yin excess (too much yin in the body thanks to both cold and wind into the lungs first… and then ultimately, if I don’t address it, it goes into the body).
I think if it goes any lower in temperature, I’m taking out the base layers, the face buffs, the gloves, and ultimately, the thicker wear.
Here’s my post cold run routine:
- Slow down the pace. The slower the air turnover, the less yin I bring into the body. This means running in zone 2 or slower. Save the intervals for the indoor treadmill or the bike trainer (also indoors).
2. I will also carry warm water with me to sip in a small plastic holder.
3. As soon as I’m home, I’ll make this herbal tea with boiling water.
4. Take a hot shower and spend 5 extra minutes to breathe in warm steam to the lungs.
5. Sip on my tea all day (adding boiling water to it 2-3 times until it runs flavorless).
You can check this article that explains the balance of yin and yang in the body, AN INTRODUCTION TO YIN AND YANG IN OUR EVERYDAY SOUPS AND FOOD.
The tea is primarily warmed by the red dates and longans, offering a sweet yang enhancing experience that is delicious and soothing. This is one of my favourite and easiest teas to make from your Chinese Soup Pantry!
However, I love adding both the red and black goji berries to give it a little more sweetness and that tartness. Goji berries are perfect for yin excess conditions (avoid if you’ve got patterns of excess heat) and are great for the eyes, liver, and kidneys.
Prep time: 2 mins
Cook time: 3 mins (steep time)
Total time: 5 mins
Serves: 1 cup
- 5 pieces of dried red dates (seeds removed)
- 5 pieces of dried longans (seeds removed)
- 5 dried red wolfberries
- 10 dried black goji berries
- 1 cup of hot water (for me, boiling!)
- You can put all the ingredients into an individual empty tea bag for easier management of the ingredients
- Drop all the ingredients into a ceramic or glass mug
- Add in boiling water to 1 cup full
- Cover and steep for 2 minutes
- No additional sweeteners needed for this tea!
- Serve and enjoy!
- This Chinese herbal tea is warming and soothing
- This tea tonifies and nourishes the blood and both red dates and longans calm the spirit, so this tea is perfect for taking some moments to yourself
- Great for traveling, on the go, or in the office
- Super easy to make
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You can actually make these little tea bags or pouches yourself! The ingredients are all part of my standard Chinese Soup kitchen pantry and then I use disposable and decomposable tea bags!
Use disposable, environmentally friendly, degradable tea bags!
There are various individual tea bags you can find out there!
The two I’ve been using are these Japanese ones (sourced from Hong Kong) that fold over. I’m not sure if they are degradable completely, but finishing up a batch I took back with me.
I would recommend these disposable and environmentally friendly tea bags from amazon. I also bought some and now have a pile of tea bag holders sitting in my drawer! But I do love how convenient they are and will pre-make my own tea bags to bring to work or pre-fill in my thermal mug for drinking on the go!
