Cough Reduction Tea (From Colds)

Soup Name:
Cough Reduction Team (From Colds)
Traditional Chinese Name:
止咳茶 (zhǐ ké chá)
It started with a cold. My whole family had it, being passed from one person to the other. My symptoms were light though, feeling primarily fatigue throughout a two week period, until the end. I developed this mildly itchy (but highly irritating) cough that just wouldn’t go away, even with cough syrup. So I went to find my Chinese doctor and herbalist who asked me a few questions, asked me to show him my tongue and recommended this mild tea designed to squash that pesky cough.
What’s involved?
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 5 mins
Serves: 2 cups
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of dragon’s tongue leaves
- 2 cups of dried loquat leaves
- 1 whole sugared and dried kumquat
- 1 tablespoon of dried coltsflower leaves
- 1 tablespoon of apricot kernals
- 3-4 slices of dried seabed coconut
- 2-3 slices of dried snow pears
- 3 cups of water
A majority of the ingredients are cough attacking ingredients and readily found at your wet marts, herbalist, or dried food stalls. They are primarily leafy and stem based, and not a cooling tea at all, but does address heatiness in the body.
Normally, anything cooling actually stimulates coughing more, so these are warm ingredients that are paired perfectly for anyone who wants to try an alternative solution to the drowsy cough medicine. This tea is mild enough for kids, mild enough to drink back to back, slightly warming, but not heaty, and perfect for vegetarians. On top of the dried herbs, chuck in a slice of ginger for good measure!
This tea is already slightly sweet (due to the sugared dried kumquat) and quite soothing to drink. No sugar needed!

Cooking Instructions
- Boil your tea water
- Once boiling, add in all the ingredients together
- Boil on medium high (covered) for an hour
- Strain the ingredients
- Serve and enjoy
6 Comments
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Hi, can you tell me what the ingredients are in Chinese? The supermarket packages usually have very weird English translations of these herbs. Just want to make sure I get the right ones. Thanks!!
Hi Julie! Sorry, the links are now activated on the recipe, so you can click on each one and see the full ingredient details, including the Chinese name! Hope this helps! Lisa
Hi Lady Tong,
I’ve been following your website since my confinement days (my little one is 7 now) but in your new website layout, I can’t find your search button to look for soups. Need to find a soup for coughs that everyone in the family can also have??
Hello Lady Tong, can you please tell me what are dragon’s tongue leaves in Chinese. Does the Chinese herbal shop sell them?
Thanks
It’s called 龍脷叶
It’s called 龍脷叶