Sugar Cane and Imperatae Drink
Soup Name:
Sugar Cane and Imperatae Drink
Traditional Chinese Name:
竹蔗茅根 (zhú zhè máogēn)
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A traditional Chinese drink which helps cool the body and reduce heatiness. It’s natural sweetness is perfect for hot summer days and this can be drank cold or hot. It is commonly found as a drink in most herbal dessert shops and is even bottled commercially.
There are a few options for this tea such as adding sugared dried winter melon and corn silk or baby corn. The key ingredient is the imperatae, which is grass type plant that is cooling and sweet. It targets the stomach, lungs, and bladder and supports heat removal, or excess of Yang qi in the body.
What’s involved?
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 60 minutes
Total time: 70 mins
Serves: 6 bowls
Ingredients
1 bunch of fresh sugar cane
1 bunch of Rhizoma Imperatae
8-10 fresh water chestnuts
2 fresh corn
2 fresh carrots
Cooking Instructions
- Begin boiling your soup water
- Begin boiling another pot of water to blanch Imperatae
- Cut carrots, corn, water chestnuts and sugar cane
- When second water boils, blanch Imperatae
- When soup water boils, add all ingredients together
- Boil on medium heat for a good 1 hour
- Serve and enjoy!
Any benefits?
- This is a great tea for BBQ’ing or hotpot as it’s cooling and removes heat from the body, especially the stomach
- It can served as a tea or soup
- It is vegetarian, so perfect for any soup or tea drinker
- This can be drank cold or hot (you’ll often find this as a heated drink served in the streets of Hong Kong)
- You can make a big pot and store in the fridge for one week. Just be sure to let it sit to room temperature or heat up before consumption
- You can have a few variations of this soup or tea depending on ingredients at home (such as adding sugared dried winter melon, water chestnuts, or simply using sugar cane and imperatae)
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