This morning, I woke up with a dry and itchy throat with an on and off dry cough, a bit of sore throat, some shallow breathing, and a feeling of overall cold.  This is what I call temporary yin deficiency (of the lung).  I was riding the day before in 3C and with prolonged lung exposure to a cold environment, the onset of yin deficiency was topical and pretty quick to show itself.  Which means, I could also address it right away! 

Lung yin deficiency shows up as dry and fire in the lungs, which is sometimes mistaken for excess yang.  It can feel ticklish in the throat and just not comfortable to speak.

This sweet tea will help cool and moisten the lungs and throat, calm the dry cough, and restore balance between yin and yang in the body.  Keeping monk fruit and dried chrysanthemum flowers in my pantry are great because I can quickly throw together a tea

• 3 dried large dried dates
• 2 tablespoon of dried chrysanthemum flower
• 1/4 (one quarter) of dried monk fruit or luo han guo, smashed
• 1 tablespoon of north and south apricot kernals
• 4 cups of water
• rock sugar or honey to taste

1. Add all the ingredients into a ceramic or glass pot
2. Pour in 4 cups of cold water
3. Set to high for 10 minutes (or until it begins to boil)
4. Cover and reduce heat to a low boil
5. Boil for an hour
6. When you’re ready to serve, you can drop in the rock sugar and mix until dissolved or add honey after you’ve served (as not to breakdown the honey in the boiling water)
7. Strain and serve.  Drink hot!  Enjoy!

The monk fruit!  This is the slightly less dry version.  You’ll notice it’s more green and less brown.  This one is a little more expensive, coming in at $2 CAD per monk fruit.  You’ll also notice a thin layer of sugared coating, so it is a bit sticky to touch, but that’s just the sugars of the fruit on the skin.  The great thing about the greener version is that it isn’t as pungent or sweet, so you can use half in a soup to give is just enough of that flavour.  If it’s the heavily dried version, I will only use a quarter in 3L of soup water.  This is also great in teas!!  

Monk Fruit and Chrysanthemum Flower Herbal Tea (for dry coughs and yin deficiency)

Cough Reducing and Lung Nourishing Tea