I’m making this tea out of a request from one of my readers who is from NYC and now dealing with all the crazy smog, dust, and smoke that you’ve been getting from Canada!  WE ARE SO SORRY!  Toronto isn’t as bad today, but I hear it’s going to get worse over the weekend.  Regardless, I immediately went to my pantry and pulled out my handy dandy luo han guo and designed a cooling, strengthening, and healing tea for your lungs.  The idea is because it’s dry heat, you’ll want something that’s going to help cool the body and lungs and clean it out.  You can add a few slices of dried tangerine peels as well. 

Let’s hope it clears soon and that there’s some relief in the weather with some rain to help put out all the raging fires across Canada and US.  In the meantime, stay safe and have some healing herbal teas!  Sending lots of love out there!!

❤️❤️❤️

Ingredients

• 0.5 fresh snow pear, cubed (skin on)
• 0.5 dried golden luo han guo, smashed and skin only
• 1 tablespoon of dried apricot kernals
• 2-3 slices of dried snow pears
• 3 cups of water

• rock sugar optional, but taste test first!

Cooking Instructions

1. Using the flat side of a large blade, smash the luo han guo until you can remove the middle of the fruit.  I will only use the dried skin for this tea.  Use about half as the golden luo han guo isn’t as sweet as it’s brown counterpart.
2. Cut up your fresh snow pear, keeping the skin on.  I will cube into bite-sized pieces so I can also eat with the tea using a spoon!  Delicious and refreshing!
3. In a stove top safe tea pot, add all the ingredients together and boil on medium heat for 5 minutes until it fully boils and reduce to a low boil for 10 minutes as to try not to reduce too much of the water.  
4. When it’s ready, you’ll notice that the tea has turned into a beautiful golden yellow colour.  This is a good indication that the luo han guo is seeping out into the tea!  
5. Serve and enjoy!  Don’t forget to eat the fresh snow pears as part of your tea!

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!!  

Japanese Yam and Monk Fruit in Pork Broth Chinese Soup

Anti-cough and congestion relief Chinese Herbal Tea

To answer your questions on what equipment I’m using, I’ve built a section here where you can find and explore what I’m using to make soups.  Ingredients are a little harder, but I will do my best as I source them around.  However, you can always message me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook, and I will reply and try to point you in some direction!