Heat Clearing Sugarcane and Water Chestnuts and Imperatae Root Herbal Tea

by | Oct 11, 2022 | NEW 7, Soups for Children, Speciality Teas, Summer Soups, Vegetarian | 0 comments

Soup Name:

Heat clearing sugarcane and water chestnuts and imperatae root herbal tea

Traditional Chinese Name:

竹蔗茅根馬蹄湯 (zhú zhè máogēn mǎtí tāng)

 

For videos, visit us on YouTube. 

A traditional Chinese drink which helps cool the body, reduce heatiness, and clear phlegm and unwanted body fluids. 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.

The key to this heat clearing tea is the water chestnuts.  I don’t use them often as this version also uses corn, carrots, or corn silk, but I’ve kept it simple for heat clearing only.  The water chestnuts are a very cooling ingredient and combined with the imperatae (or mao gen) root, is extra potent to clear excess yang.  

What’s involved?

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 minutes

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 6 bowls

Ingredients

 

Cooking Instructions

  1. Prepare your sugar cane by chopping into smaller 2-inch length pieces
  2. Rinse, peel and rinse the water chestnuts.  You can cut into bite-sized edible pieces if you also like eating them.  
  3. Add to cold water into your soup pot
  4. Boil on medium heat covered for 30 minutes
  5. 5 minutes before serving, drop in your rock sugar.
  6. 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)

For videos, visit us on YouTube. 

Fresh water chestnuts are crispy, firm, and high in water content.  They don’t have the best storage life, so keep them in the fridge as much as you can.  As the water chestnuts “age”, they’ll breakdown and become starchy, have a crumbly texture, and lose it’s moisture content.  Which in turn, makes your soup or tea cloudy, which is still OK, as long as the water chestnuts still hold some of their firmness. 

For other variations of this tea:

Sugar Cane and Imperatae Drink

 

EXPLORE MORE

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...

Simple Roasted Chicken Congee

Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate!  The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...

Pu’er Chinese Tea: A Traditional Chinese Medicinal Perspective

A PU'ER Chinese (TEA) LOVE STORYChinese pu'er tea:  Why I love it! As part of my overall health regime.One guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory.  In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces...

A Quick Dinner Macaroni in Vegetable Soup

Soup Name: Macaroni in a quick boil vegetable soup (a quickie dinner) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. For more videos on soups and teas, you can follow us on YouTube.   This is one of our families'...

ABC Chinese Soup (with a Fancy Lobster Soup Base)

Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup (using a Lobster Base Soup) Traditional Chinese Name: ABC湯 (ABC tāng).  The easiest name in the Cantonese repertoire for ABC vegetable soup is 雜菜湯 (zá cài tāng), which literally translates to mixed vegetable soup. This soup is warming in...

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Soup Name: Healing Chinese Herbal Soup Traditional Chinese Name: 北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng) For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor...

Simple Roasted Chicken Congee

Soup Name: Roasted (leftover) Chicken Congee Traditional Chinese Name: 烤雞粥 (kǎo jī zhōu) What’s the Best Chinese Comfort Food? Hot Homemade Congee!When it comes to leftovers, congee with meats is the ultimate!  The best are with left over roasted chicken (even Costco...

Chinese Herbal Soup with Abalone

Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone  Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever!  And it's...

Sweet Rice Cakes for Chinese New Year’s!

Happy Chinese New Year's!! Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!! As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what's called "New Year's Cake".  It's basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and...

Cooling and Calming Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea

Tea Name: Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea Traditional Chinese Name: 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) This tea is sweet and sour to taste and cooling in nature.Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.Taking a moment?  Want something calming and soothing?  Try...