I discovered Eight Treasure Tea in Chinatown a few years ago. I was wandering around and found a little tea shop/cafe where you can order any one of their hundreds of teas and enjoy a cup brewed for you. There was one tea propped up on the shelf behind the counter, and the name sounded intriguing; Eight Treasure Tea - so I ordered it. It was sweet and light all at the same time, not too strong or too deep, but a lovely, fragrant flavor. I was hooked.
Eight Treasure Tea, called Ba Bao Cha in Chinese, is originally from Yunnan, China and is considered to have medicinal properties and health benefits in Chinese medicine. It is believed promote energy, circulation, tonify the liver, stimulate blood production, and to replenish 'chi'. The "Eight Treasures" refer to the eight main ingredients; goji berries, jujube (a type of red date,) dried citrus peel, dried ginseng root, rock sugar crystals, dried chrysanthemum flowers, green tea, and dried longan fruit.
The tea is simply brewed and strained in hot water and stirred. No milk is added, and no additional sweeteners are added.
• Shop for Eight Treasure Tea online.
Related: Recipe: DIY Thai Iced Tea
(Images: Kathryn Hill)
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I love teas. Wish we had a tea house in our little town.
That looks and sounds amazing. I'm surprised at the rock sugar in it.
I got hooked on this when I was in China and it's great (although there it wasn't strained they just left the loose tea in the cup)- usually you can add water about halfway through drinking the cup of tea and its still very good - you can also eat a lot of the tea components when you are done drinking the tea (or it has at least steeped sufficiently).
Which little tea shop in Chinatown?
Yes, I'd like to know, too! :)
Oh, oops. The wrapper in Kathryn's photo says "TenRen," which Google tells me is a Taiwanese tea company with an SF Chinatown storefront at 949 Grant Ave.
For those of you in Washington, DC, Ching Ching Cha in Georgetown has a wonderful version of Eight Treasure (which they classify as a tisane). They serve it with a covered cup, and you use the cover to strain the ingredients while you sip. I don't remember whether they sell Eight Treasure in their packaged teas (because of the fresh ingredients), but you can buy the chrysanthemum tea in their shop.