This bedtime calming tea is warm, fruity and naturally sweet. It’s the perfect drink for a good night sleep and super easy to make. Based on traditional Chinese medicine, this simple fruits and flowers herbal tea calms the mind and enhances women’s health and beauty.
This Chinese bedtime calming tea is all-natural. Suitable for vegan, paleo, whole 30 and gluten-free diets.
Calming Tea Ingredients
Goji Berries (枸杞)
Goji berries are great for general immune support. According to Chinese medicine, they strengthen liver and kidney functions, and protect eyesight.
Jujubes (红枣)
Other names for jujubes are red dates and Chinese dates. Jujubes nourish the blood and all internal organ systems, promote energy, and calm the mind.
Dried Longan (桂圆)
This dehydrated pulp of longan fruit is sweet and nutritious. In addition, dried longan nourishes the heart and calms the mind. Therefore, it is often used in remedies to reduce anxiety and promote sleep. Due to its sweet taste, people often use dried longan in herbal soups, tea and desserts to add sweetness.
Lily Bulbs (百合)
The slightly cooling lily bulbs nourish the lung, detoxify the body, and calm the mind and spirit. It’s often used to treat cough and insomnia.
Rosebuds (玫瑰花)
Rosebuds contain high level of vitamin C as anti-oxidant. In Chinese medicine, rosebud regulates Qi and blood, improves circulation resulting in reliefs from menstrual discomforts. Rosebud eases anxiety, improves skin complexion and moisture, thus its popularity among women.
Benefits According to TCM
This stunning tea is a great demonstration of food therapy in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The fruits and flowers in this tea share some common purposes. Together they provide great benefits to calm the mind, ease anxiety and promote quality sleep at night. In addition, this calming tea also provides important nutrients to improve women’s health of the reproductive system and circulation, enhance beauty and skin radiance.
Do I Have to Drink This Tea Before Bed?
If you use this remedy for better sleep, you should drink it in the late evening before bed. This cozy and comforting tea helps with relaxation at night. However, you can totally drink it any time during the day. Although this tea eases anxiety, it does not cause drowsiness. If you use this remedy as a tonic for women’s health, you can sip on it any time of the day.
How to Make Bedtime Calming Tea
Making this bedtime calming tea is really easy. It takes 3 simple steps.
- Rinse and soak the ingredients requiring longer cooking time: jujubes (more on how to prep below), dried longan, dried lily bulbs.
- Simmer the longer cooking ingredients for 10 minutes.
- Add the ingredients requiring shorter cooking time: goji berries and rosebuds. And then simmer for another 10 minutes.
Additional tips for preparing jujubes: Cut them in half, then remove and discard the pits. This helps to release the flavour and nutrients of jujubes into the liquid. In addition, jujube pits are considered as having too much heat in traditional Chinese medicine. Although this is controversial, I recommend discarding the pits, especially if you plan to eat the jujubes. Because the pits are very sharp, it can be dangerous if someone accidentally eat them.
What Kind of Pot Should I Use to Boil the Tea?
You can use any pot to boil the tea. I simply use a stainless-steel sauce pan. Alternatively, electrical health pot is very popular for its programmable features among those making herbal and fruit teas regularly.
Should I Eat or Discard the Herbs in This Calming Tea?
Chinese people typically discard the cooked ingredients in herbal tea. The fruits and flowers serve the purpose to make this delicious drink. Once cooked, the liquid is strained from the herbs using a strainer.
However, you can eat the herbs in this calming tea if you like, as they are nutritious. Rosebuds are not commonly consumed, so I would pass on this one. Longan, lily bulbs, goji berries and jujubes are frequently used in cooking and consumed entirely.
Related: More TCM Herbal Teas You Will Love
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- Chinese Herbal Healing Oxtail Soup
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Bedtime Calming Tea (TCM, Vegan, Paleo)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 g dried longan
- 20 g jujubes
- 20 g dried lily bulbs
- 1 tbsp goji berries
- 10 dried rosebuds
- 4 cup filtered water
Instructions
- Lightly rinse dried lily bulbs, jujubes and dried longan.
- Cut the jujubes in half, remove and discard the pits. Soak jujubes, dried lily bulbs and dried longan in water in a pot, for 15 minutes.
- Bring the pot to a boil, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add goji berries and rosebuds into the pot, continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Serve hot with or without the herbs. Use a strainer to separate the tea if serving without the herbs.
Notes
- You can use any pot to boil the tea. I simply use a stainless-steel sauce pan. Alternatively, electrical health pot is very popular for its programmable features among those making herbal and fruit teas regularly.
- Removing jujube pits helps to release the flavour and nutrients of jujubes into the liquid. In addition, jujube pits are considered as having too much heat in traditional Chinese medicine. Although this is controversial, I recommend discarding the pits, especially if you plan to eat the jujubes. Because the pits are very sharp, it can be dangerous if someone accidentally eat them.
- Chinese people typically discard the cooked ingredients in herbal tea. However, you can eat the herbs in this calming tea if you like. Rosebuds are not commonly consumed, so I would pass on this one. Longan, lily bulbs, goji berries and jujubes are frequently used in cooking and consumed entirely.
Nutrition
This looks great but do you think it would be okay without the rosebuds? I’ve never really liked the taste/smell of them.
We could all use some “calming” these days. I like all the ingredients that you used, especially the dried rosebuds. I’m going to add these ingredients to my shopping list. Thanks 🙂
What a beautiful tea, with benefits I could definitely use!!!! I’m going out to source the ingredients this weekend — thanks for the inspo!
Thank you for this wonderful, soothing tea! There’s nothing better than a hot cup of tea before bed; even better for the healing properties and a good night’s sleep!
The rosebuds in this are such a comforting flavor!