Red Date Tea (紅棗水)

Dried Red Dates (紅棗) are commonly used in Chinese soups so it's always in the pantry. Besides soup, I like to make it into tea.
I find it especially helpful after that time of month or when I feel light headed and I'm looking pale (usually due to lack of sleep and my blood pressure is lower then normal).
My Chinese Dr recommended it to me when he noticed how pale I was and after a week of drinking this tea, I really did feel better and look normal rather then pale.

According to Chinese medicine, red date helps strengthens your blood. Since I have poor blood circulation and low blood pressure, he recommends using this tea to strengthen my blood.

Red Date is herbal so it's safe for anyone to drink and it's sweet!
You can also easily buy it from Chinese supermarkets or the Chinese seafood and dried medicine stores. There's different grades of Red Dates but I honestly haven't notice a difference myself.
If you don't have much time, get seedless Red Dates.
If you have the time, then it doesn't matter but removing the seeds is time consuming as the meat sticks to the seed.
The picture to the right is my current bag of Red Dates. I brought it because it's sealed in 4 packages
inside so I don't have to worry about the storage of the remaining Red Dates as much. Yes it's wasteful but I don't use it enough to justify getting 1 big package.



Why remove the seed? This is a bit harder for me to explain. In Chinese Medicine, they believe in balance in your body for hot and cold. It is said that the seed in the Red Date will contribute to the "hot" in a bad way and can throw off you off balance so you should remove the seeds.



How to Remove the Seed?
They easiest way I found was to cut a slit along the long side of the Red Date.
I cut all the way to the seed and dig in.
I use my knife to scrape the side of the seed to keep as much of the meat as possible in the date.
Just scrape on all sides and pull the seed out.

Red Date Tea

Makes 5 cups of tea Prep Time: 0 to 20 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• About 5 cups of water (I fill my Britta Jar once and use all the water there)
• 10-15 Dried Red Dates (My mom uses even more but I find this to be the minimum amount, the more you use the sweeter and more potent it is!)

Directions

1. Boil the water in a pot.
2. Once it's boiling, add in the seedless Red Dates.
3. Boil for 10 mins.
4. Let it simmer for about half an hour.

And it's ready to drink :)
You'll get a nice bit jar of tea that you can drink warm or cold.

Categories: Chinese, Herbal, Red Date, Tea