I have been pleasantly surprised to find over the years that many of my patients naturally replace their morning coffee with their Chinese herbal decoction.
From the point of view of Chinese medicine, coffee is a warm, bitter, and pungent surface reliever. It transforms Jing into Qi. This means that coffee provides energy by freeing-up deep reserves (Jing) and transforming it into a more readily useable form of energy (Qi). In doing so, it depletes these reserves. The short term effect of drinking coffee is the feeling of more energy; the long term effect is depletion of energy. Further, coffee dries the Blood and thus causes Liver stagnation. Coffee is considered unhealthy in Chinese medicine.
Most people enjoy drinking a warm, tasty, energizing beverage in the morning. While coffee is the standard in our culture, there are other options. Because I have found that so many people switch to Chinese herbal tea without encouragement or prompting, I have decided to formulate a tea for winter that provides the desired effects of coffee, without the damaging effects. This Chinese herbal coffee does not cause the bloating and digestive disturbances that are common with the currently popular mushroom coffees.
I have named this formula Cinnamon and Orange Peel Herbal Coffee (Rou Gui Chen Pi Tang). It is warming, tonifying, and supplements the Spleen and Kidneys. One bottle of herbs makes 25 to 40 cups of coffee, enough for one month or more.
Ingredients:
Cinnamon Bark (Rou Gui)
Tangerine Peel (Chen Pi)
Astragali (Huang Qi)
Licorice Root (Gan Cao)
Cuscuta Seed (Tu Si Zi)
Raspberry (Fu Pen Zi)
Schizandra Berry (Wu Wei Zi)
Angelica Root (Dang Gui)
Codonopsis (Dang Shen)
White Peony (Bai Shao)
Dioscorea (Shan Yao)
Cornus (Shan Zhu Yu)
Poria (Fu Ling)
Atractylodes (Bai Zhu)
Ophiopogon (Mai Men Dong)
Cooking Directions:
Add two to three scoops (2/3 to 1 teaspoon) of herbal granules to a mug and fill with six to eight ounces of boiling water. Stir until dissolved.
Dosage:
Drink 1 cup, warm, 1-3 times per day.
This formula can be ordered through the office via Stems and Branches Herbal Pharmacy.