Eight treasure tea

Green tea leaves form the base for this traditional hot tea from the Hui parts of the Chinese Northwest. It is then seasoned with things like rock sugar, red dates, wolfberries, dried longans (dragon eye fruit), walnuts, apricot pits, and raisins. Additional herbs and flowers are added to add up to the nominal “eight” ingredients, but these are decided by local and personal preferences.

Other areas in China have their own versions, such as Sichuan. There the tea often contains some local green tea, ginseng, rock sugar, licorice root, wolfberries, raisins, red dates, and finally both jasmine and chrysanthemum blossoms. And instead of green tea, it sometimes is made there with black tea or even dark compressed teas like pu’er.

I’ve tried innumerable variations on this tea over the years, and there’s really no hard and set recipe, as it all depends upon the time of year, what you have available, what you are serving it with, and your personal tastes. But here is a basic recipe that you can tinker around with as you find the combinations you like best.

One thing I do want to point out is that a really good quality tea is important, as it provides that tannic edge that balances the sweetness and fruitiness of the other ingredients. Also, try to hunt down the small yellow chrysanthemums that are grown in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province (Hángzhōu júhuā 杭州菊花), as their fragrance is clean and fresh.

This tea is almost always prepared and served in thin, covered cups that hold around 8 ounces of water. The ingredients are added to the cups, the hot water is poured over everything, and the cover is placed on top. Then, you wait, for it takes around 5 minutes for the flavors to really bloom. More hot water can be added about halfway through the cup, and if you want more sugar, drop a few small pieces in too.

Eight treasure tea

Bābǎochá 八寶茶

Northwest

Serves 1 (can be multiplied infinitely)

1 teaspoon good green tea leaves

2 small or 1 large Chinese red dates

1 teaspoon wolfberries

1 teaspoon rock sugar

1 teaspoon sweet apricot pits (nánxìng 南杏)

2 dried longans

1 walnut half, lightly crumbled

3 dried chrysanthemum blossoms

1 teaspoon raisins

Boiling water

1. The traditional way to prepare this type of tea is to place the tea leaves, dates, wolfberries, apricot pits, longans, walnut, chrysanthemums, and raisins in a 8- to 12-ounce covered cup before dousing them with enough boiling water to rinse them off. The cover is then angled against the cup as this water is poured off and discarded. Or, if you prefer, you can place these ingredients in a small sieve and simply rinse them under the tap before placing them in your cup.

2. Pour fresh boiling water over the tea’s ingredients, add the sugar, and cover the cup. Wait for a few minutes before sipping so that the tea leaves, fruits, and nuts have time to release their aromas and the sugar to melt. Angle the cover up with one hand to corral these ingredients as you gingerly hold your hot cup with the other and take your first sips. Most of these solids will sink to the bottom of the cup as they swell up, and you can remove the cover at that time, if you wish.

The butter tea of Tibet & Mongolia

This is very much like the tea that is enjoyed in Tibet’s high altitudes and on Mongolia’s frigid steppes. (Sorry, couldn't find any yak or horse milk at Whole Foods.) 

Fat is both a necessity and a pleasure in both Tibet and Mongolia because of the cold, which is one of the reasons why butter is floated on the top of the local milk tea.

To take the place of some of that butter, I use whole cream instead of milk, and this way the fat does not separate. I then add just a little touch of butter's extra salty goodness since I live in sunny California and know that I really do not need another helping of fat in my diet. However, nothing beats the taste of premium butter, so I use one of my favorite brands to lend the tea that requisite zing. 

If you would prefer to have more of a “barny” taste here, try using whole goat milk and a good helping of goat butter. 

I tend to put more tea leaves in the brew—around 6 tablespoons—because I enjoy a really bitter edge. However, the amount of tea, water, butter, and cream you use is, of course, a matter of tasting and adjusting the amounts until you hit that sweet spot. And speaking of sweet, you can sneak in a bit of sugar to your cup if you have a sweet tooth; it’s not kosher, but if no one is looking…

Tea with boortsog (next recipe)

In Tibet, this tea is usually foamed up with a churn, much like the Mexican molinillo that is used to make hot chocolate, while in Mongolia the milk is foamed by repeatedly lifting up ladlefuls high over the pan and pouring it back in. This is pretty much the same concept as India’s “pulled tea” (teh tarik), where it is poured back and forth between two containers.

I've found that I can go high tech with a blender, though, and have a hot cup of butter tea with no muss, no fuss.

The butter tea of Tibet & Mongolia
Boeja and Suutei tsai

Tibet, Mongolia
Makes about 6 cups 

¼ cup (or so) Chinese fermented compressed tea (pŭ’ěr 普洱 or tuóchá 沱茶), broken up into smallish pieces
6 cups freshly-boiled filtered water, plus extra as needed
1 tablespoon to ¼ cup best quality salted butter

A pinch of sea salt

1 cup heavy organic cream

1. Place the tea in a saucepan, cover it with boiling water, and let it soak for about 3 minutes to loosen up the tea leaves; strain out and discard the water. Cover the tea leaves with 5 cups boiling water, bring the tea to boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer. After about 10 minutes, strain the tea into a blender.

2. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the tea along with the salt and cream. Blend the tea, starting on low and gradually increasing the speed to high in order to make the tea foam. Serve the tea in small bowls, preferably wooden. 

Tuocha and pu'er

Tips

Compressed tea can be found in Chinese tea shops and grocery stores. Pu'er (also sometimes written pu erh or pu ni) is usually fermented black tea, although sometimes you can find it in its green form, which is milder and equally delicious. Pu'er comes in flat discs, hard-edged bricks, and also crumbled up. Tuocha tends to be bowl-shaped. 

Both of these teas are aged, and the older they are, the more expensive they become.

I usually get the disc form which is easier to crack apart than the bricks, but I find the loose-leaf compressed teas lacking in flavor, so I never get those. I like to crumble up the tea myself and store it in a tin, which makes it more convenient to use. Keep this tea, as all teas, in a dry. airtight container.