I occasionally like a nice #tisane (yes, I'm one of those snobs who says that it's not #tea if it's not the leaf of camellia sinensis). I recently got a couple of tisanes that are of the family of "八宝茶" (bā bǎo chá or "eight-treasure tea").¹ These are generally considered "medicinal" teas, but I drink them as beverages when I want something hot and soothing without the caffeine.
The first is "红豆薏米茶养生茶花茶" (hóngdòu yìmǐ chá yǎngshēng chá huāchá or "Healthy Red Bean and Job's Tears Tisane") containing "大麦、红豆、薏苡仁、赤小豆、芡实、栀子、苦荞、橘皮" (dàmài, hóngdòu, yìyǐ rén, chìxiǎodòu, qiànshí, zhī zi, kǔ qiáo, jú pí or "barley, red bean, coix seed, red adzuki bean, gorgon fruit, gardenia, tartary buckwheat, orange peel"). This is a bit confusing to me because I was always under the impression that "red bean" and "adzuki bean" were the same thing, so I'm guessing that they're distinguishing between cultivars of the same bean.²
The second is "红糖姜茶" (hóngtáng jiāngchá or "Brown Sugar Ginger Tisane") containing "红糖、红枣、姜丝、枸杞、重瓣红玫瑰、桂圆、红枣、大麦" (hóngtáng 、 hóngzǎo 、 jiāngsī 、 gǒuqǐ 、 zhòng bàn hóngméiguī 、 guìyuán 、 hóngzǎo 、 dàmài or "brown sugar, red dates, shredded ginger, goji berries, double petal red roses, longan, red dates, barley").
The first one has a fairly robust flavour of toasted grains with hints of other things. (The orange peel is the strongest of the secondary flavours.) It's rather a nice brew. The second one is OK, but weaker and threadier in the flavour and disappointingly you can't get much of the ginger flavour.
¹ Yes, in Chinese the word 茶, usually translated as "tea", covers basically all infused or decocted drinks. I don't care. Chinese is not English and vice versa. "Tea" is camellia sinensis.
² The thing they're calling "red bean" is ormosia hosiei while the thing they're calling "red adzuki bean" is phaseolus calcaratus ... and I have no idea if this is meaningful.
