After a big dinner
Plates cleared, kettle on. That's when Chinese families have tended to brew hawthorn and peel.
Caffeine-free herbal tea
DigestiveT
陈皮 · Citrus Peel & Hawthorn Herbal Tea · also known as
DigestiveT is a fruity, tangy after-dinner tea. Dried citrus peel leads, then hawthorn fruit, then two flowers: roselle, which turns the cup ruby red, and globe amaranth, which looks like a little purple pompom.
Four ingredients, no caffeine, nothing artificial. Three to five minutes in freshly boiled water. Explore the formula
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£12.00 - Regular price
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£12.00
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- 5:1 strength
- DaoDi herbs
- Vegan & gluten-free
- GMP certified
- Free UK delivery £40+
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The story behind the cup
Chen pi literally means 'old peel'. In Xinhui, in Guangdong, people have been drying mandarin peel in the sun and leaving it to age for years (decades, sometimes), and the good stuff fetches serious money. A lot of Cantonese cooking leans on it. Red bean soup, braised duck, you name it.
Hawthorn is the other old Chinese favourite here. Kids in Beijing grow up on tanghulu, hawthorn berries coated in crackly sugar on a stick, and on haw flakes, those little pink discs in paper rolls. It's sour, honestly quite sour, which is why it was traditionally reached for after heavy meals.
The two flowers travelled further. Roselle is a hibiscus that's brewed as karkadé in Egypt and agua de jamaica in Mexico. As for globe amaranth, the Chinese call it qian ri hong. A thousand days red. Dry the heads and they just keep their colour, more or less forever.
In Chinese medicine
How herbalists see these plants
In Chinese herbalism, digestion is the business of the Spleen and Stomach. And both chen pi and hawthorn have been tied to that pair for centuries. Aged peel is described as pungent, bitter and warm. Hawthorn is sour and a little sweet.
That's really the logic of the tea. Old peel for its warm, fragrant edge, hawthorn for its sharp tang, and both with a long history of turning up at the end of a meal. Herbalists talk about food 'stagnating' after rich dishes. We'd probably just say we ate too much.
Roselle and globe amaranth? They're mostly for the look and the smell. Take them out and you'd have a rather brown cup. Leave them in, it goes red and smells of berries.
The Five Elements
An Earth element tea
Of the five old elements, Earth's the one that gets the Spleen and Stomach. It sits in the middle of everything, rather like the kitchen table does, so we reckon an after-dinner tea belongs here.
Late summer
Season
Earth's own season, those heavy, golden weeks at the end of August.
Spleen
Organ
Paired with the Stomach. Between them they run digestion in this system.
Yellow
Colour
Go and look at a ten-year-old bit of chen pi. Not orange any more. More like dark honey.
Sweet
Taste
Hawthorn has a little, hiding under all that sourness.
Worry
Emotion
Overthinking, chewing things over. Funny how the language matches.
Tea traditions
How these fruits and flowers are enjoyed
How people have enjoyed these plants over the years. We're talking about tradition and habit, not health claims.
In Cantonese cooking
Had a Cantonese red bean soup? Then you've tasted chen pi already, you just didn't know.
Iced on hot days
Roselle is drunk cold across Africa and Latin America, and it's gorgeous over ice.
Festive tables
Haw flakes and candied hawthorn come out at Chinese New Year. Hard to eat just one.
This section describes traditional and everyday use. DigestiveT is a herbal tea, not a medicine, and isn't intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Inside the bag · Ingredients
Two fruits, two flowers
Just peel, fruit and two kinds of flower in here, nothing artificial. The figure next to each one is its share of the bag.
Fruits
Citrus Peel (Chen Pi)
Citrus reticulata40%
Citrus reticulata40%
Hawthorn Fruit (Shan Zha)
Crataegus pinnatifida30%
Crataegus pinnatifida30%
Citrus peel gives the warm, fragrant base. Hawthorn adds the tang.
Flowers
Roselle (Luo Shen Hua)
Hibiscus sabdariffa15%
Hibiscus sabdariffa15%
Globe Amaranth (Qian Ri Hong)
Gomphrena globosa15%
Gomphrena globosa15%
Roselle turns the tea red and tart, and globe amaranth makes it smell like a meadow.
How to take
Brewing DigestiveT
1Bag per cup
One bag in a mug or two in a small pot.
3-5Minutes to steep
Watch it go red. The longer you leave it, the tangier it gets.
0Caffeine
None, so it's fine after a late dinner.
Enjoy it as a drink, a few cups a day. Pregnant, breastfeeding or on medication? Check with your GP or pharmacist first.
Choosing between them
DigestiveT or DetoxT?
| Compare | DigestiveT | DetoxT |
|---|---|---|
| Main plants | Citrus peel and hawthorn | Lotus leaf, cassia seed and hawthorn |
| Flavour | Tangy and fruity | Toasty and sour |
| Colour in the cup | Ruby red | Pale amber |
| Caffeine | None | None |
| Number of ingredients | 4 | 5 |
What does DigestiveT taste like?
Tart and fruity, a bit like a cranberry and orange tea. The roselle does most of that. There's a warm, slightly bitter note from the peel underneath, which stops it tasting like squash.
Why is it so red?
Roselle. It's a hibiscus, and even 15% of the blend is enough to turn the whole cup a deep ruby colour.
Does it have caffeine?
None. It's all fruit peel and flowers.
When's the best time to drink it?
We like it after dinner, which is when hawthorn and peel teas have traditionally been brewed. But any time works. It's very good cold, too.
Is it suitable during pregnancy or if I take medication?
Two things to know. Hawthorn and heart or blood pressure tablets aren't a combination to try without advice, and hibiscus can nudge blood pressure down a touch, so on those meds, ask your pharmacist. Expecting, or feeding a baby? Run it past your midwife or GP before you start.
What's globe amaranth?
A small round flower, a bit like a purple clover head. It's dried whole and its name in Chinese, qian ri hong, means 'a thousand days red'. Mostly it's here because it smells lovely.
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DigestiveT is a herbal tea, not a medicine. It isn't intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Enjoy it as part of a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, and keep it out of reach of children.