Tangerine Cake, Tangerine Peel, Ginger and Date Tea

Why people make this tea

Once children start school, respiratory infections follow close behind. The challenge for parents isn’t just treating the cough — it’s finding something the child will actually drink. Many cough remedies taste bitter or medicinal, and most children refuse them outright.

This tea solves that problem. Tangerine cake (ju bing) is a traditional preparation: ripe tangerines that have been processed, dried, and treated with salt or sugar until they develop a white coating on the surface. When brewed with ginger, tangerine peel, and red dates, the resulting tea is mildly sweet, gently spiced, and quite pleasant — something most children accept willingly.

There is something interesting about how citrus works here: fresh sweet oranges and mandarins are actually not recommended during coughs, because their sweetness can increase phlegm and worsen the cough. But the same fruit, once processed into tangerine cake, has the opposite effect — it helps move and resolve phlegm. Traditional food therapy is full of these kinds of context-dependent distinctions.

This tea is particularly recommended for cough that is worst in the early morning and at night, cough that comes back after a cold seems to have cleared, or cough that persists without obvious cause.

Method

1. Rinse tangerine cake lightly; chop into small pieces.
2. Soak dried tangerine peel briefly until softened; leave the inner white pith on.
3. Pit and slice red dates.
4. Combine all ingredients in a pot with 1.5 L of water.
5. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 40 minutes until the liquid reduces to about 600 ml.
6. Give in two servings throughout the day. Take for 3 consecutive days.

Nourilo’s Tips

This is a single-serving recipe (for one child). For adults, double the tangerine cake and tangerine peel to 2 pieces each. When buying tangerine cake, look for the natural white coating (ju bing shuang) on the surface — it should feel dry to the touch and not flake off easily. An artificially powdered fake will feel sticky and loose. This quality marker matters because the coating is associated with the cough-relieving effectiveness of the preparation.