Malt, Licorice & Tangerine Peel Tea

Why people make this tea

During Chinese New Year, even the most careful eaters find themselves reaching for one more piece of roast pork or braised pig’s trotter. The result is a familiar heaviness — bloated, sluggish, not hungry but not comfortable either. This is what Chinese food therapy calls “ji zhi” (积滞, accumulated food stagnation). Nourilo’s remedy is beautifully simple: three common ingredients, pre-cut and packed into a reusable tea bag, ready to steep whenever the stomach protests.

Toasted barley malt has long been used in Chinese herbal medicine to stimulate digestive enzyme activity and relieve food stagnation — particularly after rich, fatty, or floury meals. Dried tangerine peel (chen pi) moves stagnant qi in the digestive system, making it easier for the gut to process and move food along. Licorice root (gan cao) rounds the blend out by tonifying the middle and harmonising the other two herbs. Together, they make a mildly fragrant, pleasant tea that most people find surprisingly easy to drink.

Method

1. Prepare your ingredients in advance: snip the dried tangerine peel into small pieces. Toast the barley malt in a dry pan over low-medium heat until golden and fragrant (5–7 minutes). Licorice root slices are ready as-is.
2. Pack one serving’s worth of all three ingredients into a reusable mesh tea bag or muslin infuser bag.
3. To brew: place the tea bag in a mug, pour over freshly boiled water, steep for 5 minutes, and sip while warm.
4. You can make a batch of tea bags in advance and store them in an airtight container — perfect for family members to grab whenever needed.

Nourilo’s Tips

This is one of Nourilo’s favourite “batch-prep” remedies. Before the holiday season, he suggests cutting and toasting all three ingredients in bulk, then packing them into individual tea bags and storing in a tin. That way, when anyone in the household overeats at the festive table, a soothing cup is just a kettle-boil away. The tea has a pleasant fragrance — light, slightly sweet from the licorice, with the warm citrus note of the tangerine peel. Most people enjoy it without any sweetener.