Shek Wong Pei, Monk Fruit (Luo Han Guo) & Apricot Kernel Tea

Why people make this tea

When Hong Kong’s weather turns humid and muggy in spring — the kind of weather where the air feels thick and you can almost see the moisture — coughs tend to follow. The Cantonese approach to this environment is to use herbs that are specifically suited to clearing heat and damp from the lungs without being so cold that they damage the body’s core energy. Shek wong pei (the fern rhizome sold at mountain herb stalls in Hong Kong) is exactly this kind of ingredient: mildly cooling but not harsh, with a reputation for clearing lung and intestinal heat while also having a diuretic, damp-clearing quality. Paired with the soothing sweetness of monk fruit and the lung-supporting apricot kernels, this makes an agreeable tea that the whole family can drink when a heat-type cough has set in after a cold.