Tangerine Peel and Roasted Rice Tea

Why people make this tea

Every year Nourilo sun-dries a batch of fresh tangerine peel. Good aged peel (chen pi) is becoming increasingly expensive, so making your own and letting it mature for three years or more is well worth the effort. The older the peel, the more fragrant it becomes — after ten or twenty years, opening a jar fills an entire room with the warm, complex scent of aged citrus.

Traditional Chinese medicine often says: “A hundred years of chen pi, a thousand years of ginseng” — a testament to how highly aged tangerine peel is regarded. What makes this recipe particularly interesting is how it pairs chen pi with one of the most overlooked kitchen techniques: dry-roasting plain white rice in a wok until golden.

The result is a mild, naturally sweet tea with a pleasant toasted aroma. It is used in Cantonese households primarily for two things: supporting people who have just undergone surgery (especially caesarean birth), where trapped air inside the abdominal cavity can cause significant discomfort; and settling the digestive system after illness, for people who feel bloated or have lost their appetite.